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<ul class="summary-list"><li>Former Portland Thorns head coach Rhian Wilkinson resigned after professing feelings for a player.</li><li>The NWSL and NWSLPA joint investigative team cleared Wilkinson of all wrongdoing.</li></ul>Yet another scandal is rocking the National Women's Soccer League.Just a month after coaching the Portland Thorns to a title, <a href="https://www.insider.com/nwsl-rhian-wilkinson-resigns-relationship-with-player-emily-menges-2022-12">Rhian Wilkinson resigned</a> from her post because she "lost the locker room" over concerns regarding the nature of her relationship with one of the team's players. Though a joint investigation conducted by the league and the NWSL Players Association cleared the first-year head coach <a href="https://www.timbers.com/thornsfc/news/thorns-fc-head-coach-rhian-wilkinson-to-resign">of any wrongdoing</a>, a group of Thorns players still wrote a <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1qYorWe1Quwdyr5DlzOQmxlVLngxkFbo7SisvXx_FiEU/edit">letter to NWSL executives</a> requesting her ouster because the "trust in our locker room has been irrevocably broken."<div type="image" title="Portland Thorns players huddle up during the NWSL Championship game." height="1689" width="2252" msid="96256626" hostid="261" sizebytes="210852"></div>According to reporting from <a href="https://theathletic.com/3961020/2022/12/02/rhian-wilkinson-portland-thorns/" rel=" nofollow">The Athletic's Meg Linehan</a>, Wilkinson reported herself to Portland's human resources department after she and longtime Thorns defender Emily Menges — who played alongside Wilkinson in Portland in 2015 — expressed romantic feelings for one another via text message during the 2022 season.Though both parties, who spoke with Linehan on the record, admitted to spending one-on-one time together on several occasions, they insisted that there had been "no physical relationship" between them as player and coach.<h2>NWSL policies prohibit 'romantic relationships or encounters' between players and head coaches — 'even when consensual'</h2>For the first nine years of its existence, the NWSL didn't have official policies in place that explicitly banned harassment, fraternization, retaliation, or other forms of misconduct. But players began to pressure the league, and in the spring of 2021, the NWSL instituted its "Policy to Prevent and Eliminate Workplace Discrimination, Harassment, and Bullying."Six months later, when an explosive, league-wide scandal broke with the revelation that the Thorns' front office had covered up an array of harrowing abuses perpetrated by then-head coach Paul Riley, the NWSL updated its policy considerably. That <a href="https://www.nwslsoccer.com/documents/2022/3/8/NWSL_Anti_Harassment_Policy.pdf">revamped version</a> includes a new section outlining the "Additional Responsibilities of Supervisors Employed by NWSL" in which head coaches are explicitly designated as supervisors.<div type="image" title="Rhian Wilkinson." height="1665" width="2221" msid="96256628" hostid="261" sizebytes="92708"></div>"NWSL Supervisors may not engage in, develop, continue, or pursue any romantic and/or sexual relationships or encounters (with members of either sex), even when consensual, with any employee (including NWSL players or trialists) over whom they currently have direct or indirect supervisory authority or management influence," the section reads. "Such relationships are strictly prohibited.""Any failure by a Supervisor to meet these responsibilities or comply with these prohibitions," the policy continues, "will lead to disciplinary action against the Supervisor, up to and including termination of employment."By Wilkinson's own admission in Linehan's report, the coach "reciprocated feelings" with Menges via text message. But even despite the league's anti-harassment policy that prohibits head coaches from engaging in, developing, continuing, or pursuing any romantic relationships or encounters — consensual or otherwise — with players, Wilkinson was "cleared of any wrongdoing" through the NWSL and NWSLPA's joint investigation into the matter."The NWSL/NWSLPA joint investigative team conducted a thorough investigation and concluded that no violation of the policy had occurred," a representative for the Thorns confirmed in a statement provided to Insider.<div type="image" title="Rhian Wilkinson." height="1874" width="2500" msid="96256629" hostid="261" sizebytes="124404"></div>The league, players' association, and law firms leading the joint investigation did not immediately respond to Insider's requests for comment. Wilkinson also did not respond to Insider's requests for comment.<h2>Menges insists 'no policies were breached' and that Wilkinson shouldn't have faced the 'massive repercussion' of resigning</h2>Even despite <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1qYorWe1Quwdyr5DlzOQmxlVLngxkFbo7SisvXx_FiEU/edit">her teammates' written concerns</a> for her "personal safety" due to the "several potential power imbalances that are created when a coach fraternizes with a player," Menges has stood firm in her belief that she is not a victim in this scenario. The 30-year-old insisted to the Athletic that there was "no imbalance of power" between herself and her former coach, who is 10 years her elder. But the NWSL's own anti-harassment policy states otherwise."Once a coach-player relationship is established, a Power Imbalance is presumed regardless of age," the document says under the Sexual Misconduct subcategory, adding: "Any romantic or sexual interaction between a player (or trialist) and an individual with supervisory authority (direct or indirect) involves a Power Imbalance and may be exploitative, impair judgment, and/or create an actual, potential, or perceived conflict of interest."Still, Menges told Linehan she elected "to put my name on this" so that the public understands that this was, in her words, "a very equal situation" between herself and Wilkinson.<div type="image" title="Emily Menges." height="1666" width="2222" msid="96256630" hostid="261" sizebytes="160832"></div>"If you're going to believe players like we've been preaching for the last year — longer — then you can't just pick and choose which players you want to believe," Menges added. "You can't just believe players when they are actually victims, you have to believe players when they're not victims. There's no pick and choose situation."But Menges' role on the NWSLPA executive team, which was instrumental in the broader joint investigation into misconduct across the league, further complicates the matter. Though the NWSLPA confirmed to Linehan that Menges served solely as a witness in the investigation into Wilkinson, the union also said Menges was allowed to continue serving in her NWSLPA leadership position because she was never accused of any wrongdoing.Menges did not respond to Insider's repeated requests for comment.<h2>The joint investigative report recommended changes to address such situations, but did not explain Wilkinson's absolution</h2>On Wednesday, the NWSL and NWSLPA <a href="https://www.insider.com/nwsl-abuse-report-players-association-details-widespread-misconduct-institutional-failures-2022-12">released their long-awaited report</a> resulting from a 14-month joint investigation into the rampant coaching abuse across the entire league. Written by attorneys from Covington &amp; Burling LLP and Weil, Gotshal &amp; Manges LLP representing the league and the NWSLPA, respectively, the <a href="https://www.cov.com/-/media/files/corporate/publications/file_repository/report-of-the-nwsl-and-nwslpa-joint-investigative-team.pdf">125-page document</a> detailed "widespread misconduct directed at NWSL players," an "underlying culture" that "created fertile ground for misconduct to go unreported," and failure among the "institutions meant to investigate and address misconduct" to effectively do so.<div type="image" title="NWSL Commissioner Jessica Berman." height="1666" width="2222" msid="96256632" hostid="261" sizebytes="78578"></div>But the report also recommended dozens of changes to further protect NWSL players and employees, including specific methods to strengthen its anti-harassment policies. One such method involves adding a "Non-Fraternization Policy" to the league's existing anti-harassment policy.Such a measure would serve to "clarify that any sexual or romantic relationship between players and those in supervisory roles over players is strictly prohibited, even if the relationship is consensual."Later, in the report's section recommending the implementation of mandatory anti-harassment training for NWSL and club staff, as well as players, the joint investigative team suggests that such a training "should clearly instruct staff that electronic communications, including text messages, WhatsApp messages, and emails, must comply with, and are subject to, the Anti-Harassment Policy."<div type="image" title="Rhian Wilkinson." height="1666" width="2222" msid="96256635" hostid="261" sizebytes="92816"></div>Still, the joint investigative committee only mentioned Wilkinson in the context of instances that "did not violate the Anti-Harassment Policy or other relevant standards.""In October 2022, the Joint Investigative Team received a report that then-Thorns Head Coach Rhian Wilkinson had disclosed to the Thorns's HR director potentially inappropriate interactions with a player with whom she had formed a friendship," the report reads. "The Joint Investigative Team promptly conducted a thorough investigation and, based on the evidence, found that Wilkinson did not engage in wrongdoing or violate the Anti-Harassment Policy."Out of respect for player privacy," it continued, "this Report does not provide a detailed account of the evidence or findings in this and other instances where the Joint Investigative Team determined no misconduct occurred."

