The best bosses know how to subtract work

Companies are used to celebrating addition. Profits, customers and share prices should go up rather than fall. Innovation is the adding of new products. Larger numbers are a measure of career success.

Firms are not always opposed to subtraction. There are good kinds of cuts. Reducing costs is a necessary part of management, though not a welcome one. But the value of doing less is     1    . The best bosses are those who take things away as well as add them on.

That means     2     time for employees to get work done. Meetings are almost always called by bosses. Some are useful; many of them are not.

Shopify, an e-commerce firm, began the year by deleting 12,000 meeting s from corporate calendars, and asking everyone to think carefully before     3     them. The company reports a rise in productivity as a result of the     4    .

The only thing worse than having too many meetings is not being invited to them at all. So whenever meetings take place,     5     large numbers of people can turn up. Minus-minded managers will give employees permission not to attend if they are not needed.

Good bosses,     6    , will send messages when necessary, not every time a bright idea pops into their head. They will reduce the tempo of work, by leaving employees time to concentrate. They will be clear if something is urgent or not.

Subtraction is not just about removing day-to-day distractions. It’s also about taking decisions to kill off projects and products that are going nowhere, and to focus efforts on the most important bits of the business.

In “The Case for Good Jobs”, a new book, Zeynep Ton of MIT Sloan School of Management argues that doing less can often make     7     sense. Costco, a well-regarded American retailer has a deliberately limited product     8    . That means it can focus its buying power more effectively, forecast demand more accurately and use its employees’ time more productively.

Less may not sound like a great outcome for customers, but at some point choice is deeply     9    . When you have spent more time trying to decide what to watch on a streaming service than it takes to go to the cinema and watch “Oppenheimer” twice,     10     seems pretty attractive.

How sustainable are your sneakers?

Over the last five years the sneaker industry has grown rapidly and shows no sign of slowing down. The global athletic footwear market is expected to exceed 95 billion (USD) by 2025. According to the World Footwear Yearbook, over 24 billion pairs of shoes are produced annually. Among them sneakers account for the largest     1    . What are the environmental impacts of the rapidly growing sneaker industry?

Sneaker production is very     2    . A typical pair of running shoes produces about 13.6 kilograms of CO₂ emissions which is unusually high for a product that does not use electricity or require power-driving components.

These emissions mainly come from     3    . The majority of sneakers are made from plastic and/or plastic-like materials. All these petroleum-derived plastics produce a(n)     4     number of carbon dioxide.

Then why don’t we move away from the use of plastic? Since sneakers have to endure much more than a regular pair of shoes, the aspect of their     5     is very important when it comes to their overall performance. Unfortunately,     6     materials hold up better than natural ones. Plastic has made shoes better, lighter, faster, more comfortable, and more accessible to everyone worldwide. Another issue with sneakers today is that most of them are made by using a combination of different plastics     7     in a very complicated way, making them very hard to     8    .

The footwear industry is at least 10 years behind the rest of fashion in terms of environmental standards. Seven out of ten brands are having discussions on sustainability, yet only 40% of companies have a sustainability program in place. Big industry players (such as Adidas and Nike) and some smaller     9     are trying to reduce their carbon footprint in different ways.

Considering that close to 25 billion pairs of shoes were produced worldwide in the last year, it is clear that immediate action is very important. It is my hope that we consumers will     10     our relationship with fashion and think about the environmental impact of our shopping habits.

The party may actually be the last stronghold of the dress code, a tradition that is increasingly falling out of     1     everywhere, from the workplace to the school. As the power of choice     2     away from the institution and toward the individual, the idea of any establishment deciding what is and is not appropriate dress, when dress is so deeply mixed with personal identity, seems increasingly     3    .

So why do so many hosts think a dress code is a good idea?

On the one hand, it does help reduce guests’ confusion and insecurity about what to wear to a special event. And it can help give a party a festive     4    . There’s something very fun about fancy dresses of a theme. Also, if there are photos involved, a certain     5     in dress can create a clear visual effect for the photos.

On the other hand, if the dress code is too unspecific, it only adds to the general what-to-wear confusion, with “dress to impress” being a case in point. Sometimes it involves dresses that seem     6     to an individual’s sense of style. Either way, you will feel     7     between pleasing your host and pleasing yourself.

When I asked the designer Ulla Johnson about the issue, she admitted that she demanded a dress code at her wedding: everyone in white. But she also said she wasn’t     8     at all when some guests asked to be an exception to the rule.

“At this point, I would say dress codes can be     9     interpreted,” she said. “Putting on something you don’t love because it obeys a code should be off the table.”

In other words, a party dress code is not the same as a school uniform. It can be     10     to fit each individual. Honey Dijon, the D.J. and musician, likewise believes that open interpretations of dress codes are generally expected, though she has her own solution to the dress code issue.

“Choose something that is related to the theme, such as a shoe or a bag,” she said. “That way, the host is satisfied and you still feel confident.”