Greece installs 6 day work week, Tractor Supply ditches DEI and Pride Support, Monster and CareerBuilder get hitched

[00:00:00] Oh my goodness, bad touching, harassment, sex, violence, fraud, threats, all things that could have been avoided. If you had Fama, stop hiring dangerous people. Fama.io What is going on everybody? Ryan Leary, William Tink up here. Welcome to the BARF.

[00:00:31] It is our look at the week that was so you can prepare for the week that is. And I'm already giggling over here because I completely missed the photo that you shared with me this weekend, which no one's going to be able to see because they're listening,

[00:00:50] except for those that are watching but we're not going to share it because it's actually kind of gnarly. It is a little gnarly. That's what happens when you fall and to break your fall you put your hand out. What happened here? I have a cramp.

[00:01:03] I was taking that normal and I have a leg cramp, my right leg. So I'm like, all right, let me get up. And as I get up because of hardwoods in the office, I slip, my left leg goes out from

[00:01:18] under me because I was trying to get up to get the cramp done. So I rushed the cramp only to then fall. So I fall and I broke my fall, but when I did that, I hyperextended my two left middle fingers. That is real. Oh yeah it is.

[00:01:39] No doubt. No doubt. So you were napping in the office? I didn't miss that. Napping in the office. Right leg cramps up. So I'm like, okay, I got to, you know, when your calf, calf. Everybody has cramps occasionally. Usually it's dehydration or whatever.

[00:01:58] Yeah, but I don't think I've ever fallen from a car accident. Well, don't say never. Never say never. I would have said never prior to this happening. And I hit my head, I hit my arm, my leg. I feel so bad. Like I totally missed that.

[00:02:14] I had a full conversation with you after that photo. I think I was concussed. Four days. I think I was concussed. Like when I had a car accident in 16, I can remember every second. Every second of the car accident. Like every moment.

[00:02:30] All the way to the hospital, all the way to them giving me a bunch of shots of whatever the hell they were giving me, pain medication was. But you can't remember the fall because of your cramps.

[00:02:38] I can remember the cramps and slipping and then all of a sudden getting up, getting up. I just feel bad that I completely missed the photo. We talked about YouTube. Yeah. We talked about all this lovely shit. Dude, he was a trip though. Once I got up.

[00:02:58] You could have been dead. No. Dude, seriously. I've been closer to death than that. So what was tripped is my body reacting is after all that stuff happened, I kept going into cramps. Like all kinds of cramps. I'm like, what in the hell is going on?

[00:03:17] I couldn't work it out. I'm like usually you just kind of unlock the cramp. Yeah, that didn't happen. Have you ever seen the video of I don't know the guy's name baseball player from a piece from Japan and they're asking him about he's bananas and he's saying monkey.

[00:03:37] He's been at his monkeys. Don't get cramps. But it sounds like he was saying crap. Monkey don't crap. Monkey don't crap. This is what you're supposed to. Well, there was a there was a playoff series with LeBron where he cramped up and like he couldn't go in.

[00:03:55] Like his body was convulsing. It's like this guy's treats his body really well. Obviously he's not dehydrated and all that other stuff but happens. No big deal. Well, I hope I know you. Yeah, yeah. No, I've never really had cramps.

[00:04:10] This difference between a sprained broken like nothing's broken. You know, nothing's broken in my left hand. It's sprained and like a jam finger. Like you know, if you ever jammed your finger into the wall or something like that. This is just severe.

[00:04:25] The stress of it is just severe. Yeah, it'd be fine. Give me a couple weeks. You enjoy that. You enjoy that. Good thing I'm right handed. Yeah, good thing. You enjoy that and I am going to share that Microsoft had another playoff. Do you? Massive.

[00:04:48] No, only a thousand people. So we were just talking about and I probably shouldn't talk down about a layoff but like you said company has a few hundred thousand employees or whatever they have and they have a thousand people layoff. It's not big news.

[00:05:04] What I think is interesting though about this is the amount of the layoffs really isn't for me is not what is significant but it's the larger story around the layoffs. If you look at all of their layoffs that have happened over the last probably half a

[00:05:24] year or so, a lot of them are shifting from one part of the business of layoffs to hiring in a different part of the business and I think that's really what this this is again and I'm not a gamer. I know your voice game.

[00:05:41] I've I mean I haven't game since Donkey Kong and then change much. Yeah, it's just better graphics but they're laying off in the gaming area and they're hiring extensively in the area so I think this is just a deployment of money of resources

[00:06:05] and hiring into more of its core which is now going to be obviously AI and some of the make sense with their bets with open AI and some of the other things that tracks. Yeah, why it's actually hated for the folks that did get laid off.

[00:06:20] Nobody likes nobody likes layoffs but that happens. So let me pitch you this one. OSHA proposes rule to protect workers from extreme heat. The standard that would require employers to provide water and rest breaks when the when the high heat creates a hazardous work environment.

