No one enjoys working for a boss who is constantly checking up on them and micromanaging their every move. Were motivated by a certain degree of autonomy to achieve goals based on intrinsic talent, not just external feedback and direction. But when your boss is regularly unengaged for long stretches of time, the joy of independence may soon shift to concern about their capacity and commitment to help you achieve your career goals. An absentee boss can lead to feelings of alienation, job dissatisfaction, and stress.How an absent manager hurts employeesIn my experience coaching senior leaders with absentee bosses, Ive seen firsthand the damage they can do.Take Rob, a managing director at a top-tier global professional services firm. Robs boss, a powerful partner at the firm, provided Rob with no direction or guidance when it came to his work or career. In addition, he didnt respond to his emails or calls and provided no feedback to Rob other than an occasional verbal lashing. Unsurprisingly, this left Rob dissatisfied, managing his teams in the dark, and deeply concerned about how to make it to the next level in his career.Another client, Jana, served as the global head of a business unit within one of the worlds largest financial institutions. Her business unit was part of a recent acquisition, and her formerly supportive boss, concerned about his standing in the new company, shut her out and now appeared to be threatened by her. He became unresponsive and created barriers to her integration within the new company, disinviting her from meetings where she should have played a substantial role. He also attempted to restrict her travel to network with other leaders at the company.Absentee bosses represent the extreme and worst of laissez-faire leadership. Your boss is arguably the one person in your company with the most influence over your future promotion. Not knowing whether they will advocate for you when opportunities come up, plus not being able to connect regularly to make your case, can complicate your advancement potential.How to deal with an absentee bossPerforming well in your job and growing as an employee when your boss is effectively absent presents a unique dilemma. But if you follow these strategies in managing up and increasing your organizational value in their absence, youll have a better shot at controlling your career destiny.1. Determine if its just you.If your boss has other direct reports besides you, talk with these peers to see what their experience has been with your manager. You may find that they feel the same way you do. Is it possible that there are extenuating circumstances that have contributed to their behaviors? It doesnt solve the problem of a missing boss, but it can help make a challenging situation feel easier if you see that its not personal. And if you do discover its just you, this is good information.2. Assume your manager has positive intent.Shift to an empathic mindset, imagining what it would be like if you were in your bosss place. Have there been recent changes within the company or in some other aspect of their life that may partially explain the situation? If your boss is pulled in a thousand different directions, for instance, constantly asking for advice or reassurance is going to be alienating.For example, one executive Nihar Chhaya worked with had a friendly relationship with his boss who supported his career growth as well. But because his boss was highly introverted, not particularly ambitious, and wasnt very plugged into networks across the organization, any discussions with him about career development were generally limited in value. The more this executive tried to request his mentorship and support for a lateral or upward move, the more his boss began to politely deflect to other topics.You probably got a sense of your bosss style when you interviewed, says career expert Vicky Oliver, author of Bad Bosses, Crazy Coworkers & Other Office Idiots. Think back: Was your interview succinct and to the point or did you get a window where your supervisor was truly focused on the conversation without interruption. How do they like to communicatetext, email, or Skype? Is their style rapid-fire or thoughtful?3. Make clear, specific requests to your boss.Amy Cooper Hakim, founder of management consultancy Cooper Strategic Group, and author of Working with Difficult People: Handling the Ten Types of Problem People Without Losing Your Mind suggests that you keep a running list of questions, concerns, or needs, then ask for exactly what you need to get those needs met when you have your managers attention. When your boss knows the specifics of what youre asking for and how long it will take, theyre more likely to both make the time and be prepared with the information and resources you need, she says.And if you have one half hour a week where you get the face-time you need, Oliver says, youd better be prepared. Think about the time you have and how your boss prefers to interact, then work on asking for what you need accordingly, she says. And always continue to document your successes so you have a record of how youre