The NWSL may have contradicted its own anti-harassment policy in clearing a former head coach of wrongdoing

The New Year has brought <keyword id="6354458" type="COUNTRY" weightage="100" keywordseo="US">us</keyword> some much-awaited good news on the hiring front and along with that, some concerns. According to experts, it may rain jobs in 2014 as Indian <keyword id="22917" type="CITY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Companies">companies</keyword> are gearing up to add more than 8.5 lakh new employees to their payrolls. But a robust hiring scenario may also see a rise in employee attrition. <keyword id="115437" type="CITY" weightage="80" keywordseo="India-Inc-">India Inc.</keyword> experiences the highest attrition rate globally and one in four employees in the organised sector could be set to switch jobs, according to a Hay Group study. 
 But there’s another side of the story. Ask employees why many of them tend to take flight and the responses would seem identical. At least 39% are concerned about opportunities regarding <keyword id="605173" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Learning-and-Development">learning and development</keyword> while 36% feel there is no <keyword id="2000020" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Supervisory-coaching">supervisory coaching</keyword> to ensure their <keyword id="42546" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Growth">growth</keyword>. In brief, a lot of attrition seems to be happening because <keyword id="6358610" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Businesses">businesses</keyword> fail to engage with their employees in the right way – be it <keyword id="6669200" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="induction">induction</keyword>, on-the-job training, breaking down silos or team-building. 
 <keyword id="1631069" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Corporate-training-programmes">Corporate training programmes</keyword> often turn out to be inadequate as they mostly follow a set pattern, instead of a need-based approach, and uphold the age-old ‘classroom’ training model, instead of making learning fun and interactive. But here is one start-up from Pune that aims to usher in a sea-change in the <keyword id="770011" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Employee-training">employee training</keyword> and engagement space. Two-year-old <keyword id="2000014" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="MindTickle">MindTickle</keyword> provides a Cloud-based <keyword id="2000035" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Gamified">gamified</keyword> and <keyword id="2000036" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="social-learning-platform">social learning platform</keyword> that makes the training experience extremely engaging. As ‘<keyword id="1071127" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Gamification">gamification</keyword>’ gets hot all over the world, MindTickle, too, has created waves globally. Here is a snapshot that captures the start-up’s vision and viability. 
 
