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<br /> “Productivity is never an accident. It is always a result of commitment to excellence, intelligent planning and focussed effort.” But then, every workplace has its own shares of odd ducks and office cranks, which can negatively impact your productivity. The best way to increase productivity to achieve your targets is by identifying the most <keyword id="3018430" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="despised-work-personalities">despised work personalities</keyword>. This infographic will not only help you remain focussed in your official tasks; but will also succour you in identifying where you fall in the mix, so that you come up with new strategies to increase your own odds at success. Looking on!<br />


<strong>(About the infographic: </strong>This infographic has been created by Utah-based software company <a href="http://www.workfront.com/resources/infographic/9-despised-work-personalities/">Workfront</a>, which was formerly knows as <keyword id="3018422" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="AtTask">AtTask</keyword>.)

9 most despised work personality disorders that slow productivity [Infographic]

<p>Good morning! This is the tech news you need to know this Wednesday. <a href="http://newsletter.businessinsider.com/join/4np/10-things-in-tech&amp;hash=8122c716833601fc1471f79af063b104?nr_email_referer=1&amp;utm_source=Sailthru&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_content=10_things_tech&amp;utm_campaign=Post%20Blast%20sai:%2010%20things%20in%20tech%20you%20need%20to%20know%20today&amp;utm_term=10%20THINGS%20IN%20TECH%20YOU%20NEED%20TO%20KNOW%20-%20ENGAGED%2C%20ACTIVE%2C%20PASSIVE%2C%20DISENGAGED0PASSIVE%2C%20DISENGAGED">Sign up here</a> to get this email in your inbox every morning.</p><p>Have an Amazon Alexa device? Listen to this update by searching "Business Insider" in your flash briefing settings.</p><ol><li><strong>Apple unveiled its first devices running on its own silicon chip.</strong> The new MacBook Air, 13-inch MacBook Pro, and a Mac Mini <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/watch-apple-macbook-event-november-live-blog-apple-silicon-mac-2020-11?r=US&amp;IR=TIR=T">will all run</a> on the M1 processor.<br /><br /></li><li><strong>The EU filed antitrust charges against Amazon. </strong>The EU's competition watchdog <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/eu-antitrust-complaint-amazon-marketplace-jeff-bezos-fines-2020-11?r=US&amp;IR=TIR=T">accused Amazon of using data</a> from third-party sellers to inform its own retail strategies, improperly benefiting from its status as both a marketplace operator and a competitor within that marketplace.<br /><br /></li><li><strong>Spotify bought another podcast business.</strong> The <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/spotify-buys-megaphone-podcast-tech-advertising-2020-11?r=US&amp;IR=TIR=T">Swedish music streaming service is buying Megaphone</a>, a podcast tech company, for $235 million.<br /><br /></li><li><strong>TikTok wants an update on its US ban. </strong>The firm said it is <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/tiktok-asks-court-intervene-us-sale-trump-administration-silence-2020-11?r=US&amp;IR=TIR=T">filing a petition in court</a> after not having meaningful dialogue with the Trump administration in weeks over divestment plans.<br /><br /></li><li><strong>Lyft is slowly recovering from the pandemic.</strong> The ride-hailing firm's <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/lyft-earnings-q3-2020-business-slow-recovery-revenue-loss-2020-11?r=US&amp;IR=TIR=T">third-quarter results show signs of a recovery</a> from the previous three months when passengers stayed locked down, with revenue up 47% from the April-June quarter.<br /><br /></li><li><strong>Adobe is buying Workfront for $1.5 billion.</strong> Workfront <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/adobe-acquired-workfront-experience-cloud-work-management-2020-11?r=US&amp;IR=TIR=T">makes work-management software</a> mainly used by marketing professionals.<br /><br /></li><li><strong>Tim Berners-Lee is targeting Big Tech's data business. </strong>The web inventor's firm Inrupt <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/tim-berners-lee-inrupt-solid-server-enterprise-launch-2020-11?r=US&amp;IR=TIR=T">is releasing its data management platform</a> Solid for enterprises and already counts the NHS as a client.<br /><br /></li><li><strong>Republicans skirted Facebook's 7-day election ad ban.</strong> The RNC <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/republicans-spent-millions-on-facebook-ads-aimed-at-voter-turnout-2020-11?r=US&amp;IR=TIR=T">poured millions into get out the vote</a> and voter registration advertising in the week leading up to the election, Facebook advertising data shows.<br /><br /></li><li><strong>Amazon may move to remote work permanently. </strong>The official guidance from Amazon is some employees can work from home until next summer, but <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-flexible-hybrid-remote-work-employees-2020-11?r=US&amp;IR=TIR=T">information from three employees</a> suggests the company may have longer-term plans for a more flexible working environment.<br /><br /></li><li><strong>TikTok stars are becoming VC investors.</strong> The Sway Boys are <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/the-sway-boys-impress-founders-face-doubters-as-tech-investors-2020-11?r=US&amp;IR=TIR=T">some of TikTok's biggest stars</a>, and are trying to turn their TikTok fame into bigger wealth by investing in startups.</li></ol>

