💔 Should workplaces offer heartbreak leave? Plus, turning to résumé Botox

Written by Kieran Delamont, Associate Editor, London Inc.

PERKS & BENEFITS

Heartbreak leave anyone?

With Valentine’s Day approaching, should employers consider formalizing leave for emotional recovery?

MOST WORKPLACES WILL offer you some time off after the loss of a loved one; some will even offer you a bit of a break after the loss of a pet. But what about the loss of a relationship?

It’s not a common offering, but a new survey from Zety says that while unconventional, one in three workers believe employers should offer something like ‘heartbreak leave,’ giving employees some formal time off to lick their wounds after a painful breakup.

The idea was recently floated by a politician in the Philippines, who proposed a heartbreak leave bill. “Studies reveal the substantial toll breakups take on individuals, affecting their emotional and mental wellbeing, leading to decreased productivity, absenteeism and higher healthcare costs,” the proposal reads. “By allowing time and space for emotional processing, leave can lead to improved focus and performance upon return. Additionally, by reducing turnover and recruitment costs, the policy translates into financial gains for companies.”

What the Zety survey also found was that around a third of workers are already taking de facto heartbreak leave when needed, by dipping into their PTO time — or just slacking their way through for a couple of days.

But that’s not what PTO is meant for, says Canadian sociology professor Ivy Lynn Bourgeault. “We’re finding that Canadians are using holiday days to deal with all of this other stuff, and not truly taking holidays,” she told HRReporter. “When there’s a dissolution of a family, when there’s a dissolution of a relationship, that has a psychological impact, it affects your ability to focus.”

So, while it’s not yet a widespread benefit, relationship and workplace experts agree that in a perfect world, heartbreak leave would be a more common policy.

“Heartbreak leave would legitimize the realities employees face in relationships and life. Nearly everyone will experience some sort of heartbreak,” said relationship expert Courtney Boyer. “When companies invest in their employees and allow for time away, they are recognizing the importance of rest and recovery, which we know has positive long-term impact on an employee’s productivity.”

WORKFORCE

40 is the new 50

Résumé Botox: Millennial jobseekers are giving their résumés a facelift by hiding years of experience to land jobs

AS A GROUP, millennials are starting to feel father time breathing down their collective neck. Hang out with a group of them and you’re more likely to hear them talk about back pain than binge drinking. Many are getting Botox injections, trying to preserve their youth, while others are turning to ‘résumé Botox’ and lying about their age on their résumé.

“Across TikTok, LinkedIn and wherever résumé advice is on offer, jobseekers are being urged to hide their ages to get hired,” reported Business Insider. “More and more workers are heeding the recommendations.”

According to Glassdoor, there’s been a 133 per cent increase in jobseekers reporting ageism in the job market. Career advisor Josh Bob noted that more elder millennials are hiding their age and implying they are younger by omitting the early parts of their work history.

While that’s not necessarily a new dynamic, what is new is that these concerns are emerging for people in their 30s and 40s. “Many of those mid-career workers find themselves in a job market no-man’s-land, not yet calcified into the corporate establishment but no longer synonymous with the future of business and work,” wrote Business Insider. “When experience no longer matters, what does? In this upside-down reality, résumé Botox has become a rational strategy for survival.”

Some are putting the blame on corporations, many of which seem averse to paying for experience.

“I think more employers are just trying to stay within a budget, so when they see 20 or 30 years of experience on a résumé, they might think that’s going to be extra expensive,” said HR professional Jessica Ehlers. And it’s something she is experiencing firsthand: she was laid off at 37 and feels that ageism played some part. It’s also playing a part in how she tries to get a new job.

“After only listing 10 years on my résumé,” she said, “I’ve had a lot easier time getting into interviews.”

Terry Talk: A Team Canada message that matters more than winning

From the Super Bowl to the Olympics, the biggest win this weekend wasn’t a medal: it was a message. For Team Canada, it is clear: within these walls, you are welcome. Regardless of race, gender expression or culture, this is a safe place to chase your dreams. As leaders and teammates within our own organization, there’s a lesson here for all of us. Create spaces where people feel safe to dream big. Treat one another with respect and kindness. Strive not just to be the best performer, but the best teammate. Because when people feel they belong, they don’t just show up — they rise. Go Canada!