Who runs MindTickle (www.mindtickle.com): Four <keyword id="382595" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="co-founders">co-founders</keyword> – <keyword id="2000038" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Deepak-Diwakar">Deepak Diwakar</keyword>, <keyword id="2000039" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Krishna-Depura">Krishna Depura</keyword>, <keyword id="1141504" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="Mohit-Garg">Mohit Garg</keyword> and <keyword id="2000016" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Nishant-Mungali">Nishant Mungali</keyword>. Deepak has done BTech in Computer Science from IIT Mumbai while Nishant holds a bachelor’s degree in Design from IIT Guwahati. Krishna is an alumnus of IIT Roorkee and <keyword id="6357276" type="CITY" weightage="100" keywordseo="ISB">ISB</keyword>, Hyderabad. Mohit is an NSIT grad, has done MSEE from <keyword id="33081" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="Stanford">Stanford</keyword> and holds an MBA from ISB. Krishna and Mohit were also batch mates at ISB. 
 Prior to starting up, Mohit was a director in PwC’s management consulting practice at New Jersey and worked with a number of telcos in the US, Europe, and <keyword id="3658" type="COUNTRY" weightage="100" keywordseo="India">India</keyword> on various strategy projects. In addition, he has done <keyword id="187755" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="product-development">product development</keyword> for <keyword id="6357722" type="COMPANY" weightage="80" keywordseo="silicon-valley">Silicon Valley</keyword> start-ups such as <keyword id="270697" type="COMPANY" weightage="80" keywordseo="Aruba-Networks">Aruba Networks</keyword>. The other three worked with <keyword id="1010923" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="PubMatic">PubMatic</keyword> before starting MindTickle although Krishna had an earlier stint with <keyword id="10387" type="CITY" weightage="80" keywordseo="Microsoft">Microsoft</keyword>. The start-up was launched in August 2011 and its products were rolled out in beta in early 2012. Besides its headquarters and development centre in Pune, the company has a sales &amp; marketing office in <keyword id="12161" type="COMPANY" weightage="80" keywordseo="San-Francisco">San Francisco</keyword> as it is aggressively targeting the <keyword id="35193" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="us-market">US market</keyword> for expansion. 
 
What inspired the venture: A hobby activity by the foursome led to the Eureka moment. It was called <keyword id="2000046" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="TeraMeraIdea">TeraMeraIdea</keyword> and later evolved into an <keyword id="6541953" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="online-platform">online platform</keyword> that allowed users to experiment with new ideas in the Internet, media and social business space. “We had quizzes and knowledge-based treasure hunts covering loads of topics. And people simply loved to learn things through our quizzes,” recalls Krishna, one of the co-founders. That’s when the four realised that learning can be fun and interesting without being scary or boring. 
 At the same time, they saw the rise of some new technologies and new concepts – Cloud, for instance, and increasing mobile penetration; social networking, casual gaming and gamification. The four of them were quite convinced that a big opportunity was out there to transform the learning experience with the help of social and gamification elements. So they did some more experiments with knowledge-based games, and worked with <keyword id="2000019" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="LD">L&amp;D</keyword> experts and researchers to learn the best practices in interactive learning. “Finally, we deployed pilots for corporate houses and the feedback was just awesome,” says Krishna. “It was noon-clear that <keyword id="2000051" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Conventional-learning">conventional learning</keyword> would take a backseat in the next few years. So we decided to take the lead and create a next-generation learning platform,” he adds. 
 
What’s the pitch: <keyword id="2000054" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Effective-training">Effective training</keyword> and better <keyword id="610471" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="employee-engagement">employee engagement</keyword> that generate <keyword id="2000055" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Business-results">business results</keyword>. Most businesses are deeply dissatisfied with their training programmes although they have invested a large chunk into their human assets. Classroom methods are near-dead, especially in a corporate environment, as they are resource-heavy, limited in scope (not customisable), and lack the scale and global reach-out required for today’s mobile and <keyword id="2000092" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Distributed-workforce">distributed workforce</keyword>. On the other hand, a conventional e-learning system like the CBT or the WBT fails to engage and motivate the end user. “But at MindTickle, we have created a next-gen learning platform that enables enterprises to create and deliver very engaging and effective training,” clarifies Krishna. 
 
Why the name MindTickle: During its research days, the start-up came up with a unique content creation technique that would transform chunks of data into interesting mind tickles – a series of brain-teasers that would help you gain knowledge through problem solving and content discovery. Hence, the name. 
 
How it works: Simply put, MindTickle has created a Cloud-based learning platform, which enables enterprises to deliver their training programmes anywhere, at any time and on any device. Moreover, the same learning platform can be used to train their partners and customers. It features an in-built social and gamification engine that makes the entire learning experience really engaging. This has not only resulted into huge participation, but also ensured increasing level of <keyword id="2000060" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Training-completion">training completion</keyword>. 
 As of now, the focus is on <keyword id="2000062" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="New-hire-training">new hire training</keyword>, <keyword id="2000064" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Product-training">product training</keyword>, <keyword id="2000065" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Sales-training">sales training</keyword> and <keyword id="2000066" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Customer-service-training">customer service training</keyword>, but the range can be quite extensive. Also, a SaaS (software as a service) platform means totally hassle-free implementation – enterprises can simply sign up and start creating their own learning/training sites. 
 The start-up offers an intuitive admin interface with a number of templates that allow companies to create interactive training programmes by using their existing content (audio, video, PPT, PDF, Doc file, etc.). Once that is done, a trainer can invite end-users who can securely access the site via any Web browser. Detailed <keyword id="6359249" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="analytics">analytics</keyword> and reports are also generated on a real-time basis, which trainers can use to measure the effectiveness of their programmes and can also tweak it, based on the feedback. Overall, MindTickle has embraced the <keyword id="2000067" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="SoGaMo">SoGaMo</keyword> (social, gamified and mobile) technologies as its product backbone. 
 “Our platform has several pre-defined, <keyword id="2000070" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Customisable-features">customisable features</keyword>, which users can tweak to create their own <keyword id="2000071" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Personalised-experience">personalised experience</keyword>. However, we don’t create custom solutions for specific requirements,” explains Krishna. 
 