10 things in tech you need to know today

<ul><li>Software giant <keyword id="99699" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Adobe">Adobe</keyword> concluded its annual and the world’s largest digital experience conference last week -- <keyword id="11222369" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Adobe-Summit-2021">Adobe Summit 2021</keyword>. </li><li>Adobe introduced innovations across <keyword id="4491743" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Adobe-Experience-Cloud">Adobe Experience Cloud</keyword>, a comprehensive set of applications that help businesses deliver personalized and relevant digital experiences needed to be successful in today’s digital economy. </li><li>Creating a personalized experience for customers is critical for businesses, but comes with a challenge as most browsers going forward will no longer support cookies.</li></ul>Software giant Adobe concluded its annual and the world’s largest digital experience conference last week -- Adobe Summit 2021. At Summit, Adobe introduced <a href="https://news.adobe.com/news/news-details/2021/Adobe-Summit-2021-Driving-Business-Growth-in-the-Digital-Economy/default.aspx">innovations across Adobe Experience Cloud</a>, a comprehensive set of applications that help businesses deliver personalized and relevant digital experiences needed to be successful in today’s digital economy. Aimed at enabling customers to optimize their customer journey management, these innovations include a range of new enterprise applications such as Adobe Journey Optimizer and Adobe Customer Journey Analytics, a Marketing System of Record through the integration with Workfront, and new Adobe Experience Platform capabilities to deliver real-time personalization at scale.<br /><br />Creating a personalized experience for customers is critical for businesses, but comes with a challenge as most browsers going forward will no longer support cookies. Keeping this in mind, Adobe also introduced <a href="https://news.adobe.com/news/news-details/2021/Adobe-Announces-Industrys-First-CDP-Architected-For-First-Party-Data/default.aspx">industry's first Customer Data Platform (CDP) architected for first party data </a>. This will help marketers manage the entire customer profile and journey seamlessly in one system, without the need for third-party cookies. Additionally, <a href="https://news.adobe.com/news/news-details/2021/Adobe-and-FedEx-Partner-to-Drive-E-commerce-Innovation/default.aspx">Adobe and FedEx announced a new multi-year collaboration</a> starting with the integration of Adobe Commerce with ShopRunner. The partnership will help drive demand, reduce cost and gain customer insights which will unlock a new era of digital experiences built on innovation, speed, and convenience essential in a digital-first economy.<br /><br />          <div type="Youtube" id="9hujYTDdBuk" title="Adobe and FedEx partner to reimagine e-commerce experiences" thumbUrl="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/9hujYTDdBuk/mqdefault.jpg"></div><br />                <div type="ExtQuote" text="&quot;The opportunity to partner with Adobe is another step forward in the FedEx journey to create an open, collaborative e-commerce ecosystem that will help brands and merchants deliver seamless experiences for their customers”. “With Adobe’s leadership in customer experiences, the ShopRunner platform and our digital and logistics intelligence, we can increase the competitiveness of brands and merchants and create new possibilities in e-commerce.”" auname="Raj Subramaniam, president and chief operating officer at FedEx"></div><strong><br /><cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="A trillion-dollar opportunity" comment="subhead" text="A trillion-dollar opportunity"><span data-til="noop">A trillion-dollar opportunity</span></cmsannotation><br /><br /></strong>There's no doubt that e-commerce marketplaces were the most well-equipped to meet new challenges in light of the Covid-19 pandemic. Over the past decade, they've focused on supply chains, digital marketing, e-payment processing, and last-mile delivery. Global commerce continues to see record-breaking growth with US$ 876 billion in the first three months of 2021. That's a YoY growth of 38 per cent, and 2021 could clock up to US$ 4.2 trillion. <br /><br />          <div type="ExtQuote" text="Our resilience, which has been tested through pandemics, geopolitical tensions &amp; natural disasters will turn crisis into opportunity. We have seen industries explode in digital adoption from financial services, education, health, government services and of course retail" auname="Simon Tate, President APAC, Adobe"></div><br /><strong><cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="The key to remaining ahead of the competition" comment="subhead" text="The key to remaining ahead of the competition"><span data-til="noop">The key to remaining ahead of the competition</span></cmsannotation><br /><br /></strong>In an offline world, a user can directly express their preferences, choices, and requirements to a merchant or service provider. A one-to-one meeting has an edge that the digital world is constantly trying to catch up with - personalisation. However, in today’s digital-first world, it is essential for business to transform digitally and re-imagine the entire customer journey to architect for agility. Businesses are required to find new ways to add value with their products and services while ensuring a seamless, personalized experience throughout the customer journey - all while keeping the data entrusted to them by their customers safe and secure.<br /><br />            <div type="Video" msid="82518129" hostid="261" title="Customer experiences need everything and Adobe is everything leader" dataSource="BUSINESSINSIDER" thumbUrl="https://denmark.timesinternet.in/cmslite/api/app/images.jpg?msid=82518129"></div><br />          <div type="ExtQuote" text="To survive and thrive, every business has had to rapidly accelerate the transformation to digital. In this environment, customers rightfully expect engaging, personalized digital experiences delivered to them in real-time, in a way that also respects their privacy and delivers value. And brands that are putting a laser focus on customer experience management are coming out in front. Simply put, customer personalization done right drives business growth" auname="Anil Chakravarthy, Adobe's Executive Vice President and General Manager of digital experience business and worldwide field operations"></div><br /><strong><cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="Adobe’s innovations for a digital-first era" comment="subhead" text="Adobe’s innovations for a digital-first era"><span data-til="noop">Adobe’s innovations for a digital-first era</span></cmsannotation><br /></strong><br />          <div type="ExtQuote" text="We have gone from a world with digital to a digital-first world and there is no going back. Today, every business is a digital business. Asia continues to be an epicentre of digital innovation, from creating marketplaces like Tokopedia and Flipkart that are driving the future of commerce, to social media networks like WeChat and TikTok that are now global" auname="Shantanu Narayen, Chairman, President and CEO of Adobe."></div><br />The Adobe Experience Cloud consists of a content management system that can offer a customised experience to each customer. Data insights can be collected via <keyword id="4492149" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="adobe-analytics">Adobe Analytics</keyword> and Adobe Audience Manager. A new addition is Adobe Customer Journey Analytics, which provides intelligent alerts for essential insights, making the acquisition process very transparent and open for improvements. The platform is also cloud-ready, so organisations don't have to worry about additional third-party resources to host the suite.Adobe Experience Manager can now help brands create, manage and optimize the content via APIs and automation.<br /> <br />For the digital workplace, Adobe Workfront enables more agile, aligned creative work while eliminating work friction and distractions. With all work details, deadlines, collaboration, and resources available in one place, they’re able to deliver content and campaigns with greater speed and efficiency.<br /><br /><cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="Adobe is powering Digital Experience for Top Healthcare Brands" comment="subhead" text="Adobe is powering Digital Experience for Top Healthcare Brands"><span data-til="noop">Adobe is powering Digital Experience for Top Healthcare Brands</span></cmsannotation><br /><br />Today, in the era of the pandemic, access to healthcare is more important than ever. The healthcare industry has recognised the need to adopt digital channels to reach customers with critical information and services in real-time. Adobe is working with leading healthcare brands to transform their customer experience through Adobe Experience Cloud.<br /><br />At Summit, Adobe announced that it is powering digital experiences for seven of the top 10 healthcare providers, eight of the top 10 healthcare payers and nine of the top 10 pharmaceutical companies – delivering experiences with agility and at scale.<br /><br />As part of the partnership with Adobe, Pfizer is leveraging Adobe Experience Cloud to deepen engagement with physicians and connections with patients. Adobe Analytics helps Pfizer gain customer insights across digital interactions and Marketo Engage powers personalized digital experiences that support physicians, patients and caregivers on their treatment journey.<br /><br />During a conversation between Shantanu and Albert Bourla, Chairman and CEO, Pfizer on Pfizer’s journey of business since the pandemic and how they developed the vaccine, Albert said<br /><br />          <div type="ExtQuote" text="It was an impossible task. You must believe it. And not only you must believe it at the top, you must take this belief all the way down to every single person that this is working… To make the impossible possible, you need to have thousands of people believe that they can do it… And it was a glorious demonstration that people never know what they can and cannot do." auname="Albert Bourla CEO of Pfizer"></div><br />          <div type="ExtQuote" text="The pandemic has forever altered how healthcare is delivered, including high consumer expectations for timely and personalized care. Leveraging Adobe Experience Cloud, with privacy and security top of mind, healthcare can be delivered in real-time at scale, with the individualized service that consumers expect today." auname="Anil Chakravarthy, executive vice president and general manager, Digital Experience Business and Worldwide Field Operations, Adobe"></div><br />        <div type="ExtQuote" text="Because health is deeply personal to each consumer, the healthcare experience needs to be tailored to fit the needs of Walgreens Boots Alliance’s 120 million customers and patients. The power of Adobe’s technology allows us to understand our customers and deliver the unique experiences our customers need to live healthy lives." auname="Alyssa Raine, group vice president of Customer Marketing Platforms at Walgreens"></div><br />Adobe Experience Cloud covers data, insights, customer journeys, e-commerce, content management, marketing workflow, and an ecosystem of partners. For any business, it's an essential combination that offers best-in-class customer experience solutions for the digital era.<br /><strong><br /></strong>                    <div type="Youtube" id="w3eY-fRTCYI" title="Adobe Helps Healthcare Providers Cure the Patient Experience" thumbUrl="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/w3eY-fRTCYI/mqdefault.jpg"></div><br /><strong>To know more, visit here:<br /></strong><br /><ul><li><a href="https://business.adobe.com/summit/adobe-summit.html">Adobe Summit 2021</a></li><li><a href="https://www.adobe.com/in/about-adobe/newsroom.html">Adobe Newsroom</a></li></ul>

