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Everybody’s burned out

Good morning! This Thursday, we're not really going to talk about Trump's second impeachment. But that's happening. Instead, a concerning look at the state of work, reactions to Apple's new racial-justice programs and an interesting open role at Twitter.
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Asana ran a study that puts numbers to what a lot of people are feeling: Everybody's working too much, everybody's burned out and everybody feels like they're not keeping up.
Turns out 87% of knowledge workers are working late now that they're working from home, according to Asana. 76% of people are having trouble disconnecting from work, and a full 70% of people have experienced burnout in the last year.
People are doing a lot of "work about work" according to Moskovitz: Asana found that workers spend 60% of their time doing status checks, looking for information and in pointless meetings. (Obviously, Asana has a specific point of view in trying to name and solve this particular problem.)
Many employees are also feeling technically inadequate, as they're being forced to be their own IT managers and Zoom producers. "And then they don't feel confident, because it's all new. And it's a bunch of new things at once," said Moskovitz.
The takeaway from the Anatomy of Work study seems to be this: Use Asana. Wait, no, that's not it. It's this: There are big upsides to remote work, but they require a mindset shift both from employers and employees. (Moskovitz said he's been forcing his team members to take more vacations, even just closing the company for random days.) And companies have to make those shifts quickly, because the way we're all working now won't work for long.
Anna Kramer writes: As it continues to grapple with complicated cultural issues both inside and outside the company, Twitter seems to be betting on one solution: an ombuds program. It's one of the first companies to use the approach for dealing with internal worker complaints, with a system that will be shaped by an as-yet-unnamed new hire. The skeptics see the plan as an effort to quell potential unionization; the optimists think it has the potential for actual culture change.
What's an ombudsperson, you ask? Typically, they lead an independent organization that conducts investigations into employee complaints about issues such as harassment, racial and gender discrimination or code of conduct violations. Sometimes, they're empowered to provide anonymous support to employees and ensure that workers know their rights under the company's rules and the law.
The reason ombuds teams usually exist is so that employee problems can "be dealt with without having it posted on social media, or without having an employee go to an external agency like the EEOC or the SEC," said Juliette Gust, the co-founder of Ethics Suite, a group that offers third-party, independent investigative services.
Twitter wouldn't answer any questions about the plan, aside from confirming that it is in the process of hiring someone to lead and design the new team.
Apple's new $100 million Racial Equity and Justice Initiative is a good step, though smaller than it could be, according to several DEI experts I spoke to after the announcement was made.
Two things are true here, experts told me: These investments should help create the opportunities that everyone wants to see, and Apple still could have done more.
Apple clearly understands the importance of geography; its investments in Atlanta and Detroit show that. Both are historically neglected cities flooded with Black engineers and talent seeking economic opportunity, meaning there's loads of room for growth. Among the companies that are serious about tapping into that energy, we can expect to see more of them emulate these investments.
For Raj Hazra, who is senior vice president of corporate strategy and communications at Micron, there has never been a more thrilling time than this golden age of data. In this interview, Hazra describes how "we are now at the doorstep of taking things that we thought were science fiction and making them real, and it's only going to be exponentially faster going forward". Read more from Micron's Raj Hazra.
On Protocol: Affirm had a huge IPO yesterday, and Max Levchin said success was largely due to the company's values:
FCC commissioner Brendan Carr said Trump bears responsibility for the Capitol riots:
Jack Dorsey finally tried to explain Twitter's ban of @realDonaldTrump:
Parler CEO John Matze said his service may not be coming back:
On Protocol: Twilio's Jeff Lawson explained why he cut Parler off:
Dropbox laid off 315 people, about 11% of the company. COO Olivia Nottebohm is also leaving the company next month.
Bob Swan is stepping down as Intel CEO. He'll be replaced by VMware CEO Pat Gelsinger, which is a homecoming of sorts: He was Intel's first CTO. (Don't miss our story on what it'll take for VMware to replace him.)
Jeff Horowitz is BitGo's new chief compliance officer. He joins from the same role at Coinbase.
We always knew Elon Musk could change Tesla's stock price with a tweet. (The SEC knows it, too.) Last week we learned he could send a messaging app up the App Store rankings and jack the price of an entirely unrelated stock by the same name when he tweeted about Signal. And now we know that just by tweeting a meme, as Musk did on Tuesday, he was able to drive up the stock price of game maker Bandai Namco. It's very possible that Elon Musk's Twitter feed is the single most powerful media space on the internet right now. Good thing he's using that power to tweet sexy memes about sea shanties.
For Raj Hazra, who is senior vice president of corporate strategy and communications at Micron, there has never been a more thrilling time than this golden age of data. In this interview, Hazra describes how "we are now at the doorstep of taking things that we thought were science fiction and making them real, and it's only going to be exponentially faster going forward". Read more from Micron's Raj Hazra.
Today's Source Code was written by David Pierce, with help from Anna Kramer and Shakeel Hashim. Thoughts, questions, tips? Send them to david@protocol.com, or our tips line, tips@protocol.com. Enjoy your day; see you tomorrow.
Correction: An earlier version of this story misstated Asana's name (appropriately, in the burnout section). This story was updated on Jan. 14, 2021.
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