Think it was difficult to run a company in 2020? Well think again, as corporate heads and analysts in the US tell Axios that 2022 is turning out to be one of the hardest years ever to run a business. Uncertainty remains at high, as labor shortages, surging inflation, latent pandemic disruption and increasing demands from employees for new benefits and flexible working arrangements are raising expenses and creating new complications.

Workforce challenges are creating new headaches for CEOs: "They're struggling to find their way,” especially when it comes to workforce challenges, said Ted Bililies, managing director at consulting firm AlixPartners. The so-called “Great Resignation” has seen record numbers of people quit their jobs over the past year, and with 11 mn job vacancies the number of applicants remains low. This is forcing companies in some sectors to aggressively up their salaries to attract and retain talent.

But it’s more trouble for smaller businesses, who neither have the resources to increase salaries or have customers endure their higher costs of doing business this year unlike bigger companies. They too have difficulties recruiting the right talent.

Trouble in doing business is not only limited to the workforce, as inflation and supply chain issues are leading to the higher cost of doing business. The annual change in costs for S&P 500 companies is at its highest in a decade at 13.4%.

All of this has CEOs fearing the future: Almost three-quarters of CEOs told an AlixPartners survey at the end of last year that they’re worried about being left jobless due to the disruption.

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The EU’s climate disclosure rules are facing more pushback from industry: The EU’s controversial green taxonomy is coming under fire from financial industry trade group ICMA, reports the Financial Times. The ICMA released a paper questioning the taxonomy’s usability, arguing that the alignment regulations require too many details from fund managers which would push up costs to the extent that smaller firms would not be able to comply. The group is also pushing for more country-focused standards that take into account local conditions as opposed to applying the European framework to assets all over the world.

The taxonomy is no stranger to backlash, having been the subject of global outcry for its designation of nuclear power and natural gas as “green investments”. The rules are currently under review and could become law by the summer unless a supermajority of EU countries or the bloc’s parliament moves to block it.

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Siri and Alexa have entered the group chat: Several of the world’s biggest tech companies are teaming up to create a common language to allow the increasing number of smart home devices to better communicate and help users integrate tech made by different companies into their setup, writes the Wall Street Journal. While companies such as Apple, Amazon and Google all sell products that allow users to turn off the lights, change the thermostat, or open the blinds with a touch of a button, introducing Siri to Alexa doesn’t usually go so well due to compatibility issues and setup complexity, slowing down the adoption of IoT tech in the home.

Introducing Matter: To make the smart home tech market more accessible, Apple, Amazon, Google and Samsung have joined forces to roll out a new standard this year called Matter, which will act as a common language spoken by most new — and many older — smart home products. Along with the tech giants, over 220 other companies will also create Matter-compliant smart-home devices — meaning they can interact together seamlessly while users can choose whichever voice assistant they desire. That also means that supporting products (such as blinds or light switches) will be compatible with all products to easily switch between systems.