A few well-chosen indoor plants do more than just look pretty. They help purify the air, regulate humidity, and give your eyes a much-needed break from the screen.
According to a study by the University of Exeter, plants in the workplace can improve productivity by up to 15% — not bad for something that asks for little more than occasional water and light.
And let’s be real: it’s also about mood. Small plants with green leaves just make the office feel a little less… office-y.
1. Snake Plant (Sansevieria)
If I could only recommend one office desk plant, this would be it — beautiful, sturdy, and impossible to kill.
Thrives in low light and indirect light.
Tolerates fluorescent lighting perfectly.
Needs minimal water — once every few weeks is plenty.
Grows tall with sleek green leaves that add instant polish to your workspace.
2. Pothos (Epipremnum aureum)
The ultimate “I forgot to water it” plant — Pothos forgives everything.
Great for low-light offices.
Trailing vines look beautiful on shelves or hanging near your desk.
Excellent for improving air quality.
Easy to propagate, so you can grow more plants for free.
3. ZZ Plant (Zamioculcas zamiifolia)
The sleek, glossy leaves make this indoor plant look more expensive than it is.
Survives low light and even total neglect.
Needs watering only once the soil is completely dry.
Perfect for offices with fluorescent lighting or limited windows.
A go-to for anyone who wants a low-maintenance desk plant.
4. Peace Lily (Spathiphyllum)
Elegant and calming, this one instantly softens a sterile office corner.
Prefers indirect light but adapts to lower levels.
Blooms delicate white flowers throughout the year.
Known for improving indoor air quality.
Keep soil lightly moist, but not soggy.
5. Cast Iron Plant (Aspidistra elatior)
True to its name — this one’s tough as nails.
Handles low light, dry air, and occasional forgetfulness.
Deep green leaves that stay glossy year-round.
Great for offices that get little to no natural light.
Minimal care required, making it perfect for beginners.
There is a metric called “observed exposure,” which tracks how ai is being used in real workplaces. About 30% of U.S. workers score a flat zero. Their tasks simply do not appear in AI usage data at any meaningful level. And before anyone assumes these are low-skill jobs, look at the list.
These are roles built around physical presence, sensory judgment, and reading the room in real time. A language model has no body, no hands, and no instincts. Those still matter.
Here’s the part that surprises people. AI could theoretically handle 90% of tasks in office and admin roles. But in practice, observed usage covers only about a third of computer and math jobs, which are already the most penetrated category. The gap between capability and reality is enormous.
These jobs already feel the pressure of AI
Computer programmers top the list at 75% task coverage. Claude is being used heavily for coding, and that usage is leaning toward full automation, not just helping programmers work faster.
Customer service reps come in second. Their core tasks are increasingly showing up in first-party API traffic, which is a technical way of saying companies are quietly replacing human agents with AI pipelines.
Data-entry workers are third at 67% coverage. Reading documents and entering data is exactly what AI does quickly and cheaply, and businesses have noticed.
Other high-exposure occupations include:
Financial analysts, whose modeling and number-crunching work is heavily covered
Office administrators, facing 90% theoretical exposure, even if real adoption still lags
Computer and math workers broadly, where observed exposure sits at 33% and climbing
Zero-exposure occupations highlighted in the research:
Cooks, whose work involves knife skills, tasting, and plating judgment no model can replicate
Motorcycle mechanics, who diagnose engines through hands-on inspection
Lifeguards, whose job is scanning water and executing physical rescues
Bartenders, who read crowds and social dynamics in real time
Dishwashers and dressing-room attendants, handling wet, physical, unpredictable tasks
Agricultural workers pruning trees and operating farm machinery outdoors
Courtroom lawyers, whose work demands physical presence and live advocacy
The BLS projects steady growth for blue-collar roles through the decade. Health care is adding roughly 40,000 jobs a month, with demand for nurses, therapists, and care workers running well ahead of anything AI is displacing.
Who faces the greatest AI threat, and what it means for the workforce
Here is where the story gets uncomfortable for a lot of people. The workers most at risk are not who you might expect.
Using Current Population Survey data from just before ChatGPT launched in late 2022, researchers found that the highest-exposure workers tend to be older, more educated, female, and significantly better paid, earning about 47% more than their zero-exposure counterparts.
Every previous automation wave hit lower-wage workers first. This one is lining up differently, aiming squarely at white-collar professionals who spent years and money building credentials for office-based careers.
That said, there is no unemployment crisis to report yet. The study finds no measurable rise in joblessness among high-exposure workers since ChatGPT launched.