Claim to fame: Traction and recognition. MindTickle has been awarded for ‘Best use of engagement techniques in Enterprise HR’ at the Global GSummit in 2012 and 2013. And the traction has been impressive over the past two years. More than 54,736 learners from a number of leading organisations have benefited till date while its customer base includes several <keyword id="542582" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Fortune-500-companies">Fortune 500 companies</keyword> and some reputed start-ups such as <keyword id="282568" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="SAP-Labs">SAP Labs</keyword>, <keyword id="15492" type="CITY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Vodafone">Vodafone</keyword>, <keyword id="6357395" type="CITY" weightage="100" keywordseo="eBay">eBay</keyword>, <keyword id="180948" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Yahoo-India">Yahoo! India</keyword>, <keyword id="164941" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="inMobi">InMobi</keyword>, <keyword id="54613" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="makemytrip">MakeMyTrip</keyword>, <keyword id="1101579" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="SHRM">SHRM</keyword> and ISB. 
 
Show me the money: Unlike many start-ups, this one is a venture-funded company and raised an undisclosed seed <keyword id="6357455" type="EVENT" weightage="100" keywordseo="Funding">funding</keyword> from <keyword id="144381" type="COMPANY" weightage="80" keywordseo="Accel-Partners">Accel Partners</keyword> in January 2012. That’s not surprising as globally, the training market is worth $200 billion and growing. MindTickle targets medium-to-large enterprises in India and the US, and has in place a robust per-user subscription model. However, it is a <keyword id="2000069" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Product-company">product company</keyword> that needs constant cash-burning for ongoing design, development and implementation. “To meet that requirement, we are now putting all the money we earn back into the company and we are not margin-focused at present,” says Krishna. “Of course, no one can ignore break-even and profits, but our first priority is to build more and more world-class products and adopt a scalable go-to-market policy,” he adds. The start-up will also raise more funding as and when it requires the money for incremental growth. 
 
Biggest challenge: Not competition, per se, feels Krishna. According to him, MindTickle’s platform actually complements a lot of existing learning solutions, rather than being a direct competition. For instance, the company has tools, which help create great videos from existing PPTs or help record or create screencasts for training. With the help of such platform integration capabilities, companies in the training space can actually improve their offerings by leveraging multiple content formats. On the other hand, quite a few education tech companies like Udemy, Coursera and <keyword id="1175348" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="edX">edX</keyword> have come up in the <keyword id="6561759" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="MOOC">MOOC</keyword> space (<keyword id="1071995" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Massive-Open-Online-Courses">Massive Open Online Courses</keyword>) and they are now entering the <keyword id="2000084" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Enterprise-environment">enterprise environment</keyword>. MindTickle is keeping a tab on the latest developments as these may ensure further opportunities for growth and <keyword id="6379846" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="collaboration">collaboration</keyword>. 
 “But one of the biggest challenges is to evangelise the concept – to make people aware of how easy it is to create great training programmes,” admits Krishna. Many of the <keyword id="2000089" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Subject-matter-experts">subject matter experts</keyword> feel intimidated when faced with the complexity of the current systems. Companies, too, struggle to cope with <keyword id="2000091" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Employee-learning">employee learning</keyword> and engagement, especially when they are growing very fast or trying to manage a distributed workforce. “Now that we have got a great platform whose effectiveness has been proven globally, our next challenge is to position our brand, create awareness and grow exponentially,” concludes Krishna.

Are You Game To Transform Employee Training, Engagement? This Start-up Can Help…

<table class="image-container float_right" width="200"><tr><td><div class="image"></div>AP ImagesMajor Applewhite (left) and UT head coach Mack Brown.</td></tr></table><keyword id="159191" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="University-of-Texas">University of Texas</keyword> offensive coordinator Major Applewhite and the school's athletic director released a joint statement on Friday night acknowledging that Applewhite had an "inappropriate" relationship with a student during the team's trip to the 2009 Fiesta Bowl.
Beyond the cheating on his wife while she was apparently nine months pregnant*, the timing of this announcement raises a lot of questions for the University of Texas and how it handled the affair.
Here is an excerpt from the statement from AD DeLoss Dodds (<a href="http://collegefootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2013/02/01/texas-applewhite-engaged-in-inappropriate-consensual-behavior-with-student/">via CollegeFootballTalk</a>):
"Major Applewhite engaged in inappropriate, consensual behavior with an adult student one time during the 2009 Fiesta Bowl activities. After learning of his behavior later that month, I took immediate action to review the situation. We promptly initiated an inquiry with assistance from the university’s Legal Affairs office and other units outside of Athletics. Major admitted his inappropriate conduct and he was disciplined."
But there are unanswered questions...
Is Texas guilty of discrimination and a double-standard?
Last month, Bev Kearney, the women's track coach at the University of Texas, resigned over an affair with "<a href="http://sports.yahoo.com/news/texas-womens-track-coach-resigns-051005984--spt.html">an adult student-athlete</a>" in 2002. Was the African-American, gay, woman forced out over a consensual affair while the white male football coach (who was also a star football player at the school) received preferential treatment? In Applewhite's case, the affair was not with an athlete, but there may have still been a supervisory role. It will be interesting to see how Texas spins this.
Why was this statement released now?
Other than trying to bury the story late on a Friday night, Texas may also be trying to protect itself from a potential lawsuit from Kearney. If a lawsuit is coming, Kearney's legal team will want to show that male coaches were not forced out over similar circumstances.
Is Mack Brown's job in jeopardy?
The Texas football team has not played up to its own high standards in the last few years. It is not impossible to imagine that some within the program want to replace the 61-year-old coach, Mack Brown. If it was determined that Brown helped sweep this under the rug, Brown's job might not be able to survive this incident.
While on the surface this sounds like a boring story about an assistant coach few people know, this story has the potential to explode into something much bigger.
* Major Applewhite's <a href="http://www.texassports.com/sports/m-footbl/mtt/applewhite_major00.html">daughter was born in January, 2009</a>. The Fiesta Bowl occurred on January 5th. So there is a small chance the affair happened after the child was born.

