• My wife and I are considering asking my mother-in-law to move in with us.
• There are plenty of benefits to multigenerational households.
• We have room in our home for her, it's good for our budget, and we love spending time with her.

My mother-in-law was recently widowed. Although she is independent, in good health, and has her own home, my wife and I are considering having her move in with us. This way of living, with multiple generations of a family under one roof, is known as "intergenerational households." And it can offer some valuable benefits.

I'm in favor of intergenerational households for many reasons — and why my family might try this at home.

Many countries do it

Intergenerational households are common in many other countries. Research from the UN shows that as of 2019, in 67 out of 100 countries that had data available, older people tend to live with their extended families instead of alone. When I lived in Japan, I remember seeing how common it was for young adults to keep living at home with their parents well into their 30s or beyond.

Living with multiple generations under one roof is a great way for families to stay connected and for young people to save on rent while starting their careers. This way of living is not so rare in America, either. Pew Research shows that as of 2021, about 18% of the US population resided in multigenerational households.

It's not always easy to share a home with a grandparent or your parents; sometimes, people want to get out from under their parents' roof or have more privacy. But sometimes, sharing living space with older family members is the best way to make ends meet and keep your family connected and strong.

It's good for the family budget

A few years ago, my wife, kids, and I moved to a new house that is bigger than our former home. Sometimes, this house feels a little "too big." We have an extra bedroom, multiple bathrooms, and more than enough space for one more person. And my mother-in-law is no freeloader; if she moves in with us, she has offered to help contribute to our monthly household expenses.

I'm not going to charge steep rent to my wife's mother, but it would be great to have another adult in the house to help pay the mortgage and utilities. Splitting the bills seems to be a good strategy for many intergenerational households; Pew Research from 2022 has found that families who live this way are less likely to fall into poverty. When you have more people to share the costs of maintaining a household, the whole family can feel a little more financially comfortable.

We love my wife's mom, and she's easy to have around

Even though she's enjoying retirement, is in good health, and doesn't "need" to move in with us, my wife, kids, and I like the idea of having my mother-in-law live with us. Our kids are teenagers and don't have many years left of living at home before leaving for college and starting careers. It would be fun for our kids to spend more time with their grandmother during this special time.

What else are families for besides helping each other through life and spending time together? No one knows how much time we have, so we might as well spend it with the people we love most. My family is still discussing the possibility of having my wife's mother move in. But if we can find a way to make it work, we might do it. Becoming an intergenerational household could help our family make happy everyday memories and feel a little closer and better connected.

• My eldest had a severe food reaction that sent us to the ER when she was 5 months old.
• I wanted to avoid repeating that traumatic experience so I took control of all aspects of our lives.
• I thought if I could keep my child safe then I was a good mother. My helicopter parenting backfired.

I've been a parent for almost 12 years. If there's one thing I've learned, parenting is the ultimate reminder that you cannot control much in life. I learned this lesson the hard way.

After a traumatic birth and emergency C-section, my first child was born with a severe food allergy to dairy. Of course, I didn't know this right away.

It became clear one night after a frantic trip to the Emergency Room with a 5-month-old baby. I spent months after that ER visit trying to control every aspect of our lives to protect us from experiencing another reaction.

Surprisingly, my attempts worked. We did not have another reaction for many years. Ergo, I reasoned that if I could control all aspects of our lives as well, then we would be safe.

I had an ingrained belief that if I could keep my child safe, then I was a good mother. I really wanted to be a good mother.

Controlling our lives wasn't a winning strategy

I never wanted my child to feel like she wasn't normal or wasn't enough. So, I inadvertently became a helicopter parent.

I swayed her friend choices to people who would respect our limitations. I swayed our outings to places where I felt comfortable and knew we would be protected, not necessarily the places where we would have new experiences or grow.

I was so afraid of what my life would be like if something really bad happened that I kept us from living a full life. This translated to my other child, who became completely dependent on me.

At some point, I knew they would need to be able to exist independently; I just wasn't sure how to let go. I didn't know how to hold the uncertainty of their independence, so I avoided allowing it.

I eventually ended up divorced, out of touch with myself as a person and as a parent, and with two very small children depending on me to keep them safe and show them the way.

Emotionally exhausted, post-divorce, I just couldn't do it anymore. So, I did what parents often do. I committed to figuring it out.

I can't control much, but I can still be a good mother

I did a lot of deep reflection during the COVID-19 pandemic and learned to tune back into myself.

I sought therapy to challenge why I was so afraid and learned ways to overcome those fears.

I practiced being alone, going to new places, and trying new things like hiking and paddleboarding. Then, I shared those experiences with my kids.

After I learned to love and be myself again, I started to see my children for who they were instead of what I thought they should be.

I believe them when they tell me what they think, want, and dislike. I don't try to dissuade them anymore.

I've spent most of the last five years facing and working to overcome my fears. It's been worth it to watch my kids blossom. They have friends, social lives, and favorite places to eat, and we've also traveled a bit.

Watching my eldest on the beach in Hawaii with a smile as big as the ocean is a moment I'll always cherish.

Of course, over the years, my eldest has had more food allergy reactions. Each one is terrifying at the moment, but we've learned to grow from these experiences, like understanding to recognize which foods are safe and how to branch outside her comfort zone.

I cannot control much about life, at all, but I can figure out how to live and parent in a supportive way.

• BP is cutting thousands of jobs, the oil giant announced on Thursday.
• The cuts will affect 4,700 staff positions and 3,000 contractor roles.
• BP said it was part of a program to "simplify and focus" the oil giant.

Oil giant BP is cutting thousands of jobs, the company announced on Thursday.

Some 4,700 positions will be eliminated, while the number of contractors will be reduced by 3,000, it said in a statement sent to Business Insider.

The cuts are part of a program to "simplify and focus" BP that began last year.

"We are strengthening our competitiveness and building in resilience as we lower our costs, drive performance improvement and play to our distinctive capabilities," the statement added.

"As our transformation continues our priority will — of course — be safe and reliable operations and continuing to support our teams."

Bloomberg first reported the job cuts.

"I understand and recognize the uncertainty this brings for everyone whose job may be at risk, and also the effect it can have on colleagues and teams," CEO Murray Auchincloss told staff in an email seen by the outlet.

BP shares rose 1.7% in morning trading in London.

This is a developing story.

• Starbucks will host its first manager conference since the COVID-19 pandemic this year.
• The last conference was hosted in Chicago in 2019 and had over 12,000 attendees.
• New CEO Brian Niccol wants to stamp his mark and enhance in-person experiences at the chain.

Starbucks is bringing back a major conference for its store managers and senior staff for the first time since before the COVID-19 pandemic as it refocuses on in-person experiences.

Starbucks confirmed to Business Insider that thousands of store managers and other senior staff will be invited to the gathering this year. It will include training, development, and networking opportunities, the company said.

"As we get back to Starbucks, we must refocus on what has always set us apart — a welcoming coffeehouse where people gather, and where we serve the finest coffee, handcrafted by our skilled baristas," the chain said in a letter sent to invited staff.

"We know the power of in-person connection. We haven't met as a group since 2019, and we're excited to bring our North America retail leaders together again in 2025 to help us get 'back to Starbucks,'" it continued.

Starbucks declined to share details of the event's location and dates, though users on a Subreddit for Starbucks staff said they had been told it would be hosted in Las Vegas.

The last similar conference for senior retail staff was hosted in Chicago toward the beginning of September 2019, just a few months before the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In 1987, the Windy City was the location of the first US Starbucks store away from its headquarters in Seattle.

2019's three-day event consisted of learning and speaker sessions at McCormick Place Convention Center in the South side of Chicago. Over 10,000 store managers from the US and Canada were in attendance, along with 2,000 regional leaders, the senior leadership team, and staff.

New CEO Niccol looks to make his mark

News of the conference comes as the coffee giant's new CEO, Brian Niccol, looks to make his mark.

Since joining the coffee giant in September, Niccol has said he envisions Starbucks stores becoming places where people want to hang out again, focusing on the value of in-person experiences.

"Our stores will be inviting places to linger, with comfortable seating, thoughtful design and a clear distinction between 'to-go' and 'for-here' service," he said in an open letter.

Earlier this week, the firm said it would expand its free refills policy to all customers at participating cafés as part of its new code of conduct, effective January 27. Starbucks rewards members were previously the only ones who could get a free top-up of their order.

The coffee company also announced it would be reversing its open-door policy, which lets non-paying guests use store facilities, like bathrooms, indoor communal areas, and patios.

As a former boss of the Mexican grill chain Chipotle, Niccol attended the California-headquartered fast food chain's all-manager conference in March in Las Vegas.

Attendees included restaurant general managers, executives, and employees with more than 20 years of experience. Chipotle held a similar conference in 2022.

• Rebecca Douglass, a surgeon, chose to keep her maiden name when she married her husband.
• She maintained her name to preserve her legacy professionally and simplify administration.
• Her husband supports her decision, and they manage family roles with her as the primary earner.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Rebecca Douglass, a 36-year-old general surgeon in Emporia, Kansas. The following has been edited for length and clarity.