developing and driving results, which you can show to your boss when the time is right.Whenever Rob needed to catch his bosss attention, for example, hed send an email with RESPONSE REQUIRED in all caps in the subject line. He would make an explicit time-bound request for the support he needed. Heres an example of what he would say: I need you to review and approve this contract/presentation by Friday or we will not meet the clients deadline.Youll also need to be persistent in your follow-up. Dont expect to stop at just one email. Be opportunistic about stating the case for what you need when you happen to see your boss. This may seem extremely frustrating, but it beats the alternative of having their absenteeism impede your ability to make progress and deliver results.4. Meet your boss where they are.In working to bridge the gap between you and your absent boss, it helps to recognize whether the separation is geographical, caused by a lack of emotional connection and trust, or a mix of the two.If you are traditionally close to your boss on a personal level, but suddenly a new remote work environment or some other shift has made it difficult to connect, try suggesting a weekly or bi-weekly call. This arrangement can ensure a steady work rhythm and maintain your visibility in a way that doesnt overly burden their schedule.In those calls, accommodate your bosss style by noticing the moments where they are more engaged and less so. It can help to proactively offer help on the things that they need most immediately, and then introduce longer-term issues like your career development.For instance, if you can tell from their mannerisms that theyre impatient, match their pace by speeding up and being concise. You may ask them, I dont want to take up too much of your time, whats the most important thing I can do this week to ease your burden?Then when you sense they are inviting you in mentally, you can say, by the way, as we are reaching the next quarter, I wanted to run something by you around my development plan; can we arrange a chat at your convenience? By seeking first to understand their tendencies and meet them where they are, youre in a better position to ask for their support on your career goals because you created a sense of comfort and reliability first.If the distance between you is more of a lack of connection, its important to activate your emotional intelligence and communicate with self-awareness and curiosity, rather than the typical small talk.As research from Harvard Business School shows, physical closeness in organizations isnt always possible, but for healthy, productive teams, mental and emotional proximity is essential. The way to reduce the psychological distance between you and your boss is to create conversations that foster, among other things, intimacy and intentionality.This means that you must take the responsibility to initiate interactions that enable deeper exchanges of trust-building, listening without judgment and gently guiding your manager to consider things they may not readily see but that ultimately will make their job and life easier. One way to do this is to think ahead about the challenges they will face, and offer to help with no expectations about how they will respond.You should also try to stay on their radar in non-intrusive ways that further the dialogue and convey a sense of care without a personal agenda. For instance, reach out and check in on them, just to acknowledge their impact on you or the team and ask if they need anything. If they arent responsive to your occasional efforts at reaching out, leverage the moments after scheduled team meetings to follow up with them on issues of importance and how youll deliver on action steps.5. Step into the void.Nature hates a vacuum, so see how you can use your bosss absenteeism to step into a higher level of responsibility and hone your leadership skills. As you step up to lead, keep your boss informed so that you can make decisions to keep moving ahead. Email is your friend here. For example, Jana would let her boss know: I will be moving forward with this decision on Monday unless I hear from you that you prefer another course of action. Or: I saw that this was a problem and I am planning on addressing it with a sub-team later this week. Let me know if you have any concerns and/or thoughts you would like us to consider.This is a moment for you to go beyond your own needs for validation in the absence of your boss and embody the leadership role you want to advance into anyway. So first, make sure you dont let your performance slip. Remember that someday your boss may move on, or you will, so how they are acting shouldnt dictate your commitment to your role and the company.But at this moment, and provided your boss doesnt feel insecure or threatened by your initiative, you may be able to demonstrate even more value to him despite the distance. Increase your presence with the team to improve cohesion. Be the cheerleader they need for connection and momentum. Of course, keep your boss informed every step of the way, but offer your help and time to keep everyone in a state of harmony