"I think a lot of people (including me) are trying to navigate these big changes in their careers and lives right now." Twitter Q&A with Senior Correspondent, Aki Ito
To help our readers get to know the people that power our newsroom, we host live Twitter conversations called #TheInsideStory on our @InsiderInc account with reporters and editors from our Business, Life, and News sections.
We recently caught up with Senior Correspondent, Aki Ito, to learn more about her career, how her reporting sparked the viral “quiet quitting” trend, and get her insight into the economy and the future of work. Be sure to follow Aki on Twitter and check out her page on Insider for the latest updates.
Aki, we’re thrilled to be speaking (tweeting) with you today. As we get started, can you tell us about your journey prior to joining @thisisinsider? @AkiIto7 #TheInsideStory
I was at Bloomberg for 10 years! I started in Tokyo covering the economy there, and then moved to SF to cover the Federal Reserve. After that I joined Bloomberg’s tech team and hosted a podcast and a mini-documentary series. I joined Insider in 2021.
We can't wait to hear more about your work and we're so glad you landed at Insider! Can you tell us what a "typical" day looks like as a senior correspondent?
It depends on where I am in the story process. Earlier in the process, when I'm still reporting a story, I’ll be on the phone with sources, combing through databases, reading research studies. It's a lot of task-switching and doesn't require as much focus.
On a day when I’m actually writing, though, I hole up in my home office, turn off Slack, put my phone away, and just write write write. Or at least that's what I try to do!
Can you also tell us what excites you most about covering the #economy and the workplace, among other things?
I think it’s a really exciting time to be writing about work right now. So much has changed in the pandemic – everything from where we work to when we work to the relationship to work itself.
I think a lot of people (including me) are trying to navigate these big changes in their careers and their lives right now, and it’s cool to get to report on that in real time.
How hustle culture got America addicted to work
Thank you for sharing! You mentioned that much has changed since the pandemic. Last year, you wrote about coasting culture, which was the spark that ignited the viral trend of “quiet quitting.” Why do you think this was such an important topic to readers?
Early on in the pandemic, I think a lot of people realized they want to make work less central in their lives, but they weren’t quite sure how to do it. Or maybe they already were working less but they were doing it really quietly and thought they were the only ones.
I think my story resonated because it offered a potential way forward. It identified what life could look like post-hustle culture.
'My company is not my family'
Can you share more about the evolution of #quietquitting? How has the conversation been impacted by macroeconomic conditions?
The Great Resignation was really conducive to quiet quitting because employees had the upper hand. They had the bargaining power to draw hard boundaries and managers were willing to look the other way if your performance slipped.
But now, especially in tech, where big layoffs are underway, employees are losing that bargaining power.
I wrote about this recruiter who you might say is the OG quiet quitter, because he was the lede in my coasting culture piece. He’d managed to work as little as 30h/wk. But when the layoffs started, he got nervous about his job security. Now he's working long hours again.
Given these shifts, what do you think the next phase of the future of work will look like? What are readers curious about now?
Well I think a really big deal right now is salary transparency, which I wrote about last month.
This year, CA and WA started requiring employers to disclose pay ranges in job postings, which is a real game changer.
Salary transparency has a ton of benefits, but I think when it comes to practicing that transparency in our own lives, a lot of us are still really uncomfortable. So that’s why I wanted to write about it.
“How I broke the last taboo”
Aki, it’s been so much fun talking with you today. Thank you so much for giving us the opportunity to learn more about you and your work. Be sure to follow @AkiIto7 and check out her page on Insider to keep up with the latest updates: https://businessinsider.com/author/aki-ito