[00:06:42] This is at OSHA.gov you go read all about what they're proposing. I don't hate it but I don't hate it but it's kind of like common sense hot common water common common is common sense isn't as common anymore. I'm wondering what constitutes extreme heat.

[00:07:02] So like it seems like folks that live like in Arizona or Texas or something would they be adjusted to heat? So I couldn't find a temperature guide like when they say extreme or high heat, high heat to you and high heat to me that's different.

[00:07:21] It's about 85, 86, 90% humidity today and I'm staying inside. I'm staying in 10th and dry. I mean like 10% humidity and not a problem. So no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. I mean, like I don't even think that's hot.

[00:07:41] Like it's hot when you can't feel your air conditioning when you get in the car for the first two minutes. That's hot. That's hot but I have three Toyotas. Yeah. They're all great.

[00:07:52] What it made me think of is do the same rules apply to extreme cold that they do with extreme heat. Like I can see the extreme heat, got it? Totally understand. Makes sense. Again, I think there's got to be some definitions or what is or isn't extreme

[00:08:06] heat or high heat or people who just without some type of guidelines, anything over 100 done, whatever, whatever that is. But then it got me thinking about the opposite. Okay. Anything below what 30 degrees, 20 degrees, whatever the thing might be. Then you've got to provide breaks, etc.

[00:08:26] Like again, if you're if you're dealing with one extreme and heat, probably need to deal with the other extreme. But yeah, if you want to know more about what they're proposing rule wise with OSHA, take a look at that. That's at OSHA.gov.

[00:08:41] Before we move on, I need to let you know about my friend Mark Feffer and his show, PeopleTech. If you're looking for the latest on product development, marketing, funding, big deals happening in talent acquisition, HR, HCM, that's the show you need to listen to.

[00:09:00] Go to the work to find network, search up PeopleTech. Mark Feffer, you can find them anywhere. All right. Our friends at Tractor Supply. Hey, you know, over the last couple of years, they've done some crazy things. They've made they've made news.

[00:09:24] This is this is really interesting and I'm not sure when I first read it. When I first read the news about this, my initial thought was WTF. Like what's going on with people? But then I thought, OK, it makes sense from a business perspective for them.

[00:09:44] And let me explain what I'm talking about. So Tractor Supply slashes all DEI and Pride support on the surface looks horrible. It's still after reading it and researching it a bit, it's still not sitting well with it. Right. OK.

[00:09:59] However, the the the story behind this that they say they're going to be focused on being a good neighbor, right? So they brought State Farm in for consulting. They're going to be a good neighbor. Here's here's here's the scoop, though.

[00:10:13] So they're eliminating all of its diversity, its equity and inclusion roles, withdrawing its carbon emission goals and ending support for Pride events and voting efforts and seizing data sharing with LGBTQ plus advocacy advocacy groups, the Human Rights Campaign.

[00:10:36] So if I just say that to you, what's your first thought? Well, the the first start is they're playing to their base. So they believe in rural American priorities, such as education, animal welfare, their veteran causes, things like that.

[00:11:01] So I think I really think OK, because you got in rural pick rural anywhere. Like we'll talk about Texas and Pennsylvania. It's all the same. Yeah, quite frankly. I mean, it's all the same. I get from where I live to maybe five miles, five miles north of me.

[00:11:19] Very, very different. So you got to attract a supply out there. There was a program. I'm not sure they still do it in Texas, but there was a program there for a while because we have a wild hog problem down here.

[00:11:31] That if you if you brought in any ear from the hog, they'd give you like a five dollar gift card or sometimes some bit. So like these dudes are killing. They're up in the helicopters just killing hogs,

[00:11:49] the AR's and so they're just going under and sawing off in here and going into truck supply and get discounted. OK. You you shared with you shared the hog stories with me over years. Yeah, we're just going high like I'm OK. Like that's different for me.

[00:12:07] We don't have their rats. We don't have that. But the fact that you saw. Oh, yeah. Now they saw them off. Bring it in and get a you bring out your you bring out your knife. Yeah, you put it in a little satchel.

[00:12:19] Go to track the supply now again. I'm not sure if they still do it. But here's the deal. I think out in rural America, I think what you have is a backlash, a real legitimate backlash to woke wokeness. So all the things that we progressives

[00:12:34] were to line up all the things that we've made some advancements on over the last 10 years. Rural America is not there. They're not there at all. So I think this for me represents a division for furthering a division between conservatives and liberals.

[00:12:51] It's very conservative out in rural America. And I believe what TSC is doing is they're hiding behind customer belief systems. So the question back to you is, is that pandering or is it smart business? It's both. It's both.

[00:13:09] And it's I mean, ultimately, I guess it's it's smart business. Otherwise, they're probably not going to have a business. This is I mean, it's I don't know this to be true. But I'm going to say probably close well north of 50 percent of their business.