and efficiency.6. Be bold.Oliver says that you need to remember that you were hired for a reason and youre there to add value. So, pipe up in meetings with good suggestions. Think about what you believe your boss would doand do it. Sometimes, you just need to take action and let your gut and good sense guide you. And, for better or worse, youre going to get feedback, she says.When you add value, people are going to tell you how they feel. Even if it isnt your boss, it could be somebody else whos important there that will tell you how they feel about your ideas. Then the trick is to try to take the feedback, even negative feedback, grow and learn, she says.7. Develop your internal network.When youve got an absentee boss, you sometimes need to take matters into your own hands and create your own support system, Hakim says. Look for development opportunities and people who can help you both in your organization, in professional groups, and through your network. If your organization offers a mentoring program, join it. You shouldnt close your window so much that youre only looking at that person who directly supervises you, she says. There are people who can help you all around you. Its just a matter of finding them.Find the office know-it-all, Oliver says, and the person who might have held your job before you and gotten a promotion. You may find other mentors or people who simply know the company ropes and can give you insight and feedback, she says. Its important to be able to cultivate mentors and turn people into mentors who dont necessarily expect it. And if youre new to the role or company, use that to your advantage. You typically have a few months of grace period where people are happy to help out the new person.8. Be prepared to look elsewhere.Quitting when you have a bad boss can be hard for many reasons. But if youve done what you can to salvage the situation and things havent improved, it may be time to look for opportunities elsewhere. Lynda Gratton, professor at the London Business School, recommends employees ask themselves two questions: Am I working at a place that will keep me healthy? Am I working at a place that will help me learn? Use these questions as a litmus test: If you cant check both those boxes in your current situation, you may be best served by finding someplace elsewhere you can. Ultimately, Jana concluded it would be best to move on and is now happily working at a new organization with a more supportive and engaged boss.If you find yourself with an absentee boss, the unfortunate truth is that it will be on you to make the situation better for yourself. In the corporate world, those who get promoted to leadership positions arent always suited to managing people. Hoping your boss will change will likely be a waste of time.Accept your feelings about the situation, and drum up the energy to employ the above strategies to succeed in your current role. And if that doesnt work, put your energy toward looking for a position that will give you the opportunity to thrive.Nihar Chhaya and Gwen Moran also contributed writing, reporting, and/or advice to this article and a previous version.

Ask a transportation designer what they think of a roof box and youll visibly notice the blood rush to their face. These designers spend years focusing on designing a car with what they consider the perfect aesthetic only for it to be ruined by a bulky roof box that doesnt match the cars design language at all. Why should it, though? Roof boxes need to be spacious, not stylish and theres no way to design one roof box that aesthetically complements every car model ever. However, the folks at ENROAD seem to have built a roof box that walks that fine line between form and function.The Nomadix Pro Roof-Box actually packs impressive features into a robust yet gorgeously aerodynamic package. It isnt boxy or boring-looking instead, the Nomadix Pro opts for a gorgeously sleek design that cuts through the air with the same aerodynamics as your car. Its almost airfoil-like shape takes inspiration from aircraft wings, but couple that with a built-in solar panel and battery, fingerprint unlocking, and a double-reinforced shell strong enough to easily take up to 165 lbs of weight.Designer: ENROADClick Here to Buy Now: $799 $1199 (33% off). Hurry, only a few left! Raised over $70,000.What the Nomadix Pro packs into its slick design is impressive. The roof box offers ample space to accommodate up to five carry-on-sized suitcases, making it ideal for camping trips, ski outings, or daily commutes. An innovative RailTie system allows for effortless organization and secure adjustment of your gear. You even get a removable felt mat lining at the bottom to keep your stuff on, enhancing grip and reducing the constant cluttering sound of your stuff bumping around while you ride.The roof box sports a pretty innovative Four-bar Hinge system that allows you to open it from either side. Whether youre sitting on the drivers side or shotgun, the Nomadix Pro lets you open and access the insides thanks to this innovative hinge system. The box can be opened using a set of traditional