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.

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.

“Be more mindful about the things you agree to,” says Vanessa Bohns, associate professor in the ILR School. “Each time you agree to something, you are necessarily taking time away from something else, so you want to weigh your decision carefully.”

“Feeling powerless to change things any other way, we may jump to the nuclear option of leaving without even bothering to try a more measured approach first,” says social psychologist Vanessa Bohns, associate professor in the ILR School. “In the moment, leaving may feel like the only way to reassert our power over the situation, when in fact there may have been less extreme ways to do so.”

“Millions of workers don't have access to paid sick leave, and we're still in a pandemic,” says Nicolas Ziebarth, associate professor of policy analysis and management.

Need to make a presentation at work? Give a toast or deliver a eulogy? Jodi Cohen tells you how

Dan Alpert, visiting fellow at the Law School, explains that working Americans are taking their time to look for better jobs.

“People feel like they contributed a lot during the depths of the pandemic and now they’re looking for some of the returns when the economy’s doing better and companies are doing better – profits are up, stock prices are up,” says Alex Colvin, dean of the ILR School. “We’re seeing similar effects going on with quit rates going up, people more willing to leave their jobs now and look for something better.”

Vanessa Bohns, associate professor in the ILR School, discusses how to redefine and achieve influence in the workplace.

Vanessa Bohns, associate professor of organizational behavior, and Laura Giurge, postdoctoral research fellow of organizational behavior at London Business School, co-write this opinion piece about the miscommunication surrounding off-hours email response expectations.

“When the government does not ensure that people have access to paid sick leave, people go to work sick,” says study author Nicolas Ziebarth, associate professor at the Jeb E. Brooks School of Public Policy. “And when you have a virus going on – it could be the flu or coronavirus, it doesn't really matter – then the sick people at work infect coworkers who go on to infect other people.”

According to new research from JR Keller, assistant professor of human resource studies at the ILR School, firms can systematically reduce the likelihood that rejected candidates will exit by being strategic when considering which employees are interviewed.

“Measured by hourly wages, hourly worker ‘power’ has increased substantially,” says Daniel Alpert, senior fellow in financial macroeconomics at the Law School. “Measured by hours offered to hourly workers in the lower wage sectors such as leisure and hospitality, retail, not so much.”

Diane Burton, academic director of the Institute for Compensation Studies at the ILR School, says that companies’ announcing pay increases for entry-level jobs affects their internal workforces. “The symbolic aspects of wages matter. People want to know how they stack up,” Burton says.

This op-ed from Russell Weaver, quantitative geographer at the IRL school, discusses enhanced unemployment insurance. He writes workers getting these benefits are now in a stronger position to reject exploitative and dehumanizing work.

“Different workers have different needs,” says Ian Greer, senior research associate in the ILR School. “For some of them the real barrier is not money, it is not the low wage, but it is the schedule. For many workers health insurance is a huge need. They will take a lower wage job so their family can have health insurance.”

“The American ethos ties together self-worth, value, and productivity. There’s an element of that in these videos because they remind us that we can always do better,” says Lee Humphreys, professor of communication.

Jamila Michener, associate professor of government and co-director of the Center for Health Equity, discusses employer panic about what appears to be a labor shortage, the role of poverty in the U.S. and more on the Ezra Klein Show.

“Coworkers who eat together tend to perform at a higher level than their peers, yet cafeterias are often undervalued by companies,” says Kevin Kniffin, assistant professor of management.

“The pandemic has brought to the fore a lot of inequality issues that existed before, but now amplify them,” says Vicki Bogan, associate professor of applied economics and management.

Jamila Michener, associate professor of government, discusses the pandemic’s effect on women in the workforce and focuses specifically on how Black and Latina women have been disproportionately affected.

Courtney McCluney, assistant professor of organizational behavior, discusses the harms of code switching in the workplace and the tyranny of culture fit in this podcast.

Alexander Colvin, dean of the ILR School, explains that employers avoid union representation by “shifting investment to nonunion facilities and to parts of the country with low levels of unionization.”

“The idea of having these virtual holiday parties is in part to try to combat some of that isolation that people are feeling,” says Bradford Bell, professor of strategic human resources.

Maria Fitzpatrick, associate professor of policy analysis and management, says, “What happens in retirement is going to be different for different people depending on what they did before retirement and what they do after.”

Francine Blau, professor in the ILR School, says, “These are a subset of essential workers who, given the nature of their jobs, must provide their labor in person. Prioritizing them makes sense given the heightened risk that they face.”

Vanessa Bohns, associate professor of organizational behavior at the ILR School, notes that charismatic people often boost other people and that “People tend to perk up when you talk about them.”

Courtney McCluney, assistant professor at the ILR School, discusses her research on Black women entrepreneurs in Detroit.

“Just putting on [formal] clothes doesn’t matter as much if you’re just as confident when you’re wearing casual clothes and you feel like you can work just as well that way,” says Vanessa Bohns, associate professor of organizational behavior at the ILR School.

“I'm not a privacy absolutist,” says Ifeoma Ajunwa, assistant employment law professor. “But we shouldn't allow pandemics to become pretexts.”

“There may be some women who would like to work outside the home, but as childcare gets more expensive, they are deterred from doing that. We have considerable research evidence of the negative effect of childcare cost on female labor force participation,” says Francine Blau, professor at the ILR School.

Dean of the ILR School Alex Colvin is quoted extensively on which employees will return back to the office first, pointing to seniority as a possible determining factor.

"There's a general norm to be kinder to women, and so it just could be we're used to being kinder to women," says Vivian Zayas, associate professor of psychology, about a paper she recently published with Lily Jampol, PhD. in social psychology.

Based on research released by Nicolas Ziebarth, associate professor of policy analysis and management, and researchers from Temple and the KOF Swiss Institute on mandated sick pay, Ziebarth says the pay “would definitely slow down the spread of the disease, which is crucial in these times.”

Francine Blau, professor in the ILR School, is quoted extensively throughout this piece on the cost of child-care and how various households in the U.S. must approach it.