[00:13:25] Oh, is all more like there's a couple in the city like random spots. But I don't I don't think that's their base for sure. The majority of those folks are out. And again, you just get out into rural America. We'll just leave it at that.

[00:13:41] And and the politics changed. And I'm not just talking about the politics, but like the idea of like gender reassignment, like you throw that out in the city, any major city. And, you know, there's great discourse. You throw that out in a five thousand person town

[00:14:01] and anywhere in America. Yeah, that just doesn't play. Not happen. So I'm not suggesting that's right or wrong and just saying that that's what it is. So now I've got one for you. Are you ready? I don't have a choice.

[00:14:20] You do want to go with yes, because this is local. It is. I fell for you. That's the local unions fall on lawsuit against Philadelphia for mandating that full time city workers return to the office. RTO Mayor Sharrell Parker, hopefully I got that correctly in May,

[00:14:42] announced in May that city employees must return working in the office July 15th. It's eight days from now. That's a Fox business dot com. So you go ahead and take a look at that. So when I first read about it, I'm like, OK, I haven't.

[00:14:58] I'm surprised that I haven't seen more union activity around RTO. So this is like one of the first ones I can remember. I'm sure there's been others. But my first thought is that, well, if you have a desk job

[00:15:10] like at the DMV, you know, you're taking people's driver's license or giving people's driver's license. OK, then you probably need to be there. So that's a that's a return to office, I guess. But the second thought was all these functions function in some way or another during COVID.

[00:15:28] So how did it work during COVID and why why can't it still work that way now? Like is this really just a thing of like getting all these you know, government city employees back into these monstrosity offices,

[00:15:43] etc. Or is it is it like they did it during COVID? They weren't in that office during COVID. So what's your take? This is local to you, local ish to you. You know, when you first said union, I was thinking. Right. That's what I thought.

[00:16:01] And then I actually got kind of halfway through. I'm like, you know, you know, go back to the office. See employees. I mean, like stop bitching, honestly. Like, like if you can go on, I get it. I don't work in an office, so I can say that.

[00:16:20] And I probably wouldn't take a job that I had to go because I'd have to buy new clothes. I literally have to change my schedule. My life is now built, but I've been doing well over 10 years.

[00:16:32] Yeah. So I would it would be a massive redesign of my family. So if you take a job together in this line of thinking, if you take a job with the city, let's just say a government employee, city government in this case, municipal government.

[00:16:45] So you take a job to city and unless you're in a parks and rec department where you're going to be out and about running around doing all the water utilities or some of those jobs that you know, you go around auditing, etc.

[00:16:57] Other than that, like you take a job with the government. You're going to go to office. Like that's there is no flexibility. Right. I don't I don't hate that. You're also getting a lot of I mean, look,

[00:17:10] you're also getting a lot of benefits that others do not get. Well, access to pensions. You've got 10. You got all this other stuff that you're getting that I cannot get working somewhere else. So maybe some of those benefits outweigh that situation.

[00:17:28] That said, yeah, I mean, I think they're going to win. I think there'll be it'll be a hybrid environment. I just think that's the way it is today. I don't think it's going to change anymore. All right. So Greece. This is funny.

[00:17:47] This is funny for me because I've always been the advocate of the work week. And then last time we found the three day work week and now Greece just goes it goes ahead and sticks a dagger right in it and says six day work week.

[00:18:03] Yeah, like OK, so six day work week for certain industries. Right? Like so some some is an every thing or every one. So I don't actually hate this. I think it's going to I think I think it potentially works well for some people.

[00:18:22] The way and depending on on the job, however, I do think this is the reasoning that they're giving, I do think this is misguided. I don't think this is to rebuild the this is strictly to read the economy.

[00:18:35] It's not to help the worker and they're positioning it more as we're going to give you more access to money and more benefits, more over time or more work over time. Exactly. But it's it's really to to to to infuse more into the economy in Bill Greece,

[00:18:52] which we know has had issues over three different bailouts. Yes. Right. Yeah. So so I don't hate it for that reason. I hate it for the workers reason. Well, they don't have to take the they don't have to. Not forced to.

[00:19:09] But they get paid an extra 40 percent for overtime. So right again. Well, I get paid over time. This is the same as RTO, though. Right. Kind of the same as our like if I come back to the office and I'm seen.

[00:19:22] Yes. And I'm walking around and I'm talking to leadership. Does that put me ahead of you? Who's at home? I have a hundred percent opportunity. Hundred percent. If I'm working six days a week, you're seeing as a person that works. We we like people that work.