I grew up in Lexington, Kentucky, and earned a chemistry degree from the University of Kentucky in 2012. I then went to the University of Pikeville for medical school and moved to Grand Rapids, Michigan, for my surgical residency in 2016.

I met my husband on Hinge in 2019 during my residency. We got engaged after three months and married eight months later. It was quick, but we knew we wanted to be together.

I kept my last name once we married and never considered taking his.

When we were making wedding arrangements, I was adamant that I wanted to keep my last name

My decision was mainly because I worked so hard to earn my degrees. When someone asks me why I kept my maiden name, I inform them that my husband didn't go to medical school — I did.

It became important to me to keep my name professionally. If one day something happens, like we get divorced, I want to keep my legacy for my entire life.

It was also just easier to keep for administration purposes

When I met my husband, I was already well established in my residency and applying for attending surgeon positions.

It would be quite difficult to change my last name when I had already completed multiple research studies, obtained my license, and finished additional professional work that would then not be able to be searched easily and verified from my résumé.

My husband had no issues with me keeping my maiden name and even offered to take it. He didn't in the end because we realized it wasn't important to us. I socially go by his last name, but nothing legally has changed.

Keeping my name hasn't caused any issues

Proving who I am in relation to my husband hasn't been problematic, especially in this advanced age of technology.

I also have two young children who share my husband's name, and we haven't had any issues thus far. We agreed to this from the start.

My husband became a part-time stay-at-home dad during the pandemic

My husband had been previously married, and we looked after his son from his first marriage for half of the week during the pandemic. Now, we have my stepson for all his school breaks greater than three days.

I was pregnant during the pandemic, and because pregnant women were at higher risk, we decided that my husband would at least go to part time work when we had my stepson. My husband is an audio engineer, and much of his work is remote, but he had to decrease his hours significantly. We wouldn't have been able to do that without my salary as a surgeon, though.

Once we had our son together and I finished my maternity leave, he became completely stay-at-home. Now, he does a little consulting work but is otherwise a full-time stay-at-home parent to our one- and three-year-olds.

He would prefer to be working but is making the sacrifice for me

He misses work but understands I've worked my whole life to become a physician. It matters regarding my identity, but it also makes more sense financially because I earn more.

He plans to increase his hours when the kids are both in school. He'll still be the responsible parent to take them to and from school and after-school activities, so he won't be able to go full time.

It's only usually people over 65 who ask questions about our decisions

I've not faced any significant criticism, but sometimes people comment on the fact that I've not changed my name or that my husband stays at home. Younger people are fine with it. Not even my grandparents said anything, and my dad was actually happy that I was keeping the family name.

Everyone in my life has always known me to be a strong-headed woman, so if I say something is going to happen, they don't question it.

If women want to keep their name, they should feel empowered to do that. Marriage is a commitment between two people — changing a name is just something on paper.

• In November, Miss Universe CEO Anne Jakrajutatip praised the new Miss Universe's blond hair and blue eyes.
• She said Miss Universe didn't need to evolve because "we already got the best here."
• New Miss America Abbie Stockard told BI that Jakrajutatip's remarks were "so frustrating to hear."

Miss Universe CEO Anne Jakrajutatip shocked the pageant community when she praised Miss Universe winner Victoria Kjær Theilvig's blond hair and blue eyes, calling them "the best."

"We have blond and blue eyes, so we're coming to the ultimate evolution already," Jakrajutatip said during a November press conference when a reporter asked her if the Miss Universe pageant still needed to evolve. "We don't need any more evolution here. We already got the best here."

Jakrajutatip's remarks angered some pageant queens and left others unbothered, like Miss Universe first runner-up Chidimma Adetshina.

In a recent interview with Business Insider, the new Miss America Abbie Stockard said she took issue with Jakrajutatip's words.

"That's just so frustrating to hear because I know I fall into that category, and it just seems like it takes away from all the hard work I put into it," Stockard said. "I think people have to know that."

Representatives for Miss Universe and Jakrajutatip did not respond to a request for comment from BI.

Stockard grew up watching Miss America on television every year but only began competing during her first year at Auburn University, where she's currently a nursing student.

"My mom was working four jobs at the time, and I was looking for a way to relieve some of that financial burden on my family," said Stockard, adding that she has acquired over $89,000 in scholarship money from the organization, $50,000 of which came from winning the Miss America title on January 5.

"I fell in love with this organization and everything that it stands for," Stockard added. "And what I learned was that it doesn't matter if you have any previous pageant experience or not; you can win no matter how many years you've been doing it. And I'm excited to use this story of mine to inspire other young women."

Both Miss America and Miss USA — the latter of which is part of the Miss Universe Organization and now overseen by Jakrajutatip — have undergone big changes over the past few years amid their own controversies.

Sam Haskell ran the Miss America Organization for 12 years before he stepped down in 2017 after his vulgar internal emails about past Miss America winners were leaked to the press. He was replaced by former Fox News host and Miss America 1989 Gretchen Carlson, who removed the swimsuit round from the competition. She resigned in June 2019 after Cara Mund, who was Miss America at the time, spoke out against her leadership.

Miss USA made headlines in October 2022 when then-president Crystle Stewart was suspended after contestants said that year's pageant had been rigged. Jakrajutatip took over the Miss Universe Organization that same month.

"We seek not only to continue its legacy of providing a platform to passionate individuals from diverse backgrounds, cultures, and traditions but also to evolve the brand for the next generation," she said in a statement sent to BI at the time.

In August 2023, it was announced that Jakrajutatip had sold the Miss USA license to Laylah Rose. In May 2024, Miss USA Noelia Voigt and Miss Teen USA UmaSofia Srivastava both resigned within days of each other. It was the first time in the pageant's 72-year history that a woman had given up her title.

Their mothers, Jackeline Voigt and Barbara Srivastava, told BI in an interview at the time that their daughters experienced "eight months of torture and abuse" while working with Rose. Miss USA and Rose did not respond to BI's previous requests for comment on the mothers' statements.

These ongoing controversies have helped diminish the luster of pageant competitions in America, where they once had prime-time slots on major networks and were watched by millions of people.

Stockard told BI she thinks Miss America is "going to continue evolving." She hopes to show the world there's far more to the title than physical appearance.

"Miss America is not just a pretty face; she's a force to be reckoned with," Stockard said. "The young women in this organization, they are mentors, they are role models, they are the leaders of tomorrow."

• Insight Partners has raised $12.5 billion for new software investments as the tech market heats up.
• The new funds mark the largest raise by a VC firm in over two years, per PitchBook data.
• Insight investors say they expect a higher caliber of startups to show up for funding this year.

As more startups go to fundraise to top off their bank accounts, Insight Partners is leaning into the opportunity with billions in new cash for its software investments.

Insight has closed on $12.5 billion for its newest set of funds, Business Insider has learned. The sum is little more than half the size of its previous fundraise of $20 billion in 2022 — a big step down that Insight managing director Ryan Hinkle says is indicative of a "great reset" in tech investing over the last several years.

The firm will allocate the new funds across several different categories: its 13th flagship fund, buyout investments, and an opportunities fund, which provides later-stage companies with financing that combines debt and equity features. Insight declined to share the exact financial breakdown of funds.

Insight had initially set out to raise $20 billion for this set of funds, The Financial Times reported last year. The firm lowered its target as investors in venture capital funds broadly backed off the asset class, spooked by plunging tech stock prices, geopolitical chaos, and recession fears. Household names like Tiger Global and TCV have also switched up strategies and closed funds below their targets in recent years.

Insight's $12.5 billion haul is still an impressive get in a market that's limping back to normalcy. According to PitchBook data, the new funds mark the largest sum raised by a venture capital firm in over two years. In 2024, General Catalyst raked in $8 billion in fresh capital, while Andreessen Howoritz's newest fundraise topped $7.2 billion.

Insight invests in companies from the seed round to the IPO and focuses on categories powered by software, such as healthcare, cybersecurity, data, and the future of work. The firm employs about 485 people, including a hundred investment professionals — a massive dragnet for sourcing and closing deals. Early investments include Twitter, Alibaba, Shopify, and, more recently, buzzy AI startups like Jasper, Wiz, and Writer.

Insight returned over $8 billion to the firm's own investors last year out of profits from exits in the portfolio, according to the firm. Among them, Salesforce bought Own, a data management provider, for $1.9 billion, and Mastercard purchased the threat intelligence company Recorded Future from Insight for over $2 billion.

Insight has gassed up the tank as investors widely expect funding for startups to rebound. In late 2022, many founders saw the writing on the wall and cut spending to stretch their cash reserves further. Fewer founders went out to fundraise in an investor-friendly market. Two and a half years later, some of those same founders are now electing to raise money again in order to lean into risk and spend to grow. Hinkle said Insight is eagerly awaiting those firms.

