Career news & research

Career Corner: Do you have a challenging boss? Take a strategic approach to maintain professionalism, preserve morale, and ensure well-being.

In the early 1990s, labor activists responded, with some success, to the exploitation of waged child care workers by dissolving the usual labor divisions between workplace and home, employer and employee, and labor and love, according to a new account of the movement by Justine Modica, a Klarman Postdoctoral Fellow in history in the College of Arts and Sciences.

Organizations using AI to monitor employees’ behavior and productivity can expect them to complain more, be less productive and want to quit more – unless the technology can be framed as supporting their development, Cornell research finds.

Career Corner: To land the right role, identify your value proposition, persist with energy and enthusiasm, project confidence, and network.

With more consumers opting for homemade lunches over $16 takeout salads, “restaurants are constantly trying to come up with things to entice more people on the weekend,” said Soojin Lee, a professor at Cornell University’s Nolan School of Hotel Administration who focuses on restaurant and kitchen management.

Professor Matt Marx (SC Johnson) dug into 25 years’ worth of Census and IRS data across 25 states and Washington, D.C. He found "the effect of noncompetes on entrepreneurship is about 15 percent stronger for women."

It can be demoralizing for a person to work in a climate of repetitive skepticism and doubt about what they know, a new study shows.

Career Corner: AI can help guide key areas of your job search, including exploring career paths, optimizing your resume, networking, and prepping for interviews.

New research from the Cornell SC Johnson College of Business sheds light on career development and entrepreneurship within the global high-end fashion industry.

Specialized nursing facility clinicians, or SNFists, may decrease the likelihood of nursing home residents experiencing stressful hospitalizations and improve the quality of life in their last days, according to researchers from Weill Cornell Medicine.

Businesses and society can benefit when leaders keep both personal and companywide values in sight, according to a panel of Cornell faculty, administrators and alumni.

Calling for loyalty to a group, rather than to an individual, was more effective in eliciting followers’ compliance with unethical requests, a Cornell researcher found.

“Despite the significant challenges and low observed frequency of international relocation, startups that moved internationally reap substantial benefits,” said Yuan Shi, an author of the study and assistant professor of management and organizations in the Peter and Stephanie Nolan School of Hotel Administration at the Cornell SC Johnson College of Business.

As director of the Center for Advanced Human Resource Studies and the William J. Conaty Professor of Strategic Human Resources at the Cornell ILR School, Bradford Bell contends that while attracting top talent remains crucial, retention is the real test of organizational resilience. He recently shared three steps organizations can take to keep their best employees.

The number of striking workers in the United States, particularly in private-sector industries, more than doubled from 2022 to 2023, according to a report published Feb. 15 by the ILR School.

Not every business idea is a winner (ever heard of the Keurig Kold?). Tom Schryver, executive director for Cornell’s Center for Regional Economic Advancement talks fails, pitfalls, and winning strategies on eCornell’s KEYNOTES podcast.

SC Johnson College of Business career coach Liz Colodny shares tips on navigating our myriad work environment options and how to pick (and get!) the right work model for you.

“Employees and organizations benefit when people agree to requests freely rather than feeling pressured or coerced, which can lead to resentment and backlash,” says doctoral student Rachel Schlund, M.S. '20. “However, requests are inherently difficult to refuse.”

Brian Lucas (ILR School) says after a long break, it’s a good idea to remind yourself of long-term or short-term work goals.

Alexander Colvin, dean of ILR, discusses working conditions for employees across different industries.

“Creators share deeply personal – often vulnerable – elements of their lives with followers and the wider public,” said Brooke Erin Duffy, associate professor of communication in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. “Such disclosures are a key way that influencers build intimacy with audiences and form communities."

Lisa Mosconi (Weill Cornell) says we live in a world that constantly prioritizes productivity over rest and well-being.