[00:19:39] We promote those that work. We promote the folks that that do these types of things for sure. I think, you know, for me, there's there's a there's a bit in there. First of all, for folks that are listening and watching BBC.com,

[00:19:53] go and read the article because it is quite interesting because there's a tax evasion part of this that was fascinating to me that basically they want this to drive growth, economic growth, but they also want for people to work more so that they pay more in taxes

[00:20:13] because they don't feel like their their people are paying. They're evading taxes. And so it's kind of interesting. There's there's a dark underbelly to this. But we'll see. I mean, we'll see. First of all, we'll see if it catches on. We'll see if it goes through Europe.

[00:20:30] It seems like it wouldn't. But but because they've had three bailouts in the last 20 years, they need to do something different. Like whatever's worked, whatever they've been doing isn't working. So this does seem a bit radical and outside of kind of what France would do, let's say.

[00:20:52] But I mean, again, they like Germany is legit financially stable. Greece, not financially stable. So right. And it's it's volunteer. It is volunteer. Like you take it, you get and you get rewarded. Does it impact the tourism, which is tourism is one of their

[00:21:09] I think it's the number one industry and it doesn't affect food service. So right. All righty. How about this one? Alaska Airlines flight attendants will now get paid for helping you board the plane. Oh, my goodness. Bad touching, harassment, sex, violence, fraud, threats,

[00:21:33] all things that could have been avoided if you had Fama stop hiring dangerous people. Fama dot I O and immediate pay bump is no less than 18 percent and will be 32 percent on average. This is on courts, QZ dot com. You can go read the whole story there.

[00:21:58] So I'm assuming that, you know, their their their bonus structure is based on like on time flights and stuff like that. So some of this it isn't just a base raise. It seems like a bonus raise, but they're going to be paid based on you boarding the plane

[00:22:19] and getting you boarded faster on time. So so this is in this is in, you know, Jeff or Sally helping me with my bags on the plane. It's getting the plane boarded on time for an on that's right. Which which did you know that you might be saying

[00:22:38] that on time departure doesn't mean you actually just get when the door shuts. It's when the door shuts and then you sit there. That's all right. It's on time. It's on time. Door shut. I learned that the hard way was boarding a flight

[00:22:52] on a Monday morning to Orlando, and I was there. I was there early the whole bit. I don't know. I just kind of listen to music or whatever and I get up there and and they're boarding like, I don't know, seven or eighth group.

[00:23:03] And so I was boarding and they had already shut the door. I'm like, the flight's not supposed to leave for another eight minutes. Yeah, yeah. We decided to leave early. I'm like, yeah, we didn't. Like once the door shut, we can't open it up. I'm like, yeah.

[00:23:24] And then I got a voucher and it all worked out in. However, that's on time. Departures when the door is cabin door shut. Right. So anyhow, 32, 32 percent's a big number. So I'm really kind of interested to see how this is a three year contract with their union.

[00:23:43] So it's I'm interested to see how this plays out over time with them, but also with other airlines. Well, if it's I mean, look, if it's if it's the if it's the aggregate of everybody at Alaska getting their planes to a better departure time,

[00:24:02] even if you're on the plane and wait, you know, if there's I think it solves a couple of things. One, yeah, better travel to if my experience is better by being on the plane and I'm ready to go. I'm OK with that.

[00:24:17] Now, if I'm sitting on the plane for not OK with that, right? So that they have to have to figure all that out. I'm sure it'll be fine. They've been doing this for a while. All right. So Microsoft pays up $14 million in California, a big number of places.

[00:24:36] Big number. Yeah. Yeah. So so basically what happened here is that is Microsoft retaliated against California based employees who used parental leave, disability, pregnancy and family care leave since 2017 by denying them raises, promotions and stock. Interesting. Yeah, so this this plays into I mean,

[00:25:00] this confirms, I should say, the fear of so many workers. I've always I've always had this fear, but I really didn't care about it because I wasn't planning to be anywhere super long term where I was at that point in my career.

[00:25:14] That said, a lot of people are and they don't take parental leave. They don't take disability or they're afraid to take their PTO and or to go care for a family because they're afraid they're going to be retaliated against, passed up on and this confirms that.

[00:25:30] Yeah. This confirms that. This is the classic, you know, the 14 million. OK, good sum of money, but kind of like the classic corporate slap on the wrist. I mean, it's Microsoft. They have a hell of a lot more than $14 million.

[00:25:42] And I'm sure this is happening a lot more in the world. Let's say why just California? Is it just California? I was. I am. I'm guessing that's where it was filed for those people. I don't know, but I mean, look, in the end,

[00:25:59] I think this could have been the example right for people to say we're going to go big. We're going to make an example of Microsoft here. And it's OK for you as an American worker to take your time. This is you've earned it. You've you can use it.

[00:26:15] And you shouldn't have to fear retribution for a raise or pay a job promotion or anything like that. So anyway, I thought that was good. I liked it and good luck to those people. Hopefully they get some good money. It's all you home. It's all me. Yeah.

