But Bukowski’s main concern was not that what the 9-to-5 workday symbolized, but that it always turned into something else. "They call it ‘9 to 5,’" he wrote in the letter to his publisher, already predicting that there would be worse things than an eight-hour workday. "It's never 9 to 5, there's no free lunch break at those places, in fact, at many of them in order to keep your job you don't take lunch. Then there's overtime and the books never seem to get the overtime right and if you complain about that, there's another sucker to take your place." (The Atlantic)

Everyone wastes time. I know I do. I’d like to waste less time, but doing that requires identifying which time is wasted. And that’s a tricky question. Open time isn’t wasted time. Sometimes white space is where the best ideas take root. Watching TV and surfing the web are often low-value activities, but they’re not automatically wasted time. These things sometimes bring pleasure, and pleasure is a good in its own right. So what is wasted time? I’ve come to like this definition: Time is wasted when it’s neither enjoyed, nor spent in pursuit of some larger life goal. (Fast Company)

For the last two months, global supply chains have been experiencing the first stage of a bullwhip effect triggered by uncertainties about the severity of China’s economic slowdown. While the contractions in business activity along global supply chains will cause companies to cut capital investments and inventories, we should remember that this is only the first leg of the phenomenon. The second stage of the bullwhip is likely to involve renewed demand, with orders reverberating upstream with increasing amplitudes. (Harvard Business Review)

After sending out hundreds of copies of my résumé to dozens of companies over the last year, I realized that I was getting nowhere because my approach was wrong. I did everything I was taught to do: I created a list of the top 20 companies I wanted to work for, I customized my résumé for each opening, I networked online and offline. I met some fantastic people throughout the process, but nothing got me closer to a securing a role, or even a chance to interview. What I had failed to do was ask myself some of the tough and honest questions early on. (Harvard Business Review)

Everyone tries to network. (Even me, and I hate networking.) Few people do it well, though, and often make the same basic mistakes. So here's what not to do when you're trying to expand or leverage your network. Avoid these mistakes and the cool thing is you're no longer "networking" – you're helping other people. (Inc.)

Almost all of us regret not saving more for our golden years. If you could go back in time and have a chat with your younger self – say, you at age 22, or 25 – what would you say? It seems most of us would advise ourselves to start thinking about retirement. Roughly 80% of 2,031 employees in a new survey from American Century Investments agreed that they "wish I could have talked to the young me and told myself to save more than I did." (Fortune)

The herd of $1 billion-plus startups – the so-called unicorns – is growing. But the workforces at these oversized startups are raising a question now familiar to Silicon Valley: Do these mythical creatures only come white and male? A year ago, Rev. Jesse Jackson, a vocal black rights activist, drew attention to Silicon Valley’s lack of diversity and spurred Google, Facebook, Twitter, Yahoo and many others to start issuing "diversity reports" to hold themselves accountable. But now he has a new target: the unicorns, which are delaying their IPOs and, in a sense, public scrutiny, as they look to establish markets around the globe. (International Business Times)

The airing of a tech company’s diversity numbers has become a rite of passage in Silicon Valley. And like other cliches in public discourse (see also: politicians resigning to "spend more time with family"), there is a script. It goes something like this: These are our values. Here’s the data. We know we have work to do. Slack, the email-slaying chat platform and media darling, became the latest company to release such a statement on Wednesday. (The Atlantic)

Europe is struggling to handle its largest flow of migrants since the aftermath of World War II, with more than 3,000 dead since the beginning of the year. Why is the crisis happening now? The WSJ's Niki Blasina explains. (Video) (The Wall Street Journal)

Puerto Rico issued a five-year plan on Wednesday to restructure about $47 billion of its $72 billion in bond debt and carry out an economic overhaul under an independent financial control board. The plan is likely to open a turbulent new chapter in the island’s efforts to rekindle economic growth and avoid an unprecedented collapse. (The New York Times)

Stephen Jen has a proposal for Brazil to get out of the current economic mess: ask for a bailout from the International Monetary Fund. Not that Brazil needs the funding, said Jen, a former IMF economist. Latin America’s largest economy holds $371 billion in foreign reserves, almost 10 times the amount of the government’s foreign-currency debt. (Bloomberg)

Francisco Ochagavia arrived at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management from a family business in his home country of Chile. The 30-year-old, who graduated with his MBA in June, says that one of his more memorable courses focused on the growth challenges of mid-sized companies. It helped to prepare him for the CEO role at his family’s fruit-growing export company that he is looking to scale into a more global operation. (Poets & Quants)

Maeve Richard of Stanford's Graduate School of Business talks about MBA students' interest in banking as technology lures some of the university's best and brightest away from finance. She speaks on "Market Makers." (Video) (Bloomberg)

Time is Running Out! – Register Today for The National Black MBA Association® 37th Annual Conference and Exposition 

Celebrating 45 years of Black professional development and executive leadership, The National Black MBA Association® (NBMBAA®), the nation's premier organization for Black business professionals, has extended Regular registration rates for the upcoming NBMBAA® 37th Annual Conference and Exposition at the Orange County Convention Center, Orlando, FL. Save over on-site rates by registering now! More than 9,000 attendees are anticipated to convene for networking, leadership development, and career opportunities.