Texas Football Coach's Affair With A Student Leaves Many Unanswered Questions

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Big Tech's latest cost cutting move is "flattening," or removing middle management from the org chart.</li><li>Amazon, Meta, Salesforce and others are flattening out, even as they lay off workers.</li></ul>Meta, Salesforce, and Amazon have more in common beyond their recent swath of far-reaching layoffs. They're also the exemplars of a new cost-cutting trend in Silicon Valley: Removing the middle managers from their org charts, in a trend that's been called "flattening" at each company. As these companies prioritize efficiency over everything else, they're moving many managers into roles that the industry often calls "individual contributors." On paper, it means fewer <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/mark-zuckerberg-might-cut-metas-middle-management-report-2023-1">"managers managing managers," as Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg put it,</a> and more people coding, designing, or selling.The move comes as the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/meta-layoffs-tech-ceo-pandemic-boom-last-forever-dumb-mistake-2022-11">Big Tech companies reel from the consequences of overhiring</a>, as the pandemic turned into an unexpected boon to their businesses. Critics have said that these companies hired people to do "<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/silicon-valley-debates-tech-employees-doing-fake-work-2023-3">fake work</a>," rather than anything meaningful to the bottom line. Experts say that this kind of flattening makes sense in the short term — but is likely to carry negative consequences for those companies in the long term. Getting rid of middle managers can be a drag on company culture, even as it stymies career growth amid its workforce. Ultimately, it may result in lower overall company performance."Companies are looking at efficiencies and they're seeing that not only the layers, but also these kinds of inefficient, subjective performance structures are no longer needed," said Anna Tavis, a professor with New York University's school of professional studies. "There are some human roadblocks along the way because there needs to be a mindset change."<h2>Big Tech moves to flatten organizations </h2>One of Meta's top priorities in its self-declared "year of efficiency" is to flatten the company's corporate structure, and making many middle managers individual contributors, essentially demoting them, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/meta-is-downranking-manager-roles-ahead-of-expected-layoffs-2023-3">Insider's Kali Hayes reported</a>. CEO Mark Zuckerberg said he believes a less managerial hierarchy will make Meta "a more fun place to work," <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/salesforce-culling-management-layers-across-the-company-2023-4">Insider previously reported</a>. During his takeover of Twitter, <a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1586686935518498816" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Elon Musk said</a> there seems to be "10 people 'managing' for every one person coding." He soon after ordered Twitter's engineering managers to write "a meaningful amount" of code themselves, in addition to their supervisory duties, <a href="https://twitter.com/zoeschiffer/status/1597213388681011200" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Platformer's Zoe Schiffer reported.</a> Amazon, for its part, has also been looking into its "span of control," an industry term for the number of direct reports under each manager, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-flawed-job-listing-process-over-hiring-layoffs-2023-3">Insider's Eugene Kim reported</a>.More recently, Salesforce has started eliminating layers of management, in a bid to boost efficiency and appease activist investors, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/salesforce-culling-management-layers-across-the-company-2023-4">Insider's Ashley Stewart reported</a>. <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/shopify-flattens-management-structure-incentivizes-individual-contributors-2023-2"></a>Other, relatively smaller firms are following suit. <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/shopify-flattens-management-structure-incentivizes-individual-contributors-2023-2">Shopify, for example, is also making changes</a> that will likely result in fewer middle managers. <h2>Flat organizations do have some drawbacks that Big Tech will have to deal with</h2>There are definitely some benefits to flattening, experts said. For one, it can free up many middle managers to focus on <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-twitter-takeover-good-idea-managers-bosses-work-employees-2022-12">coaching employees, rather than supervising them</a>, Tavis said. Less hierarchy also means products can get out to customers sooner, because it requires fewer levels of review.While that all sounds good, experts warn removing middle management roles have other consequences that Big Tech will have to deal with. One big example: There's a perception among many young workers that rising to the level of management is the path to success, particularly if they have ambitions of being a C-Suite executive themselves one day. When companies are removing managers, it makes the career path forward not quite as clear."There's gonna be a lot of pushback," Tavis said. "I think it's going to affect the longevity of the younger, up and coming professionals who are gonna be saying 'when am I gonna manage people?'"<h2>Middle managers set the tone and culture</h2>Additionally, middle managers have more influence on shaping a company's culture and can affect whether or not employees feel engaged in their jobs, as <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/middle-managers-great-flattening-organization-meta-tech-layoffs-firing-2023-3">Insider's Aki Ito reported</a>. Analyses done by the Gallup on employee engagement found that what defines how employees feel about their jobs is team-specific dynamics, not organization-wide ones. In other words, middle managers set the pace and tone.Removing too many layers of management risks burdening the managers who are left with too much work, and an inability to effectively coach and supervise their direct reports, Ito's report found. On the flip side, effective managers also can lead to higher performance from their teams, <a href="https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/people-and-organizational-performance/our-insights/stop-wasting-your-most-precious-resource-middle-managers" target="_blank" rel="noopener">a recent report from McKinsey found.</a> "Good managers with strong team relationships can lead their teams to higher organizational performance, drive more effective organizational operations, and provide the link between organizational vision and execution," the report said. It's also notable that all of this is happening as Big Tech pushes a return to offices. Without effective managers, maintaining company culture is even harder in a hybrid work environment, Tavis said. "The majority of organizations have not really thought this through, and a lot of times these decisions are made at top, thinking about efficiency, productivity, and I've got the data now," Tavis said. "That's how they're thinking and they can do that, but I think there will be some challenges because it's not thought through entirely."