[00:26:42] That's all me. I'm not paying attention. So that are you. This is this is why live is edited. Bonusly. Yeah, no, maybe. Bonusly launches a performance enablement solution. So what I love about this is that managers are often fixated on team projects.

[00:27:06] And I think they miss the broader contributions of their employees to push the overall business goals for the organization forward. So I think we've all been in one side of relationships where whether work or in your case in love, I know you're just a lover.

[00:27:26] But look, in the end, if employees don't feel valued, they're going to walk right there. First opportunity and I think right, something good comes along. They're they're out. And so Bonusly launches this enablement solution, which is good.

[00:27:42] I think it gets it gets the employees good deeds up in front of the managers. And it's not just what they're working on for their individual group, but actually for the business, for example, if I'm working on something that's directly aligned to the business goals of the organization,

[00:28:01] it may not be aligned to the exact goals of my group at that moment. Now I can be recognized and it's seen for it's seen for what it is. I like it. I like I was talking to an ADP executive

[00:28:17] probably the last year and he had nine direct reports and out of the direct reports, he talked to every direct report once a week and his second level reports. He talked to them once a month. Like that was the schedule. That was his cadence and he reached out.

[00:28:35] How are you doing? How's everything going? Like not about they did do stuff around work, but it wasn't about that. It was about having FaceTime answering questions, mentoring, getting to know them, their family, all that stuff, which I just thought was genius.

[00:28:51] I mean, I think the better managers, they do that type of stuff in Avaly. Now he did it systematically, but they just feel like that's a part of the job is actually reaching out to people and talking to them.

[00:29:05] Yeah. And it's it's you know, it's on the flip side to that the employee is heard. Yeah. They feel valued and it's a much different it's a much different relationship when you see your leader walking through the hallway

[00:29:17] and you've had a call with that person or you've met with that person three weeks ago because they reached out to you. You're now saying hi to that person. You're no longer afraid to say hi. And that creates a much different feeling and culture in in the 100 percent.

[00:29:35] So are you ready for a position? All right, let me do a monster combining with career builder. All right, this is at staffingindustry.com. Things things that I did talk to some two things that I didn't know. Monster is the 20th largest provider of online advertising

[00:29:55] world with online job advertising revenue. This is twenty twenty three numbers. Two hundred and eleven million. Career Builder is the 21st at two hundred million. Yeah. So last year in revenue, four hundred and eleven million dollars. Now I don't know what they're.

[00:30:16] So is this now is this now positioning as twenty point five? Well, I mean, they're going to move up the list, right? Because at four hundred and eleven million, they're going to move up the list clearly up to something. Yeah.

[00:30:30] You know, there's another note in the in the in the bit that I thought was really interesting is basically Ronstad sold off their interest that I think Atlas Group or whatever the group that owns career builder is going to take that Ronstad was to have a minority share.

[00:30:47] But they're going to kind of combine the leadership teams, all that stuff. But a little note in that press thing was branding for the combined businesses will be settled upon the in the future. So that got me thinking, wait a minute. Oh boy. Monster Builder, careerster.

[00:31:07] Monder, I don't know. I mean, Monster. So so if you're going to leverage, I mean, first of all, if you're going to leverage those two brands, maybe you don't. Maybe you basically say, let's bring these two together and create a new

[00:31:26] whatever that is, then pick a name that might make a difference. But it's just interesting that they're not they're not trying to figure out branding right now. They're recently pulling at four hundred and eleven million dollars of revenue and seeing how they can grow that.

[00:31:42] So what's your take? I mean, look, I think this is a defensive move for me. I don't see a lot of offense. I don't even know that there is a lot of offense here. And not that not that they're bad companies. They've been around early.

[00:31:59] Four hundred and eleven million before you got too far down this path. I saw half a billion dollars. Yeah, oh, I saw something like there's a market for these got 100 percent where where I think though, and this is what everyone's going to say.

[00:32:15] So I putting two dinosaurs together, they're evolving to something, you know, thinking they're going to evolve into something more relevant. And they're not. But you're right. Four hundred million is two hundred million. Right. However you get there. It is a lot of money. However you get there.

[00:32:31] Right. Now, will they be innovative? Will they be? Will this be able? Will they be able to be agile and flexible like these smaller companies that are out there? Not sure. Maybe not. But I think I'm jaded because of who they are and what I've grown up with,

[00:32:46] which is Super Bowl ads, right? Both of them, right? Who are no longer relevant, at least in the eyes of people today. They are because the employers still have you and me in there running. And they're used to, hey, it's a three hundred

[00:33:02] dollar job, three hundred. It's a three hundred dollar job at dumps. Easy to do. Easy to do. What are they going to do in the future? I don't know. I hope good because, you know, I mean, look, it'd be nice

[00:33:14] to see to see a win here for these guys and do something. I think I think I think a choir. I think merging and then rebranding is probably in the future. So I think the rebrand coming out with a different name so that

[00:33:27] you have the legacy of those two companies and names and brands and all that stuff. But you can actually shake off that stuff and come out with something really innovative. Yeah, and they're look, they're not too big to they're big for us.