keys, but just in case you forget them (or if theyre strapped to your car keys that cant be taken out), smart fingerprint unlocking on either side lets you use your fingerprint to open the Nomadix Pro. The roof box stores up to 20 fingerprints, allowing you to easily set up authentication for yourself, friends, or family members.As impressive as its aerodynamic design is, the true crown jewel on the Nomadix Pro is its built-in 30W solar panel. Integrated into the top of the roof boxs design, this panel channels solar energy into the Trispark a 20,000mAh detachable power bank that can charge your phone and other devices as well as work as an outdoor camping lamp with a built-in emergency SOS mode. The Trisparks light comes in 3 temperature settings, with a battery life of 10 days at low brightness or 12 hours at max brightness.Aside from that nifty Trispark, the inside of the Nomadix Pro also includes a motion-activated light, allowing you to see your belongings in the dark. The outer facade even has an LED full-width tail light that draws power from the solar panel and Trispark, working automatically when the cars in motion to give other drivers a clear silhouette of your car in the dark. A perfect set of features for a modern-day roof box meant for modern-day cars.All those features really dont matter much if the roof box isnt good at its prime objective securing your gear. Aside from being spacious enough to hold a sizeable amount of luggage, the Nomadix Pro is built to last, with a 5-layer PMMA and ABS composite exterior thats both durable and UV-resistant, and multiple metal reinforcements on the inside that allow the box to hold its shape even if you sit on it. Moreover, a Front-located Secondary Lock further secures the box, preventing it from ever accidentally flying open if theres too much wind. Splash-proofing means that your gear stays secure no matter how hard its pouring.The Nomadix Pro starts at a really competitive price of $799, undercutting premium brands like Thule by nearly half. Sure, you might find other roof boxes for that price tag, but they surely wont be as aerodynamic, aesthetic, and durable as this one forget the fact that youre getting solar panels, fingerprint unlocking, and a 20,000mAh detachable power bank/camping lamp (with an SOS mode) along with the roof box!Click Here to Buy Now: $799 $1199 (33% off). Hurry, only a few left! Raised over $70,000.The post Game-Changing Roof Box Packs A 30W Solar Panel, a 20,000mAh Power Bank, and Fingerprint Unlocking first appeared on Yanko Design.

Forget expensive microphones and recording software iOS 18 just turned FaceTime into your personal podcast studio. Here's how to get started.Recording podcasts with FaceTimeStarting a podcast can feel intimidating, especially if you don't have professional gear. FaceTime's built-in recording tools make it easy to capture high-quality audio and video conversations, even if you're new to podcasting.Before iPadOS 18, recording podcasts on an iPad was challenging due to the system's limitation on simultaneous app access to the microphone. This limitation prevented recording during FaceTime or Skype calls. Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums

The lowest price ever on Apple's closeout M3 Pro 14-inch MacBook Pro with an upgrade to 36GB of RAM is in effect, with an exclusive $750 discount valid this week only.This upgraded MacBook Pro is $750 off.This Space Black 14-inch MacBook Pro offers a great deal of performance at the discounted $1,649 price. Enjoy an 11-core CPU and 14-core GPU thanks to the M3 Pro chip. Although it's the last-gen model, it's still capable of handling a variety of tasks ranging from business administration to photo editing. What really stands out is the upgrade to 36GB of unified memory, double that of the standard M3 Pro model and 12GB more than the 24GB of memory found in the standard M4 Pro spec.Save $750 at B&H Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums

CommemoratingDying Lights10th anniversary, developer and publisher Techland has revealed that the post-apocalyptic zombie-slaying franchise has crossed a major milestone in terms of its player numbers. TheDying Lightseries has surpassed 45 million total players to date, across all games and all platforms.To celebrate the series 10th anniversary, Techland has also announced that it is going to release new free updates for both the originalDying LightandDying Light 2 Stay Humansoon. The former will be adding new rewards and enhancements (including visual improvements and a remastered soundtrack) and bringing back familiar events. Meanwhile,Dying Light 2supdate will make more tweaks to the prologue and also make co-op roguelike mode Tower Raid a permanent part of the game.Beyond that, Techland is also selling both games at discounted rates, withDying Light 2seeing a steep 67 percent discount, which is the highest discount it has seen from the publisher since its release.Series fans also have another game to look forward to, with spinoffDying Light: The Beastdue out for PS5, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, Xbox One, and PC this Summer.