"The better the income statement and performance of these companies, the less likely they have been raising capital the past two and a half years," said Hinkle, noting he was generalizing.

"This is my expectation, at least, that the batch of companies that hasn't raised since 2021, they're either thinking about an exit, which is good because we can buy those companies, or they're thinking about raising capital again, which is good because we can provide the capital," Hinkle said. Either way, he said, Insight has a product for them.

Praveen Akkiraju, a managing director at Insight, had another reason to feel optimistic. Software spending cooled off in the downturn, but more businesses are planning to increase their tech budgets to capture the efficiencies that artificial intelligence can provide. Recent leaps in the field, such as the application of "agents" and the shrinking cost of computing, have also amplified their interest. This is good news for software companies that sell into the enterprise market.

"Every company cares about AI. It doesn't matter if you're legacy software, hardware, transportation, construction, or you're an electrician," Akkiraju said. "That's what's unique about this. It's enabling tech that's going to fundamentally lift the entire ecosystem."

Hinkle also offered a caveat to his funding outlook. He doesn't expect startups to come to market for funding in the same numbers as they did in 2021. Dealmaking will remain subdued, he said. Hinkle put it this way: After weeks of freezing temperatures in New York, 42 degrees and sun can feel downright tropical. But it's still frigid. And the tech winter hasn't thawed yet.

• TSMC reported net income of $11.6 billion in its fourth-quarter earnings Thursday.
• The company, which makes chips for Nvidia and Apple, is riding the AI boom.
• TSMC's CFO said its results were "supported by strong demand" for its advanced chips.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company has reported record earnings, indicating that demand for AI chips remains strong.

TSMC, the world's largest contract semiconductor manufacturer, reported Thursday that its net income increased 57% year-over-year to NT$374.68 billion, or $11.6 billion.

Revenue between October and December increased by 37% from the year-ago period to $26.88 billion. It was up 14.4% from the previous quarter.

"We forecast our revenue from AI accelerator to double in 2025, as a strong surge in AI-related demand continues," said C.C. Wei, the CEO of TSMC, in an analyst call.

That revenue stream already tripled in size in 2024, he said.

The AI accelerator category covers a slew of products that can power computing-hungry AI models.

TSMC manufacturers chips for companies including Nvidia, Apple, and AMD.

Almost three-quarters of TSMC's revenue from its wafer category — products using a thin slice of semiconductor material — came from what the company defines as its "advanced technologies." These are chips measuring 7 nanometers or smaller.

Nvidia's new flagship AI chip, Blackwell, uses 4-nanometer chips manufactured by TSMC.

In an earnings statement, Wendell Huang, senior VP and chief financial officer at TSMC, said that its results were "supported by strong demand" for its most advanced chips — those measuring 3 nanometers and 5 nanometers.

"Moving into first quarter 2025, we expect our business to be impacted by smartphone seasonality, partially offset by continued growth in AI-related demand," Huang said.

In 2024, 35% of TSMC's revenue came from smartphones, while 51% came from high-performance computing.

Earlier this week, the Biden administration introduced new export controls limiting the flow of AI chips to countries that are not US allies. Wei said during the analyst call that the impact of the rules on TSMC's operations is "not significant" and would be "manageable."

TSMC shares were up by nearly 4% after the publication of its earnings and were up more than 90% over the last 12 months.

• Tesla is offering discounts on Cybertrucks as it looks to juice sales.
• Buyers can get $1,600 off a new Cybertruck, with used demo trucks advertised at a $2,600 discount.
• It comes after Tesla reported its first-ever drop in annual sales.

Tesla has started offering discounts on the Cybertruck as it battles to recover from a decline in sales.

The automaker is now advertising up to $1,600 off new Cybertrucks on its website, with buyers also able to pick up demo versions of the futuristic pickup with just a few hundred miles on the clock at a $2,600 discount.

It comes after Tesla moved some of its workers off its Cybertruck production line at its Austin factory, three employees at the facility previously told Business Insider.

The workers were moved to the production line for Tesla's best-selling Model Y sedan, a move which two of them said was unusual.

Sales of the Cybertruck, which launched in 2023 and was Tesla's first new passenger vehicle since the Model Y was released in 2020, have faced scrutiny in recent months.

The company does not make Cybertruck sales figures public, but it said it sold 85,000 "other vehicles," including Cybertrucks, Model X, and Model S vehicles, in 2024.

Tesla amassed two million reservations for the Cybertruck prior to the vehicle's release, according to an online tracker published by Electrek.

The automaker has said the unorthodox off-roader is now turning a profit, and industry data shows it is still outselling rivals like the Ford F-150 Lightning.

However, that hasn't been enough to stop Tesla from recording its first-ever annual sales decline in 2024, despite piling on incentives toward the end of the year.

The carmaker is now pushing to meet Elon Musk's ambitious target of 20-30% sales growth this year, unveiling a revamped version of the Model Y in Asia last week.

The Cybertruck also faced multiple recalls in 2024, ranging from problems with its enormous windshield wiper to a fault that risked the truck's accelerator pedal getting jammed at full throttle.

The discounts, first reported by CNBC, may help alleviate one of the biggest barriers for Tesla fans eyeing the trapezoid truck: the price.

When Elon Musk unveiled the Cybertruck in 2019, he said the angular EV would start at $39,900, with the most expensive version selling for about $70,000.

However, initial versions of the Cybertruck were priced at over $100,000, and Tesla only rolled out a cheaper all-wheel-drive version for $80,000 in October.

Tesla did not respond to a request for comment, sent outside normal working hours.

• Ukraine said one of its F-16 pilots downed a record-breaking six cruise missiles in one mission.
• That shows how much Ukraine's air force has developed, a former US F-16 pilot told BI.
• All of its systems had to work well, and it showed how Ukraine is fighting more like the West.

A Ukrainian pilot's record-breaking shootdown of six missiles with an F-16 offers insight into how much its air force has developed as it fights back against Russia's invasion.

Throughout much of the war, Ukraine's air force faced one of the world's biggest air forces with a fleet of older, Soviet-designed combat aircraft while begging the West for F-16s readily available in NATO arsenals.

The US, however, refused to allow the transfer, even as other allies pushed to give Ukraine the aircraft. Washington felt they would arrive too late, that training would take too long, and the jets could prompt Russian escalation. But it eventually relented.

Early usage of the aircraft in combat saw the loss of an airframe and the Ukrainian pilot, raising questions about how much of an impact the jets could make.

But Ukraine's assertion that one of its F-16 pilots downed six Russian cruise missiles in one mission — which it said is a record for the American-made fighter jet — shows how much Ukraine's air force has developed, a former American F-16 pilot told Business Insider.

Responding to missile threats requires coordination and quick reaction. Ret. Col. John Venable, a 25-year veteran of the US Air Force and a former F-16 pilot, told BI the pilot being alert, able to get a notification, and get out in time to intercept all of those missiles "says a lot" about "the capabilities are of the Ukrainian Air Force."

The reported intercept spoke to "their ability to actually detect" cruise missiles and "then scramble fighters in order to successfully intercept them." he said. Cruise missiles do not fire back like a Russian jet would, but it was a very impressive showing of Ukraine's air force.

Responding like this was "no simple task," Venable said, which required all of Ukraine's command and control systems, as well as its sensors and radars, to work together. He said that to "actually find, fix and engage threats that are inbound to your nation, that says a lot about their command and control."

Fighting like the West

Venable said the event shows how much Ukraine has been fighting like the West does.

He said Russia's "command and control apparatus is basically scripted," which means they have an issue letting pilots "go out and actually do what you are required to do without someone doing a puppeteer thing over the top of you."

The Ukrainian F-16 pilot pulling off what Ukraine says they did "says a lot about how far the Ukrainians have come" from their Soviet start and that "scheme of close control."

Peter Layton, a fellow at the Griffith Asia Institute and a former Royal Australian Air Force officer, told BI the intercept showed the pilot had "good training" since he was "able to react quickly to a changing situation."

"Russian pilots have a reputation of needing to receive orders from their ground controllers,'" he said. This event demonstrates Ukrainian pilots "have adopted Western methods of operating both independently and aggressively when the situation is right."

For instance, Ukraine said the pilot, who said he was out of missiles and short on fuel, made a quick decision to keep fighting, pursuing two more of the Russian missiles with guns, a riskier engagement requiring control of the plane and confidence a safe airfield was nearby.

Ukraine, generally, has adopted a more Western style of fighting, with individuals and leaders making quick decisions away from the central command. But Russia, though it has been learning, has been hampered by not delegating such responsibility, making it slower to respond to battlefield developments and even losing commanders as a result.

Ukraine's F-16 pilots have received training from a coalition of countries, including the Netherlands, Canada, Denmark, the US, and Romania.

The exchange is not one-sided. While many of Ukraine's soldiers have received training from Western allies, those allies say Ukraine is teaching them about tactics and how to fight Russia, too.

Western officials and warfare experts say Ukraine's tactics and successes reveal lessons that the West should learn for fighting Russia.

