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| Presented By AT&T |
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| Axios AM |
| By Mike Allen ·Sep 01, 2021 |
| 🍂 Happy Wednesday. Welcome to September! - Smart Brevity™ count: 1,198 words ... 4½ minutes. Edited by Zachary Basu.
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| 1 big thing: Mission-driven employees |
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| Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios |
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| A majority of employees around the world say they're choosing jobs based not just on salaries and benefits, but also social impact and personal beliefs, Axios' Sara Fischer writes from exclusive data. - Why it matters: A focus on "higher purpose" is now a vital factor in recruiting and retention.
That seismic shift intensified during the pandemic. People no longer work to live — they live for their work, we see vividly in an Edelman Trust Barometer special report, "The Belief-Driven Employee": - In the U.S. and across several other large economies — including China, the U.K., Brazil, India, Germany and Japan — a vast majority of people (76%) say they have higher expectations for a prospective employer now than they did three years ago.
- Most people globally (76%) say they feel more empowered to take action within their organization — either by working within the system or taking issues public via whistleblowing, strikes or leaks.
💡 These shifts have commanded employers' attention. In light of the pandemic, many now say their workers — not customers or clients — are their most important stakeholder. - Most employers surveyed (60%) say their employees have more power and leverage now than they had before the pandemic.
- As a result, more companies are taking positions on social issues, including climate change and racial equity.
What to watch: Employees are more likely to stay at a company that shares their values. |
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| 2. First person: Drop-off hell |
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| Parents wait in line to pick up preschoolers from a New Mexico school under strict, lengthy COVID protocols. Photo: Russell Contreras/Axios |
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| Virus protocols can add hours to school pickups, Axios' Russell Contreras writes in this dispatch from New Mexico: In my daughters' first three weeks back, I've found drop-offs and pickups can take three hours each day. - Why it matters: Restrictions on how students enter and leave campuses are forcing parents to plan how to navigate long car lines — and often maskless crowds.
In line, parents Zoom in their cars. Those who have to get back to restaurant jobs or other shift work look nervously at the time. - Ava, 7, attends a new elementary school in Rio Rancho, N.M., where parents aren't allowed past the gate because of virus restrictions. You can pick up via a car or stand in the hot desert to wait for a child to walk out.
- Elena, 4, attends a public preschool in Bernalillo, N.M., that only allows parents to drop off and pick up children in their cars under strict rules. IDs are checked. Teachers use walkie-talkies to radio that a parent has arrived.
Russ' tricks: To avoid the long car line at the Rio Rancho school, which can grow to more than a quarter of a mile, I park on a dirt road near the school and walk Ava to school or wait for her outside the gate. |
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| 3. Scoop — GOP's new foil: The Taliban |
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| A Taliban fighter takes a picture of a damaged Afghan Air Forces helicopter at Kabul airport yesterday. Photo: Wakil Kohsar/AFP via Getty Images |
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| House Republicans today will use the markup of the defense spending bill to fight U.S. recognition of the Taliban, Axios' Alayna Treene learned. - Why it matters: The amendments will fail. But the votes are the tip of a GOP plan for a years-long attack on President Biden and Democrats over the Afghanistan withdrawal, members and aides tell Axios.
- Republicans plan to make unease over the pullout a defining issue for regaining House power.
Republicans will demand an accounting of weapons, mineral wealth and other funds the Taliban obtained following the U.S. withdrawal. The other side: Secretary of State Tony Blinken said Monday that "any engagement with a Taliban-led government in Kabul will be driven by one thing only — our vital national interests." - "Any legitimacy and any support will have to be earned," Blinken added.
- Share this story.
🥊 Go deeper: Biden points to new threats as he defiantly defends his Afghanistan withdrawal — our lead of Axios PM. - Read his speech on ending the war: "I was not going to extend this forever war, and I was not extending a forever exit."