Adobe Summit 2021: Empowering a digital-first economy through personalisation

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsLUidiYm0w">MovieClips/Youtube</a></span></p></div><p></p></div></div>A new survey of British workers has revealed some of the problems that underpin the <keyword id="6354868" type="COUNTRY" weightage="60" keywordseo="UK">UK</keyword>'s <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/cer-uk-among-worst-in-europe-for-productivity-2016-9">chronic productivity problem</a> - namely, too many emails and meeting.</p><p>The <a href="http://www.digitalnewsroom.co.uk/workfront/ukofficeworkers/">UK State of Work report</a>, by productivity specialists <a href="https://www.google.co.uk/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&amp;ion=1&amp;espv=2&amp;ie=UTF-8#q=workfront">Workfront</a>, found that workers spend less than 40% of the day actually doing their primary duties, due to a culture of excessive meetings and emails.</p><p>The UK lags behind many other European countries in terms of productivity, and boosting it is seen as a central means of improving a stagnant economy. Philip Hammond, the UK chancellor, <a href="http://blogs.spectator.co.uk/2016/10/full-text-philip-hammonds-conference-speech/">referred to the productivity problem</a> several times in his speech at the Conservative party's conference this week.</p><p>The Workfront survey was conducted among 600 UK adults who work at a company of over 500 people. Here are some of the highlights from the report:</p>

UK workers spend less than 40% of the week doing their actual job

<br />The recently concluded <keyword id="7489392" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Adobe-Summit">Adobe Summit</keyword> showcased new innovations across the Adobe Experience Cloud and demonstrated how businesses can transform their <keyword id="1284549" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Customer-Experience">customer experience</keyword> by engaging with Adobe. Business Insider India caught up with Nitin Singhal, Managing Director, Digital Experience, Adobe India, to find out how the company is enabling businesses to ride the digital experience wave, alongside the company’s vision for the future.<br /><br /><strong>Lately, with the onset of a hybrid world, most organizations are accelerating the adoption of digital to become future-ready and offer the relevant consumer experience. How is Adobe working towards redefining this customer experience for organizations?</strong><br /><br />Reflecting on the transformational time that the last year has been, we’ve all experienced the power of digital technology as it has radically changed the way we live, learn, work, and play. In the face of the continuously evolving dynamics and challenges, digital experiences have played a vital role in making every aspect of our lives possible – from keeping families and coworkers connected, to enabling new ways of learning, to powering digital commerce and ensuring continuity of essential business operations. Ours has grown to become a digital-first world, and from here, there is no looking back.<br /><br />    <div type="ExtQuote" text="As the digital experiences company, Adobe is powering the digital economy with our continuous innovation, the expertise we have garnered from undergoing our own digital transformation, and our large and diverse set of customers and partners." auname="Nitin Singhal - MD, Digital Experience, Adobe India"></div><br /> Adobe’s mission – to Change the World through Digital Experiences – has never been more relevant than it is today. With Adobe Experience Cloud, we’re powering digital businesses of all sizes, giving them everything they need to design and enable great customer experiences at scale.<br /><br /><strong>How is Adobe enabling businesses as the current situation unfolds?</strong><br /><br />The pandemic has accelerated the digital transformation journeys of businesses across industries and ensured that all business strategies are leading with a digital-first approach. <br /><br />In education, digital has unlocked new forms of learning and is removing barriers to access. When teachers had to quickly rescope lesson plans in a remote learning environment, we powered our customers’ online learning support in a matter of days.<br /><br />The telecommunications industry has been mission-critical in providing the infrastructure to keep the world connected and running. Adobe Experience Cloud is enabling telcos to deliver real-time experiences for real-time results – the new reality that every business will need to compete in.<br /><br />Financial institutions have had to reimagine customer transactions in a digital-first world. Adobe is working with HDFC Bank in India to make their banking experience digital, enabling customers to perform an array of actions across devices, from opening a bank account to applying for a loan or managing investments. <br /><br />In healthcare, the convergence of science and technology is enabling transformational patient experiences. Our global teams are working with Pfizer to deliver data-driven experiences for patients and healthcare providers on critical information, such as the latest vaccine developments.<br /><br />In the aviation sector, which has been an early adopter of digital, we helped airlines like IndiGo to further customer experiences, accelerate business decisions through automation and really enable the lives of people during the lockdown.<br /><br />As e-commerce become the primary way to purchase goods, we worked with Nykaa - India’s largest online beauty store, to super charge their ecommerce strategy and deliver personal care items that customers needed at home. <br /><br />These stories are just some examples of Adobe’s reach and impact across every industry and dimension of life.<br /><br /><strong>Adobe recently concluded its flagship digital experience conference – Adobe Summit 2021. What was the focus as part of this year’s event and your top takeaways?</strong><br /><br />This year, we transformed Adobe Summit to a digital experience for people around the world and created a platform for brands to become a part of the very relevant conversation around the role of digital in enabling customer experiences. <br /><br />As always, Summit saw a range of strategic announcements from Adobe, many of which will pave the way forward for the industry. We announced the next generation of our Real-time Customer Data Platform (CDP), the only enterprise application architected from the ground up for first-party data- driven customer acquisition and engagement. Adobe Real-time CDP helps brands activate known and unknown customer data to manage the entire customer profile and journey seamlessly in one system, without the need for third- party cookies.<br /><br />We also introduced several innovations across Adobe Experience Cloud, unveiling new enterprise applications with Adobe Journey Optimizer and Adobe Customer Journey Analytics, industry-leading Marketing System of Record through the integration of Workfront, and new Adobe Experience Platform capabilities to deliver real-time personalization at scale. Additionally, we announced new content and intelligent commerce capabilities, including a strategic partnership with FedEx.<br /><br /><strong>Discussed much at Summit, why is there a need for a strong partnership between the CIOs and CMOs?</strong><br /><br />It has been over a decade since Adobe created the digital marketing category, foreseeing the convergence of art and science and serving the untapped needs of the CMO. Today, digital marketing has unlocked a new world of data. As businesses rearchitect their systems around the customer, only businesses with a strong partnership between the CMO and the CIO will thrive.<br /><br />    <div type="ExtQuote" text="Adobe is bridging CMOs and CIOs to enable compelling experience, regardless of how and where customers choose to interact with the brand. Successful customer experience management requires a confluence of innovative technology, talented people to activate that technology, and new processes to scale the impact." auname="Nitin Singhal - MD, Digital Experience, Adobe India"></div><br /><strong>We have been hearing much about the downfall of third-party cookies. What is Adobe’s vision and plan here to help its customers in a cookieless world?</strong><br /><br />Third party cookies are being phased out and that is set to bring several implications for the marketing industry and digital experience as a whole. As we move into a cookieless future, there will be a greater emphasis from brands on building consumer trust, first-party data will be a priority, and Real-time personalization will take the centre-stage. Adobe thus aims to offer its consumer a direct control of their data while helping them curate personalized brand experiences.<br /><br />While these trends are likely to put marketers in a flux, Adobe has unveiled <a href="https://nam02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fnews.adobe.com%2Fnews%2Fnews-details%2F2021%2FAdobe-Announces-Industrys-First-CDP-Architected-For-First-Party-Data%2Fdefault.aspx&amp;data=04%7C01%7Cjames.anthony%402020msl.com%7Cf3b50894450241487bb108d92bea0bbd%7Cd52c9ea17c2147b182a333a74b1f74b8%7C1%7C0%7C637589106497912871%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C1000&amp;sdata=OJ6eBm1F4UCfh%2BlXZIprZ8pm77mFNw5cO1I7ZkEYvkI%3D&amp;reserved=0">its all new Real-time Customer Data Platform (CDP)</a>. Bringing the industry’s first CDP architected for first party data, it acts as a centralized hub, and helps build a customer's profile over time. As the name suggests, it works real-time and steadily monitors user behavior, leveraging AI and ML to trigger registration or consent from the customers at the right time. With this, we are excited to be partnering with brands to deliver relevant, responsive and respectful experiences through first-party data.<br /><br /><strong>What are your thoughts on how the Digital Economy will pan out in the near future?</strong><br /><br />It’s been clearly established that our present and future are all about digital. This digital-first era will continue to shape our lives - from keeping friends, family and colleagues connected, to powering digital commerce and continuity of essential business operations. Looking ahead, digitization will be key to keeping economies and businesses running, and potentially even emerge stronger. <br /><br />      <div type="ExtQuote" text="The digital economy will thrive on customer connections and empowerment. Personalized experiences that result in strong engagement and lasting customer relationships will be strategic to long term business growth. Businesses orchestrate scalable digital experiences that enable their customers, partners, and workforce. CXOs must embrace a digital-first mindset and consistently evolve their strategies basis ongoing shifts in customer behaviour and market conditions. Businesses that focus on these aspects will be the winners in the digital economy." auname="Nitin Singhal - MD, Digital Experience, Adobe India"></div><br />

