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When I was cycling across the country on my bike, I spent anywhere from six to nine hours a day in the saddlefor almost three solid months. It made a lot of people wonder: What did you listen to all day long? Was it mostly music, or more like audiobooks, podcasts? asked a friend of mine when we went for a drink at a bar after I got back home. What was on your playlist? “Nothing,” I said. She frowned slightly, as if shed misheard me. What do you mean, nothing? “I mean, nothing. I dont listen to anything when I ride,” I replied. “I dont even wear earbuds.” You could see the wheels of her mind grind to a standstill. What the hell. You . . . you just ride along in . . . in what? In total silence? “More or less,” I said, laughing. “Allll dayyy longgg?? “Yeah.” She was gobsmacked. I would go completely out of my mind. And my friend wasnt alone in her astonishment. Nearly everyone, upon learning that Id rawdogged a 4,150-mile cross-country cycling trip, looked utterly dumbstruckbereft, almost. I began to realize that while most people think its pretty daunting to cycle the entire U.S.A., they can vaguely imagine what it would be like as a physical challenge: Daunting, sure, but you just put your butt in the saddle and keep going, and youll get there. They dont want to do that epic, exhausting ride, but they can comprehend it. But the idea of avoiding all media, all day long? They have no mental equipment to imagine that. It completely breaks their model of how the world works. Except heres the thing: Its kind of awesome. Silence is golden Now the thing is, I am not some sort of anti-technology, anti-screens guy. I dont avoid media on principle, like one of our modern wild-eyed destroy-your-phone desert prophets. Quite the opposite. Even when Im on a road cycling trip, I use my phone a tonto navigate, to check the weather (tornado alert apps are particularly useful in Kansas, let me tell you), or just to dork around on social media. But during the act of cycling itself? Silence, it turns out, is golden. Part of why I dont wear earbuds while riding is safety. Im often riding along smaller county roads with SUVs and 16-wheelers hooshing past, barely a few feet away. I want to sense when theyre coming up behind me. I want to be able to hear the dopplering thrum of an approaching engine. I once tried some earbuds that let the outside sound bleed through, which kind of worked. Still, I worried I might get too absorbed in the music, and stop being vigilant about the traffic. So I ditched them. But I found that I didnt miss it. It turns out that, when I turn off media for seven hours on end, my cycling brain goes to some really interesting places. One of the things about cycling is that your mind is simultaneously busy and free. Cycling requires you to make a lot of constant, tiny decisions: Avoid that pothole, watch out for that pedestrian, swerve around that constellation of broken glass near the curb. You need to be vigilant. The psychologist Nick Moore writes about how navigating traffic on a bike requires a minutely focused state. The world contracts to a space just a few inches wide and a million miles long, outside which nothing exists. But these decisions arent hard to make, and theyre over quickly, so I dont wind up being mentally exhausted by them. A feast for the senses Meanwhile, theres a ton of stimulation. Cycling cross-country is a feast for the senses. While arriving in a city, Id pass by ornate graffiti inside railway underpasses and marvel at the often-corroded architecture on the outskirts of town. Downtown, Id hear thingssnatches of overheard conversation from people I passed by, or bits of Bhangra music blasting from a fast-food joint. Out in the deep countryside of the Great Plains, Id pass by sprawling crop-watering machinerysplayed across fields like a massive stick insectand watch it come alive in the dawn, puffing clouds of mist over the green wheat and corn. I saw road signs dented with bullet holes, a swollen river that had swallowed an SUV during a storm swell, and a massive longhorn that stared closely at me as I nervously rode past. In the Rocky Mountains, I came across a 16-wheeler hauling a single blade for a wind turbine so massive that it was the length of a city block. Your senses feel like theyre constantly engaged in a non-stressed fashionlike your body is constantly taking notes on the world around you. Its a neat interplay of forces: Cycling occupies your forebrain with a welter of tiny decisions, while also feeding your mind with the chill and gorgeous spectacle of the world at large. Together, it seems to loosen up my hindbrainshifting it into a new and meditative gear. Pondering ideas Often, Id find myself pondering ideas triggered by the world around me. While cruising through Trenton, New Jersey, I passed a crumbly little strip mall with a tae kwon do joint next to a hot yoga salon, and it started me marveling at how America has phagocytosed so many of