In Brief: New Trump Presidency Has Executives Rethinking Public Stances; Women Executives Facing More Biases

With Donald Trump returning to the White House, U.S. business executives are calibrating how to address socio-political issues during his new presidency, Axios reports. 

“Some of the topics we’re keeping an eye on going into January … were very hot with employees previously” and might become important again for business leaders, said Selena Strandberg, founder of The Know, a company that helps executives understand stakeholder sentiments. 

When deciding whether to publicly address social issues, “Some companies are going to change their course,” Strandberg said. Statements will require “a very clear justification for why you came to that conclusion and making sure that justification is communicated across channels, particularly to employees.”

During the first Trump administration businesses were expanding and the labor market was tight, so companies “wanted to keep employees happy,” said Anne Marie Malecha, CEO of Dezenhall Resources, a crisis-management firm. Demand for workers “gave vocal employee bases significant leverage,” but workers lack that advantage now, she said. 

Journalists Say Their Posts Perform Better on Bluesky

Bluesky is becoming a preferred social media platform for reporters, activists and other groups who feel alienated by X, NBC News reports.

Elon Musk, who bought Twitter in October 2022 and renamed it “X” in July 2023, confirmed in November that the platform has deprioritized posts that include links, which journalists have long used to share their work. Four reporters told NBC News that after President-elect Donald Trump’s victory, a campaign that Musk supported, they have found audiences that switched to Bluesky. 

“We have posts that are exactly the same on Twitter and on Bluesky, and with those identical posts, Bluesky is getting 20 times the engagement or more than Twitter,” said Ashton Pittman, an editor and reporter at the Mississippi Free Press.

In recent months, Bluesky has seen enormous growth as more people seek alternatives to X, Facebook and Threads. In turn, Bluesky has reportedly decided to quadruple the number of content moderators from 25 to 100.

Women in Leadership Roles Face Numerous Biases, Study Finds

Women working in leadership roles report experiencing 30 different forms of discrimination, new research finds. 

Research last year found that women in the workplace encounter bias regardless of their age. The new study, from the same researchers at Wilson College, Westmont College and Clarkson University, surveyed more than 900 women in leadership roles in four industries that are either female-dominated or where workers are split equally between men and women: health care, higher education, law and faith-based nonprofits. 

The workplace discrimination that women surveyed for the study face is often related to their personal qualities rather than their professional qualifications or skills, the researchers said. Those biases include factors such as a woman’s age, accent, attractiveness, body size, socio-economic class, color, marital status, pregnancy and sexual orientation. 

The research focuses on women in their 40s and 50s who have already attained leadership roles in those four industries. Researchers found that women sometimes express bias against other women in their workplace.

New Job Opportunities Could Spur ‘Revenge Quitting’

A wave of “revenge quitting” could be building as resentful employees find new job opportunities, a report from the Glassdoor career site finds. In an October Glassdoor poll, nearly 2 in 3 workers said they felt stuck in their current jobs, with employees in technology and advertising feeling particularly sour about their prospects.

People have felt that the job market isn’t working for them, “even if you hear economists and policymakers talk about how strong and resilient the job market is,” Glassdoor senior economist Daniel Zhao tells CNBC. Workers have had limited opportunities to advance, get a raise or find a job that suits them better, he says.

But in 2025, some sectors — such as housing, real estate and tech — could be buoyed by the Federal Reserve’s recent interest-rate cuts, Zhao says.

Poll: Women Report Higher Stress at Work

Asked about their previous workday, 51% of women report feeling stressed for much of the day, versus 39% of men, a new Gallup poll finds. Some 42% of working women say their job has had a somewhat or extremely negative affect on their mental health over the last six months, versus 37% of men.

Decreased well-being is associated with employees feeling less engaged in their work, more burnt out and more likely to be seeking a new job, Gallup says.

In the poll, 17% of female respondents report having to address personal or family responsibilities at work daily or several times a day, versus 11% of men. Such disruptions are associated with increased stress, worry and burnout. 

Women who maintain a healthy balance between work and personal commitments are 50% more likely to be thriving in their lives, more than twice as likely to be engaged at work and 38% less likely to be looking for a new job, Gallup says.