These lessons have been something of a trade-off as the West provides more gear and as Ukraine signs agreements with countries like the UK, Denmark, and France, with the war showing vulnerabilities in systems and tactics.

The Westernization of Ukraine's army aids its ambition to join NATO, an uncertainty while the country is at war with Russia and a question in the aftermath.

A small air force

Before Russia's full-scale invasion, some expected Ukraine's air force would be immediately destroyed in a war with Russia.

Russia attempted to wipe out Ukraine's air force at the start but failed, with Ukraine able to disperse many jets and keep them intact. Those surviving aircraft have played key roles in its defense, even as the skies remain heavily contested.

Ukraine's air force is expanding and becoming more Western with the arrival of F-16s and a pledge from France to send Mirage aircraft.

Warfare experts say Ukraine has nowhere near enough F-16s to make a difference against Russia, and the few it does have are older versions, less powerful than what many allies have and Russia's best jets. Ukraine appears to be using its few F-16s primarily to help its air defenses battle missile threats rather than sending them on risky missions against Russian jets or critical ground targets.

The Ukrainian jets, 50-year-old aircraft made by Lockheed Martin, typically fly with a loadout of four air-to-air missiles and are equipped with bolt-on self-defense pylons for detecting incoming missiles.

Venable said the air-defense mission has met his expectations for how Ukraine would use them.

Ukraine, Venable said, does not have enough F-16s, nor does it have the support systems or upgrades, to be able to use them aggressively to change the shape of the war.

Ukraine's air force is not perfect, Venable said. But the progress so far is clear. "As far as being able to intercept inbound missiles and being able to engage them, this says a lot about their capabilities."

• I spent two nights in Snowmass, a ski town in Colorado.
• Snowmass is often mentioned in reference to its popular neighbor, Aspen.
• I've visited both and would book future trips to Snowmass.

It's hard to pinpoint what makes Colorado's ski town Snowmass stand out.

I could argue that it's the mountain itself. As one of the state's largest ski mountains, people spend entire days on the slopes, hitting every type of terrain and avoiding a single crowd.

I could say it's the community. It's impossible to avoid a friendly conversation with your waiter or the couple sitting next to you sipping après margaritas.

Maybe it's the town's casual nature. Sure, Snowmass has high-end restaurants and luxury lodges, but no one bats an eye if you eat $88 sashimi in Crocs and sweatpants.

Sara Stookey Sanchez, Snowmass' public relations manager, told me that it boils down to a "vibe."

"What I think makes us so special, and it's truly a terrible answer, but it's a vibe," she said. "The community lives and breathes Snowmass."

With Snowmass sitting just 15 minutes from Aspen, the town is rarely mentioned without reference to its glitzy neighbor. But after spending three days in Snowmass, I discovered what Stookey Sanchez meant.

Although both towns have their appeal, I'll stick to Snowmass for future ski trips.

In terms of skiing, Snowmass is the winner

Colorado is dotted with ski towns, and over the past four winters, I've checked more than a dozen off my list.

I've headed to Vail, where I felt transported to Europe. As a snowboarder living in Denver, Winter Park and Breckenridge have become favorites thanks to their proximity to the city. During my first Colorado winter, I spent three nights exploring Aspen while keeping my eyes peeled for celebrities.

Each destination has its highlights, but in terms of the actual mountain, Snowmass stands out.

Snowmass is one of the four mountains that make up the Aspen Snowmass Ski Resort. The other three include Aspen Mountain, Aspen Highlands, and Buttermilk.

Snowmass was ideal for me, an intermediate snowboader. There was plenty of terrain to explore, and for a full day, I rarely lapped a ski run. Instead, I breezed through empty lift lines and carved fresh tracks across the mountain.

Plus, the mountain seemed suited for all levels of experience. There are terrain parks, bunny hills, and plenty of black runs.

Meanwhile, I couldn't even snowboard during my trip to Aspen. While Aspen is known as a popular ski town, Aspen Mountain's terrain is limited to intermediate and expert skiers who can get down steep runs. When I visited a few years ago, I wasn't comfortable on the mountain. Even today, I'm sure I could get down the mountain, but I'm not sure I'd enjoy it.

During my three-day stay, I heard this from others. Skiers and snowboarders raved about Snowmass, and plenty mentioned that although they stayed in Aspen, they were coming to Snowmass every day to ski.

While Aspen has the reputation, Snowmass has the scale

The town of Snowmass is split into two areas: Snowmass Base and Snowmass Mall. Snowmass Base Village is much more modern, with fine dining options, a skating rink, and luxury condos and hotels. There's also the Snowmass Mall, home to retail, food, and more accommodations.

Snowmass' main appeal — at least to me — is its ski-in, ski-out accommodations. More than 14 of the town's hotels and condos have direct access to lifts. For example, I spent two nights at the Viceroy Snowmass, where a lift line was less than a five-minute walk from my hotel room. For me, getting on the mountain easily is a huge advantage when it comes to a ski trip.

Aspen, on the other hand, has far fewer ski-in, ski-out options. A quick search online shows just six, including The Little Nell, where a night during the winter rarely costs less than $2,500.

There are some areas where Aspen shines. Although upscale, the town itself feels more charming. Quaint buildings fill the town center, and the town's rich mining history is hard to ignore as you walk between Prada and Valentino stores. Art galleries dot the town, and a night at Aspen's Belly Up concert venue is something you won't find in Snowmass.

Plus, the food options in Aspen are incomparable. The town has more restaurants than Snowmass, including Michelin-starred options like Bosq.

With Aspen's exclusive reputation comes a higher price. Aspen is considered one of the most expensive ski towns in the US. In a 2024 ranking of the country's most expensive vacation destinations, OptimosTravel said the average weeklong trip to Aspen was $5,330 per person. According to Kayak, the average weeknight hotel cost in the first two weeks of January in Snowmass was about $1,040 compared to Aspen's $1,900 average.

After visiting both, finding cheaper eats was more doable in Snowmass, where you could find $15 sandwiches and $9 breakfast burritos.

Meanwhile, some costs between the towns remain the same. The mountains, for example, all share the same lift tickets, so skiing — no matter where you are — will cost about $250 a day.

But if you're staying in Snowmass, where accommodations are cheaper, your dollar stretches further, and you'll have a little more budget to après in Aspen.

The debate between the two towns is age-old

With only 15 minutes between the two towns, I'm far from the first to compare the pair, and I won't be the last.

Plenty of people prefer Aspen — it's a charming town to see and be seen. Others, however, love the expansive outdoors and laid-back vibe Snowmass provides.

And even if you do end up in Snowmass, I'd argue that a trip there wouldn't be complete without at least one night spent drinking, dining, and wandering Aspen.

For me, a ski trip boils down to the skiing itself. If I had to choose between lugging my snowboarding gear on a bus each morning versus finding a ski-in, ski-out condo in Snowmass and hitting more terrain, I'd choose the latter.

• It may be difficult to take your teenager's breakup seriously.
• Journalist Lisa Phillips wrote a book to show parents how to help their heartbroken teens.
• She said you need to validate their feelings and ensure they aren't withdrawing.

When Lisa Phillips' 13-year-old daughter started dating another person, the author and journalist became distressed. She wondered how this relationship — and eventual breakup — would affect her only daughter.

This led Phillips to write the book, "First Love: Guiding Teens Through Relationships and Heartbreak." It's aimed to help parents — like herself — navigate these new treacherous waters.

"Sometimes parents get caught up in what kind of relationship it was, saying, 'Oh, it was just a crush,' or 'Oh, this was just this weird situation. You never really said that you were an official couple. So it's probably good you can move on now,'" Phillips told Business Insider.

While that will be most parents' gut reaction, it isn't the best one. It can be difficult to manage your teen's feelings through this difficult time, but it's not impossible. Here's how.

First, validate your child's feelings

"If the heartbreak is happening, you want to validate it," Philips said, emphasizing that validation is the most important thing a parent can do.

Teens need to hear from their parents that their grief matters and their breakup matters — even if it may seem trivial to you.

Dr. Maria Ashford, a psychologist who has years of experience working with teens, said she sees heartbreak as one of many factors that may be leading to an increase in anxiety and stress.

"Teens, in general, are more hesitant to share these types of vulnerabilities, but especially in an environment where they may be unsure of whether their feelings will be validated or what kind of response they get," Ashford told Business Insider.

By validating their feelings, you're showing your teen you want to be there for them and help them move on with their lives.

Help them take the next steps toward healing

Some heartbroken teens might want to talk about the breakup all the time. Phillips said it's important that your teen doesn't ruminate or stay stuck in negative thoughts about the breakup. Instead, they need the right guidance to get out of this loop.

Phillips recommended saying: "Alright, we've really talked about this a lot. I am worried your brain is getting worn out. Let's think of one problem you can fix now."

