Incivility in our Society

From small insults to more serious forms of aggression, acts of disrespect have consequences on our health, wellbeing and confidence. Take the example of being cut off in traffic, an experience that leaves one seething miles later or perhaps you have been rudely interrupted by a colleague in an important meeting. The magnitude of the effect it has on your decision making is not surprising, as most people replay the threatening scene repeatedly in their mind. When a person is rude to us, we feel targeted. The nervous system interprets these events as life-threatening and our ability to problem solve is compromised. ‘Anchoring’ is a term for cognitive bias describing the human tendency to rely too heavily on a first piece of information when solving a problem. For example, our outrage creates an overfocus (or anchor) on our initial interpretation ofwhat happened and ignores mediating information. The anchoring effect keeps us from logical solutions because of our judgment errors related to skewed expectations and dismissed information.

2024 Workforce Trends

United States companies have experienced tens of thousands of lost jobs in markets from Wall Street to the travel, tech and media industries, despite experts reporting a strong economy. The cause of numerous job cuts may relate to pandemic over-hiring or the need to reduce costs due to high interest rates. Surplus positions are eliminated to optimize the workforce when businesses restructure. Firms in declining industries, such as tobacco, manufacturing and apparel, trim to survive. Technological changes intended to improve company efficiency, including the investment of AI, are replacing human workers. International arenas that bring global rivalry create workforce reduction related to the changing market. In order to cut costs, in-house employees may oftentimes lose their jobs to outsourcing.