Amazon, Meta, and other tech giants are cutting middle management to be more efficient. It's a risky move that could backfire.

Getting rid of them is a big mistakeFew positions in corporate America are more thankless — or more ridiculed — than that of middle manager. Stuck between the CEO and everyone else in the office, they've long been derided as petty, powerless, thumb-twiddling bureaucrats whose job is to enforce the rules, crack the whip, and stamp out any vestige of creativity or self-initiative. Middle management, the thinking goes, is make-work for the mediocre.But in recent weeks, as companies brace for tougher times ahead, the assault on middle managers has picked up new steam. At Meta, Mark Zuckerberg is <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/meta-is-reorganizing-facebook-to-be-like-instagram-amid-further-layoffs-2023-2">eliminating layers</a> of middle management, demoting many supervisors to the ranks of the supervised. Shopify is also reorganizing its corporate hierarchy, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/shopify-flattens-management-structure-incentivizes-individual-contributors-2023-2">a "flattening"</a> that will result in fewer managers. And Elon Musk has ordered Twitter's engineering managers to start writing "<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-twitter-takeover-good-idea-managers-bosses-work-employees-2022-12">a meaningful amount</a>" of code themselves, in addition to performing their supervisory duties.CEOs say they're slashing away at managers in the name of efficiency. Zuckerberg offered a telling explanation for his decision: He doesn't want to have "<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/mark-zuckerberg-might-cut-metas-middle-management-report-2023-1">managers managing managers</a>, managing managers, managing managers, managing the people who are doing the work." His rhetoric, in fact, is part of a decades-long movement to reduce the number of middlemen in corporate America's sprawling bureaucracy. Save on overhead. Break down silos. Cut the red tape. Create, in Zuckerberg's words, "a more fun place to work." It all sounds great, right? Except for one little thing: Middle managers are actually the ones who make large organizations work. Studies suggest they move the needle on a company's overall performance far more than senior executives do — and also make a bigger difference to the bottom line than the teams they supervise. By eliminating middle managers now, in the midst of an unprecedented shift to hybrid work, businesses are cutting the very people they need most to weather all the economic uncertainty. They're making it harder for the remaining managers to succeed. And they're sending a powerful message to talented would-be supervisors: Don't become one. "You could have a great vision, you could have a great strategy, but if you don't have managers who create the culture you aspire to become, then none of that stuff will get done," says Jim Harter, the chief scientist for Gallup's workplace-management practice. "It'll be uphill all the way. Leaders' jobs are a lot easier if they've got effective managers."<h2>The Great Flattening</h2>When it comes to management structures, there are two archetypes: hierarchical and flat. Hierarchical organizations have tall org trees that cascade down ever-descending layers of management. Flat organizations have short org trees with far fewer intermediaries.Large companies tend to be more hierarchical because they need to establish a clear chain of command. But over the past few decades, big businesses have sought to become flatter — and some, like Zappos, tried doing away with hierarchies altogether. <a href="https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w9633/w9633.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">A study of 300 large companies</a> found the number of managers layered between CEOs and their division heads decreased by more than 25% from 1986 to 1998. The average number of people reporting directly to the CEO, meanwhile, nearly doubled. The Great Flattening was underway.The war on middle managers appears to have achieved some of its intended benefits: One study found that companies with fewer organizational layers got products to customers more quickly. But the trend also led to a culture that dismissed middle managers as deadweight — even though extensive research has found that the good ones make outsize contributions to their organizations.Take a series of analyses by Gallup on employee engagement — a gauge of how involved and enthusiastic workers feel about their jobs, which in turn is linked to higher profitability, lower turnover, and lower absenteeism. Gallup's researchers homed in on a puzzling finding across more than 50,000 teams: Even within the same company, some teams scored much higher in engagement than others. The finding suggested that the key to how employees feel about their jobs lay in team-specific dynamics, not organization-wide ones.So the researchers drilled down further. What they found surprised them: Direct supervisors were responsible for 76% of the variation in team engagement, while executives accounted for only 11%. "Your immediate manager has a much bigger impact on your engagement than senior leadership," Harter says. "It was shocking how much variance there was across these manager-led teams, and how much managers influenced the engagement of an organization."Top executives may be shocked to learn they're less valuable than middle managers. But if you think about your own experience as an employee, it probably makes sense. The person who makes the biggest difference in your day-to-day work life isn't the CEO, who probably isn't aware of your existence. It's your immediate boss, who knows to go easy on you right now because your marriage is falling apart, who tailors their feedback to you in a way that makes you open to change, and who reshapes assignments from higher-ups so they match your strengths and