What the vibe of your office holiday party says your workplace
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Reading the room if your company throws a holiday party. I'm David Brancaccio in Los Angeles. Good morning to you. First, some top Federal Reserve officials now have a stretch of job security. The central bank has announced that most of the presidents of the regional Fed banks have been reappointed. This is despite some Trump administration proposals to exert greater control over the Fed's regional banks. Marketplace's Nancy Marshall-Genzer explains.
The Fed announced yesterday that 11 of the 12 regional Fed bank presidents were reappointed to their jobs for new five-year terms, which start March 1st of next year. The 12th Atlanta Fed President Rafael Bostic already announced he's retiring. The regional Fed presidents are appointed by each bank's board of directors and need final approval from the Fed's Board of Governors in Washington tomorrow. They have to be reappointed by the Fed every five years. This is normally a mundane process, but recently Treasury Secretary Scott Besson said there should be a new rule, a requirement that regional Fed bank presidents have lived in their districts for at least three years. The vote to reappoint the regional bank presidents was unanimous, meaning it appears that Fed Governor Stephen Myron supported it.
Myron served as chair of President Trump's Council of Economic Advisors until he was appointed to the Fed. He's now on leave from his White House job. I'm Nancy Marshall-Genzer for Marketplace.
A cryptocurrency entrepreneur behind two digital currencies that lost an estimated $40 billion three years ago has been sentenced to 15 years. 34-year-old Do Kwon created the TerraUSD and Luna currencies. In federal court in New York yesterday, Judge Paul Engelmayer said this, quote, this was a fraud on an epic generational scale. In the history of federal prosecutions, there are few frauds that have caused as much harm as you have, Mr. Kwon. Kwon had pleaded guilty and in court apologized to his victims. He faces other charges if he eventually returns to South Korea. Some victims lost life savings in a scheme that involved artificially inflating the value of crypto assets.
If they're throwing a holiday party at work, part of me wants to say just go, be in the moment, and enjoy. But this is Marketplace where there's always work to do. So let me also say the holiday party is a way to get a fresh read on the health of your company. Let's talk to a consultant now who says a useful exercise is to take a moment to read the party room with a detached anthropologist's eye. Joining us is workplace culture strategist Greg Hawks. His forthcoming book is called Act Like an Owner. Welcome.
Thank you so much, David. It's a pleasure to be here.
One thing you could look at right away, I suppose, is who shows and who leaves early.
Absolutely. Some people just don't even bother to show up to the party. It also indicates they're not really showing up at work either. They're just physically being there, but have checked out emotionally and mentally.
Yeah. And also, it would tell you something if the top brass slinks out early, like you look up and they've ghosted you. That's not a full bore, full bodied commitment.
Yeah.
Right. And from leadership, you know how it is when they show up, if they themselves gather together, which they have a tendency to do, create their own little party dynamic. It is the indicator of their separation from what's really happening. in the work that's going on day in and day out. And so at the holiday party, there's just more evidence. And the truth is the same reverse. If leaders are engaged and they're up singing karaoke, if they're mingling around, it reveals the positive of things that are transpiring during the work week.
The holiday party could tell you something if you have been shirking your responsibility and not showing up to the monthly all-staff meetings. Because, right, if it was flowing chocolate fountains last year, luge runs made of ice to chill the martinis, but this year it's a, I don't know, 12-pack of LaCroix and a sleeve of Ritz crackers, that'll tell you something, right?
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