The digital economy will thrive on customer connections and empowerment, says Adobe India's Nitin Singhal

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Spotify</span></p><p class="caption">Modern working life: Spotify's <keyword id="6354868" type="COUNTRY" weightage="60" keywordseo="UK">UK</keyword> office</p></div><p></p></div></div>Companies in Sweden <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/sweden-introduces-six-hour-work-day-a6674646.html">made headlines</a> when they introduced a six-hour working day.</p><p>The idea is appealing in its simplicity: meetings are kept to a minimum, employees take a mandated one-hour lunch break, and they become far more focused and productive during the hours in which they do work.</p><p><a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/author/thomas-colson">The UK has a chronic productivity problem,</a> and some are calling for a radical overhaul of the traditional working day.</p><p>One of those people is Joe Staples, chief marketing officer at American firm Workfront, a work management software company. He believes that the solution to our productivity problem lies not only in software solutions, but also in rethinking the way we approach our working schedules.</p><p><em>Business Insider</em> met Staples in London to hear about his proposals for a new kind of working schedule, which places an emphasis on flexibility above everything else.</p><p><strong>Thomas Colson: The driving idea behind your firm is boosting productivity. Is that how you came to be interested in the concept of moving towards a six-hour working day?</strong></p><p>Joe Staples: That's correct. I think there's a number of things that productivity can do. It doesn't mean that you have to shorten the working day to six hours, but it <em>could </em>mean that.</p><p>Essentially it's just saying - how much time is being wasted? When we talk to clients, at the top of the list - the biggest thing that they claim as a time waster - is wasteful meetings. </p><p>We just did a study. People estimate that they spend 39% of their day on what they were actually hired to do. So 61% is spent on waste. Responding to emails, sitting in useless meetings, providing status reports, and so on. If you can trim 10% off that, for a company of any significant size, you're talking about a saving of millions of dollars.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Workfront / State of Work report</span></p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p><strong>TC: Is there not a danger that if you reduce it to six hours, people will still waste 61% of their day?</strong></p><p>JS: There absolutely is, if the only thing you change is the number of hours you work. Let's say we had exactly the same process that we have today, and I come in as the owner of the business and say: "Go and do a six hour work day." Nothing would change, you would just get 20% less work done.</p><p>So we think the right approach, if you do want to work towards a six hour work day, is to improve the productivity and then shorten the day accordingly. Software tools are one way of doing that. We could come in, and best practice might be, we say, "OK we're going to implement Workfront, and we're going to start with, for example, online review and approval. And we're going to track how much time we spend on that right now, and how much time we spend after we implement it."</p><p>And let's say we come up and we go, "OK, it's saving us thirty minutes a day." Then we're going to go from an eight-hour work day to a seven-and-a-half hour work day. What's the next thing we're going to tackle? We do another "before and after" benchmark, and that's saved us another half an hour. OK, now we're going to go down to a seven hour work day. So that way, you shrink the work day through productivity, rather than just a random: "Let's work for a few less hours."</p><p><strong>TC: Do you think it's realistic that this will happen across the UK?</strong></p><p>JS: I think it's very realistic for certain businesses. It would be very hard for a country to accomplish it. The idea isn't just to say "you know what, we're not going to do as much work, we're just not going to have as much output, we're only going to work for six hours."</p><p>You <em>could</em> always do that, but in a global economy you'd fall behind pretty fast. But for many companies, saying, "We're going to increase productivity where we get to a six hour work day," I definitely think we could do that.</p><p><strong>TC: Why is the UK falling behind, and becoming less productive?</strong></p><p>There are lots of reasons. In the industries we deal with - primarily IT and marketing teams, but also some financial services - we still come across a lot of companies that use pretty antiquated technology. For the most part, people use email and spreadsheets. You ask an employee to do something, he types in the name of the project into a spreadsheet, he types in a date into Cell B, and then I never know anything about it until I say to that employee, "I need to have a status meeting on this, because I don't know what you're doing."</p><p>It's just inefficient. So I think that's what's making us unproductive. We're still using old technology, and the speed of business is increasing.</p><p><strong>TC: Does mobile technology have a part to play in boosting productivity?</strong></p><p>JS: I think mobile technology is another critical part of it. If you take the example of a review and approve system - if someone has to be in their office in front of the computer to review something, I'm going to slow the designer down. But if instead I can go, "Looks good," I click approve, and it's simple as that.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Workfront / State of Work report</span></p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p><strong>TC: And do you see many benefits to the idea of remote working?</strong></p><p>JS: Absolutely. How long is the average commute? Thirty or 45 minutes, sometimes longer. Typically an employee will arrive a little later than the person who walks to work, or works from home, and they'll try and get out early to catch the right train, or beat the traffic. So they're getting squeezed and compressed.  Common sense says that if I've commuted for an hour and a half, then I show up at work, I'm starting the day worn out, compared a walk up the street, where I can sit down, I can pick up my laptop, and I'm fired up and ready to go [working from a local office or work space].</p><p>A lot of studies have shown that the ability to keep an employee longer is there if they're allowed to work remotely, too. The turnover isn't as fast, because they like that kind of flexibility. And in any discipline, high staff turnover means lower productivity, because of how long it takes to come up to speed with any job. When you start your job, you don't even know where the bathroom is, let alone how to do your job.</p><p>The other thing about remote working is that it allows you to recruit the right employee. So if my office is in Reading, you have to be in the office, and so I'm looking for people around that proximity, I'm much more limited than if I say, "I don't care where you work from." Live in Bristol if you want to. Now all of a sudden my ability to hire a person who's going to be highly productive increases.</p><p><strong>TC: Would those changes improve the work/life balance too?</strong></p><p>JS: Yes. A high percentage of people say they skip bathroom breaks because the work pressure is so intense. A high percentage of people say they have missed an important life event because of work. Those are the kinds of things that cause people to get burned out, and even when they're at work they're not happy, because they're sitting there going, I know my son's playing his football game and I'm missing it. And he's irritated about it. So we think work life balance is a real key.</p><p>One of the things we've done is to give employees unlimited personal time off. Richard Branson started it - any whacky business idea we've ever had comes from Richard Branson! We implemented it a year ago. It's rare that anybody abuses it, but they feel like they have so much more flexibility.</p><p>Before, they used to go into something and they'd think, "I really want to leave early because my son has a football game but I better not because I want to save those two hours of holiday time."</p><p>Now, it's 'you know what, if you need to go, then go.' I may very rarely call you on a Saturday and tell you I need you to come in, so it's kind of a two-way street, but it's much more flexible.</p><p><strong>TC: Would you consider a four day working week as an eventual end goal?</strong></p><p>JS: We'd certainly consider it. But I think it's less about saying, "No, it's a 5-day, 8-hour work week,  or a 4-day 12-hour work week. I think our approach is - we're going to be flexible. We have tonnes of people that start work at 10 o'clock, because they want to take their kids to school and then they still might not work really late. They'll still go home and then they'll feel comfortable working for three hours from 8pm until 11 pm at night. As far as the work life balance question is concerned, what people really want is flexibility. They just want the ability to go, I'm good right now, I can put in a lot of hours, or I've got something going on, I want the ability to go home.</p><p><strong>TC: The Swedish experiment with a six-hour day includes a one-hour mandated lunch. Do you think that's important too?</strong></p><p>JS: Our study looked into that. Essentially it says the one hour lunch is gone, for the most part - it just doesn't exist anymore. Either people eat at their desk, take a really short lunch hour, or don't take any lunch hour at all. And then the follow on question was: "How come?"</p><p>And one of the dominant answers was, there's too much pressure to get stuff done, which the employer can control. He can say, "No, I want you to take this lunch break."</p><p>In our business we have a billiard table, we have a very nice ping pong table, and we promote the idea that you're a better employee if you're happy. We do service days, teams go to movies together. You don't want people to feel lazy or entitled but at the same time if it's 'get down and chip some coal,' you end up burning people out.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Workfront / State of Work report</span></p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p><em>Workfront is a project management software firm. <a href="https://resources.workfront.com/h/i/290849070-2016-17-uk-state-of-enterprise-work-report/278016.">Their 'State of Work' report is available to view here.</a></em></p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/joseph-stiglitz-thinks-fed-should-raise-inflation-target-unemployment-krugman-2016-9">STIGLITZ: The Fed could more than double its inflation target</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="ZoZjkxNjE6ivyxYJcLXb2XtQumBERBMB" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