You can also ask them if there are other concrete ways to support them. For example, Philips said, helping them deal with how they're going to work at their after-school job if that person is going to be there and coming up with strategies for them to talk to their boss to arrange different shifts.

What if your teen is hesitant to discuss their feelings with you?

Ashford said that if your adolescent isn't talking to you about their feelings, you need to watch for behaviors like avoiding certain activities or social engagements. This may be a sign that they're depressed.

Ashford said to check in with your reticent adolescent and suggested saying: "I know that you just went through something really tough, and when we go through these periods, it's helpful to talk to someone about how we feel. I also know sometimes it can be hard to do that with parents, so I just want to make sure you feel you have someone you trust who you can talk to about these things."

She also suggested you work together to find a therapist if they refuse to talk.

Remember, this is not about you

If you were close to your child's ex, you may have feelings of loss and grief, but you have to find ways of dealing with that on your own.

Phillips also added that this is not the time to discuss your own breakup or your past romantic disappointments.

"Do not bring up your divorce — especially if it's that child's parent," Phillips said. "That's just really not OK. That stirs up all kinds of issues of loyalty."

It's most important to focus on your child at this time and what they need to get through the breakup.

"In this moment, your child needs to feel heard on the [issues] they're dealing with in their life," Phillips added.

• The idea of a 32-hour workweek has gained steam over the years, and some businesses are trying it.
• Now, a group of progressive staffers are hoping to bring it to Congress.
• They're calling on lawmakers to enact 32-hour weeks on Capitol Hill when Congress isn't in session.

The 32-hour workweek has been steadily growing more popular. More and more businesses are experimenting with versions of it, and many workers say it makes them not just happier, but more productive.

Now, some are hoping to bring it to the halls of Congress.

In an open letter set to be sent later on Thursday, the Congressional Progressive Staff Association will call on members of Congress to consider implementing a "rotating" 32-hour workweek for staff.

"By establishing a rotating 32-hour workweek for District and DC staff, you can help increase retention, boost productivity, and improve the quality of life for your team," reads the letter.

Congress has a unique schedule — and unique workplace arrangements.

When the House or Senate is in session, lawmakers are in Washington taking votes, attending committee hearings, and working long hours alongside staff out of their Capitol Hill offices. When they're out of session, lawmakers are typically back at their district offices, meeting with constituents and holding events.

Under the proposed plan, staffers in Washington would work a 32-hour week when lawmakers are back in their districts, while district-based staffers would work a 32-hour week when lawmakers are in Washington.

The letter floats multiple possible versions of a potential 32-hour workweek, including having every employee work 8 hours for the same 4 days, staggering when employees' workweeks take place in order to ensure the office is staffed for all five days of the week, or having employees work five days a week with reduced hours each day.

"Working 32 hours, employees have a more substantial reprieve from work and therefore are able to complete the same tasks in less time," the letter reads. "If implemented for Congressional staff, Members could see the same increase in job satisfaction among their teams, while maintaining or increasing their level of productivity."

Michael Suchecki, a spokesman for the Congressional Progressive Staff Association, told BI in an interview this week that the proposal is not about bringing further perks to what's already a prestigious job, but to "set a precedent for everyday working Americans across the country, and help turn the page to what the future of the workweek can look like for everyone."

In the letter, the staffers argue that making the change will help to combat not just burnout among staffers but also turnover, a common occurrence given that staffers can often make more money with less demanding hours at private-sector jobs in Washington.

"We need to make sure that Congress is still able to draw in and retain the best talent, as opposed to having one of the highest turnovers of any industry in the world," said Suchecki.

Some in Congress have proposed legislation to implement a 32-hour workweek nationwide. Last year, Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont introduced the "Thirty Two Hour Workweek Act."

• Venice Simplon-Orient-Express' new ultra-luxury sleeper carriage is set to debut in March.
• The L'Observatoire suite has a butler, a secret lounge, and a marble bathroom for $100,200 a night.
• Belmond's luxury train has seen a booking boom amid a revived rail renaissance.

A $100,200 check could change someone's life — or be just enough to cover their one-night stay in Venice Simplon-Orient-Express' L'Observatoire suite, debuting in March.

Luxury travel company Belmond operates a fleet of six trains. Rail enthusiast or not, you'll likely recognize its famous Venice Simplon-Orient-Express, a 108-guest moving hotel with revamped century-old carriages that still retain the extravagance of the time.

It's this old glitz and glamour that has made the swanky train — and its forthcoming suite — a magnet for the growing luxury rail aficionado community.

Gary Franklin, Belmond's senior vice president of trains and cruises, told BI that reservations for the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express spiked 10% from 2023 to 2024.

Its six Grand Suites are often the first accommodations to be booked, despite its starting price of £22,360 — about $27,310 — for one night. That's more than triple the cost of the train's basic cabins.

These suites, considered a bucket list for wealthy travelers, are the most luxurious accommodations on the train.

Come March, this title will be dethroned by the L'Observatoire.

The more than 330-square-foot suite would be the largest on the train, spanning an entire carriage.

Travelers in the lowest-tier cabins have to share a bathroom with other parties.

Meanwhile, guests luxuriating in the L'Observatoire would have their own freestanding bathtub, separate from the en-suite marble bathroom.

Take a soak while sipping a glass of Champagne — alcohol is complimentary.

French artist JR designed the restored carriage-turned-cabin.

As such, expect creative details in the bedroom, such as green scalloped walls and a round skylight with wood covers that pivot like a camera lens.

It's perfect for gazing at the night sky while lying on the double bed.

Spend your afternoons lounging in the living room.

Peruse the fully stocked bookshelf or take a catnap on the window-side daybed.

If you're more social — or don't feel like eating in the three dining cars — consider hosting a group of friends at the adjacent dining table.

The space can also be rearranged into a living room with couches. Your butler, available around the clock, can likely help you with this furniture jigsaw.

Play a few rounds of 'I Spy' as you look for hidden nooks and messages around the suite.

Look closely at the library to find a secret door. It will lead you into the "tea room," which is finished with a fireplace, another round skylight, and a miniature train model.

The Venice Simplon-Orient Express has 17 carriages — 18 when guests request this lavish suite.

The L'Observatoire carriage is available upon request for £82,000, or about $100,170, per night, according to Franklin.

Despite the steep cost, reservations have been "fantastic," he said, noting that it had been booked for nine nights — about halfway to its first-year expectations — as of mid-December 2024.

Not bad, considering that it costs more than a year's tuition at a private American college.

• Matt and Anya Schodorf are cofounders and owners of Café de Leche, with 4 locations in the LA area.
• Café de Leche's Altadena location was destroyed in the Palisades fire.
• A GoFundMe campaign has raised over $20,000 to support affected employees.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Matt and Anya Schodorf, owners and cofounders of Café de Leche, a coffee roasting café and small business in Los Angeles. It has been edited for length and clarity.

My wife, Anya, and I had four locations of Café de Leche around the Los Angeles area, but our Altadena location — our most popular and busiest one — burned down in the Palisades fire. Most of our livelihood comes from that location, which we developed into a thriving business over the past nine years.

To us, the café was more than just a building. It was a spot where the community gathered, where customers held celebrations for momentous occasions, from wedding receptions to baby showers, and where some of our employees, who later started relationships, first met.

Right now, we're mourning the loss of all these intangible things, like the sense of community connected to that space, and worrying about what will happen next.

That location had six permanent employees, and we also worry about their ability to provide for their families.

We're still stunned at how this all happened so fast

We've had windstorms in Altadena before. We went there at 9:30 p.m. to batten down the hatches — put away outdoor umbrellas and check if furniture had blown over. We watered down the patio in case ashes or embers came in and disposed of a downed Christmas tree leftover from the holidays. We walked around; it was so peaceful. Then, we sat in the office for a minute to pray.

We got our mail and locked the door, giving one last look at our business before we got in the car. Although we saw the fire on the foothills near east Altadena, we never expected the winds to blow the fires so close to our business, let alone for it to catch fire. We didn't think to take anything from the shop.

We woke up scared the next morning and tried to check on our business

We drove up at 6:30 a.m. along West Altadena, thinking it would be the safest route. Everywhere we looked, houses were burning down, and businesses were on fire. We couldn't see through the pitch-black smoke, so we turned around. It was getting unsafe.

Later, our daughter discovered online that the fire station half a block from the café had caught on fire. When we heard that, we knew things wouldn't be good. Then, someone commented on one of our Instagram posts saying they saw the café on fire. We tried to occupy ourselves, but we couldn't stop thinking about what might be happening to our business.

When it was safe to return, we went back up. Nothing was left. We were stunned.

We realize our business is just a thing, but we put a lot of love into it, and it makes up the bulk of our livelihoods

We are a small, mom-and-pop-run business; we don't have investors or a franchise. We put everything into the business, and each décor item was chosen and curated with love.

We're trying to find roles for the six permanent employees within our other locations, but in the meantime, we've set up a GoFundMe page to help them.