The list of game developers whove criticized the Xbox Series S lower-spec hardware and the limitations that it poses has grown longer and longer with time, and fromBaldurs Gate 3toBlack Myth: Wukong,many prominent titles Xbox releases have also suffered delays because of the machine. However, it seems like Microsoft has no intention to drop mandatory support for Xbox Series S.In a recent interview with Destin Legarie, Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer stated that the company has no plans for allowing Xbox Series X-exclusive releases. Spencer pointed to the rise of handheld PCs as well as the upcoming launch of the Nintendo Switch 2, stating that support for varied spec devices is going to continue in the industry.I think about it in almost exactly the opposite way right now, Spencer said (transcription via Pure Xbox). With the rise of handheld PCs and even the introduction so far of the Switch 2, as developers were building on more device spec. I actually think we have a real advantage because weve been targeting the Series S for quite a while. So, when we look at a Steam Deck or a ROG Ally or something, weve got this Series S version of the games thats more tailored to the device specs of a lot of devices that frankly are getting introduced right now. And frankly, the scalability of engines today allows them to scale.Im playing Indiana Jones on the Series S and it looks great, he added, so its definitely capable of playing current-generation games in a great way, but most of your games that are going to be out there are going to be supporting these different devices, and the Series S spec actually maps pretty well to the devices that were seeing introduced right now. So, I think its actually an important design point for teams going forward that kind of power/performance mix that you see in the Xbox Series S.The cheaper of Microsofts current-gen machines has certainly proven controversial since its release in 2020, but as a cheaper and lower-end device, it also does clearly have its own unique advantages, especially for more casual buyers.Of course, with leaks claiming that a next-gen Xbox console is targeting a 2026 release, it will be interesting to see how long Xbox Series X/S remain actively supported.

Donald Trump called for tariffs on foreign computer chips, semiconductors, and pharmaceuticals from places like Taiwan in the near future.Read More

Google said today that it plans to update Google Maps to reflect President Trumps January 20th executive order to change the names of the Gulf of Mexico and Denali to the Gulf of America and Mount McKinley, respectively.The company noted on X the updated nomenclature will appear once the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) is updated.We have a longstanding practice of applying name changes when they have been updated in official government sources, the company posted on X. It added that when name changes vary between countries, Maps users see their official local name. Everyone in the rest of the world sees both names. That applies here too.Denali was named Mount McKinley until 2015.The US Department of the Interior said last week it plans to follow the executive order to implement the name changes.The U.S. Board on Geographic Names, under the purview of the Department of the Interior, is working expeditiously to update the official federal nomenclature in the Geographic Names Information System to reflect these changes, effective immediately for federal use, the Department of the Interior said on Friday.An Apple spokesperson wasnt immediately available to comment on its plans for Apple Maps.

DeepSeek says its newest AI model, Janus-Pro can outperform Stable Diffusion and DALL-E 3.Already riding a wave of hype over its R1 reasoning AI that is atop the app store charts and shifting the stock market, Chinese startup DeepSeek has released another new open-source AI model: Janus-Pro. Input image analysis is limited to 384x384 resolution, but the company says the largest version, Janus-Pro-7b, beat comparable models on two AI benchmark tests.Correction: As TechCrunch notes, Janus-Pro image input is listed as limited to low resolution, not its output.

Multimodal AI integrates diverse data formats, such as text and images, to create systems capable of accurately understanding and generating content. By bridging textual and visual data, these models address real-world problems like visual question answering, instruction-following, and creative content generation. They rely on advanced architectures and large-scale datasets to enhance performance, focusing on overcoming technical limitations for meaningful interactions between modalities. Despite progress, optimizing performance across understanding and generation tasks remains challenging. Shared visual encoders in many systems lead to inefficiencies due to conflicting representation requirements. Tasks like detailed text-to-image generation demand specialized features that unified encoders cannot provide. Also, limitations in training data and computational strategies have resulted in inconsistent performance and reliability, emphasizing the need for improved solutions.Prior approaches like the original Janus model introduced decoupled encoding for understanding and generation, improving task-specific performance. However, it faced scalability constraints, computational inefficiencies, and challenges with