August 21, 2015
It was a busy week with everything from children heading back to school to high-profile scandals. Here are some of the stories that I found most interesting:
- Scandalous: It was a bad week for those whose names start with a “J.” Jared Fogle is in deep water after pleading guilty to child pornography charges, and Josh Duggar is again in the spotlight after hackers stole user data from Ashley Madison and he was outed as a member of the affair-enabling site.
- Shopping Screw-ups: Two major retailers found themselves facing backlash from angry customers after glitches in their rewards programs. Bloomingdalesaccidentally gave its loyalty program members shopping sprees ranging from $5,000-$25,000 and them made them return all their merchandise, while Sephorafound themselves facing mass returns when customers were unable to redeem their rewards points for prizes promised, such as trips to Paris and Los Angeles.
- The Four-day Work Week: The parent company of the Japanese retailer, Uniqlo, is testing out the four-day work week, allowing 10,000 employees to work 10-hour days, four days a week. The idea behind the program is that a more flexible schedule attracts and retains talent, particularly women, but the jury is still out on if working longer hours in a day will hurt productivity.
- Flashback Friday: For those who are not aware, Facebook Notesdo still exist and they are getting a major facelift. After Twitter got rid of its character limit for direct messages, Facebook decided to follow suit and create a way for people to read and write longer-form stories. We can only hope this will eliminate the novel-long status updates from people you went to high school with.
- We’ve All Been There: The first day of school is rough, and this kid shows us that it’s okay to miss your mom.