We’ve run 24 surveys this year, but one question got readers more riled up than the rest: Should the 8am meeting exist?

To be honest, it wasn’t the landslide we were expecting: Only 36% said “hell no” to 8am meetings.

Then there are the 41% who said they’ll give 8am calls a pass for urgent matters, 11% are fine with them, 7% said “eh, I guess,” and a terrifying 5% said they love an 8am chat.

As for what is the right time for a meeting, that was more unanimous with 70% voting for the 10am-12pm slot. That was followed by 12% for 2pm-4pm, 10.5% for 8am-10am, 7% for 12pm-2pm, and 0.5% for 4pm-6pm.

That winning 10am-12pm slot is beloved for being work-life balance friendly: People said it allows them to get kids to school, hit the gym, get caffeinated, and run errands — all while still connecting most time zones.

As one reader said: “The morning frenzy is behind me, but I’m not quite dead inside yet either.”

And thousands of others wrote in to debate both sides of the 8am call:

• “I generally don’t even log into my computer until 10am.”
• “I work across multiple time zones. While I dislike the 8am meeting, it is a necessary evil to get the whole team on one call.”
• “I'm more productive in the morning, so I would rather spend time in meetings later in the afternoon, when my productivity dips anyway.”
• “8am is for bosses that think you aren’t working if they can’t see you.”

And one last one from someone who we hope is never our boss: “Everyone is soft, 6am and 7am meetings should be brought back.”

In spite of the movement to minimize meetings, we feel that weekly heat checks keep us aligned and flying in a unified direction.

But keep them brief — some notes are best said on Slack.

Managers can use this free guide on organizing meetings that respect everybody’s time. It runs through practical ways to handle invites, meetings, and follow-up comms.

Pretend like you had an epiphany. Pull up with a brand new protocol.

It seems like every other business headline these days has to do with Gen Z — what they’re eating, wearing, and spending.

But we wanted to find out more about how they work. Or, rather, what it’s like to work with them.

As it turns out, not so nice. The majority — 55.1% — said Gen Zers are trouble in the workplace, while 28.7% said they’re no different than other generations and 5.6% haven’t come across a Gen Zer in the wild yet.

The most common complaints centered around two adjectives: “Entitled” came up in 48 responses and “lazy” 29 times. As did some other words we cannot publish — you guys came in hot.

Overall, readers said Gen Zers show up late, wanting to do the least amount of work for the most amount of money, and believing they deserve it.

For the 10.6% who played devil’s advocate, this could actually be a good thing.

“They’re not scared to try new ideas, new tools, new processes. What they want — work-life balance — is something we should all have,” one reader wrote.

And for the other 55%, it went something like this:

• “If they aren't ‘vibing’ with something, they won't do it. Work ethic is missing with that generation. They expect to start at the top of the payscale, but they are not willing to put forth the work to earn that sort of pay.”
• “They have a lack of motivation, yet a mindset that they should be treated (and paid!) as if they’d worked for the company for 20 years. Feedback and any type of criticism of their output are seen as disrespectful and demeaning, so it’s hard to have meaningful conversations to help them improve.”
• “I hear a lot more ‘I'm not paid to do that’ and ‘that's not my job’ than from any other generation.”

And some of the calls were coming from inside the house: “As a member of the Gen Z community, I will say I am honestly scared by my own generation. Send help.”

In recent memory, it was a standard part of career advice to caution against switching jobs too often, for fear a hiring manager would deem you disloyal or flakey.

But today, it turns out the whole thing is pretty nuanced.

When asked how they feel about job hopping, most said it depends on how quickly you hop (34.4%) and on the exact circumstances (26.7%).

The remaining group was polarized: 15% said job hopping is a huge red flag and 19% said it’s totally normal. Then there’s the 4.9% saying it’s weird if you stay too long at a job.

The main takeaways from the survey results: Job hunting can help bump your salary and further your career. Plus, today’s employees don’t feel indebted to their companies after rounds of layoffs and shifting office mandates.

Some thoughts from y’all:

• “Loyalty is underpaid. ‘Nough said.”
• “You should only job hop if it is going to further you along your career path. Otherwise, you're just stupid.”
• “The effort it takes to find, interview, and hire a new employee makes hiring one with ‘hopping’ on their resume a huge risk. Why waste my time and energy developing an employee only to have them leave?”
• Sometimes job hopping is the only way to get ahead. Typically, an annual raise is 3%-5%. That doesn’t keep up with inflation. However, that new job is likely to be 10%-15% more. A friend of mine just hopped twice in just over 2 years. The result? 30% bump in pay.”

At the end of the day, it’s hard to win: “I judge anyone if they stay less than 2 years somewhere, but that’s exactly what my resume looks like 🫠.”

After hearing anecdotes from friends and seeing plenty of horror stories on social media, we wanted to get to the bottom of a question: Has interviewing really gotten worse?

For 58% of you, the answer is “for sure.”

Then there were the honest 24% who said it’s hard to tell since it’s always sucked. And 14% said they’re lacking data since getting an interview is so impossible. A measly 4% of you said it isn’t all that bad. Not so comforting.

Also not comforting: Interviews spanning six to eight rounds only to end with ghosting, shifting job requirements, and lengthy take-home assignments.

What really stood out, though, is how downright rude some companies are to applicants.

You wrote in with some bone-chilling tales:

• One reader wrote: “I was presenting my deck via Zoom to the hiring manager and the director who oversees the whole department. The director got up halfway through and started walking with her laptop. I asked if I should pause for a minute but she told me to keep going. She proceeded to make a sandwich and eat it (without muting herself) for the rest of the presentation and interview. I didn't get the role…”
• “Took 28 days and three interviews with various people asking the same questions to finally be rejected. Total waste of time.”
• “Getting an interview is harder than ever. I applied to 52 jobs, and had three interviews.”
• “I’ve been applying to jobs for more than two years with 99% radio silence from the other side. Sometimes the job sites will tell me my application was viewed several times, but no feedback or communication from the company.”
• “What I have found is that even the larger companies will simply ghost you. Whereas they used to send the informal ‘Thanks, but no thanks’ email. Now, even after having multiple Zoom interviews, I just never hear anything back. It's like the planet is being run by naughty children.”

There are a lot of things that make a good job good: Great coworkers, flexible hours, a nice boss.

But we wanted to know what the most important motivator is when it comes to work.

Unsurprisingly — you read this newsletter, after all — the most common answer was cold, hard cash at 32%.

As for the 24.1% who said they’re looking for “something else,” answers ranged from autonomy and stability to equity and career growth (y’know, the good stuff).

And many said they want mission-driven careers that do some good for the world.

Then there were the 18.9% who are driven by remote work and flexibility, 14% who said work-life balance gets them going, and 11% who said recognition from coworkers is all they need to stay happy.

For those who voted “something else,” here’s what motivates them:

• “Having a great boss that respects personal boundaries and sees you as a human instead of a work bot.”
• “A genuine feeling that the work I'm doing is making a meaningful impact somewhere, to someone.”
• “Inspiration. A real, authentic call to something greater which matters to me…”
• “I motivate myself, I like to work and I am responsible for what I do.”
• “I am most motivated by the success of the company. I want to work hard to see results.”
• “Opportunity to grow my career. Even if I say no, just being asked is nice.”
• “Being left the hell alone.”

Hope that last reader works remotely or has very tall cubicle walls.