[00:33:42] They're not big in the grand scheme of like big companies. They're not too big to be innovative. And then maybe this is a step towards towards that. Who knows? Who knows? All right. HIG growth partners acquires mobile health. This is a significant move for HIG growth.

[00:34:03] This is a shift towards and this is something you always talk about proactive health management, which I've often found very boring to talk about. But you've somehow made it interesting probably because I'm getting older. I haven't I haven't cramped up and slipped in fall but getting older, right?

[00:34:24] So I think I think the keys to watch here is how well they scale personalized health into the employee wellness and in turn to the employee base for employee wellness cost reductions, things like that. I think this is a good move. I've read a lot about this.

[00:34:43] There's been a number of articles out there. So, you know, it seems to be pretty positive and well received. And maybe we all get more personalized health and we're I think it's smart. I mean, anything you can do to help your employees, wellness,

[00:34:56] but the financial, mental health, physical health, whatever, anything you can do that helps the well being of that person comes back to you. And so it also comes back to you in the form of cost savings and health insurance,

[00:35:13] which I believe is a driver for a lot of these types of things is we want healthy employees because it's right thing to do. We want healthy employees because our health insurance is less. So right, right? Well, yeah.

[00:35:27] And you know, it's interesting how you say that because there's I think these topics for me, I'm just going to use me as an example. They they've they've always been. OK, are you doing it for the health of the employees like you just said?

[00:35:41] Or are you doing it because it's a business? It's a business. Backside you're getting a 20 percent cut on it's a business. Right. But now the the the result of that is a much happier, fantastic year employing you would you wouldn't get that

[00:36:01] if you didn't think of it as a business decision first like thinking about right from a moral and ethical perspective and saying, well, this is just the right way to treat human beings. That's that's the way a nonprofit thinks.

[00:36:15] A business can't I think there's people with in the business, though, that does that. Yeah. You're here. You're here again. I see my laptop. Oh, my God. Bitch, that hurts. You're you're like the you ever see the thing that they were

[00:36:34] like different different people walking on the wall like how a millennial walk. My shit is slow. That that got it. Hold that up for the camera. Man, if you're watching this on camera, oh man, that's a shame. Yeah, they have a two or three weeks.

[00:36:49] Yeah, but but it is a little sensitive, a little sensitive right now. I see if you had an employee that cared about your health and mental well being you might not have had. Well, yeah, they would have.

[00:37:03] Why do you want to tell you I sent you a photo and you sent me a chat GPT response. So so clearly it didn't hit your radar is what I'm what I heard. All right, so so quick story.

[00:37:20] I totally was having a conversation with chat GPT at the time and I missed I missed your photo. I'm so sorry because I feel bad now that I see it. It looked bad. It looked really because it's the bruising, swelling and bruising.

[00:37:33] I mean, it's just a jammed finger like for people at home when you're listening to this, like, OK, it's nobody nobody died. It's a jammed finger. It just the picture you send those all black and blue.

[00:37:46] It looks like my daughters were beating on your hands or some shit. And when I see them on on on the greater note, though, chat GPT thinks we're pretty bad. Oh, it's crazy. Isn't that crazy? That's cool. And it's just going to take anyway.

[00:38:01] All right, let me give you one another one. You ready? It is. Fina, they're locally in Philadelphia ish and enhances employee and boarding on boarding with the acquisition of tidy T.Y.D.Y. This is from our good friends, Attitude Research. That would be Madeline and Kyle.

[00:38:20] I think they've got a couple of the folks that work with them. But what I find fascinating about this particular acquisition in is we've historically put phenom in the CRM category. And they've clearly moved around that, right? So they probably got an ATS like Aventure.

[00:38:39] But onboarding on boarding is the historically the line of demarcation between town acquisition and HR. So onboarding is the first ish real HR. Things that happen is critical. And tidy just happens to be world class. So I think it's a solid acquisition of phenom.

[00:38:59] I also think that it telegraphs that they're going into the enterprise that wouldn't surprise us if they have great internal mobility and other types of things around skills. Like it wouldn't shock me if we see a string of either acquisitions or new product development

[00:39:18] that they're going to go and extend themselves into the enterprise. But I think it's a great acquisition. I do as well. You're right. They are local about 15 minutes from me. So it's I'm happy to see them do do really well, especially when they're local.

[00:39:34] And a lot of people here in the area work there for them. But I think they're remote, right? They're sticking to it. But they've always focused on experience and personalization, and this enhances that. They really put a focus on this.

