Amazon has experienced record growth and has hired huge numbers of workers during the pandemic, but a New York Times investigation reveals that the technology it relied on to manage that growth exacted a heavy human cost on its workforce. This piece looks at that investigation, spanning mistaken firings and benefit cuts, a lack of transparency over pandemic cases, sky-high staff turnover, worker monitoring and employees' feelings about CEO Jeff Bezos' recent pledge to become "Earth's best employer."

PepsiCo has rolled out the Work that Works policy, which gives corporate employees control over their schedule by determining when each worker needs to be on-site and when they can work remotely. The policy is expected to improve PepsiCo's ability to attract new employees, reduce its corporate real estate costs and significantly cut down on greenhouse gas emissions usually used during employee commutes.

The coronavirus pandemic has widened the retirement gap for women and has reduced confidence in their retirement savings, according to a Harris Poll. The poll found that only 40% of women were confident about their retirement savings as of March, down from 54% in January 2020, a statistic that's likely because women's normal lifetime earnings gender gap grows from $469,000 to $1.1 million when they face career interruptions, as many have experienced during the pandemic.

Microaggressions pose one of the greatest challenges to women in STEM, says research fisheries biologist Brooke Penaluna, who notes that while she and her husband both have doctorates, she is addressed by her first name and her spouse is addressed as doctor. Child care is also treated differently by employers of mothers than of fathers, says Penaluna, who stresses that STEM benefits from being inclusive of parents as well as people of varied ethnic backgrounds.

All of us are stressed at times, and sometimes the best countermeasures are simple things such as understanding what you can control, practicing "present-moment awareness" and keeping stress from growing into anxiety, LaRae Quy writes. Get a hobby while you're at it to "provide a slice of focus and attention that is not tethered to our work life," Quy writes.

My inner sports fiend has been giddy these past few weeks with the NBA playoffs underway and now Euro 2020. Anyone else binge-watching these games? Let me know! If you’re a basketball fan, tell me who you project to get into the finals. And, of course, if you know anyone who should be receiving this brief, send them this link to subscribe.