Today’s Big Story

The Lonely American Worker

The modern workday includes a lot of faceless chats, virtual meetings and fewer work friends

What’s on your calendar today? Maybe a virtual meeting or two? A quick catch-up call? Are you going into the office or working remote? The reason I ask is because more and more Americans are profoundly lonely, and the way we work nowadays—more digitally linked but less personally connected—is apparently deepening that sense of isolation.

Employers and researchers are just beginning to understand how workplace shifts over the past four years are contributing to what the U.S. surgeon general declared a loneliness health epidemic last year. More than 40% of fully remote workers polled in a 2023 survey of working parents by Bright Horizons said they go days without leaving the house. And those who work in-office spend nearly a quarter of their time in virtual meetings, while face-to-face meetings account for only 8% of their time, according to data from real-estate company Cushman & Wakefield. These are startling statistics, right?

According to the Wall Street Journal, Americans have tripled the time spent in meetings since 2020. Ultimately, that means less time for the casual interactions that social scientists say foster happiness at work. The alienation affects remote and in-person workers alike. Among one company the Journal spoke with, the most popular chat group (for both hybrid and fully on-site employees) is simply called “Loneliness.”

“Employees experiencing workplace loneliness are likely to experience negative consequences, both at work and in their personal lives,” said Emily Killham, senior director of people analytics, research and insights at Perceptyx. “When employees don’t feel support at work or that they are part of a greater mission, or when they don’t know where they fit in, this is when loneliness flourishes.”

And it seems like younger workers are the most affected. Employees under 40 are 70% more likely than workers over 50 to lack trusted relationships at work, leading to feelings of isolation, one recent study found. The disconnection is driving up staff turnover and worker absences, making it a business issue for more employers and executives, researchers say. Cigna, the health-insurance company, estimates that loneliness is costing companies $154 billion a year in absenteeism alone.

The good news for companies and organizations, Killham points out, is that what builds connections isn’t a lot of new programs. “It’s a lot of what has worked for many years: great people management, meeting people with respect, building a healthy culture where workplace stress can be tackled and setting workers up with a shared future in the organization.”

Israel Pushes Deeper Into Rafah

White House says Israel has not crossed Biden’s red line

The White House said Tuesday that Israel had not violated President Biden’s warnings on the conduct of its military campaign in Rafah after an airstrike there over the weekend killed at least 45 Palestinians and injured hundreds more, suggesting the United States would impose no consequences for the Israeli action. However, the bombs used in the strike were made in the United States, according to weapons experts and visual evidence reviewed by the New York Times.

And despite mounting international outrage over its operations in Gaza, Israel’s military said it would press on with its ground assault. The military said its troops were engaging in close-quarters combat with Hamas fighters and that it had deployed an additional “combat team” to Rafah, without specifying how many more soldiers were sent to the southern city.

Even more concerning, American aid efforts for Gaza have suffered an embarrassing setback after the temporary pier built by the military broke apart in heavy seas, the Pentagon told The Guardian late Tuesday. The Deptartment of Defense told reporters that high seas and a north African weather system had caused a section of the pier to break away, so the pier will be pulled out and sent to the southern Israeli city of Ashdod, where U.S. Central Command will repair it.

There Go the Glaciers

Venezuela becomes first nation in the Americas to lose all glaciers … and it’s not the only one

Venezuela, once home to six glaciers, now has none after the last remaining one was recently classified as being too small to qualify. It’s the first country in the Americas to lose all of its glaciers.

Glaciers are large masses of ice that have formed due to the accumulation of snow over centuries. According to the United States Geological Survey, they typically exist where average annual temperatures reach near-freezing levels and winter precipitation causes significant accumulations of snow. NBC News reports that with the increase in global temperatures due to climate change, the melting of large ice masses is a continuous phenomenon that, among other things, contributes to raising sea levels around the world.

And Venezuela isn’t alone. Glaciers across the globe are shrinking, and some are disappearing faster than what experts predicted. Scientific American says that Slovenia also lost its last-standing glaciers. What’s more, at least 80% of glaciers worldwide are on track to almost disappear by 2100 because of current global warming conditions, according to a peer-reviewed study from last year.

AI-Generated Custom Emojis?

They’re coming soon to iPhones

With tech giants like Google, Microsoft and OpenAI all recently sharing big AI updates at their events, one company has been somewhat absent from the overall AI conversation: Apple. But we now have new information from Bloomberg's Apple insider Mark Gurman regarding a completely new AI feature likely coming to the next iPhone update, iOS 18.

According to CNET, Apple has sent out invitations for its Worldwide Developers Conference, and will likely announce its plans around artificial intelligence technology at the event on June 10. Apple's AI plans will reportedly touch many parts of its software, including transcription for voice memos, faster search and a more conversational approach to the Siri voice assistant. But it’s these custom emojis that has people buzzing.

Apple will likely use AI to generate emoji on the fly, based on what you’re texting. But The Verge points out that type of feature seems to consistently lead to trouble for these companies. (See Meta’s gun-toting Waluigi AI stickers or Google’s inappropriately racially diverse pictures.) And Mashable says AI-created emojis aren't an original concept. There are a number of third-party options available online as well as on Apple's App Store. However, these products usually require a paid subscription. Apple is looking to build its own service right into iOS. Would you be excited for custom, one-of-a-kind emojis?

The Long Read

Those big clouds in the sky remain one of the greatest climate mysteries left

You’ll get through it.