An analysis of statements by Fortune 500 companies following the 2020 police killing of George Floyd finds that costly actions, such as donating money to social justice groups, aren’t enough to convey allyship to Black Americans.

Article mentions research by Karan Girotra, professor of management and of operations, technology, and innovation at Cornell Tech and the Johnson School, that compared the idea-generating abilities of ChatGPT to those of college students.

Brooke Erin Duffy, associate professor of communication, weighs in on the purposeful Instagrammability of workspaces.

“You wind up being the person who gets all the asks, and that can lead to burnout, problems with work-life balance, feeling like you’re being taken advantage of, and a loss of autonomy.” - Vanessa Bohns, professor of organizational behavior.

An ILR School researcher, Jobs with Justice and the Center for Economic Policy Research have secured a $450,000 grant from WorkRise for a project to improve economic security and mobility for low-wage workers and create a more equitable labor market in the South.

ILR researchers have calculated the 2023 living wage for Tompkins County is nearly 10% higher than in 2022, the highest increase in three decades. The most important factor driving the new figure is the increased cost of housing.

“It’s been a good year for unions,” said Art Wheaton, director of labor studies at Cornell University’s Industrial and Labor Relations school in Buffalo, New York. The number of strikes with 100 or more strikers that have lasted a week or more has soared to 56 in the first nine months of this year, according to a database of labor actions kept by ILR.

Remote workers can have a 54% lower carbon footprint compared with onsite workers, according to a new study by Cornell and Microsoft, with lifestyle choices and work arrangements playing an essential role in determining the environmental benefits of remote and hybrid work.

A new study from an ILR School expert offers a pathway to reducing bias in hiring while preserving managers’ autonomy – by encouraging hiring managers to avoid receiving potentially biasing information about applicants.

Sexual harassment in the workplace is a significant problem for New Yorkers, affecting all gender identities and all racial and ethnic groups, according to the New York at Work 2022-23 report, a compilation of research and policy briefs by ILR School researchers published Aug. 29.

Article discusses a new study by Vanessa Bohns, professor of organizational behavior, and a colleague at the London Business School, which shows that email receivers frequently presume that the sender expects a quick reply.

“If you talk about your journey — the ups and downs — then people tend to think you are more likable, and it presents humility,” says Ovul Sezer, assistant professor at the S.C. Johnson College of Business. “Before you post, ask yourself, ‘Does this say something specific about my journey?’”

Writing a book about childcare as a 20th century labor issue, Klarman Postdoctoral Fellow Justine Modica is examining the history of care that families and childcare workers have configured in recent decades, describing conflicting approaches to how to grow and shape the childcare workforce.

“The whole idea that consumer convenience is above everything broke down during the pandemic. We started to think, ‘I’m at home ordering, but there is actually a worker who has to go the grocery store, who has to cook this for me so that I can be comfortable,’” says Patricia Campos-Medina, executive director of the Worker Institute at the School of Industrial and Labor Relations.

LinkedIn introductions that emphasize a professional “journey” rather than listing achievements make a stronger positive impression, according to new Cornell research.

Creatively enhancing a CV, known as “resume padding,” has the potential to cast the sender in a bad light. But can this “self-reported signaling” – the conveying of information that may or may not be true – ultimately have a positive effect in the grand scheme of things? Two Cornell researchers think so.

Expert faculty from the Graduate School of Management at Cornell’s SC Johnson College of Business identified four best practices senior executives can employ to capitalize on advancements in AI and dodge common pitfalls.

Research in part from Marie-Catherine Mignault, a post-doctoral researcher and Future of Work fellow at the ILR School’s Experimental Psychology and Organizations Lab, shows that "social anxiety doesn’t seem to hinder your ability to know how others see you on Zoom as much as it does during in-person meetings."

Russell Weaver, the director of research for the Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor Relations Buffalo Co-Lab, discusses demographic trends in the labor force.

Virginia Doellgast, professor of employment relations and dispute resolution at ILR, discusses labor unions' battles against disruptive technology.