the worlds historic physical/mental/spiritual-fitness cultures and absorbed them, Borg-like, into the Puritan quest of bettering our fallen, lazy gnostic selves. Ill also discover that, almost without noticing it, Im meditating on a bigger life issuesome challenge at work, some memory of my late mother, some friend Ive been meaning to call, a passage in a book Id forgotten but that now intrigues the hell out of me. I often suspect those deep, arc-of-life thoughts rise up precisely because of the curious, tripartite mental state of cycling. The top layer of vigilance keeps me focused, the stimulus of the world inspires ideas, while the deep ocean of my latent mind churns quietlyuntil, suddenly, some aha moment pierces the surface, like a cresting dolphin. Now, I dont want to oversell the mental state of cycling in silence! This is not about experiencing soul-shattering Eat-Pray-Love breakthroughs out there in the saddle. I havent had any Einstein-level insights. Its more like it creates a useful atmospher in the mind. I come back less jittery, more prepared to handle the everyday thinking of life. Would listening to music or podcasts or audiobooks break that spell? Would it block that sense of flow? I suspect so. In my daily life, Im not about to stop listening to music or stop scrolling around on my phone. Im a nerd; I love marinating in news and essays about science and technology and culture. But on the road, I need silence.
Category:
E-Commerce
Before becoming a coach for neurodiverse individuals with ADHD, Justine Capelle Collis had a successful advertising career. She worked in Australia and the UK, and also across the US and Canadian markets. Her clients have included Fortune 500 companies and government agencies. And she achieved all this without realizing that she has ADHD. That realization came when she became a mother. Both of her sons were diagnosed with ADHD, and she started asking questions. “How do I advocate and get the system to bend for them, rather than having them fit into the system and then break? she asked. She then went on a personal journey to retrain. Collis enrolled in post-graduate study, and went through a specialist coach training in neurodivergent coaching. But along the way, she received her own ADHD diagnosis. Being a mother of two sons with ADHD required “a different way of parenting,” she says. It also highlighted the feeling that something was off. “I couldn’t make sense of it,” Collis recalls. “I can have a successful career, I can achieve all of these incredible things. Why am I failing at this thing that I’m biologically wired to do: which is to have kids?” A conversation with a coach friend of hers, who was also practicing to be a neurodiversity coach, revealed some ‘penny-dropping’ moments. The reason she was able to succeed in her professional career, she explained, was that she had freedom and agency to design her working life in a way that aligned and worked for her. Unfortunately, that’s not always the case with other neurodiverse employees, who are often forced to survive in a world that is not designed or conducive to them doing their best. But some companies are turning to coaching in an attempt to address this. The growing awareness of neurodiversity Like Collis, Dr. George Sachs also built a career while having ADHD. Sachs cofounded an app called Inflow with Levi Epstein and Seb Isaacs after 20 years of working as a clinical psychologist. The app provides support with adults with ADHD through various tools, including coaching. And while their customers are primarily individuals, they do work with organizations and universities that offer Inflow to their employees. Sachs believes that social media has contributed to the rise of awareness in neurodiversity at work. Companies like EYand Microsoft for example, have a range of policies to support neurodiverse individuals. They do that through work arrangements, modified workspaces, and educational resources. Thanks to social media, says Sachs, people have become more aware of diagnostic criteria for various neurodiversity conditions. “At the same time, the concept of disorder is changing,” he says. Rather than seeing their conditions as a disorder, he explains, “you’re seeing this movement towards acceptance of difference.” The value of neurodiversity-specific coaching Neurodiversity exists on a spectrum, and even those with similar diagnoses often have unique struggles and challenges. And as a result, companies can’t rely on one-size-fits-all benefits, says Gijo Matthew, Chief Product Officer at Spring Health. The mental health platform launched a neurodiversity hub earlier this year. “We decided to invest in neurodiversity because traditional mental health benefits often fall short for this community, leaving many employees without the resources they need to be successful, Matthew says. It’s that particular specificity that can make coaching a valuable tool for neurodiverse individuals. Jill Johnson, a coach who works with executive leaders, women, parents, and individuals with ADHD, describes coaching as a ‘partnership.’ The coach might have a particular expertise, Johnson says, but “it’s also the lived experience of the client, who brings an equally important role to figuring out how to helpand taking ownership of how they can be successful in life, or in the workplace.” How coaching helps neurodiverse individuals Roman Peskin, CEO and co-founder of ed-tech startup ELVTR, also didn’t receive a diagnosis until later in his life. He describes trying a series of ‘normal’ jobs in his twenties that he was subsequently fired from, first as a travel agent, then later running a travel website. “Both times I got fired for the same reason,” he says: “not incompetence, but procrastination and inconsistency. Id do great work in bursts, then mentally disappear.” This is something that Collis is familiar with. “The single biggest thing for brains like ours,” she explains, “is they fire up on interests, not based on external urgency, or what someone else or some external source says it should be. Even though we might know we need to do this thing first, we’re wired that way. So we have to function in a way that harnesses that capability, rather than forcing it into a box.” For Peskin, that’s the value that coaching can potentially bring, though he stresses that the coach needs to understand what it’s like to have a “high-octane brain.” It won’t work if you have “neurotypical productivity guru pushing a GTD masterclass down your throat,” he says. “A good coach could start by naming whats going on so you stop thinking ‘Im broken.’ Then help install realistic framework: sprints instead of marathons, accountability, focus blocks, external structure,” Peskin continues. Because neurodiversity encompasses a wide range of conditions, a level of personalization is also necessary. A 2025 University of Reading study that looked at the inclusivity of a neurodiversity coaching program found that some neurodivergent individuals, for example, do better with text-based or audio-only coaching rather than via video conferences. Coaches also need to be flexible and responsive in how they communicate. The study cited that some autistic individuals, for example, may face difficulty with open-ended questions. This means that coaches need to be able to adjust their method in a way that works for the employee. The importance of organizational culture, support, and education Peskin stresses that companies cannot rely on coaching to be the be-all and end-all. “I think of coaching as software,” he says. ÜMost companies still need to fix the hardware.” “You can’t coach your way out of a toxic system,” says Collis. “So if the culture in a workplace is fundamentally broken, or not safe from a psychological perspective, then those issues need to be addressed first.” For neurodiverse individuals, that support starts with education. There are a lot of misconceptions and stereotypes about neurodiverse individuals, says Sachs. For example, like the idea that those with ADHD might struggle to get their work done, or that everyone on the autism spectrum is blunt and introverted. A coach may be able to help a neurodiverse individual with time management or emotional regulation at work. However, the onus is also on the organization to provide a supportive and flexible environment so they can actually do those things. This starts from the top. As a 2022 study published in AIB Insights concluded, any neurodiverse-inclusive initiative needs to have buy-in from leadership go have any chance of success. It’s also about ensuring that the neurodiverse employee is employed in a role that actually allows them to use their strengths. “If your job is repetitive admin in an open-plan office with Slack on fire all day, no amount of coaching will turn that into a good fit for an ADHD brain,” says Peskin. Coaching is also not a substitute for competent management, Peskin says. “If you bolt coaching onto a culture of constant interruption, vague expectations, and busyness show-offs, it just becomes an expensive Band-Aid on a system thats causing the wound.” Many neurodiverse employees also struggle with sensory distractions, as a 2025 Ernst and Young study found. For a workplace to be truly inclusive, it needs to facilitate flexible working arrangements or a physical space where neurodiverse employees can work without interruptions. Ultimately, Peskin wants to see an attitude shift that sees neurodivergent talent as a strategic asset. As the 2022 study found, when organizations provide neurodiverse individuals the opportunity to play to their strengths, they’re more likely to make meaningful contributions to the company. In the abstract, the authors wrote, “the actions taken to accommodate neurodivergent employees often spill over to the benefit of all employees.” Peskin says, “Neurodivergent talent is a competitive advantage, not a DEI show off. We dont need fixing. We need the rules of the game adjusted so our strengths actually count.”