ambitions. Underappreciated though they may be, middle managers often make or break the way we see and do our jobs. That's why, in a recent survey conducted by UKG, a workforce-software provider, employees said their supervisor had just as much impact on their mental health as their spouse — and made a bigger difference than their therapist.Consider another study that examined the importance of middle managers on company performance. Ethan Mollick, a professor of management at Wharton, looked at two jobs in the gaming industry: designers and producers. Designers are the creatives who invent and build the games — the innovators. Producers are the suits who make sure projects are delivered on time and on budget — the managers. Mollick expected to find that the creative output of the innovators mattered more than the bureaucratic work of the managers. But the opposite proved true: Producers accounted for 22% of the differences in revenue across games, while designers accounted for only 7%. (Another study found that top executives mattered even less, clocking in at less than 5%.) "High-performing innovators alone are not enough to generate performance variation," <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1630546" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Mollick concluded</a>. "Rather, it is the role of individual managers to integrate and coordinate the innovative work of others." <h2>Managers managing managers </h2>It's a message worth heeding — especially in Silicon Valley, where genius coders are treated like gods. Studies have shown that a top programmer can produce as much work as 20 average ones — a statistic that's often used to justify paying astronomical salaries to attract the best engineers. That's why the tech industry created a separate advancement track for programmers: to give superstars a way to win raises and promotions without having to become managers.But by worshiping top performers so much, the Valley devalued the less glamorous role of managers — the people who actually get the work of the genius coders out into the world. Last October, when Elon Musk was asked to name the most "messed up" thing about Twitter, he <a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1586686935518498816" target="_blank" rel="noopener">answered</a>, "There seem to be 10 people 'managing' for every one person coding." You can hear a similar disdain in Zuckerberg's words. When he talked about not wanting "managers managing managers," he left unsaid the most common middle-manager trope of all: that, unlike employees who are "doing the work," in Zuck's words, middle managers aren't really doing anything at all.It's an assumption that an experienced management consultant I spoke with picked up on immediately when she accepted a supervisory role at a tech company. Almost as soon as she joined, she was told most of her day should involve working on projects of her own — even though she was responsible for overseeing a team. Her performance reviews revolved around the work she produced herself, rather than her accomplishments as a manager. When she got laid off a few months ago, she wondered whether she was targeted in part because she prioritized developing her team over grinding out work of her own."I think spending your time coaching and leading and developing people is a worthwhile pursuit in itself," she told me. "If you want to do those things and do them well, then you need to have time carved out for that. Managing people is a job. But I don't think that was appreciated and valued by leadership at the company. That's not appreciated in tech." Managing people, in fact, is far more time-intensive than corporate leaders realize. Gallup found there's an upper limit to the number of direct reports most managers can effectively oversee: 10. Any more than that, Harter says, and it becomes hard to have meaningful conversations with employees on a weekly basis. (Musk reportedly has <a href="https://affiliate.insider.com?h=d8bf3983ac07c626a1df18ec4589348a80b2803387684127596f7fce2910b74e&amp;postID=640901faa5f1ba5815513f19&amp;site=bi&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theinformation.com%2Farticles%2Finside-teslas-top-ranks-as-musk-twitter-deal-looms" target="_blank" rel="noopener">28 people reporting to him at Tesla</a> alone.) As companies like Meta shed middle managers, they risk burdening their remaining supervisors with teams that are too large to oversee effectively. The companies might save on overhead for now. But they'll struggle with retention and lose out on revenue in the long run. The burnout in the ranks of middle managers is starting to become apparent. In the UKG <a href="https://www.ukg.com/resources/article/mental-health-work-managers-and-money" target="_blank" rel="noopener">survey</a>, 42% of middle managers said they were often or always stressed — a higher share than either frontline workers or C-suite executives. More than half said they wished someone had warned them not to take their current job. That's because they're under increasing pressure from their bosses above, who are pushing them to ratchet up productivity while laying off staff members, and from their employees below, who are mad about having to return to the office.Instead of eliminating middle managers, or burdening them with additional work, companies would do better by giving them the recognition they deserve and helping them become more effective in the emerging post-pandemic workplace. The businesses most likely to weather the current economic turmoil, Harter says, are those that unlock the hidden value of middle managers. "It's something companies can leverage, particularly in these more difficult times we're in right now," he says. "A lot of it is going to come down to how they upskill managers."<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/author/aki-ito">Aki Ito</a> is a senior correspondent at Insider.

Companies are getting rid of middle managers. That's a big mistake.