People today work substantially less than they did generations ago – not just because they have more money, but because of the virtually unlimited trove of cheap entertainment increasingly at their fingertips, according to new research co-authored by a Cornell economist.

Louis Hyman, professor of industrial and labor relations, discusses the history of mass layoffs in corporate America.

“Workers are angry because the wealth gap has grown so great. They had been suffering, and during Covid, they were suffering acutely,” said Kate Bronfenbrenner, director of labor education research at Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations.

Vicki Bogan offers tips on mentorship, networking, professional attire—and why you shouldn’t stress out too much

“They have some more bargaining power, the labor market is strong, they feel they can use the strike weapon to get gains they think they deserve,” says Alex Colvin, dean of the ILR School.

This piece references research by Virginia Doellgast, professor of employment relations and dispute resolution, on how workers who have tight controls surrounding how they perform their work are more likely to get burned out and find it more difficult to solve problems brought to them by customers.

Matt Marx, professor of personal enterprise and small business management, discusses noncompete agreements.

“Managers often think that knowing more about what workers are doing is useful for making decisions, or eliminating waste, or compelling workers to comply with a firm’s goals,” says Karen Levy, professor of information science.

“The tech sector is just getting back to where they were in 2020 or 2021, which I don’t think is a bad situation. It’s still a huge workforce."

Remote jobs can help workers craft more satisfying lives, with higher psychological well-being and work engagement, but only if that work occurs during regularly contracted hours, according to new ILR School research.

A first-of-its-kind study of parents’ work arrangements during the pandemic shows that mothers working from home increased their supervisory parenting fully two hours more than fathers did, and women were also more likely to adapt their work schedules to new parenting demands.

Chris Collins, professor in the ILR School, says that a largely remote workplace can lead to weaker social connections among staff, resulting in less understanding of and investment in the institution’s values.

Personal sensing data could help monitor and alleviate stress among resident physicians, although privacy concerns over who sees the information and for what purposes must be addressed, according to collaborative research from Cornell Tech.

Bradford Bell, professor in strategic human resources, explains, “I think the bigger question is what’s leading to that resentment? I think in some cases, it may be the fact that organizations haven’t been transparent about how these decisions are made. Why are some employees allowed to work from home while others are required to come into the office?”

“Unions are successful when they are building on things that workers are concerned about,” said Alexander Colvin, dean of the Industrial and Labor Relations School.

Led by Patricia Campos-Medina ’96, MPA ’97, it conducts research and outreach on today’s rapidly changing employment landscape

Women feel more frustrated than men by the gendered expectations placed on them at work, even when those expectations appear to signal women’s virtues and are seen as important for workplace advancement, according to new Cornell research.

This piece features a study by Kaitlin Woolley, associate professor of marketing and communications, and Laura Giurge, assistant professor of behavioral science at the London School of Economics and Political Science, finding that people who worked on weekends and holidays enjoyed their work less and experience decreased motivation, even if they chose their schedule themselves.

Organizational behavior expert Alice Lee offers advice on how to bargain for a higher salary, remote work, and more

“It’s the gamification of labor, where the pressure for output is exhilarating because it’s tangible and trackable,” says Lee Humphreys, professor of communication.

According to a new “Labor Action Tracker” report out of the ILR School, 140,000 workers went on strike in 2021.

“High-quality data clearly shows infection decreases when workers have access to sick leave,” says Nicolas Ziebarth, associate professor of policy analysis and management. “It prevents contagious workers from coming to work.”

“Workers have had an amazing threshold for tolerating the abuse that employers have put on them,” says Kate Bronfenbrenner, senior lecturer in the ILR School. “But when that abuse went so far as to risk their lives, that crossed the line; in the context of Covid, where employers were asking them to work harder than ever and employers were making huge profits.”

Sunita Sah, associate professor of management organizations, discusses her new study on a professionalism paradox.