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E-Commerce
Its the end of the year and the pressure is on, demands are high, and youre probably close to the end of your rope as you try to wrap up your remaining projects before the holidays start. If thats you, youre not alone. Holiday stress is very common: In a survey by LifeStance Health, 57% of respondents said they experience stress over the season. But its possible to maintain your energy and momentum and not only get things done but stay engaged and finish strong. Fortunately, there are a few pragmatic strategies to maintain your energy and momentum through the end of the year. 1. Maintain control Youre likely to start feeling out of control. This is because of all the work you must accomplish before the end of the year, all the events you must attend, and all the responsibilities to families and friends for the holidays. Feeling like your work-life balance is out of control can sap your energy and create a barrier to getting things done. This can turn into a vicious circle. Youre out of control, cant get things done, and then feel even more out of control, and the cycle continues. On the other hand, when you feel greater levels of choice and control, youre better able to stay clearheaded, get more accomplished, and feel more satisfied as a result. So how can you feel more in control? First, decide what you must do this year and put off the things that dont need your attention until after the holidays. Be intentional to get things done that will relieve your mind and keep responsibilities from hanging over your head. At the same time, plan for what can be done later on. Additional tactics to take control are deceptively simple. Make lists of what you need to accomplish. Keep a calendar handy so you know whats coming up. When you accomplish things, check them off your list so you feel a sense of completion and progress, or mark the calendar counting the days youve tackled. With all of these, take the approach that works best for you. For some people, its an analog and always-visible to-do list. For others its an app or the use of your systems calendar or planning software. Dont spend a lot of time deciding which to use, just leverage what youre accustomed to and dig in to take control and maintain your momentum for the year. 2. Prioritize With so much coming at you, it can be tough to find the time and energy for everything. The project is due at work, you have to buy a secret Santa gift, and you must figure out what to give your childs teacher for the holidays. Surprisingly, when you remind yourself that you cant do it all, youll actually enhance your well-being. Its a mindset that we can do it all that often leads to burnout and emotional upheaval. By giving yourself permission to choose, rather than having to do everything, you liberate yourself to focus on whats most important. In order to choose well, clarify your values and focus on whats most important to you. For example, completing the project at work is aligned with your value of excellence or standout performance. Contributing to your childs party at school is important to your role as an involved and committed parent. But you might choose to forgo the committee meeting this month or miss the neighborhood cookie exchange because these arent as important to your identity or your priorities. In fact, the LifeStance Health data found that 64% of people would like to skip at least a few of their holiday gatherings. So while many of the meetings or events still matter, some may not rank as highly when you consider that you cant do it all. Do what you can and preserve your energy for the activities that are most important to you. 3. Spend meaningful time with others When things get busy, you may feel like everyone is pulling you in different directions, but our community and relationships are among the most important drivers of well-being. Youll want to maintain connections to maintain your energy. Research shows that strong community and relationships have significant impact on mental, physical, and cognitive well-being. And yet the holidays can be a lonely time. According to LifeStance Health, 51% of people surveyed said they experience loneliness during the holiday season. Reframe the demands you face as opportunities to share meaningful time with others. If youre under pressure to finish the project before the holiday break, appreciate the bonding opportunity with colleagues as you push forward together. If youre holiday shopping with your sister-in-law, appreciate the moments to deepen your relationship. Strive to be fully present with others, no matter what youre doing together. You can also reduce the responsibilities that come with getting together with others. Instead of reading your usual book with your book group this month, get together for conversation without actually reading a book. Or if your singles group normally meets at someones house, get together at a restaurant this month so no one has to host. The bottom line: Adjust your patterns during this time so its less about the demands and more about the connections. 