An expert explains why the UK should abolish the traditional working week

<p><em>Hello everyone! Welcome to this weekly roundup of Business Insider stories from co-Editor in Chief Matt Turner. </em><strong><a href="http://newsletter.businessinsider.com/join/4np/insider-weekly"><em>Subscribe here to get this newsletter in your inbox every Sunday.</em></a></strong></p><p><em>Read on for more on <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/salesforce-office-of-equality-tony-prophet-struggled-get-results-2020-11">Salesforce insiders saying diversity progress has been slow</a>, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/jones-day-pay-discrimination-pregnancy-gender-lawsuit-allegations-trump-election-2020-11">former employers claiming a "boys' club" culture at elite law firm Jones Day</a>, and <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/insider-pfizer-biontech-historic-coronavirus-vaccine-program-2020-11">Pfizer's vaccine feat</a></em><em>. </em><strong><em><br /></em></strong></p><p>Hello!</p><p>I led this email last week with the words: "<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-a-biden-harris-administration-impacts-business-politics-2020-11">The nation has decided</a>."</p><p>A week on, Donald Trump for the first time seemingly admitted he lost the presidential election, tweeting that Joe Biden "<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/donald-trump-admits-loss-joe-biden-presidential-election-2020-11">won because the election was rigged,</a>" as my colleague John L. Dorman reported. Hours later, Trump added: "I concede NOTHING!"</p><p>The tweets came about a day after <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/joe-biden-wins-georgia-democratic-party-south-presidential-election-2020-11">Georgia was called for Biden</a>, the first Democratic presidential victory in the state since 1992, taking Biden to <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/2020-election-results">306 electoral college votes</a>. </p><p>Meanwhile, the US is shattering daily records for COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations. In a sobering story, Aria Bendix broke down why this fall surge is poised to become the longest and deadliest one. You can read that story here:</p><ul><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/us-third-coronavirus-surge-is-tsunami-comparison-spring-summer-2020-11">This isn't a third coronavirus wave — it's a tsunami. Three charts show how much worse the fall surge is than any before.</a></li></ul><p>Joseph Zeballos-Roig reported that the lack of a new stimulus bill may have contributed to surging virus cases amid reopening pressures, according to experts. <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/no-new-stimulus-may-have-worsened-the-coronavirus-pandemic-2020-11">You can read that story here</a>. </p><h2><keyword id="155484" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Salesforce">Salesforce</keyword> insiders say diversity progress has been slow</h2><p>From Paayal Zaveri and Joe Williams:</p><p style="padding-left: 40px;"><em>When employees arrive at Salesforce's imposing 61-story tower in San Francisco's South of Market district, it's not uncommon to be greeted by Tony Prophet. The 58-year old executive, impeccably-dressed, regularly works the lobby like a proud owner of a new home, eagerly introducing himself to some of the enterprise software giant's roughly 54,000 workers. </em></p><p style="padding-left: 40px;"><em>Prophet is Salesforce's Chief Equality Officer, and his passion and trademark pizzazz are visible in everything his group does, from sophisticated Twitter campaigns to high-wattage events with celebrity guests like Janelle Monáe and Mila Kunis. </em></p><p style="padding-left: 40px;"><em>The prominent emphasis on diversity is in character with the company's reputation as the tech industry's moral compass for social justice and progressive ideals. </em></p><p style="padding-left: 40px;"><em>But behind the high-profile diversity push is an inconvenient truth: Four years after Prophet was hired by Benioff to launch the new group, Salesforce's <a href="https://equalitydata.herokuapp.com/">employee diversity numbers have barely budged</a>.</em></p><p>Read the full story here:</p><ul><li><strong><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/salesforce-office-of-equality-tony-prophet-struggled-get-results-2020-11">Four years ago, Salesforce hired a rock star executive to show the world how to fix workplace diversity. Insiders are disappointed with the slow progress.</a></strong></li></ul><p>Also read:</p><ul><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/microsoft-teams-zoom-webex-meetings-2020-11">Leaked documents show Microsoft is pegging some employee bonuses to helping the Teams chat app 'win against Zoom and WebEx in meetings'</a></li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/adobe-acquired-workfront-experience-cloud-work-management-2020-11">A top Adobe exec explains how the $1.5 billion acquisition of Utah-based Workfront will fill a 'critical piece' in its mission to help businesses digitally transform</a><br /></li></ul><h1>Former employees at Jones Day claim there is a 'boys' club' culture</h1><div type="image" title="jones day law firm discrimination 2x1" height="1200" width="2400" msid="79236190" hostid="261"></div><p>From Casey Sullivan and Jack Newsham:</p><p style="padding-left: 40px;"><em>Jones Day, the major law firm that made headlines this week <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/09/business/jones-day-trump-election-lawsuits.html">when attorneys complained to The New York Times</a> about their employer's role in election-related litigation, is facing accusations of sexism in the workplace that, lawsuits say, led to unfair advantages for men.</em></p><p style="padding-left: 40px;"><em>Three federal lawsuits filed between 2016 and 2019 have contained claims of gender and pregnancy discrimination against the firm.</em></p><p style="padding-left: 40px;"><em>Business Insider found separate allegations that have not been previously reported or filed in a suit. The findings are a result of interviews with dozens of people who have worked at the firm. The people who shared allegations did so on the condition of anonymity for fear of repercussions, though their identities are known to us.