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| A message from AT&T |
| We are connecting communities to their American Dream |
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| We're making a $2 billion, 3-year commitment to help ensure broadband is more accessible and affordable, so low-income families like the ones Kamal works with have the opportunity to succeed. Learn more. |
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| 4. Pic du jour |
| Photo: Isaiah Garrido/MedicCorps.org, via AP Residents flee rising floodwaters from Hurricane Ida in LaPlace, La., on Monday. - Hundreds of thousands in Louisiana are without power or water, AP reports. Thousands of line workers are toiling to restore electricity.
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| 5. Primack: Ditch "unicorns" for "dragons" |
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| Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios |
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| When Aileen Lee coined "unicorn" for startups in late 2013, she was describing 39 "U.S.-based software companies started since 2003 and valued at over $1 billion," Axios Pro Rata author Dan Primack writes. - The term got redefined in early 2015 by Primack and Erin Griffith, in a Fortune cover story, as any privately-held startup valued at $1 billion or more. There were 80.
- That was the definition that stuck. Last week, the tally topped 800, per CB Insights.
Why it matters: $1 billion just isn't that cool anymore. It's not rare or mythical if there are over 800 of them. - Plus, there are a flurry of startups whose valuations have been inflated by investment dollars.
We need a new term: Dragons. - Dragons are bigger, stronger and more awe-inspiring than unicorns. They destroy whatever's in their path. Their own destruction is viewed as catastrophic.
The fine print: To qualify, a company must be valued at $12 billion or more, net of venture funding. Yes, it's a somewhat arbitrary figure. But it reflects the >10x "unicorn" growth since the Fortune piece. - There are 19 dragons. Nine are based in the U.S: Stripe, SpaceX, Instacart, Epic Games, Databricks, Rivian, Chime, Fanatics and Plaid.
🔥 Breathe fire into "dragon." |
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| 6. Exclusive: Rice, McMaster push for orphan extractions |
| Taliban fighters take over Kabul's airport. Photo: Kathy Gannon/AP Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and former national security adviser H.R. McMaster are appealing to top U.S. and UN officials to extract orphans from Afghanistan before they're taken by the Taliban, Axios' Noah Bressner and Margaret Talev report. - The two call it not just a humanitarian matter but a "critical issue of national security": "We are extremely concerned that a lack of action on this matter could result in a new generation of individuals committed to waging war against the United States."
Rice and McMaster make their case in a letter, obtained by Axios, to Dr. Jill Biden, Vice President Harris, the U.S. secretaries of State and Defense, congressional leaders in both parties, the executive director of UNICEF and UN Secretary-General António Guterres: - Reached by phone last night, McMaster told Axios he would have preferred for the letter to remain private, but signed it to highlight "the Taliban's record of child abuse on an industrial scale."
Share this story. |
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| 7. Two Texas-sized laws |
| Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan (R-Beaumont) gavels in votes yesterday. Photo: Mikala Compton/Austin American-Statesman via AP - A law banning abortion after six weeks, including in cases of rape and incest — one of the most restrictive in the U.S. — went into effect in Texas at midnight. Details.
- Despite Democrats' efforts to break quorum, a wave of changes to Texas elections is headed to Gov. Greg Abbott's desk. (Texas Tribune)
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| 8. Time capsule |
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| 9. Plea to firefighters |
| Photo: Terry Chea/AP Tod Johnson spray-painted this message to firefighters before evacuating his house in South Lake Tahoe, Calif., because of the fast-growing Caldor Fire. |
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| 10. 🎂 Schools ban birthday cake |
| Classroom birthdays can still be celebrated amid COVID — as long as the kids sing through their masks, Axios' Russell Contreras notes in his dispatch about drop-off hell: - Cakes are banned, but students can bring packages of Goldfish, bags of M&Ms or other wrapped treats that can be served individually.
Keep reading. |
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| A message from AT&T |
| We are connecting communities to their American Dream |
| |
| |
| |
| We're making a $2 billion, 3-year commitment to help ensure broadband is more accessible and affordable, so low-income families like the ones Kamal works with have the opportunity to succeed. Learn more. |
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| 📬 Invite your friends, family and colleagues to sign up here for Axios AM and Axios PM. |
 | | It'll help you deliver employee communications more effectively. | | |
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