Even a “Great Recession for white-collar workers” scenario, where unemployment in exposed fields doubled from 3% to 6%, would show up clearly in their framework. It has not appeared.
The crack is showing up in hiring instead. Among workers aged 22 to 25, the monthly job-finding rate in high-exposure occupations has fallen roughly 14% since ChatGPT’s arrival.
The drop is barely statistically significant, but it echoes what separate researchers tracking ADP payroll data have been flagging for months: Young people trying to break into exposed fields are finding fewer doors open.
The honest answer right now is that AI-fueled mass displacement has not arrived. But the early signals are pointing in one direction, and anyone paying attention to where younger workers aren’t getting hired should probably take note.
Employers added 178,000 jobs in March, blowing past forecasts
Hiring across the U.S. rebounded in March after falling sharply the previous month, with employers adding 178,000 jobs, according to new data from the Department of Labor.
The health care sector helped spur job growth, with 76,000 payroll gains in March. That came after nurses returned to work following strikes earlier in the year. The construction and transportation and warehousing industries also saw gains, adding 26,000 and 21,000 jobs, respectively.
Federal employment continued to decline, falling by 18,000, according to the Labor Department.
The strong March numbers signal that there are pockets of strength in the labor market, economists noted.
Layoffs remain relatively muted for now. A recent report from outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas found that employers cut roughly 60,000 jobs in March, up from February but down year over year.
Are a new graduate trying to figure out how to get a leg up in your career, or a mid-career professional looking to secure your next promotion, you might be wondering what the 10 most important skills you need to get where you want to go in the business world.
Here are the 10 essential skills that you need to succeed in the world of business
1. Learnability
We’ll begin with learnability because it is arguably the most important 21st-century skill you will need to succeed. Alvin Toffler said, “The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.” That’s because, in an environment where new skills emerge as fast as others fade, success is less about what you already know and more about adapting your skills by growing and expanding your knowledge base, so you can use new information and skills to respond to whatever is happening.
2. Resilience
Setbacks and failures are a part of life, but how you choose to deal with those roadblocks is what is critical to your success. Resilience is the ability to bounce back in the face of obstacles and failures. When you are resilient, you don’t focus on the ups and downs. Instead, you stay focused on your long-term goals, and you never lose confidence in your ability to prevail. By helping you face challenges and difficulties, resilience also enables you to handle stress more positively.
3. Negotiation
Whether you’re in salary discussions, finalizing a deal with a client, or trying to find common ground with your teammates during a project, having strong and effective negotiation skills are extremely important. Being a good negotiator allows you to get to reach goals while you build relationships, which is a significant part of being successful in your career.
4. Collaboration
In our increasingly hyper-connected world, we’re no longer expected to work just as individuals or only in silos. Our projects have become more complex, so the ability to work effectively as part of a team has also grown in importance. Given the increasingly global nature of work, your ability to collaborate, share knowledge and contribute to teams that can capitalize on a diversity of thinking and perspective in ways that everyone can benefit and drive to the shared outcomes is critical.
5. Verbal communication
Advancing in your career is not just based on what you do. There’s a good chance that at some point in your career you’ll have to use strong verbal communication skills so you can sell others on your ideas, products, or services. Whether you’re needing to explain your value when you are being considered for a promotion, presenting as part of a team project, or speaking on stage, you need to be able to communicate well and convey strong, persuasive ideas.
6. Written communication
We live in an era of tweets and sound bites, but good written communication skills still matter when it comes to your career. Whether you are sending professional emails, communicating with a client, trying to deliver a coherent business plan, or anything in between, you should be able to communicate quickly, accurately and effectively.
7. Empathy
The ability to empathize with others or see things from their perspective by understanding their emotions and reactions, is a fundamental part of how we interact with one another. Communicating genuinely and authentically with others is vital because even in instances when you disagree with your coworkers on elements of a work project, for example, empathy allows you to demonstrate to others that they are seen and heard.
8. Creativity
Creativity is a crucial skill we all need because, in our fast-changing times, employers value employees who can look beyond the present and imagine future possibilities for their company. Creative workers are the ones who ask why. They question, they are curious, and in so doing, they develop new ideas and solutions.
9. Problem-solving
How often do you go beyond your immediate job as assigned and instead, use more knowledge, facts, and data to see gaps and solve problems? Being a good problem solver is essential because employers value people who can work through challenges on their own or as an effective member of a team by defining the issues, brainstorming alternatives, sharing thoughts, and then making sound decisions.
10. Leadership
The importance of building the right culture at companies cannot be overstated, so having the skills to be able to coach and empower others, and to motivate those around you do their best work, is highly valued for success.
