Fast Company

These companies have found a way to keep their employees engaged instead of dragging in the afternoons, and it doesn’t involve caffeine.

If your mind starts to wander and you could really use a nap or a candy bar around 2 p.m., you’re not alone. The afternoon slump is real, and it’s your body’s response to a drop in your blood-sugar levels as well as its natural circadian rhythm. In fact, one of our strongest biological urges to sleep comes between 1 p.m. and 3 p.m., according to the National Sleep Foundation.

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Hootsuite CEO Ryan Holmes tried everything from all-hands meetings to suggestion boxes before turning to iPhone video.

Townhall meetings. Ask-me-anything sessions. The old-fashioned suggestion box. CEOs have lots of options for keeping in touch with their ever-growing ranks of employees. The trouble is that most of them aren’t that great.

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The government agency DARPA has launched a contest to develop tech that could boost wireless capacity 1,000-fold.

Wi-Fi is usually fine at home, but can be a nightmare to use at a packed convention, café, or park. A big enough crowd can kill cell reception too. It’s common to hear people say something along the lines of, “The Wi-Fi sucks here.”

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The nerd culture icon reflects on the pain and pleasure involved in bridging Star Trek‘s past and its future.

Simon Pegg was all set to return for his third go as the U.S.S. Enterprise’s engineer Montgomery “Scotty” Scott in the J.J. Abrams-rebooted Star Trek movie franchise when he was thrown a curveball: The opportunity to not only once again star in the film…but help write it as well. Did the well-documented sci-fi geek nearly break something jumping at the chance?

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The free market doesn’t exist. The market is governed by many rules, almost of all which don’t benefit workers. But people made the rules, and people can change them.

In his book Saving Capitalism: For the Many, Not the Few, former U.S. Secretary of Labor Robert Reich provides an outstanding guide to many of the factors that prevent the possibility of a truly free market. He writes:

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Researchers are testing mobile apps that analyze patients’ activity to measure mental health.

An emotional crisis doesn’t surface only in a therapy appointment. For those suffering depression, PTSD, or other mental health challenges, a breakdown can be a slow burn, developing over days or weeks in between doctor visits. Delay in treatment can have lasting consequences.

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Sesame Street and smart thermometer company Kinsa found a way to make taking your kid’s temperature more fun—for both of you.

For a parent, there is nothing worse than finding out your kid isn’t feeling well—except, perhaps, having to take their temperature.

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Indeed combed millions of anonymous employee ratings on Fortune 500 companies to generate this list of top employers.

Finding a good balance between work and the rest of your life is a constant challenge for the connected employee—even when they’re in a dream job and have an empathetic supervisor.

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Even if you aren’t working nights and weekends, the expectation of constant availability can cause you to burn out.

It’s 9 p.m. and you suddenly remember that you wanted to ask your employee about an upcoming project. Before you fire off an email, ask yourself, “Is this urgent?” If you’re sending the email simply because you don’t want to forget, your employee may not know your response expectations, and this can cause stress that negatively impacts your staff’s productivity and performance.

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Women and minorities don’t participate in accelerators at the same rates as white men. A new virtual program aims to change that.

Most accelerators require entrepreneurs to spend three to six months in residence, which can be difficult for women entrepreneurs, particularly if they have families. So, in 2015, serial entrepreneur and former investment banker Carolyn Rodz founded Circular Board, a virtual 90-day accelerator for women entrepreneurs.

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