</em></p><p>Read the full story here:</p><ul><li><strong><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/jones-day-pay-discrimination-pregnancy-gender-lawsuit-allegations-trump-election-2020-11">Former employees at Jones Day claim there is a 'boys' club' culture and sexual discrimination at the powerhouse law firm representing Trump's campaign</a></strong></li></ul><p>Also read: </p><ul><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-burrowing-administration-biden-government-employees-agencies-deep-state-2020-11">Documents reveal Trump is building his own 'deep state' by leaving political appointees behind in government for the Biden administration</a></li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/joe-biden-ron-klain-chief-of-staff-white-house-2020-11">Meet Ron Klain, Joe Biden's pick for White House chief of staff. He's the guy Democrats call to fix things and will soon be one of the most important people in Washington.</a></li></ul><h2>Inside Pfizer's vaccine feat</h2><div type="image" title="Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla" height="683" width="1024" msid="79236192" hostid="261"></div><p>From Andrew Dunn:</p><p style="padding-left: 40px;"><em>After three decades in the drug industry, Mikael Dolsten, a Pfizer executive, knew better than to be overconfident about what had become one of the most closely watched experiments in history.</em></p><p style="padding-left: 40px;"><em>He was with other top executives of the pharma giant on Sunday at an office in Connecticut for one of the biggest moments in his career. Results were available for the final-stage clinical study of Pfizer's coronavirus vaccine, and Dolsten, sitting next to CEO Albert Bourla, was about to learn on a Webex call whether it worked.</em></p><p style="padding-left: 40px;"><em>"On one hand, you had cautious optimism," Dolsten told Business Insider. "On the other hand, you have respect for that you can never be certain on the outcome of a clinical trial."</em></p><p style="padding-left: 40px;"><em>Two senior research leaders popped up on the screen to relay what they had just heard from the independent board of experts overseeing the trial: The trial was a success.</em></p><p>You can read the full story here:</p><ul><li><strong><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/insider-pfizer-biontech-historic-coronavirus-vaccine-program-2020-11">How the pharma giant Pfizer teamed up with a little-known biotech to develop an effective coronavirus vaccine in record time</a></strong></li></ul><p>Also read:</p><ul><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/pfizer-is-developing-powder-version-of-its-covid-19-vaccine-2020-11">Pfizer's top scientist tells us the pharma giant is already thinking about a new version of its coronavirus vaccine for 2021 that can overcome one of its biggest limitations</a></li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/humanigen-feature-ceo-investor-interviews-on-coronavirus-drug-2020-10">How a tiny biotech rebounded from bankruptcy and Martin Shkreli at the helm to convince the NIH to bet on its unproven coronavirus drug</a></li></ul><h2><strong>ICYMI: Goldman Sachs dropped the names of its 2020 partner class</strong></h2><p>From Reed Alexander and Dakin Campbell:</p><p style="padding-left: 40px;"><em>Goldman Sachs announced a new class of partners for 2020 on Thursday afternoon, awarding partner status to 60 people worldwide. Seven out of the 19 new partners in the investment-banking division came from the TMT (technology, media, and telecommunications) group, representing a big year for executives in that sector.</em></p><p>You can check out <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/goldman-sachs-partner-class-2020-banking-wall-street-2020-11">the full list of 60 here</a>. Reed and Dakin talked to four of the new Goldman Sachs partners, who told them <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/goldman-sachs-partners-learned-david-solomon-morning-call-wall-street-2020-11">what it's like to get a call from CEO David Solomon inviting them to one of Wall Street's most exclusive groups</a>. You can also read up on Jane Dunlevie, one of Goldman Sachs' youngest new partners and a Silicon Valley native who leads deals with red-hot companies like Shopify and Pinterest, right here. </p><p>Also read:</p><ul><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/vista-equity-pension-nmerb-credit-investment-robert-smith-tax-evasion-2020-11">Vista Equity Partners lost a $100 million pension-fund investment after Robert Smith's tax-evasion investigation came to light</a></li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/wall-street-whatsapp-wechat-messenger-commodities-compliance-regulations-fired-traders-2020-10">Inside Wall Street's war on WhatsApp: Why traders just won't quit messaging apps, even as heads roll</a><br /></li></ul><p>Here are some headlines from the past week that you might have missed.</p><p>— Matt</p><p><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/rising-stars-venture-capital-funding-early-stage-startups-2020-11">100 rising-star VCs who represent the future of venture capital</a></p><p><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/capital-one-first-us-bank-fully-on-cloud-aws-netflix-2020-11">Capital One has abandoned its last data center, making the $40 billion financial titan the first US bank to go all in on the cloud</a></p><p><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ralph-lauren-subleases-former-polo-store-mango-fifth-avenue-reatil-2020-11">Rents in top NYC shopping districts are crashing and dark storefronts are multiplying. A firesale sublease by Ralph Lauren on Fifth Avenue highlights the carnage.</a></p><p><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/larry-ellison-wacky-tiktok-plan-exposes-oracle-glaring-problem-2020-11">Larry Ellison's wacky TikTok plan exposes Oracle's glaring problem</a></p><p><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/inside-warnermedia-layoffs-and-future-of-cnn-hbo-max-2020-11">Inside WarnerMedia as huge layoffs hit the company and speculation swirls around the futures of CNN and HBO Max</a></p><p><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/knotel-dramatically-cut-back-portfolio-achieve-profitability-flexible-workspace-2020-11">Knotel plans to scale back its global portfolio by 60% over the next 6 months as the pandemic and financial problems have quashed its once grand ambitions to dominate the flex workspace sector</a></p><p><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/canadian-cannabis-giants-canopy-growth-aphria-looking-to-us-market-2020-11">The world's biggest cannabis companies are jockeying to dominate the $61 billion US market after marijuana legalization swept 5 states</a></p><p><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/stock-picks-to-buy-top-market-recommendations-from-morgan-stanley-2020-11">Morgan Stanley says to load up on these 10 stocks featured on the firm's 'buy list,' which has dominated the broader market this year</a></p>