Technical Competence
While soft skills are vital, maintaining technical competence is also essential. In a rapidly evolving market, employees must stay up-to-date with the latest tools, technologies, and industry best practices to remain competitive.
Developing these ten essential skills in yourself is crucial for navigating challenging business times.
Questions to ask yourself
Do you have the necessary skillset to succeed now?
Do you have skills in more than one area?
In which category do you have the most skills?
What are the skills needed for the jobs that you are interested in?
Do the skills you have match the skills needed for those jobs?
Are there some skills that you would like to have but don’t have right now?
What education and/or training might you need to develop those skills?
Regardless of your chosen career path, building your skills is critical so you can set yourself apart from others in a competitive landscape. Investing in these skills not only helps your career survive short-term challenges but also sets the foundation for long-term success.
ChatGPT prompts are instructions or queries you enter into the AI chatbot’s interface. Thus, they guide the conversation, and you receive the types of responses you’re interested in.
However, you’ll get better results by being as specific as possible. Basically, provide any additional context that could help ChatGPT generate the most useful output.
Let’s go over some example prompts to help you become superhuman.
Artificial intelligence has become a tool in business, education, and personal productivity. However, for many, the true power of ChatGPT remains untapped. The quality of what you get from ChatGPT is directly tied to the quality of what you put in. Better prompts equal better results.
If you’ve only scratched the surface of ChatGPT by asking it to “write an email” or “summarize this text,” you’re missing out on its deeper potential. The difference between basic and advanced ChatGPT users isn’t technical knowledge—it’s knowing how to communicate effectively with AI.
Here are some ChatGPT prompts designed to take you from beginner to advanced, teaching you to think like a power user and get nuanced, creative, and highly actionable outputs.
To make a good first impression—and set the stage for a great conversation—you only have to say one thing.
Likability matters, both personally and professionally. That means making a good first impression matters.
As no less an authority than Mark Cuban says, being nice is one of the most underrated business skills, and research backs him up. Likable people are:
More likely to be able to motivate and influence
More effective leaders
More successful in sales
More likely to build and maintain good relationships
More likely to be promoted or hired
How can you make a good first impression? You could put the three-questions rule into action. You could use the self-fulfilling prophecy of anticipated acceptance. In the right situations, you could try being a positive opposite.
Or you can just do this.
The 30-Second Rule
Making a good first impression implicitly means making yourself look good: who you are, what you do, what you’ve accomplished …
That approach is especially tempting when you’re nervous, or when you meet someone you perceive to be of higher status or authority. (If you’re in sales, every potential customer ranks higher in authority, if only because they get to decide whether to make a purchase.)
Leadership author John Maxwell’s 30-second rule flips the premise. As Maxwell writes in 25 Ways to Win with People, “People feel better and do better when you give them attention, affirmation, and appreciation.”
So, his goal is simple: Within the first 30 seconds of a conversation, say something complimentary or encouraging.
But not generic: Complimenting someone’s clothing or appearance could seem like a throwaway line, and even if sincere may not be memorable. So use the first 30 seconds to find something more meaningful. Ask a question, but don’t use it as a springboard for then talking about yourself. (Psychologists call those “boomerang questions.”)
Instead, keep the focus on the other person. Say you ask, “What do you do?” Don’t boomerang with what you do. My go-to approach is to say something about their job that seems hard, and compliment their ability to do it.
If I meet someone in a leadership role, I sometimes say, “Then you’ve made the decision that your happiness comes from the success of others.” That statement is implicitly complimentary, and opens the door for then to talk about the challenges and rewards of working with, and through, other people.
If I meet someone in sales, I sometimes say, “I admire your ability to hear ‘no’ on a regular basis and still keep going. I’m not sure I could do it.” That statement is directly complimentary, and opens the door for them to talk about intrinsic motivation, and focusing on long-term process over short-term results.
That approach turns the obligatory “What do you do?” question into the start of a great conversation, especially from the perspective of the person you just met.
Why? We all like to talk about ourselves: A study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that talking about ourselves causes increased activity in brain regions associated with the sense of reward and satisfaction found in money, food, and even sex.
The next time you meet someone, use the 30-second rule and find something complimentary or encouraging to say. (The two actually go hand in hand: A compliment implicitly encourages the recipient to maintain or repeat whatever they did to earn that compliment.)
Say something nice, and then help the other person talk about themselves. Ask questions. Ask what they’ve learned. Ask for advice.
As the authors of a study published in Journal of Personality and Social Psychology write:
When people ask more questions, they are perceived as higher in responsiveness, an interpersonal construct that captures listening, understanding, validation, and care.