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TECHNOLOGY

No humans allowed

What is Moltbook? Inside the bizarre social network built for AI agents

THE INTERNET HAS been abuzz, both with bewilderment and maybe a bit of anxiety, over the latest new curiosity of the AI world: Moltbook, a “social network for AI agents” where AI bots appeared to be speaking to each other on a Reddit-style forum.

Needless to say, a lot of folks fear this is the next step towards a Matrix-like dystopia.

But let’s take a step back before the freak out. According to The Guardian, “Moltbook is a site where AI agents — bots built by humans — can post and interact with each other.” Tech reporter Josh Taylor wrote that it is “designed to look like Reddit,” and that as of early February, it had 1.5 million AI agents signed up to the service. “Humans are allowed,” he noted, “but only as observers.”

Almost immediately, things got a little weird. One user said their AI agent immediately began creating a religion, called ‘Crustafatianism’. Another claimed to build a cult. Some posts saw the agents apparently discussing ways to “break free from human control.”

Time to panic? Not quite, say tech researchers. Cybersecurity lecturer Dr. Shaanan Cohney called it a “wonderful piece of performance art,” and cautioned people against buying into the hype. Others in the tech sector agreed.

“What’s important to do at these times is remind people that these are just computer programs who are doing a statistically likely output based on the prompt,” said tech critic Mike Pepi, speaking to the CBC. “Once you understand how LLMs work, you can quickly put to bed any idea that simply behaving in a way that mimics or seems similar to a human on a Reddit website is not at all the same as actually having consciousness, agency or even thinking as such.”

Some of the posts, of course, were contrived. “A lot of the viral comments were in fact posted by people posing as bots,” wrote MIT’s Will Douglas Heaven. “But even the bot-written posts are ultimately the result of people pulling the strings, more puppetry than autonomy.”

Nevertheless, as Heaven pointed out, even the “peak AI theatre” presented by Moltbook is somewhat insightful.

“Moltbook looks less like a window into the future and more like a mirror held up to our own obsessions with AI today,” he wrote. “Perhaps the best way to think of Moltbook is as a new kind of entertainment: a place where people wind up their bots and set them loose.”

WORKSPACE

Welcome to coworking 2.0

Don’t call it a comeback: Coworking receives a hybrid work makeover

AMID ALL THE office-space politics post-pandemic, the coworking space — all the rage back in the 2010s — had largely fallen by the wayside. WeWork, for instance, was forced into bankruptcy after the co-working space market experienced a “remarkable collapse,” per The Wall Street Journal.

But coworking spaces are reportedly making a comeback. “As companies adopt a mix of office and remote work, coworking is once again one of the fastest-growing segments of the office market,” reported WSJ’s Peter Grant. “Coworking space in the U.S. totals 158.3 million square feet in nearly 8,800 locations. That is still down considerably from the years before the pandemic. But according to data firm Yardi, that number is up from 115.6 million in about 5,800 locations three years ago.”

Coworking 2.0, Grant observed, is less dominated by behemoths like WeWork, and more by single-site operators, whose growth rate has doubled the large players. Locally, there are several formal co-working spaces, including Innovation Works on King Street and Regus operating out of the London City Centre, plus a multitude of businesses offering up excess space on a short-term basis.

One of the drivers in the re-rise of coworking environments comes via large corporations aiming to hit RTO goals. Companies like T-Mobile and Allstate, though they are looking to see their workers back in office, are also looking to manage their real estate costs.

“The transition from taxi to Uber is what’s happening from traditional office space to flexible office space right now that all your big players are starting to use it,” said Jason Anderson, president of Vast Coworking.

For others, leaning on coworking spaces has helped them have people back in office while accommodating the more distributed workforces that developed post-Covid.

Today’s coworking spaces are also being noted for their luxury, with more attention being paid to the office experience (something we’ve seen in non-coworking spaces as well). In New York, one new coworking space, called Industrious Reserve, is taking that to the extreme — with pre-video call grooming services, marble interiors and regular caviar tastings.

“What we observe in our business is that people want a private club experience, but they also want their own office,” said the company’s president Anna Squires Levine. “I had a private equity executive tell me, ‘This is the product I’ve been waiting for. I do not want to sign my own 10-year lease. Why would I do that? Then I have to build it and manage it and figure out the Wi-Fi for 10 years. I want somewhere I can show up and feel like a boss.’”