🐤 Performing miracles

👑 Long live the king: Although Queen Elizabeth II’s son Charles automatically took over as king upon her death earlier this year, the official coronation hasn’t happened yet. This week, Westminster Abbey announced that the ceremony will be held in May. King Charles III’s wife, Camilla, will also officially take on the title of queen consort at that time. As the palace explained, the ceremony “will reflect the monarch’s role today and look towards the future, while being rooted in longstanding traditions and pageantry.”

🛢️ Relationship problems: After Saudi Arabia led a group of oil-exporting nations in a bid to keep energy costs artificially high by scaling back petroleum production, President Joe Biden expressed his disappointment. Now that prices at the pump are starting to tick upward again, the White House is reportedly redefining its relationship with Saudi leaders. As National Security Council spokesman John Kirby explained, Biden is prepared to discuss the situation with legislators in an effort to re-evaluate the special connection between the two countries. He explained: “I think the president’s been very clear that this is a relationship that we need to continue to re-evaluate, that we need to be willing to revisit.”

🔋 Ohio connection: A joint venture between Honda Motor and LG Energy Solution will invest billions of dollars in a new facility in Ohio that will be used to produce batteries for electric-powered vehicles. At this point, it’s not clear what the name of the resulting collaboration will be. Construction is set to begin about 40 miles south of Columbus next year, though, and batteries should start coming off of the assembly line by late 2025.

🌌 Blast off: Last month, NASA announced a mission that sounded like something from a sci-fi movie. It launched a spacecraft designed to collide with an asteroid and knock it off course. As it turns out, this real-life plot had a happy ending. Officials announced this week that the Double Asteroid Redirection Test hit its target head-on and caused the asteroid to shorten its orbit by more than a half hour. NASA administrator Bill Nelson called it “a watershed for defense,” adding: “This mission shows that NASA is trying to be ready for whatever the universe throws at us.”

Whether they come sporadically or like clockwork every six months, employees everywhere get a pang of anxiety upon learning it’s time for another performance review. These assessments can be tied to pay raises and promotions — but are they an accurate reflection of your value as a worker? Probably not.

Researchers (and even the executives who carry out reviews) seem to agree that they do a very poor job of accurately assessing whether an employee is performing below, at, or above expectations. Here are some startling stats:

• Nine out of ten human resource officers say the results of performance reviews are highly inaccurate.
• More than half of business executives don’t think that reviews have any positive impact on the company’s success.
• A paltry 14% of employees report that reviews provide an incentive to perform at a higher standard.

There are a few reasons that the way most businesses conduct reviews is fatally flawed. For starters, bosses tend to cram too much into what should be a narrowly focused meeting. Additionally, most managers aren’t all that great at providing actionable feedback and suggestions for improving performance. Finally, it’s clear that many bosses play favorites with the staff, giving the best reviews to their friends — not necessarily the most competent employees.

So what can we do to improve reviews? It all starts with a company’s culture. When managers meet one-on-one with employees on a regular basis (and not just when there’s a stress-inducing review on the calendar), it is much easier to build a relationship on trust and honesty.

There should be some give and take in a healthy work environment, and the status quo is just not designed to provide it. For all the managers and executives reading this, why not take some time to re-evaluate how your office conducts performance reviews?

Pro football fans of a certain age might remember the much rougher way that the game was played in the league’s early decades. But as many of those players got older, the impact of violent tackles and takedowns became all too obvious.

Now, the NFL is trying to address some of its past mistakes — although some once-loyal fans think officials are taking it too far. That brings us to this season.

After Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa’s concussion, all eyes were on referees. Sure enough, a pair of refs threw penalty flags in recent games for roughing the passer when many spectators said no such penalties were warranted.

The NFL has insisted that the Tagovailoa incident did not result in any new rules and team owners are expected to discuss next week whether existing regulations should be changed. Nevertheless, plenty of folks are pretty upset by the flagrant use of the penalty flag against players who seem to just be doing their jobs on the field.

It’s worth noting, however, that there have been significantly fewer flags thrown out for roughing the passer thus far this year as compared to several recent seasons. That hasn’t stopped critics from complaining that referees appear to be penalizing exactly what makes the sport worth watching.

NFL legend Troy Aikman even found himself in hot water for sharing his unvarnished thoughts in the wake of one of the aforementioned questionable calls. “My hope is the competition committee looks at this in the next set of meetings and, you know, we take the dresses off,” he said.

Many viewers interpreted Aikman’s comments as sexist, but his underlying point is one that clearly resonates with many people who want to see rational calls by referees that allow linemen to actually play the game.

Arranging transportation to and from the airport or spending tons of money to park your car during a trip have been hassles associated with air travel for generations. Delta Airlines, however, is considering a novel solution.

According to recent reports, the carrier is investing big bucks in an electric air taxi company — Joby Aviation — that could soon pick passengers up at their homes and fly them to the airport in time for their takeoff. A planned $60 million investment could increase to as much as $200 million if Delta likes what it sees.

Testing will begin in New York City and Los Angeles before expanding to other destinations across the country and around the world. If successful, a passenger in Manhattan could make it all the way to JFK International Airport in just 10 minutes. That trip currently takes nearly an hour by car.

The air taxis are expected to have room for five passengers, so they’re as practical as any traditional cab or ride-sharing service.

Of course, there are a lot of details to sort out before electric vehicles are soaring through the skies and touching down outside of your front door.

There are tons of regulations that will dictate how and where these aircraft can fly. Although test flights seem encouraging, it’s also important to ensure that landings, takeoffs, and flights will be reliably safe and efficient. Being able to keep noise sufficiently low and produce enough units to make the venture worthwhile are other issues to address before the first taxis take to the skies.