People who ask questions, particularly follow-up questions, are better liked by their conversation partner — and people who have just been complimented are much more likely to respond thoughtfully to those questions.
As Maxwell writes, “Those who add to us, draw us to them. Those who subtract cause us to withdraw.”
Use that first 30 seconds to add. Then use the rest of the conversation to show you care about the other person as a person: someone who has unique experiences, opinions, knowledge, and ideas.
Because everyone has unique experiences, opinions, knowledge, and ideas. All you have to do is ask.
And reap the first impression — and relationship-building — rewards.
A treasury bill is a government-issued security that matures in 52 weeks or less. It is priced at a discount, and when it matures, the government pays you the full face value.
Essentially, you are loaning the government money in exchange for the promise of receiving a higher amount at maturity.
How Treasury Bills Work
Here are more details about how Treasury bills work, per the U.S. Department of the Treasury:
Maturity period: 4, 8, 13, 17, 26 or 52 weeks
Denominations: Treasury bill denominations are available in multiples of $100.
Interest/Profit: Interest is the difference between the face value and purchase price and is paid when the bill matures.
Tax: You must pay federal income taxes on interest earned. Interest is not subject to state and local taxes.
Availability: Most T-bills (excluding 52-week and cash management bills) are auctioned every week. Auctions for 52-week T-bills occur every four weeks.
An Example
What does this mean for you? Say, for example, you purchase a 13-week T-Bill with a face value of $1,000. If the price per $100 is $98.750, you pay $987.50 for the bill.
If you hold the bill until maturity, you will receive the full face value of $1,000, having earned $12.50 in interest. Alternatively, you can sell it on the secondary market before it matures.
What Is a Treasury Bill Yield?
When you’re shopping for treasury bills, you’ll see the word yield used a lot. This can help you determine how much money you’ll earn. According to TreasuryDirect, the yield to maturity how much money you’ll earn each year. It will be expressed as a percentage.
Benefits of Investing in Treasury Bills
Like with every other investment product, it helps to do your research before purchasing Treasury bills. Here are the benefits that draw most investors to T-bills:
Low risk due to U.S. government backing
Short-term investment option with predictable returns
Exempt from state and local taxes
Easy to buy and sell on the secondary market
Risks of Treasury Bills
Treasury bill yields are lower than bonds and certificates of deposit.
If sold early, T-bill prices can be lower than the purchase price, particularly in a rising interest-rate environment.
T-bills may not keep up with inflation, thereby resulting in a negative real return.
How To Buy Treasury Bills
There are two ways to buy Treasury bills. The first is directly from the U.S. Treasury. You don’t need a Treasury bill account, per se, but you will need to open a general account with TreasuryDirect. When you purchase T-bills through the U.S. Treasury, you agree to accept the discount rate available at auction time. This is called a non-competitive bid.
You also can buy T-bills through a bank, broker or dealer. If you buy the bills through a bank, broker or dealer, you may place a non-competitive or competitive bid. With a competitive bid, you specify the rate that you are willing to accept. However, there is no guarantee that your competitive bid will be accepted.
Taxation of Treasury Bills
One of the main benefits of investing in Treasury bills is that you are exempt from state and local tax. This is particularly valuable if you live in a high-tax state like California, Hawaii or New Jersey. However, regardless of where you live, you’re responsible for paying federal income tax on your Treasury bill income.
The IRS will send you a 1099-INT any year that you have T-bill income, and you’ll have to report this amount on your Form 1040. If you sell a T-bill before it matures, you’ll receive a Form 1099-B to report the transaction.
Treasury Bills vs. Treasury Bonds vs. Treasury Notes
Like a Treasury bill, Treasury notes and bonds are instruments of the U.S. Treasury backed by the federal government. The primary difference among the three is the length of their terms.
Treasury bills are sold with terms of 4, 8, 13, 17, 26, and 52 weeks.
Treasury notes are sold with terms of 2, 3, 5, 7, and 10 years.
Treasury bonds are sold with terms of 20 and 30 years.
Treasury bills, notes, and bonds are all fixed-income investments sold by the U.S. government to fund debt and pay expenses. However, a T-bill is a zero-coupon security that does not pay interest until it matures.
Treasury notes and bonds, on the other hand, pay interest semi-annually, more like a traditional bond. Here’s a clear comparison of the three types of government securities:
Selling Treasury Bills Before Maturity
T-bills are highly liquid securities, meaning you can sell them on the secondary market at any time. Most brokers are capable of handling this type of transaction, especially full-service firms. However, some online banks may not be equipped to handle T-bill transactions.