Our goal was to get $10,000 for our employees, and it was amazingly fully funded within the first 24 hours. At this point, over $20,000 has been raised. The support has been beyond anything we ever imagined, and we are grateful beyond measure.

Most employees live within 20 minutes of the café, if not directly in Altadena or Pasadena. Many had to evacuate, some lost their homes, and all have been impacted severely by this tragic event. We hope that these funds help bring them some comfort.

We hope to rebuild and come back stronger

People have special places they feel connected to, and this spot was that for many members of our community.

We hope the insurance companies will be true to their word and cover our losses, and the government will pause payments on our mortgage. How can we pay a mortgage on land that no longer has a business on it? These are just some of the things we are worrying about.

After those who've lost their homes are taken care of, we'd like to see some resources available to small businesses to help us.

Our hearts go out to those who lost their homes. We are very cognizant of people who lost more than we did, and we want to send love and support to them.

• An uptick in retirements and a decrease in immigration could help some job seekers.
• US businesses are hiring at the lowest rate since 2013, excluding a two-month dip in 2020.
• A smaller workforce could aid some job seekers but poses risks to the economy.

An uptick in retirements and a decrease in immigration could make it easier for some Americans to find work this year.

Cory Stahle, an economist at the Indeed Hiring Lab, told Business Insider that these factors are likely to make it "slightly easier" for some people to find work in 2025 — particularly those looking for "in-person, skilled-labor" jobs where hiring is the strongest on Indeed's job platform.

"Backfills for retiring employees, paired with fewer workers coming from abroad, are likely to mean less competition for many roles," he said, referring to government projections of lower net immigration levels this year and next, along with the potential for stricter immigration policies under the incoming Trump administration. "But it's probably still going to feel harder to find a job than it did during the hiring surge we saw in 2021 and early 2022."

There are some signs that the hiring landscape could improve, and economists told BI that the ongoing retirement wave and the potential for lower immigration levels could favor job seekers this year.

This could be the break many people wanted. While the unemployment rate remains low compared to historical levels, US businesses are hiring at the lowest rate since 2013 — excluding a two-month pandemic-related dip in 2020. This has made it harder for some people to find work. As of December, roughly 1.6 million people had been looking for work for at least six months — up from 1.3 million a year prior.

Stahle said that 2025 could mark an "important inflection point" when demographic factors begin to lead to a decline in the labor force participation rate — which he added has been roughly flat over the last year.

"Once that process starts, it is unlikely to reverse course without a massive surge in immigration or growth in labor market involvement from older workers above all-time highs," he said.

A gap in the workforce could be on the horizon

About 1.1 million baby boomers retired in 2024, and an estimated 2 million will do so this year, Adam Schickling, a senior economist at Vanguard, told Business Insider.

Schickling said there are roughly 8 million working Americans between the ages of 63 and 67 — a common age range for retirement. While there were a similar number of people in this group last year, Schickling said a larger share of this year's cohort is older — between the ages of 65 and 67 — which is among the reasons Vanguard expects an uptick in retirements.

Schickling added that some older workers postponed their retirements because the strong labor market made it easier to secure work. But he said many of these workers will likely choose to retire before they turn 70.

"2025 is shaping up to be one the biggest years for baby boomer retirements," he said. That, coupled with a smaller-than-usual cohort of people between the ages of 20 and 24, suggests there will be a very low labor supply growth this year, he added.

Stahle said workers over 55 are spread across the labor market but are particularly common in business, management, healthcare, and education roles.

Meanwhile, the Congressional Budget Office projected last year that net immigration levels — and overall population growth — would begin declining in 2025. Additionally, on the campaign trail, President-elect Donald Trump said he would carry out the "largest domestic deportation in American history," though the extent of his plans is unknown.

"If the incoming administration follows through on promises of limiting immigration and implementing mass deportations, it is likely that we see the demographics impact the labor supply sooner rather than later," Stahle said.

Leisure and hospitality, construction, and agriculture are the industries with the highest share of immigrant workers who are not US citizens as of 2022, per the most recent Census Bureau data available.

When reached for comment, Karoline Leavitt, spokeswoman for the Trump-Vance transition team, said that as president, Trump "will enlist every federal power and coordinate with state authorities to institute the largest deportation operation of illegal criminals, drug dealers, and human traffickers in American history while simultaneously lowering costs for families and strengthening our workforce."

A smaller workforce could ultimately hurt the economy

To be sure, it's uncertain how much retirements and changes to immigration levels will impact the US labor supply in 2025. Kory Kantenga, head of economics, Americas, at LinkedIn's Economic Graph Research Institute, told BI that retirement levels have been relatively stable over the past year, per LinkedIn data. Additionally, the specifics of the Trump administration's immigration policies haven't been announced.

While a lower labor supply might help some Americans find work, it could also come with significant economic downsides.

"Declining labor supply can improve prospects for job-searchers, but too few workers can also result in inflationary wage growth and supply disruptions that perpetuate inflation," Schickling said. For example, labor supply issues in the construction industry — which has long relied on immigrant labor — could make it more difficult for the US to increase its housing supply, he added.

Kantenga said that in the long run, having an economy with fewer workers could lead to lower consumer spending and slower economic growth.

"Slower growth means fewer opportunities for everyone," he said, adding, "And so it's not necessarily clear that it's going to make workers better off just because it may be easier for them to find a job."

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• Business Insider asked successful men across industries about their favorite fashion.
• Some said they love fan-favorite athleisure brands like Alo Yoga and Lululemon.
• Others prefer pieces from Loro Piana, Acne Studios, and Buck Mason.

It doesn't matter if they wear scrubs or suits during the workday.

Successful men across industries have scoured stores and websites to find their favorite fashion items.

Some have landed on sites like The RealReal, where they buy designer suits for half the retail price. Others buy tops, jeans, and other wardrobe essentials from designers who have local boutiques in their areas.

Here are the brands and pieces a few professionals told Business Insider about, from fan-favorite athleisure to designer denim.

Pants from Alo Yoga are one venture capitalist's secret to feeling comfortable at work.

Rob Biederman, 38, is busy. He founded Asymmetric Capital Partners in 2021, now works as the fund's managing partner, and was named a BI rising star of venture capital in 2023.

He also serves as chairman for Catalent Technologies, the pharma and biotech company he previously founded.

Whether he's sitting in an office or on the go for a work trip, Biederman has found the $128 Day and Night pants from Alo Yoga to be the most comfortable and work-appropriate option on the market.

"I'm actually wearing them right now," he said during an interview with BI. "I might wake up in New York, fly to Boston, fly to San Francisco, then fly to London. So, I need things that can do well across multiple days. They can't get wrinkled if I wear them twice."

In his experience, Alo's slacks fit the bill. They're sold in four neutral colors, and each pair has four pockets.

He also incorporates pieces from Billy Reid and Buck Mason throughout his wardrobe.

"They're two brands that I find to be such undiscovered players," Biederman told BI. '"And it happens that both of their stores are really close to my apartment in West Village."

He describes clothes from both brands as classy, stylish, and crafted with quality. Biederman said they also hold up well after airplane rides and busy days.

Buck Mason is best known for its jackets, button-up tops, and thermal layering pieces. The brand's menswear items range from $45 to $1,498.

Billy Reid, on the other hand, sells elevated basics like lambskin jackets, printed button-ups, and peacoats, with each piece costing between $68 and $1,998.

Depending on the occasion, one art professional switches between denim from Andersson Bell and DL1961.

Paul Hill, the 25-year-old founder of the art-tech company Strada, describes himself as a "big uniform guy."

He spends his days operating a New York City gallery and developing workflow management software for the art industry. So he prefers to keep his wardrobe simple.

"I'm just like, let me pretty much wear the same thing as much as possible every day," he said with a laugh.

The base of his outfits is always a pair of jeans from one of two brands. When he wants a classic fit, he wears New York-based DL1961, which sells sustainably-made pants that cost between $158 and $258 each.

On days when he wants to go high-fashion, however, Hill turns to Andersson Bell. Designer pants from the Seoul brand feature patchwork patterns, oversize pockets, and unique washes. They cost upward of $306 each.

One tech professional in the education space alternates between three designer brands.

Sasha Bratyshkin, 28, formerly worked as an engineer at Facebook and now serves as the cofounder and chief technology officer of Housing.Cloud, a platform that helps students find housing.

In the summer, he enjoys wearing designer pieces from Dries Van Noten and Jacquemus. The latter is known for its cropped jackets, statement button-up tops, and graphic hoodies. Its menswear pieces cost between $150 and $4,590 each.

But at the start of the year, you can usually find Bratyshkin wearing Acne Studios.

"They have great sweaters," he said of the Stockholm-based brand. "It's a cozy line."

The average knitwear piece from the brand retails for $620.

He also searches for new fashion pieces on Ssense.

Since the end of 2024, Bratyshkin has been using the e-commerce site Ssense to find designer pieces at discounts — specifically ones that keep him warm in the winter.

"I'm having a little cardigan phase, so I'm shopping for a lot of that stuff on there," he told BI.

