More women say no to office return
As employers impose return-to-office mandates, women are most likely to resist and are three times more likely to quit than men in response, according to a new study.
University of Pittsburgh researchers looked at 54 high-tech and financial S&P 500 companies with return-to-office policies and found “overwhelmingly negative employee response,” especially among women “with higher skill levels.” Researchers said this is potentially due to some women having “additional family responsibilities.”
Other studies and comments from CEOs have indicated that some return-to-office mandates are intended to get underperforming employees to quit, but that’s not what may actually be happening. Researchers said their results suggest that companies with strict return-to-office policies suffer a “brain drain” because it’s high-skill employees who quit, resulting in employers losing “their most valuable talent.”
Astro Bot wins top game
A little robot fended off big-name challengers to win game of the year at the 10th annual Game Awards. Astro Bot beat out five other nominees, including sequels in the Final Fantasy and Elden Ring franchises. The Game Awards has become a glitzy, Academy Awards-like show complete with star presenters including Snoop Dogg, who performed a new song, and Harrison Ford.
Down in the dumps
A British court is hearing a Welsh man’s 11-year quest to retrieve a hard drive he says contains a digital wallet with 8,000 Bitcoin now worth about $800 million. The Guardian newspaper says James Howells maintains the hard drive, which he mistakenly threw away in 2013, is in “a small area” of a local landfill and the data is still salvageable. The city, however, contends “excavation is not possible.”
Reddit tests AI chatbot
Reddit is working on an AI-powered chatbot as the social media company looks for ways to increase user interactions and keep people on its site. The chatbot, called Reddit Answers, will help users find information from more than 1 billion posts scattered across nearly 100,000 discussion forums on Reddit’s site. The company has struggled to help users find information on its site. — BLOOMBERG NEWS