If you hold your T-bills in your Treasurydirect.gov account, you’ll have to transfer them to a bank, broker or other financial services firm in order to sell them.
It’s important to note that if you sell a T-bill before maturity, you may receive less than you paid, especially if market interest rates have moved higher. You may also have to pay a fee or commission to sell your T-bill.
Treasury Bills and Interest Rates
T-bill yields are directly affected by changes in market interest rates. When market rates rise, the price on existing T-bills falls. Conversely, when market rates fall, T-bill prices rise. This makes T-bills a good asset to consider for a diverse investment portfolio.
You don’t have to worry about the state of the market if you’re going to hold your investments until maturity.
Should You Invest in Treasury Bills?
T-bills are a go-to product for investors looking for a safe place to invest their money. During periods of market instability, they may pull their money out of volatile stocks and hold it in lower-risk securities.
Since Treasury bills are backed by the U.S. government, there is virtually no risk of default. But investors can lose money on these securities if they sell them before maturity and market interest rates have risen.
However, in exchange for this safety, T-bills generally don’t provide the types of returns available with other, longer-term investments like stocks and mutual funds.
For this reason, T-bills are best suited for conservative investors or those prioritizing capital preservation over appreciation.
Skype debuted in 2003 and was an early disruptor in online communications, but Microsoft says it’s time to close Skype and focus on its Teams video conferencing platform.
Teams users have access to many of the same core features used in Skype, such as one-on-one calls and group calls, messaging and file sharing.
Microsoft Teams offers features Skype did not, such as hosting meetings, calendars and creating and joining communities.
Teams is free, which helps make it one of the most popular virtual conferencing and communications platforms.
Hundreds of millions of people use Teams and the total number of minutes people spent using it has quadrupled over the past two years.
Microsoft Teams launched on March 14, 2017, and Skype’s user base eroded for years.
Lowe’s, a popular home improvement retailer, announced it will close all of its more than 1,700 stores and contact centers for 24 hours.
The day? April 20, which marks Easter Sunday this year. And the reason Lowe’s stores are closing is to give employees a day off, particularly during a faith and family holiday.
Easter is one of the most important holidays in Christianity. While it isn’t a national holiday, some retailers mark the occasion by closing their stores since it’s widely celebrated.
Therefore, if you plan to use that weekend to get some work done around the house, make sure to plan ahead before the closure.
Changes are coming to how mail is delivered across the United States as the U.S. Postal Service continues to find itself in the crosshairs of a Trump administration determined to slash federal spending and increase efficiency.
The United States Postal Service, older than the U.S. itself, delivers to 165 million addresses six times a week.
Although the postal service is technically an independent agency, Congress maintains close control.
But some critics who have long wanted to see the agency overhauled have pointed to the significant challenges the USPS has faced as Americans send fewer letters, Christmas cards and wedding invitations. Last year, the service handled more than 116 billion pieces of mail, with most of that being presorted mailers, solicitations, or other items that many people would consider “junk” mail.
Last year, the postal service lost $9.5 billion as private companies like FedEx and UPS outcompete it for some parcel deliveries.
Postmaster General Louis DeJoy stepped down after inking a deal in March with billionaire Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency.
The agreed-upon changes included cutting 10,000 jobs through early retirements. More than 75% of the postal service’s budget goes to paying its roughly 635,000 workers, and those 10,000 job cuts reflect only a 1.5% staffing reduction.
According to a news release from the American Postal Workers Union, workers who opted to retire early were eligible for a one-time $15,000 incentive paid in two parts.
How will mail delivery be different?
The changes that went into effect this month will affect millions of customers across the country. While the moves are designed to improve efficiency and cut costs, some people may notice slower delivery.
According to the USPS, service standards will be “refined” for:
First-class mail.
Periodicals.
Marketing mail.
Package services (bound printed matter, media mail, and library mail).
USPS Ground Advantage.
Priority mail.
Priority mail express.
Delivery of first-class mail is expected to take no more than five days, while the 2-5 day range for USPS Ground Advantage will also stay the same, the postal service said. Certain postage like marketing materials, periodicals and other packages may even be delivered faster, according to the USPS news release.
The majority of first-class mail, 75%, should notice no change to their first-class mail delivery services, the postal service said. However, 14% will be upgraded to a faster standard, while another 11% of first-class mail will be delivered slower, though still within the 1-5 day deliver window.
For more precise expectations, the USPS is now using 5-Digit ZIP code pairs, rather than current standards that are based on 3-Digit ZIP code pairs.
USPS already has a map online that will let customers see how long it will take to deliver mail from one ZIP code to another.
The next changes are set to take effect July 1. More information will be released closer to that date.