An epidemic of sexual abuse in schools

<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><a href="http://www.saatchikevin.com/The_Unofficial_KR_Bio/">Kevin Roberts</a>Kevin Roberts.</div></div></div>Kevin Roberts, the executive chairman of <keyword id="35666" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="advertising">advertising</keyword> agency Saatchi &amp; Saatchi and head coach at parent company Publicis Groupe has resigned.The announcement comes just days after he was placed "on leave" by Publicis following controversial comments he made to Business Insider about gender diversity in the advertising industry.In an interview published Friday, Roberts had declared the gender diversity debate in the advertising industry was "over." <a href="http://newsflash.publicisgroupe.net/uploadedDocs/20160803_StatementRoberts_EN.pdf">In a statement, Publicis Groupe said</a>: "The Supervisory Board and the Chairman and CEO of Publicis Groupe took note of Kevin Robert's decision to step down with effect from September 1st 2016, prior to his retirement date due in May 2017."Kevin Roberts also provided his own statement, apologizing his "miscommonuction" had caused upset and offense:"Fail Fast, Fix Fast, Learn Fast" is a leadership maxim I advocate. When discussing with Business Insider evolving career priorities and new ways of work/life integration, I failed exceptionally fast. My miscommunication on a number of points has caused upset and offence, and for this I am sorry. I have inadvertently embarrassed Saatchi &amp; Saatchi and Publicis Groupe, two companies I love and have been devoted to for almost 20 years. I have expressed my regret and apology to the companies for the furor my remarks and language stimulated, and I extend this to colleagues, staff and clients. So that we can all move forward, I am bringing forward my May 1, 2017, retirement from the company, and will leave the Groupe on September 1, 2016. There is a lot of learning to reflect on, and within the thousands of tweets, comments and articles there are many powerful and passionate contributions on the changing nature of the workplace, the work we do, what success really looks like, and what companies must do to provide women and men the optimal frameworks in which to flourish. I believe that new thinking, frameworks and measures are needed to make more rapid progress on diversity in all its forms, in all professions and occupations. Hopefully, the focus on this serious and complex issue will gather momentum. More follows <div class="margin-top"> <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/mysterious-purple-orb-split-two-lobes-2016-7">Scientists just collected a mysterious 'purple orb' at the bottom of the ocean, but no one could anticipate what happened next</a></h3> <div> <div> <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="QzYWkwNTE6xjHe1hFrtFLJnF8B3sgGMn" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div> </div> </div> </div>

Saatchi & Saatchi chairman Kevin Roberts has resigned following his controversial gender diversity comments

<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><a href="http://www.saatchikevin.com/The_Unofficial_KR_Bio/">Kevin Roberts</a>Kevin Roberts, the executive chairman of Saatchi &amp; Saatchi, has been placed on leave.</div></div></div>Kevin Roberts, the executive chairman of Saatchi &amp; Saatchi, has been placed on leave following comments he made on gender diversity in the <keyword id="35666" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="advertising">advertising</keyword> industry.<a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/kevin-roberts-on-women-in-leadership-roles-2016-7">Speaking to Business Insider</a>, Roberts said that, in his view, the debate over gender diversity is over and he doesn't spend "any time" on the issue at his company. He also took aim at advertising consultant Cindy Gallop who campaigns for women's rights in the media and advertising industries. "I think she's got problems that are of her own making," he said. "I think she's making up a lot of the stuff to create a profile, and to take applause, and to get on a soap[box]."Following his comments, Publicis Groupe, Saatchi &amp; Saatchi's holding company, has asked Roberts to take leave. Publicis said in a statement: "It is for the gravity of these statements that Kevin Roberts has been asked to take a leave of absence from Publicis Groupe effective immediately. As a member of The Directoire, it will ultimately be the Publicis Groupe Supervisory Board's duty to further evaluate his standing."As well as his role in Saatchi &amp; Saatchi, Roberts also acts as a head coach for Publicis. His job is to travel the world and advise brands, sports teams, and politicians on how to be better leaders.In an internal note sent to staff, Publicis Worldwide CEO, Arthur Sadoun, took a harder stance: "The way Kevin's remarks were expressed I find offensive in terms of language and tonality. Behavior like this is simply unacceptable in our Groupe," he said. "I am sorry that the comments made by Kevin have reflected poorly upon the Groupe and our culture. His views couldn't be further from the truth about our commitment and feelings about gender diversity."<a href="http://www.3percentconf.com/downloads/female-cds-rise">A survey conducted in 2014 by The 3% Conference</a> found women make up just 11.5% of creative directors within ad agencies.By comparison, Saatchi &amp; Saatchi has an impressive track record. 65% of its staff is female and a large number occupy positions on the company's board and other executive roles. Roberts said he can't talk about sexual discrimination because his company has "never had that problem" and that he doesn't see the lack of women in leadership roles in other organisations as a problem. A number of high-profile lawsuits centered around gender discrimination have made the news recently. Most notably, J. Walter Thompson's CEO, Gustavo Martinez, was <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/jwt-ceo-gustavo-martinez-lawsuit-2016-3?r=US&amp;IR=T">accused of "constant sexual slurs"</a> and making jokes about rape. He denied the allegations.Saatchi &amp; Saatchi's worldwide CEO, Robert Senior, appeared to disagree, saying in a statement: "We live and die by our people, our talent, and it makes no difference to us whether that talent is male or female."The issue of gender diversity is not in any way over for our industry. It is live, emotive and vital for the communications business that we continue to insist that the best people, whatever their gender, are able to achieve their potential." <div class="margin-top"> <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/how-many-meals-per-day-to-lose-body-fat-2016-7">A nutrition expert reveals how often you should eat to look better</a></h3> <div> <div> <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="ltZzdwNDE61CSpXx37_7FyQFShNrRWwk" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div> </div> </div> </div>

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