Salesforce hired a chief equality officer 4 years ago. Insiders are disappointed with the slow progress.

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>FinancialForce</span></p><p class="caption">FinancialForce CEO Tod Nielsen</p></div><p></p></div></div>Jeremy Roche, the founding CEO of FinancialForce, is stepping down, the company announced on Friday.</p><p>Roche will be replaced by Salesforce's former platform boss, Tod Nielsen, who was previously CEO of Heroku and COO of VMware as well. Roche will continue to serve a special advisor to the management team.</p><p>The leadership change comes just 18 months after FinancialForce raised $110 million in funding. At the time, FinancialForce was valued at roughly $530 million, according to Pitchbook. The 7-year-old startup has raised $220 million in funding so far.</p><p>FinancialForce's software, built on top of Salesforce's platform, takes care of things like accounting, forecasting, and supply chain management.</p><p>In an interview with Business Insider, Nielsen said the management shakeup isn't due to any sort of problem at FinancialForce. Rather, it was Roche who requested the change.</p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">"Jeremy has been great at laying the foundation, building the company up to this point. But he wasn't necessarily desiring to take it to the next level so he handed the baton to me," Nielsen said.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">That's a big change of heart for Roche, who <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/2016/10/03/how-salesforce-quietly-became-a-launching-pad-for-other-companies.html">told CNBC just three months ago</a> that his goal was to build the "next SAP or Oracle." Instead, Roche will be taking an executive position at Unit 4, a software maker that also previously invested in FinancialForce, the company said.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Nielsen said FinancialForce's business is strong, with annual revenue growing at a 40% clip. The company is "nearing" $100 million in annual revenue, although he didn't give a specific time frame for when it would happen.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Nielsen seems to have the right mix of experience to take FinancialForce to the next level. He spent 12 years at Microsoft, before becoming CEO of Borland Software. He's also held executive jobs at Oracle and BEA Systems, in addition to the c-level positions at Salesforce and VMware.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">It often sends the wrong signal when the founding CEO suddenly steps down from any company. But Nielsen pointed out it's not so rare. Tech companies Tenable and Workfront, each with $303 million and $95 million in funding, respectively, have pulled off similar moves in recent months.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">In any case, companies require a different types of management as they grow, and the CEO change is simply a sign that FinancialForce is growing at a robust pace, Nielsen said.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">"Companies evolve in our industry. T<span style="font-weight: 400;">here are folks that are really awesome from zero to $100 million in revenue, but it requires a different set of focus and skill set as they go from $100 million to $1 billion and beyond," he said.</span></span></p>     <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/what-women-find-attractive-in-men-2016-12">Women are more attracted to men with these physical traits</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="5iZzMyeDranDSEuGX60cVb5VL_qjvfSz" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