The website sells brands like Bottega Veneta, Comme des Garçons, and Stella McCartney and occasionally offers discounts you likely wouldn't find on the retailer's website.

A finance professional creates his ensembles using garments from John Elliott and 3sixteen.

Reed Switzer, 24, created the fintech company Hopscotch, which helps small businesses pay bills more easily.

He wears Buck Mason's $158 chinos for work most days. On his days off, however, he typically wears jeans from the New York City brand 3sixteen, specializing in Japanese denim. Pairs usually cost around $250 each.

"It's really, really solid stuff," he told BI about the brand's products. "I always had issues finding jeans that I really liked, and this brand just kills it."

As for tops, Switzer gravitates toward heavyweight, good-quality tees. He's a big fan of the $158 ones from designer John Elliott.

"I think they're really great, basic, plain T-shirts," he said. "And the cut on them is always really nice."

His suits of choice come from the Italian brand Loro Piana.

"Any time I need to be a little bit more dressy, Loro Piana, I think, is classic," Switzer told BI. "You can't go wrong with them."

The brand's suits can cost between $4,200 and $6,825 and are favored by celebrities like Andrew Garfield.

Switzer said he also enjoys the designer's trousers for work days.

No matter the occasion, this real-estate professional wants to wear Lululemon.

"Regardless of whether I'm staying in the house or I'm going out, you'll always catch me in some form of a Lululemon outfit," Bryce Grandison, a 27-year-old former real-estate analyst, told BI.

Now studying to become a licensed agent in his home state of Georgia, Grandison doesn't have much time to focus on fashion. So, he sticks with matching sets.

He especially likes the brand's jersey pieces, which range in price between $58 and $98, the $128 ABC joggers, and the $128 half-zip sweaters.

The RealReal is the ideal place to create a luxury wardrobe, says one dermatologist and CEO.

Reed Waldman, 30, is a dermatologist and the CEO of Veradermics, a biopharmaceutical company he founded. During each workday, he wears his personal uniform: a blazer and trousers or a full suit with a tie.

"I don't think I've bought any brand-new clothes in several years," he told BI. "I am an avid shopper of The RealReal. I primarily wear Cesare Attolini, Tom Ford suits, and Hermès ties."

He discovered the retail platform when he first entered the dermatology field with only one suit in his closet. A colleague suggested he try some designer pieces from the secondhand site.

"I think I bought some navy Brioni blazer for $70, and I was like, 'This is so much cheaper than going to Macy's,'" he said. "And people were like, 'This is a really nice blazer. You look really nice.' So then I started buying a lot more dress clothes."

• Brandy Melville is expanding in Asia with a new store in Seoul, South Korea's capital.
• The store is in Seongsu-dong, a hip neighborhood often likened to Brooklyn.
• The store saw snaking queues and products flying off the shelves in its first week of operation.

Brandy Melville, the teen-favorite clothing store that offers a "one size fits all" sizing approach, just opened a new store in Seoul's answer to Brooklyn — and it's a big hit.

The store, located in the hip Seongsu-dong area, opened on January 3 and was flooded with customers in its first week of operation, according to The Korea Herald.

Snaking queues formed outside the store in its first week of operations, as seen in TikTok videos posted by customers.

Other TikTok posts about the store's opening showed customers spending hours waiting in line.

The videos showed a well-stocked inventory, with full stacks of clothes on islands around the store. Products were snatched up fast, with staff having to restock the shelves frequently, per multiple reports from South Korean media outlets.

TikToker users have also been quick to post their shopping hauls from the new store, showing off their new sweaters and cami purchases. Other videos called it a "must-visit" store and one of the "new trendy places" in the Seongsu-dong neighborhood.

The Seoul store adds to the chain's small but growing presence in Asia. Brandy Melville currently has five other stores in the continent — one each in Singapore, Hong Kong, and Japan, and two in mainland China.

Founded in Italy in the 1980s, the brand gained popularity after expanding to the US in 2009 and establishing its image as the go-to retailer for teenage girls in the US.

Representatives for Brandy Melville did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider sent outside regular business hours.

Three days a week, Annie spends two hours commuting to her public relations job outside Denver. Her company changed its office policy last year from remote to hybrid, leading her to lease a car and get back on the road. So on Fridays — without telling her coworkers — Annie typically doesn't work.

On the final day of the workweek, Annie watches TV, goes to the gym, takes a walk, or sometimes goes skiing. She keeps her phone or computer nearby to be available for messages in case something unexpected happens, but pushes her easiest work to Fridays, wraps it up quickly, and starts her weekly long weekend as early as possible.

When Annie is on the mountain instead of at her desk, she has "zero remorse," she tells me — on a phone call she scheduled on a Friday afternoon — even if she's a little worried about getting caught. (She asked that I change her name for this story for fear of retribution from her employer.)

Annie says the return-to-office mandate has worn down her social battery and made her less productive than when she worked from home full time. She was recently diagnosed as autistic, she says, and working from home has allowed her to focus better without coworkers interrupting. "If they expect me to come into the office and be fully present and sacrifice a lot of really important things that have improved my quality of life," she says, "then Fridays are the very least that I can do for myself to get through it."

What was once the final push to the weekend is becoming a sneaky personal day for some remote workers. The trend has been called "quiet Fridays" or "gentle Fridays" — a clandestine progression of casual Fridays or summer Fridays from the prepandemic era.

Some companies are instituting policies to ban meetings from being scheduled on Fridays and discourage sending emails. Sen. Bernie Sanders introduced legislation last year calling to shorten the workweek to 32 hours. In Tokyo, government workers will soon have the option of four-day workweeks, a move meant to give people more time to prioritize family as fertility rates in Japan have fallen and some have overworked themselves to the point of death.

But the dream of an official four-day workweek stays largely out of reach from many. Greece last year enacted a law enabling a six-day workweek in certain industries, a move to combat a shrinking population and lack of skilled workers. Workers are revolting against unpopular RTO mandates. Now, fed-up remote workers are sometimes taking back the day for themselves, particularly as the rise-and-grind girlboss mindset of the 2010s has been eclipsed by the ascent of the anti-work movement. Since the pandemic, burnout is up, workplace loyalty is shrinking as companies conduct mass layoffs, and people are prioritizing self-care over impressing the boss with long hours. Office attendance may be creeping back up, but Friday remains the least popular day to commute, by far. And as I found, for many workers at the end of the week, the W in WFH is in scare quotes.

A search through Reddit and TikTok will reveals number of viral hacks to trick your boss into thinking you're actively online. There are mouse jigglers and apps that keep screens on but also tips like turning off your phone's auto-caps settings so Slack messages look like they're sent from a computer and not a phone. More rogue hacks include putting PowerPoint into presenting mode to keep a screen on, entering into a Zoom meeting with yourself, or tying a mouse to an oscillating fan.

While workers may appear to their employers to be online and grinding away, evidence suggests that many have shut their laptops and gone out into the world. In 2024, for example, OpenTable saw 44% more diners book reservations between noon and 5 p.m. on Fridays than on other weekdays. "Shifts in work culture are definitely impacting dining habits," Debby Soo, OpenTable's CEO, told me over email. Similarly, on Resy, 28% of weekday-afternoon reservations were on Fridays, more than on any other weekday. Zocdoc shared booking data with me that shows that booking appointments on Fridays have crept up slightly since 2021, and that several types of appointments are more common on Fridays, including acupuncture, IUD procedures, and annual physicals.

ActivTrak, a workforce-analytics and productivity-software company, has found that people are in fact calling it quits earlier on Fridays. In an analysis of 71,000 workers at more than 800 companies that are ActivTrak customers, the company found that in late 2024 workers clocked out about an hour earlier on every day of the week than they did in early 2021. The steepest drop was on Fridays, with workers leaving at 3:42 p.m., some 80 minutes earlier than they did four years ago.

Some people may be out and about more on Fridays because their companies encourage them to log off. Buffer, a social media management software company, moved to a four-day workweek in 2020. It started as an experiment but proved so positive for morale that the company has kept it in place, says Hailley Griffis, its head of communications and content. After the initial adjustment of cramming more meetings into the first four days of the week, the schedule now "really helps reduce the amount of stress and anxiety," she says. "It would be very difficult for me to go back to working five days a week, in terms of energy management."

Stok, a sustainability consulting company, started offering "quiet Fridays" every other week in 2020. The goal is to have no emails or meetings that day, and instead allow employees to put their heads down on projects or take the day for themselves, says Madeleine Drake, Stok's director of people and culture. "Each of us has the awareness and autonomy and collaborative spirit to understand what's best each day," she says, adding that some 90% of the company's employees typically participate.