Visit Conference Website
Register Now!

---

As it nears a size and scope never before approached by a technology company, Apple is doing things its executives said it never would. Apple’s co-founder, Steven P. Jobs, once announced that using a stylus with a computing device was passé. But guess what? The company is now offering a stylus, called Apple Pencil, for $100. (The New York Times)

Remember the Fire Phone, the device that Amazon unveiled to much hype last June? Jeff Bezos championed its build, its stereo speakers, its headphones that wouldn’t tangle. The Fire Phone came with unlimited cloud storage for your photos and "dynamic perspective." It introduced Firefly, a tool that could recognize – and let you purchase from Amazon – most of the material world. No one wanted it. (Slate)

When friends heard that James Higgins, 31, his wife, Trish, 29, and his brother Palmer, 27, left their traditional jobs in finance and sold their charming Greenwich, Conn., townhouse, they assumed it was for an exciting opportunity elsewhere. They did not imagine that would turn out to be a snow removal and landscaping company in southern Maine. (The New York times)

A year after his tuition-free online university received its accreditation, Shai Reshef can't believe he didn't seek it sooner. After three years' toil and $1 million in expenses, University of the People received its accreditation from Distance Education Accrediting Commission, in 2014, and became the first tuition-free nonprofit online institution to do so. And it was almost immediately worth it. A year later, its student body has skyrocketed, and its students are now eligible for Title IV, which allows them to seek government loans for a UoPeople education (the school still charges $100 in examination fees per course). (Fast Company)

Two years after unions and progressive groups helped torpedo his chances at becoming the most important person in the world economy – chairman of the Federal Reserve – former Treasury secretary Larry Summers has become one of organized labor's loudest and least likely proponents. The latest indication: remarks at a think tank event on a new report that ties union density with economic mobility, in which Summers tied a direct line from the health of organized labor to the fortunes of the middle class. (The Washington Post)

Many commentators have pointed to disturbances in Ferguson and elsewhere over the past year as proof that economic inequality leads to tensions and even violence. But new research out from Yale University suggests that it’s not the presence of inequality that causes problems, but rather the visibility of that inequality. (The Atlantic)

Thanks to Pinterest, I now know about the Back to School Fairy. She visits on School Year’s Eve (yes, there is a School Year’s Eve). I imagine she leaves #2 pencils under the child’s pillow, but I’m not sure, because the fairy was #10 on a list of 25 back-to-school traditions including treat labels for the lunch box and a school supply scavenger hunt. I got so overwhelmed I closed my browser. (Fortune)

It’s all well and good to talk about what you’d do with an extra $1,000 if you had it, but that money probably isn’t going to land in your lap anytime soon – you’ll need to take the initiative and find ways to save or earn those dollars. But that doesn’t have to mean a period of extreme austerity – which is good, because denying yourself small pleasures is a good way to lose all resolve. The fact is, many of us can find fairly painless ways to come up with small change which, added together, become real money. (Money Magazine)

Last Chance! Don't Miss the 3-Day CertifiNOW PMP®/CAPM® Prep Course at the NBMBAA Annual Conference and Exposition in Orlando

If you are aiming to pass the PMP® or CAPM® exam and you want to get the best project management learning experience in just 3 days, then CertifiNOW® is the right choice for you.

A recent study indicated that certified employees tend to earn 10-25% more in annual salary than their non-certified peers... and 1.2 million new project management jobs will be created, on a yearly basis, for the next 10 years. This project management learning program provides an unsurpassed learning experience for the PMP® (Project Management Professional) or CAPM® (Certified Associate in Project Management) certification exams in a condensed amount of time.

At the same time, CertifiNOW® satisfies most, if not all, of your professional certification, education, and training needs. In the last year, 90% of CertifiNOW® students passed their certification exam on the 1st attempt. For senior executives contemplating organizational transformation, but not seeking certification, this course is beneficial because it provides a solid theoretical framework and the proper paradigm for thinking about projectized organizational structures and the project management profession.

Register Now!

---

A new work policy being implemented in about 200 offices around the country is providing the ultimate convenience for new parents: allowing them to take their infants to work. This innovative ‘Infants At Work’ policy allows new parents to bring their infants (aged from six weeks to six months old) to the office with them. (DiversityInc.)

Stung by years of criticism that it has coddled Wall Street criminals, the Justice Department issued new policies on Wednesday that prioritize the prosecution of individual employees — not just their companies — and put pressure on corporations to turn over evidence against their executives. The new rules, issued in a memo to federal prosecutors nationwide, are the first major policy announcement by Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch since she took office in April. (The New York Times)

Stress in the workplace is a significant issue for at least a quarter of the working population in the United States. Alarmingly, that percentage doubles to almost 50% for those in office jobs. Statistically, that means that one of the coworkers sitting beside you is likely experiencing a substantial amount of stress. At some point, it’s sure to affect you, either directly or indirectly. So, what should you do? (Harvard Business Review)

It has been said that we can't have a positive life with a negative mind. This is true. While life is comprised of ups and downs, we can build a positive attitude through each lesson that we learn. Life is a process of growing; it is not about just going through it. If you make it a habit to ask "What for?" in each lesson instead of "Why?" your mind will open up to endless opportunities in life. (Inc.)