The CEO of a startup worth $530 million is suddenly stepping down

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div>You want to have an open, honest relationship with your boss.</p><p>But that doesn't mean you can just say <em>anything</em> to them in the workplace.</p><p>There are exceptions to every rule, but for the most part, you're probably better off avoiding potentially alienating your manager.</p><p>Business Insider reached out to managers and career experts to find out which sentences they just don't want to hear from their employees.</p><p>Here are 11 phrases you might want to avoid:</p><h2>1. 'Let's hold off on making that decision'</h2><p>"As a startup CEO, timely decision making is critical, and I don't want to put off until tomorrow what we can do today," says Frida Polli, CEO of applicant screening service <a href="https://www.pymetrics.com/">pymetrics</a>. "Gather all the information you can, and make the best decision you can given the data. Decision making with imperfect information or under conditions of ambiguity is a critical skill to develop for all employees. This is different than rash decision making, where no information is considered and decisions are made from a hunch."</p><h2>2. 'Okay ...'</h2><p>Career site <a href="http://www.createcultivate.com/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&amp;q=http://www.createcultivate.com/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1489771690996000&amp;usg=AFQjCNEmp8S3p0cRdKsUkPx47cyHEROLgQ">Create &amp; Cultivate</a> founder Jaclyne Johnson says that it's important to be clear - especially when you're communicating with your boss online or over text. Short, curt responses can sometimes be too ambiguous.</p><p>"There is really no time for passive-aggressive bumps in the road and, in terms of communication, everyone needs to be on the same page," Johnson says. "We do a lot over text messages and the ellipsis is just hard to decipher. Are we good to go? Are there questions? I think being straightforward is the best way to push through the noise."</p><h2>3. 'It's not my fault'</h2><p>"The blame game never works in the workplace. Odds are, if something bad happens, it's not one person's fault," says Andy Bailey, CEO of business coaching firm <a href="http://petracoach.com/">Petra Coach</a>. "Take responsibility for finding a solution rather than casting blame elsewhere - especially if you're in any kind of management position."</p><p>Joe Staples, the CMO of project management software <a href="https://www.workfront.com/">Workfront</a>, says that good bosses won't prioritize finding someone to blame.</p><p>"Fault-finding is a time-waster and fills the conversation with excuses," Staples says. "I want to know how it happened so it can be avoided in the future, and what the plan is to fix it."</p><p>CEO of online camera retailer <a href="https://www.mpb.com/en-us/" target="_blank" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&amp;q=https://www.mpb.com/en-us/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1489858209252000&amp;usg=AFQjCNF4KDk5sX6FabOFGU57Zii0j0_rGw">MPB.com</a> Matt Barker says he also prefers for employees to try to fix, rather than dodge, problems. "It's important in any job to always try and think beyond the obvious and be a creative problem solver," he says.</p><h2>4. 'I have a problem'</h2><p>"I hate to hear the phrase 'I have a problem,' when there is not a proposed solution," says Bryan Miles, co-CEO of virtual assistant and bookkeeping site <a href="https://belaysolutions.com/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&amp;q=https://belaysolutions.com/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1489858399861000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFO1LkYjuCT8oPlcQTtkrQzPGOkpA">BELAY</a>. "This is particularly annoying because it feels as if whoever is saying it is waiting on me to solve the issue, instead of finding ways to resolve it themselves. I like team members and leaders that bring you problems with potential solutions because it shows they've been proactive about the issue."</p><p><a href="https://www.weebly.com/">Weebly</a> CFO Kim Jabal says that it's better to say something along the lines of: "We have a huge opportunity to fix something that has gone wrong. Here are a few ideas. I'd love your input."</p><p>"I love employees who have a passion for tackling problems versus avoiding them," Jabal says. "I want to be surrounded by employees who want to take the steeper hill because they know there will be a big sense of accomplishment at the top as opposed to those that prefer to coast on the easy road."</p><p>"Problems happen and while it's great to be able to spot them and get to the root cause, you need to be the problem solver as well," says Marcy Axelrad, global senior director of talent management at online retailer <a href="https://www.wayfair.com/">Wayfair</a>.</p><p>So, all in all, if you've got bad news for your boss, you'd better have some potential solutions as well. It's not about sugarcoating issues, it's about demonstrating that you're on the ball.</p><p>"Bosses prefer asset-based problem solvers, not deficit-based problem bringers, so the next time a problem arises and you need to bring it to your boss' attention, make sure you don't just hand over the problem," Heide Abelli, vice president of business skills and leadership at cloud-based learning site <a href="http://www.skillsoft.com/">Skillsoft</a>. "Instead, come prepared with the information and recommendation your boss needs in order to help address the problem... If you have tried your best and you just can't come up with any potential solutions, then be honest and tell your boss that you would like to work with him or her to brainstorm potential solutions. That way you show you're not simply handing over a problem, but want to be involved in solving it."</p><h2>5. 'If my opinion matters ...'</h2><p>"When someone starts off a suggestion or idea with that phrase, it automatically undermines whatever it is they are going to say next," says Shannon Miles, co-CEO of <a href="https://belaysolutions.com/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&amp;q=https://belaysolutions.com/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1489858399861000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFO1LkYjuCT8oPlcQTtkrQzPGOkpA">BELAY</a>. "Instead, show confidence when bringing an idea to the table."</p><h2>6. 'My gut tells me ...'</h2><p>If you're working in a data-driven field or company, there are times where your gut feeling just isn't going to cut it.</p><p>"The facts and the numbers inform our decisions," says Hari Ravichandran, CEO of web-hosting company <a href="https://www.endurance.com/">Endurance International Group</a>. "While qualitative plays an important part in how we behave the quantitative is a vital factor in what we decide. You need to be prepared to have data to back-up your assertions, even if they are instinctual."</p><h2>7. 'I don't know'</h2><p>"If I ask you a question that you don't know the answer to, that's okay. Nobody knows everything,"says Jodi Glickman, the CEO of leadership development and communication training firm <a href="http://greatonthejob.com/">Great on the Job</a>. "The key is not too sound like you don't know anything. 'I don't know' is lame, it's not helpful, and it doesn't make you look good."</p><p>If you're caught off-guard by your boss's question, Glickman recommends saying something more along the lines of: "Here's what I know, here's what I don't know, here's how I'll figure it out."</p><p>"Hearing this from an employee shows that they did not even try to find the answer and does not know what's going on with something under their responsibility," says CEO of booking platform <a href="http://tripactions.com/">TripActions</a> Ariel Cohen. "As your boss, we want to hear that you're prepared. Even further, if a question is posed that you haven't thought about remind me that you can think on your feet and leverage your experience on the fly."</p><h2>8. 'I don't have time'</h2><p>This is a terrible way to respond when your manager asks you to take on a new task - even if it's true.</p><p>"Prioritization is important," Axelrad says. "Be flexible and open to the need to pivot. If you can't fit a project into your schedule, then let the person requesting your time know that while you have some critical work to get done right now, but you can get to this project on X date. Always ask if this proposed timeline will work. If not, talk to your manager about shifting priorities to accommodate requests."</p><p>David Dourgarian, CEO of staffing software company <a href="https://www.tempworks.com/">TempWorks Software</a>, says that it's important to make time when it comes to getting crucial tasks done.</p><p>"Going above and beyond sometimes means coming in early or staying past 5 p.m. to assist a client with a problem no matter how small - and that applies to everyone from the top down," he says. "We look for employees that understand the importance of client loyalty and bring a good attitude about putting in the extra effort to ensure the company continues to uphold that mission."</p><h2>9. 'I'll try to get that done by Friday'</h2><p>"Don't try," Bailey says. "Actually do it. In the words of Yoda, 'There is no try, only do.' If you can't get something done, tell your boss, so you can work together to get it done - or bring in help where it's needed."</p><h2>10. 'I missed the deadline'</h2><p>"Stuff happens," Staples says. "People miss deadlines. Just don't tell me after the fact. Give me as much advanced notice as possible that you're going to miss it."</p><h2>11. 'What is my career path?'</h2><p>Don't rely on your boss to figure out your future for you.</p><p>"Employees should come to their managers with a sense of their goals, asking instead for help or support on how they achieve them," says Dan Sommer, CEO of web development program <a href="http://www.trilogyed.com/">Trilogy Education</a>. "When you're asking what is my career path, you are demonstrating that you haven't done your research or put in the time to really think through where you want to get to."</p><p>He recommends asking "How do I get there?" instead.</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/words-phrases-should-never-say-boss-2016-12">Never say these 6 things to your boss</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="FmMjRmODE6pnznMi2VBUdIbOiObV3yeh" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

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