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Flying off the glass cliff?
You’ve no doubt heard of the glass ceiling — the barrier above which women couldn’t rise professionally — but have you heard about the glass cliff? It’s not as familiar a term as the ceiling, but the glass cliff is real. It’s what happens when a woman or someone from another marginalized group is put [...]
Which way the Venn blows
It feels like one of those logic puzzles high school students grapple with on the SAT: If Delegate Sally passes a law to require utilities in her state to generate all their electricity from renewable, carbon-free energy sources like wind and solar by 2045, what is the latest year CEO Tom’s power plant can stop […]
Saving grace
When Del. Don L. Scott Jr., D-Portsmouth, was sworn in on Jan. 10 as the first Black speaker of the house in the Virginia legislature’s 405-year history, he also was likely the first leader of that illustrious body to have served time in federal prison. Reminiscent of the literary trials of Jean Valjean, Scott’s is [[...]
It’s alive — with possibilities
Just a word of friendly warning: Our November cover story is one of the strangest tales ever told. I think it will thrill you. It may shock you. It might even horrify you. So, if any of you feel you do not wish to subject your nerves to such a strain, now’s your chance to […]
Change management
Hands down, the most unintentionally funny of the alarmist stories about remote work must be the June “news” articles warning that by 2100, teleworking would result in a generation of obese, hunchbacked, prematurely aged people with swollen eyes, their hands permanently stuck in clawing gestures from using a mouse. Lest you [...]
The antacid
For every parent who’s ever downed a Prilosec-and-Maalox cocktail while making out an eye-popping college tuition check, there comes a moment when they may look askance at how universities are spending their money. After all, the same schools that send entreaties to contribute to billion-dollar capital campaigns have drama[...]
The cost of leaning in
In 1982, the comic strip “Frank and Ernest” noted that Ginger Rogers — standing in for all women — did everything Fred Astaire did but “backwards and in high heels.” Even 41 years ago, that sentiment felt like a well-known acknowledgement, and it still holds true now. This issue, in our third annual Women in Leaders[...]
The stuff of dreams
Whether it’s aiming to solve a problem, build a better mousetrap or simply make a better life for themselves and their families, entrepreneurs start their businesses with a dream. And it’s in recognition of these visionary innovators that Virginia Business is pleased to debut StartVirginia, a new annual publication d[...]
Our new AI overlords
A worker who never tires — who never needs to take a coffee break, who doesn’t get sick, who doesn’t disagree and who doesn’t have a messy home life or those pesky families that get in the way of productivity. And most importantly, a worker who doesn’t require a paycheck. For some CEOs, that’s the[...]
Business climate change
It’s no secret that the COVID-19 pandemic brought about a revolution in how workers and businesses think about where, when and how we work. And that change is fully reflected in the survey responses we received from the 100 companies selected for this year’s Virginia Best Places to Work cohort. Seventy-one of those 1[...]
Getting meta
Twenty years ago, artificial intelligence seemed like the stuff of sci-fi films such as “2001: A Space Odyssey” and “The Matrix.” Today, it’s so ubiquitous as to be virtually unremarkable and unnoticeable — integrated into everything from GPS traffic navigation apps on our phones to smart devices in our homes to [...]
A ‘quiet’ place?
With Halloween fast approaching, I thought I’d regale you with a spooky tale of the corporate world’s favorite new boogeyman: quiet quitting. Like many scary things for people over age 45, this story begins on TikTok and Reddit, where this summer Gen Z and millennial workers were riffing about “quiet quitting” �[...]
