Hello, Quartz at Work readers!
The robots, it seems, are coming to coach us. LinkedIn is rolling out new AI tools to help you apply to jobs, the company announced today. And the company has assigned the AI an uncanny role: LinkedIn calls it your job-seeking coach.
Available to premium members, the new features will allow users to interact with a chatbot about open job opportunities, soliciting advice about whether an open role is a good fit based on your profile, which skills you need to become a better candidate for a posting, or the background on companies you might be interested in working for.
“We always hear from job-seekers that when they come across an interesting opportunity, their biggest pain points [are] Am I a good fit for this role?, and If I am, how do I maximize my chance of getting it?” chief product officer Tomer Cohen tells Quartz.
It’s also not the first time the company has likened its algorithmic tools to that of a career coach; last month LinkedIn released what it called “AI-powered coaching” within its e-learning platform LinkedIn Learning.
But the new features signal how the company is all-in on the AI-enhanced job search, which Cohen says LinkedIn is “starting to reimagine from scratch.” According to the company, there are 65 million job-seekers on LinkedIn weekly, and about 140 job applications are submitted per second.
The company recently surpassed a milestone of one billion members, LinkedIn told Quartz. It also pulled in more than $15 billion in revenue last year, a first in its two-decade history.
Record revenues, of course, haven’t kept the company from undertaking cost-cutting measures, though; the company has undertaken layoffs twice this year “to invest in strategic priorities for [its] future.” Those strategic priorities, one might surmise, could involve bringing even more AI into your LinkedIn feed.
NO TIME FOR QUITTING TIME
“It’s not our moment to work less and entertain ourselves. Rather it’s our moment to go all in and build in 1 generation what other countries have built over many generations!”
That’s Ola founder Bhavish Aggarwal, who this week tweeted an enthusiastic endorsement of 70-hour workweeks for young employees across India. Compare that to another argument for stacking the hours, this time from Infosys founder Narayana Murthy: youth should “want to work 70 hours a week” to promote the country’s economy.
Unending workweeks, it seems, are having a moment among some of India’s top tech leaders—and they’re pointing to long-toiling examples in Germany and Japan to make their case. Quartz reporter Ananya Bhattacharya goes deep on why their math doesn’t actually add up.
🥔🔇☁️
There’s so much to love about virtual meetings that it can be hard to pick a favorite element. Could it be the potato-quality visuals? The perpetual audio drops? Or the fogs of screen fatigue?
Cisco is betting that it can fix at least two of those remote-meeting woes—with AI. Michelle Cheng examines the software company’s newest features to improve video calls. Your Zoom fatigue may vary.
OKAY, BOOMERS!
It’s close to quitting hour for plenty of baby boomers, who are ready to exit the workforce for retirement. But considering they’re also the largest generation of workers to date, writes Quartz contributor Kara Yarnot, they risk leaving a big knowledge gap behind on your team.
Yarnot offers a few ideas for how managers can help handle the transition—and make sure younger workers learn as much from their predecessors before they pass the torch.
- Collaborate on easing out. Before retirement rolls around, consider asking employees if they’d like a softer exit—say with a more flexible schedule, part-time hours, or job-sharing arrangements.
- Make mentoring meaningful. Encourage senior staffers to pick up formal mentorship roles before retirement; perhaps they’ll hold a masterclass in their area of expertise or try flash mentoring to teach a targeted skill.
- Set up succession plans. When they do leave, don’t be caught without a blueprint for how backfills will be made.
- Prep for the next generation. In five years, Gen X will be next—so start thinking ahead.
YOUR WEEKLY WORK HACK
A few yellow flags can identify bullying on your team. When you think of bullies, you likely envision a schoolyard before a boardroom table. But workplace bullying is common—and we should be paying attention. Quartz contributor Risha Grant outlines the subtle signs that bullying has made its way into your workplace. Among the flags:
- Withholding information
- Giving backhanded compliments
- Micro-managing
- Using exclusionary body language
If any of these sound familiar, there are simple ways to step in. Grant outlines five techniques managers and teammates can use to push back on bullying.
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YOU GOT THE MEMO
Send questions, comments, and screen fatigues to [email protected]. This edition of The Memo was written by Gabriela Riccardi and Anna Oakes.