4. Manage your habits Another way to maintain your energy is to manage the small habits that make a big difference in your physical and emotional energy. Get enough sleep. Stay hydrated. Eat healthfully. Move as much as you can. All of these are proven ways to ensure youll be at your best. Also spend as much time as possible in nature, even if the weather is colder. Significant research demonstrates that by spending more time outside, youre able to maintain perspective and rejuvenate for all the responsibilities you face. In fact, nature is a source of micro joy. Part of the reason that nature is so powerfully positive is that it engages your diffuse attention. Youre generally aware of the light, the breeze, or the brisk air. This is in contrast to the focused attention that work or personal commitments require. Research published in Environment and Behavior found that a shift to a more diffuse focus contributes to well-being and renews you for tasks that require more concentration or intensity. At the same time, avoid habits that detract from your well-being. For example, steer clear of doomscrolling or spending too much time online. These activities can have an especially negative impact because of the overwhelm caused from too much bad news; the urgency of most news sources, which creates a sense of worry; and the comparisons we naturally make to others. Instead, put your device aside or set a timer on your system to limit your time on social media platforms or news outlets. This will free you to spend more time with people or in nature. 5. Focus on gratitude Finally, focus on gatitude. When youre consciously grateful, you contribute to your well-being and ensure you can keep going through it all. You have a lot of responsibilities at work, which is a signal that others value your contributions and rely on you. You have gifts to wrap, which is a reflection of all the loved ones youre able to provide for. You have gatherings to attend, which is an indication of how youre connected to your community. Its also powerful to remind yourself that youre not alone. When youre under a lot of pressure, it can be natural to lose a broader perspective or feel like a victim of too much, too fast, all-at-once circumstances. But research experiments have shown that when people remind themselves that others are also going through hard times or similar challenges, they feel greater levels of happiness and well-being and less isolation, according to a study published in the Journal of Happiness Studies. To embrace gratitude, think of two experiences youre grateful for before you go to bed or consider one relationship youre thankful for as you approach each new day. Also remind yourself that youre not alone, and that while you face a ton of demands, others have similar experiences. Focusing here will help you maintain your energy. You can do it Remember: Just do what you can. You dont have to be perfect, and youll certainly miss things or drop the ball sometimes. Be flexible and optimistic with yourself and others, leaving room for things to go well enough, even if they dont meet your ideal. Reduce the pressure on yourself and youll not only get through such a busy time with your energy stores intact, youll also maintain greater joy in the process.
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E-Commerce
For a while now, weve been hearing warnings about AI eliminating jobs. First, it was only at the fringes. But now its starting to bite into roles once thought untouchable. It isnt just administrative work, copywriting, or design anymore; even advisory roles, data analytics, and coding are being reshaped by automation. But history teaches us that technological disruption doesnt eliminate work, it reshapes it. The industrial revolution, for example, didnt end human contribution, it simply redefined the places where humans bring the most value. AI is doing the same thing today. While it does, in fact, take (or reduce the need for) some jobs, it can, and will, pave new paths in the form of entrepreneurial opportunities. The rise of no-code tools, automated workflows, and AI-powered tools to support business creation means people can turn ideas into companies faster than ever before. The real challenge now lies in ensuring that the accessibility and utilization of these resources match the level of AI-induced displacement. While employment rates remain relatively stable, the numbers mask deeper shifts in how work gets done. Automation has been advancing for yearsaccelerated by AIwith many firms quietly cutting labor not through layoffs but by trimming hours, automating tasks, or relying on smaller teams to sustain productivity. This obscured drop in main hours, dubbed shadow layoffs, paints a far more complex picture of employment health than the headlines