short-prompt image generation. These issues highlighted the need for architectural and data strategy enhancements to develop more robust multimodal systems.Researchers at DeepSeek-AI have developed Janus-Pro, a refined version of the Janus framework, to overcome the limitations of earlier models. Janus-Pro introduces three key innovations:An optimized training strategyAn expanded and high-quality dataset, andLarger model variants Janus-Pro-1B and Janus-Pro-7BThese enhancements resolve inefficiencies while boosting the models scalability and accuracy. By leveraging advanced architectural principles and focusing on robust training, Janus-Pro establishes itself as a cutting-edge multimodal understanding and generation tool, enabling superior task performance across benchmarks.The architecture of Janus-Pro is designed to decouple visual encoding for understanding and generation tasks, ensuring specialized processing for each. The understanding encoder uses the SigLIP method to extract semantic features from images, while the generation encoder applies a VQ tokenizer to convert images into discrete representations. These features are then processed by a unified autoregressive transformer, which integrates the information into a multimodal feature sequence for downstream tasks. The training strategy involves three stages: prolonged pretraining on diverse datasets, efficient fine-tuning with adjusted data ratios, and supervised refinement to optimize performance across modalities. Adding 72 million synthetic aesthetic data samples and 90 million multimodal understanding datasets significantly enhances the quality and stability of Janus-Pros outputs, ensuring its reliability in generating detailed and visually appealing results.Janus-Pros performance is demonstrated across several benchmarks, showcasing its superiority in understanding and generation. On the MMBench benchmark for multimodal understanding, the 7B variant achieved a score of 79.2, outperforming Janus (69.4), TokenFlow-XL (68.9), and MetaMorph (75.2). In text-to-image generation tasks, Janus-Pro scored 80% overall accuracy on the GenEval benchmark, surpassing DALL-E 3 (67%) and Stable Diffusion 3 Medium (74%). Also, the model achieved 84.19 on the DPG-Bench benchmark, reflecting its capability to handle dense prompts with intricate semantic alignment. These results highlight Janus-Pros advanced instruction-following capabilities and ability to produce stable, high-quality visual outputs.The research team meticulously designed Janus-Pros methodology to address prior inefficiencies. They extended the training duration in the initial stage to maximize the models capability to learn pixel dependencies using datasets like ImageNet. The model achieved faster convergence and improved performance by eliminating redundant training steps in the second stage and focusing on detailed text-to-image data. Adjustments to the data ratio in the final stage, with a balanced mix of multimodal, textual, and image data, further enhanced its capabilities. The scaling of the model to 7 billion parameters also contributed to its ability to process complex multimodal inputs with greater precision and efficiency.Janus-Pro introduces several key takeaways that set it apart in multimodal AI.The decoupling of visual encoding for understanding and generation tasks ensures task-specific optimization, mitigates conflicts and improves output quality.A three-stage training process and strategic data adjustments allow more efficient and effective learning.Including 72 million synthetic data samples and 90 million multimodal datasets enhances stability and output precision.Scaling the model to 7B parameters improves its capability to handle complex inputs and diverse tasks.Janus-Pros results on MMBench (79.2%), GenEval (80%), and DPG-Bench (84.19%) establish it as a leader in multimodal understanding and generation.Its ability to accurately follow dense prompts demonstrates its versatility in real-world applications.In conclusion, Janus-Pro builds upon its predecessor to set a new benchmark for multimodal understanding and generation. The model achieves remarkable results in diverse tasks by addressing critical challenges through architectural innovation, optimized training, and data enhancement. Its decoupled visual encoding ensures specialized processing, while its scalability enables it to tackle complex scenarios precisely. With its exceptional performance across benchmarks, Janus-Pro sets a benchmark in its ability to integrate textual and visual data.Check out the Demo Chat, Janus-Pro-7B and Janus-Pro-1B. All credit for this research goes to the researchers of this project. Also,dont forget to follow us onTwitter and join ourTelegram Channel andLinkedIn Group. Dont Forget to join our70k+ ML SubReddit. Asif RazzaqAsif Razzaq is the CEO of Marktechpost Media Inc.. As a visionary entrepreneur and engineer, Asif is committed to harnessing the potential of Artificial Intelligence for social good. His most recent endeavor is the launch of an Artificial Intelligence Media Platform, Marktechpost, which stands out for its in-depth coverage of machine learning and deep learning news that is both technically sound and easily understandable by a wide audience. The platform boasts of over 2 million monthly views, illustrating its popularity among audiences. Meet 'Height':The only autonomous project management tool (Sponsored)