[00:39:52] So this is good. Yeah, congrats to them. Good job. All right, that is the the B.A. part of the BARF. Now we are they are this research. So Ryan, let me pitch this to you. It's a 2024 U.S. Workforce Trends Report, Organizational Well-Being Report by Gallagher

[00:40:10] with data supplied by almost 35. Well, it's actually 3,500 plus participants. You're going to find this report. It's at AJG.com. All right, so the numbers are really cool, confirming a lot of what we already know, health care, health care costs are increasing, turnover is stabilizing.

[00:40:30] However, one major finding stood out to me. There's five things, five major themes. We'll go through all five of them and go look at the report. But half of companies plan to enhance their HR tech solutions by 2026. So this 3500 people.

[00:40:51] So OK, half, let's just say that all those are different companies. 1750, so let's say it's just 2000. That means they're they're going to enhance their HR. That's going to be a lot of buying. So what basically I took out of that. Now, the other four things are also important.

[00:41:06] So go take a look at the report and kind of see those things as well. But this is the first time I've seen a stat like this where half the audience says, yeah, we're going to buy you to be buying more HR technology. Buy 2026. A lot of buying.

[00:41:22] A lot of buying. A lot of buying. A lot of buying. So anyhow, kind of cool. Which is good for us. Organizational Well-Being Report by Gallagher. Go take a look at it. All right. Check it out. All right. So what song is it?

[00:41:39] Oh, God, you just put it in my head, whatever it was and I can't start. At a furgy check it out. I don't know. Whatever. Anyway, check it out. Folks. Oh, yeah. There we go. All right. National University did an analysis

[00:41:53] of job posting data for jobs that target AI talent. Now. I'm conflicted on how to how I feel about this one. Not about their research, I'm sure they did a great job. But I was under the impression that college degrees didn't matter and more.

[00:42:15] Like I not not that they didn't answer. Not answer areas. In yeah, yeah, all this talk around education, secondary skills first, all this stuff. And now we're being told that companies are so more than three quarters of all the AI job openings

[00:42:35] that are listed are giving preference to master's degrees. Mid level experience is the most sought after. But master's degrees is is is one of the top the top requirements, whatever that they're they're looking for in a mix of other things. Right.

[00:42:56] Which, you know, kind of I was a little disappointed at that. But the top three skills, technical expertise, of course, strong management experience and communication skills. Now. I don't want to jump breeze through communication skills because this isn't like I talk well. This is take right.

[00:43:14] This isn't like oh, I use it. Who do you put on your resume? Great communication and whatever Excel skills or whatever you used to put. Um, this is communicating. Well, I'm able to take something that's very complex and oversimplifying it for someone like or the opposite.

[00:43:33] I understand taking ambiguity, being able to communicate with an ambiguity. Exactly. Not easy. Exactly. So I think those are the key. No, it's not easy. And I think that's where, you know, the master's degree comes in

[00:43:46] because a lot of a lot of master's degrees are in a lot of those areas. I wonder if that's around philosophy. I wonder, yeah. See, I wonder if that's if the master's degree is more technical,

[00:43:58] like the like a, you know, a CS degree or engineering or something like that or data, you know, data analysis, things like that. Like I wonder if it's a hard science, I guess we'll say it that way or a soft science.

[00:44:12] But what I find interesting about what you've just said is that also remote work is very limited 11 and 11 percent. So not only do we want people to have preference, excuse me, preference is given to master's degree. We also, a lot of these jobs are going to be remote.

[00:44:33] No, interesting in the office. Yeah. Yeah. I think we're headed. I honestly, I mean, I know we keep saying the work world has changed and it has, but I think in, I mean, we've with our many shows

[00:44:45] that we've done, I think we're going to, we may see something a little different than what we think happening, which would be really interesting to figure out in the next 12 18 months. Alrighty. All right. Let me pitch this with research to you.

[00:44:59] It's using a at work makes us lonelier and less healthy. This is a Harvard business for you, HBR dot org. So you go look at the study there. So this is to me, this is a management paradigm shift, whereas good managers were over index on employee well-being

[00:45:20] and social cohesion and bad managers won't care or worse, the over index on productivity at all costs. So I think this is where if you have good company values and training, then it's going to be very important to train

[00:45:37] your managers to make sure that again, again, if AI makes you lonelier and less healthier. Okay. What do you do as a manager to counteract that? If such if that's the case, and it's obviously a Harvard business for you is not going to publish BS.

[00:45:57] So it is making us lonelier and less healthy. Okay. So what do you do as a manager? You communicate. You focus on their well-being. Why are they making it lonelier? Because you're not interacting with other humans. For those that are introverts are questioning this right now,

[00:46:23] I don't understand. Chad GP team seems to know me. Yeah. Don't understand. I mean, I don't consider myself a bold introvert, but I'm definitely an introvert. I mean, I mean, yeah, I guess I just haven't. Yeah, we'll have to come back to that one.