But flexible gigs are getting harder to come by. Job posts offering four-day workweeks have dropped 42% since late 2022, according to data from Indeed, and those offering flexible Fridays are down 18.5%. Employees are likely "more interested than they've ever been" in flexible Fridays and shorter workweeks, Kyle M.K., Indeed's talent-strategy advisor, says. "But the implementation is probably slowing down," in part due to economic pressures and labor market uncertainty, he adds. There's a disconnect between what employees want and what employers are offering, despite growing evidence that shorter workweeks improve productivity and employee satisfaction and that workers are getting fewer things done on Fridays anyway. "I think employers will start to see a decline in the ability to attract top talent and see their turnover grow if they're not focusing on the work-life balance, the burnout, and the stress level of their employees," he says.

Some workers feel there's no reason to hang around on Fridays if they can get all their work done by Thursday. Jenna, who works in sales in Philadelphia and whose name has also been changed, says she felt burnout in 2020 and would have to log off midday because of exhaustion. Nearly five years later, she's taking nearly all of Friday off and expects her clients or coworkers to be doing little on the last day of the workweek, too. Like Annie, she chats with me on a Friday afternoon — between hanging out at a neighborhood brewery and running an errand. It's a typical Friday for her, which can include vet appointments for her dog, trips to the gym, or boozy lunches with a friend. "A Friday-morning Costco run is magical," Jenna tells me.

The trust gap between bosses and workers is widening. A 2024 survey from PwC found that 86% of business executives believe employee trust to be high, but just 67% of employees say they have high trust in their employer. About half of business executives say they have a great extent of trust for senior leadership, while just 38% say the same of entry-level workers.

Employment is a contract, where both parties should have clear communication to maintain trust, says Shaun Hansen, a professor of management at Western Oregon University. If you're instructed or it's implied that you should be working Fridays, then that's the agreement. But employers can build trust by better communicating their expectations and shifting to more flexible arrangements, Hansen says. That might mean analyzing roles and admitting that not every white collar job has to fit a 40-hour, 9-to-5 schedule to be done well. "If you have a job that you can finish on a Thursday night, but your employer is insisting that you're there on Friday, it not only puts you in an ethical pickle, but it also will cause you to probably look for a better job where you have more flexibility," he tells me.

Of course, no-work Fridays are a privilege reserved for white-collar remote or hybrid workers. The more room they have to slack off, the greater a divide we might see in work-life balance across industries. "I feel guilty about it from the level of: What a privilege I have that I have a job that I can even do this," Jenna tells me. But guilt about not being fully honest with her employer as she fields occasional Microsoft Teams pings from the bar? Not so much.

On a Friday afternoon last summer, a friend and I packed up the car to head away for the weekend. I, taking advantage of my then-employer's summer Fridays, left my laptop at home. But I watched as my friend connected her laptop to a hot spot, opened it on the back seat, and began playing a lengthy fireplace video on YouTube that would keep the green circle next to her face on Slack aglow for the ride. I was given her phone to act not just as a road-trip DJ but also as her secretary, responding to any messages from her boss. It took some teamwork, but where there's a will to work less, there's a way.

Amanda Hoover is a senior correspondent at Business Insider covering the tech industry. She writes about the biggest tech companies and trends.

• Trump's mass deportation plans could hinder LA wildfire rebuilding efforts.
• Immigrants form a large part of California's construction workforce, already facing shortages.
• Deportations could worsen housing shortages and increase costs in the construction industry.

Housing policy and immigration researchers say President-elect Donald Trump's plans for mass deportations could hamper efforts to rebuild the thousands of homes destroyed by the wildfires in Los Angeles and intensify the region's housing shortage.

Data from the National Association of Home Builders shows immigrants, including those living in the US illegally, make up a significant portion of California's construction workforce, which is already suffering from a shortage of workers.

The extent and scope of possible deportations after Trump takes office on January 20 is still unclear. However, researchers expect even the threat of immigration crackdowns to shrink the available construction workforce.

"When Trump is sworn in, there will be a chilling effect," Ben Metcalf, a housing policy researcher at the University of California, Berkeley, told Business Insider. "We don't know how big it will be, but it is 100% certain that there will be fewer undocumented folks showing up at the job lines to try and get on construction jobs."

As of January 15, at least 25 people had been killed by the wildfires in LA County, and the Palisades and Eaton fires — the two largest — were still only partly contained. Over 12,000 structures have been destroyed, while over 40,000 acres have been burned. Nearly 90,000 people are still under evacuation orders.

Housing policy researchers and economists warned that the wildfire destruction will deepen California's already acute housing shortage. LA County was short about 337,000 homes as of 2022, per a report published last year from Zillow.

Any immigration restrictions will hurt labor availability for developers, contractors, and others involved in LA's future rebuilding effort, Eric Finnigan, vice president of demographics research at John Burns Research and Consulting, told Business Insider.

"Everyone in and around Southern California that's in the housing market is going to feel this in some way or another," he said.

An industry built on immigrant labor

The exact number of immigrants who work in the country's construction industry varies among researchers, but foreign-born workers — particularly those living in the country illegally — make up a disproportionate share of the workforce. An estimated 15 to 23% of that overall construction workforce live in the country illegally.

In California, immigrants made up 41% of the construction workforce in 2023, the National Association of Home Builders found. It's unclear what share of LA's construction workforce is in the country illegally.

The construction industry is already facing a significant nationwide labor shortage — estimated at about 500,000 workers last year — that has also increased building costs. The shortage has slowed the pace of new home construction, repairs, and renovations and driven up labor costs.

Some economists and homebuilders have previously told BI that Trump's plans to curtail legal and illegal immigration could further restrict the construction workforce, slow the rate of building, and inflate prices. Many immigrants working in the industry are protected under certain special legal programs, like Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals and Temporary Protected Status, which were bolstered under President Joe Biden but may be cut by Trump.

Deportations would mean "fewer workers to build the housing that we need, and to some extent, some homes would become vacant because members in their home got deported," said Shane Phillips, housing initiative project manager at UCLA's Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies.

Sixty-one percent of home builders surveyed by John Burns Research and Consulting in December said they expect potential deportations under Trump to hurt their operations. At the same time, 87% of home builders said they're concerned about Trump's plans to raise tariffs, which economists expect would inflate the costs of building materials imported abroad.

Immigrants who live in the US illegally are also more likely to work in single-family home construction than in larger apartment buildings, multiple experts told BI. This is in part because small, custom home construction projects tend to employ smaller contractors better able to skirt regulations, Metcalf said. Most of the homes that have been destroyed or damaged by the fires are single-family.

"Particularly in the renovation and rebuilding kind of space, where you're just doing a one-off home, that is exactly where the construction industry is particularly reliant on those undocumented workers," Metcalf said.

Chloe East, a fellow at the Brookings Institution who studies topics like immigration, said slowing the pace of construction by shrinking the immigrant workforce would also hurt the US-born construction workforce.

"When companies cannot find laborers for a building contract, they will also not hire architects and managers for the contract either," she said.

There is precedent for deportations negatively impacting the construction industry. During President Barack Obama's first term, about 400,000 people were deported through the Secure Communities program, a Department of Homeland Security program that identified deportable immigrants in US jails. Research on its impacts found deportations had negative impacts on new home builds. East added the threat of mass deportations causes people who are living in the country illegally to work less to avoid deportation risks.

"Three years after the start of mass deportations, the average county has about 2,000 fewer new housing units built than it would have if mass deportations had not occurred," East told BI, citing an October 2024 paper. "Because there are fewer new homes built, the price of the average new home also goes up."

An unpredictable future with immigration

While Trump and Vice President-elect JD Vance have pledged to deport millions of immigrants as part of a broader crackdown, it's not clear that their ambitious plans are feasible. Tom Homan, Trump's border czar, told The Wall Street Journal he doesn't know how many people may be deported in the first 100 days and said the administration will likely first go after immigrants who are living in the country illegally and with criminal records rather than broad sweeps of immigrant-heavy neighborhoods.

During his first term, Trump oversaw an initial uptick in removals. Still, his administration deported about 1.5 million people — significantly fewer than the 2.9 million people Obama deported during his first term.

On the campaign trail, Vance argued that deportations would lower housing costs, and American-born workers not in the workforce could take on construction jobs.

However, some economists and homebuilders told BI that these conclusions may not hold up. During the pandemic, many older, experienced workers retired, and the pipeline of younger US-born workers isn't sufficient, homebuilders have told BI.

"The only way that we as a country are going to get through our issues with homelessness, the housing price bubble, and the housing crunch issue is to construct more housing," Jennie Murray, president and CEO of the immigrant advocacy nonprofit group National Immigration Forum, told BI. "If we're actually thinking about removing so many of those workers and decimating that industry, it would have a domino effect on our housing shortage issues."

Chad Blocker, a Los Angeles-based immigration attorney, said his firm's clients in the construction industry are attempting to reassure their immigrant workers even as they anticipate a major federal immigration crackdown.

"The immigration enforcement environment is going to change dramatically," Blocker told Business Insider. "There's just a lot of general anxiety among the immigrant communities, including those who are here with lawful status."

Are you a home builder or immigrant construction worker concerned about the impacts of shifting immigration policy? Share your story with these reporters at [email protected] and [email protected].