and numbers suggest. AI makes independence not just possible, but practical With roughly 80% of U.S. businesses already operating as nonemployer firms (meaning the owner is the only employee), self-driven enterprises have gained popularity since the 1990s. This massive trend is undervalued, and AIs unique ability to fuel entrepreneurial endeavors will signal a cultural and economic shift toward independence, flexibility, and self-determination. These characteristics are uniquely American, one of the reasons the country has long been the poster child for rags-to-riches capitalism. AI makes the traditional employment model even less reliable and familiar roles less secure, but the benefits of AI-driven entrepreneurship could reshape the workforce in the near future. For individuals, AI removes many of the barriers that once made the process of building a business challenging. AIs assistance negates, for example, costly and time-consuming marketing campaigns and the difficulties of providing customer support and training materials that drain budgets and slow down the path to business ownership. Launching a brand, opening an online clothing store, or offering a niche service can now happen in days, not months, with tools that streamline product development, go-to-market, and scaling from day one. For example, a laid-off marketing manager can launch a single-person consultancy powered by AI tools and handle everything from accounting and content creation to client management as a one-person show. This is something that in the past would have demanded at least three additional employees. While the technology is proven, individual grit alone isnt enough. Without proper support systems to close the gap between displaced workers and AI-enabled bootstrapping, an accessible path to entrepreneurship will remain out of reach for most. For future classes of AI entrepreneurs to thrive, theyll need an ecosystem designed to absorb and launch them forward. Turning disruption into design: Why public-private collaboration matters The ultimate goal for turning AI displacement into entrepreneurial opportunities should be a healthy society and a resilient economy. The key to maximizing these circumstances lies in empowering those who combine a unique vision with AI fluency. Investing in regional AI boot camps, small-business accelerators, or micro-grant programs for displaced workers will provide resources to help them reinvent themselves. Timely support is key: Upskilling workshops, business literacy, and AI fluency need to be accessible before layoffs happen, not after. If laid-off workers can pivot faster, the economic and social repercussions will be minimal. The most effective recipe for success in this regard is when the private and public sectors work in a complementary manner. Public-private entrepreneurial hubs could close this gap. Governments can ensure equitable access, while private companies focus on relevance and innovation. Through upskilling and educational initiatives and incentivized collaborations, the two can turn layoffs into small-business launchpads. In New York, the Department of Labor enacted an initiative to provide free access to Coursera and professional certifications from leading tech companies, including Google. While primarily for reskilling, these certifications and courses specifically support self-employment in the digital economy. If replicated nationwide, this could actually start moving the needle on digital self-employment. The key to kick-starting like-minded programs is through building awareness. They should focus on steering economic and social stability by providing laid-off workers with the necessary tools. If key private-sector leaders and government officials can align around shared goals, AI could redefine the American dream instead of disrupting it. While AI destabilized the traditional employer-employee model, it also opened new doors for the next wave of entrepreneurs. These entrepreneurs wont necessarily have an Ivy League degree or access to VCs, but they will be those who embrace AIs powerful capabilities and monetize those skills in original ways. AI will continue to change the paradigm on how and where people earn a living, but the outcome depends on how society responds. With the right infrastructure in place, this wave of automation could become one of the largest drivers of entrepreneurship since the internets onset. Without it, expect to see deeper inequality and economic stagnation. Disruption is unavoidable, but reinvention is a workers choice. Those who pair their expertise with AIs capabilities wont just survive this transition; theyll be the ones who embrace entrepreneurship, turning passion projects into real businesses faster than ever. The barrier to entry is no longer a team or a budget. Its a mindset and a small monthly subscription. In this shift, the winners wont be the ones who fear AI; theyll be the ones who take one good idea and build.
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E-Commerce
When Jon LaMantia, a Long Island-based business reporter, was in journalism school, his professor drilled one rule into his students: you get two exclamation points a year and no more. So if you use them in January, LaMantia recalls being told, you better hope theres nothing to exclaim for the rest of the year. The rule stuck. LaMantia still thinks about that rigid quota today. I use exclamation points all the time in texts and emails. If you dont, the message sounds more stern, he says. But I cant remember the last time I used one in a business article. Strong feelings about the exclamation point arent uncommon. People tend to either love it or loathe it; lean on it constantly, or avoid it religiously. Personally, I use multiple, but at work Ill only use one, says a woman who works in HR at an investment bank in New York City, who wasnt cleared to speak publicly but said she couldnt resist chiming in on this topic. People say Im bubbly and high-energy, so I use them to let my style come through in emailwhen appropriate. A consultant in Ohio, who also asked not to be named, tells me he uses them to lighten the tone of written communication or reduce formality. Others tread more cautiously. I use way too many and then feel embarrassed later on, admits an artist from Brooklyn. A Boston-based consultant says hes begun actively metering his usage to set the right tone. In short, exclamation points matter. They spark surprisingly strong feelings about tone, intention, and even etiquette. But according to new research, they also shape much more than just mood. Warmer, But Less Analytical A recent study published in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, titled Nice to meet you. (!) Gendered norms in punctuation usage, found that women not only use exclamation points more frequently than men, but that this difference carries real consequencesboth for those writing and for those reading. Across several experiments, participants judged writers who used exclamation points differently across measures that included perceived warmth, power, analytical ability, and competence. Heavy usersa group that overwhelmingly skews femalewere seen as warmer and more enthusiastic, but also as less analytical. The study also showed that women were more likely to think about their punctuation choices, whether to end a sentence with a period or an exclamation point, for example, underscoring the invisible cognitive labor that often shapes womens communication. All of it illustrates how something as small as punctuation can reinforce the subtle forces still underpinning stubborn gender norms and divides both at work, and beyond. Unequal Cognitive Load Cheryl Wakslak, associate professor of Management and Organization at Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California and one of the authors of the study, says she was particularly struck by how much mental energy women devote to these decisions. Women are putting a lot of thought into this, she says. On one hand, intentional communication is valuable, she adds, but its also a lot of cognitive energy that men are simply not spending.” Women, she explains, are constantly navigating what she describes as a warmthcompetence tightrope. Theyre worried about not seeming warm, so they use exclamation points to appear warmer. But theyre also worried about not being seen as competent or powerful, and they may worry that exclamation marks undermine that. Men, the research shows, largely dont think about any of that. Another finding that surprised her: the trade-offs of using exclamation points. Heavy users were perceived as more appealing collaborators and more enthusiastic, but also less powerful and less analytical. For me, the most interesting finding, though, was about competence, says Wakslak. We didnt see a clear effect in either direction. That matters to me because, when Im walking that tightrope, Im mostly worried about the competence trade-off, she adds. I dont need to seem powerful in every context, but I do want to seem competent. Still, she acknowledges that in some work environments, being perceived as analytical is crucial. In those situations, based on these findings, a woman might want to avoid using exclamation marks. Perpetuating Stereotypes Asked about the exclamation point research, Elaine Lin Hering, author of Unlearning Silence, a book about verbal and nonverbal communication, says shes not surprised. [The findings] illustrate the downside of the conditioning women have long received and the contorting women do to try to meet expectations. It is simply one of many examples of the double standards women are held to and the tension that women navigate every day, she adds. It’s akin, Hering says, to women being told to smile more in order to appear warmer and more approachableand then finding themselves being taken less seriously because they smile too much. And the issue extends beyond punctuation. Workplace communication norms are typically defined by the groups with the dominant identity. Not just that everyone should talk like a man, but that how people communicate should fit into the stereotypes that the dominant groups have of that other identity, she says. Social norms exacerbate inequality by perpetuating existing stereotypes that the dominant group holds, she explains, like that women are too emotional or Asians are good workers but not leaders or that Gen Z is lazy. So what can be done? As ever, when the problem is rooted in social conditioning, theres no easy fix. But Hering says that, especially in workplace settings, systems can be put in place to help control for biases like the ones that creep in when we read something someones written. We can challenge the social norms and exacerbated inequalities by having clear and consistent criteria for evaluating performance, she says. Research published in 2022, shows that womenbecause of systemic biasare often assessed in workplaces based on their actual performance, while men are assessed based on their future potential creating what the academics dub a gender promotion gap. Having more rigid criteria for assessment can offset that divergence. A wide awareness of the existence of these biases and this conditioning is alsoof coursecritical to making workplaces fairer. And Cheryl Wakslaks coauthor Gil Appel is the first to admit that. Appel, Assistant Professor of Marketing at the GW School of Business at George Washington University, says that spending time researching gender and communication has made himmuch more of a feminist. There are some things that men just dont have to think about at all, and women have to think about all the time, he says. Whether thats to ensure their safety, or whether its to make sure theyre coming across as competent, he adds. They just always have to be thinking. And beyond becoming more feminist, theres one other thing thats changed for Appel since working on the research: I have to admit, he says, I definitely use more exclamation marks now.
Category:
E-Commerce