[00:46:41] Give it a couple years and we'll see. All right. You ready? I got another one for you. I'm ready. Let's do it. Expedia report finds Americans win the gold medal for taking the fewest vacation days in the world. That's because they work for Microsoft.

[00:47:00] It's all ties together in California specifically. All ties together. So this is at Expedia.com. Take a look at it. This is their report. It also shows all the other countries, right? So Singapore versus Germany versus France versus whatever. Japan takes about the same days that we do.

[00:47:21] It's 11 to 12 days off a year. But you know, first thing is I'm looking at this research. I'm like, this is a shock to anyone. You know, the American dream. We pride ourselves on hard work and our identity.

[00:47:34] Identity largely is kind of wrapped up in our jobs and our titles and stuff. So I'm not really shocked. I wasn't really shocked to find out we were the suckiest in terms of taking our vacation in this research.

[00:47:45] But if you go to Expedia.com and you go into their newsroom and type all that stuff out the title gold medal. There is a fantastic infographic that shows all the countries, industries, everything. Like it is really, really, really cool.

[00:48:03] And I hate infographics so but it's take a look at it because it's I mean, shocking, not shocking. We don't take vacations. Yeah, I'm going to take a look at it. I'm laughing not with you. But you just explained for us how to go to Expedia and search.

[00:48:22] Well, they searched for the report. Yeah, but you told us to go to the search and type the title because Expedia, if you don't, if you don't, you go in there and you search for a flight. You might be a you might go in there with gold

[00:48:37] medal on the flights. So like they're going to give you a different they're going to give you a different thing. I didn't even bet you're going to go to the news section at the bottom of the page. I need to start drinking. Absolutely.

[00:48:47] I need to start drinking because all I heard there was here's how you search. Here's the here's the Google box. Type some stuff in. Gosh, why? So I think this one maybe ties into it. So I think the reason why we are not taking vacations

[00:49:04] or weaving a thread with fear in California in particular fear, fear of rat. Yeah, feel of retribution. Yeah, Microsoft. Gen X is also experiencing the fear of retirement. So this was a survey that was done through. I forget who ought to go look it up, but the survey

[00:49:25] shows that 60 percent of Gen X is worried they will need to work into their late 70s. They're going to live to 110. It's not that big a deal. Yeah, but still and 47 percent say there's no way they'll reach the retirement goal. Right. So yeah, so this is interesting. Right.

[00:49:47] So this is probably why we're vacationing less because we're afraid we're going to get fired and we just can't afford to. Boomer said it worse, man. They got hammered with a bunch of every time they were about to retire, they got hit with a financial crisis.

[00:50:04] Yeah, I think every generation is not right. I mean, we've been a gen X. We were Gen X, right? Yeah, we're both Gen X. I mean, we've been at 2008 financial crisis. We've been through a number of the wars and all that crap. Covid, right?

[00:50:19] So all of this hit pretty hard. Yeah. Also, which was interesting, they focused on, they didn't focus, but it was mentioned the switch to 401 keys. And I had to think about this is the switch from 401 keys or two 401 keys from pensions. Yeah. Pensions are too expensive for businesses.

[00:50:42] Well, of course. Yeah. And so and so this is, we've talked about this before, just in trying to come up with the definition of defining work was the relationship between the employer and the employee has changed. That is one of the driving reasons I truly like.

[00:51:01] I like 401 keys versus pensions because pensions ties you there. So again, back, you know, our grandfathers, let's say different time, you're gonna stay there for four years. Yeah. Like this is the saw this stat the other day and it was Bill Gates wealth versus Steve Balmer's wealth,

[00:51:19] Gump wealth and Gates diversified. So he took money out of Microsoft, took shares out of Microsoft solely also went through a divorce, all that stuff. But Steve Balmer is actually wealthier than Bill Gates. Now I'm sure there's probably you can argue the

[00:51:36] case, but Steve Balmer never diversified his Microsoft shares. Like he just kept doubling down. So every time they'd give him more shares, he just kept throwing and buying more shares. So he's and he still has my I mean, he still has a

[00:51:52] that's that's what he has outside the Clippers and things like that. Like, but that's that's so it's two different strategies. One of them is a diversified strategy. One of them is not. Now if Microsoft would have went down, down, down and then defunct Steve Balmer wouldn't

[00:52:08] import the Clippers. So but you know, I'm not personally I don't believe in retirement. So like, you know, when I hear all this stuff, like who's who's looking at retirement? Like what are you working less? Maybe. Okay, cool. But like are you working less?

[00:52:28] But some of that might be, you know, just working like on your own the way the way that you want to work. You and I already work the way we want to work. Yeah, and there's different people. I mean, I know a number of people just in my

[00:52:43] local neighborhood here, they're retired, but they work. They don't know my dad did that. But they're just like, I want to drive the bus and so they drive a school bus three days a week. My dad was my dad was on the paint crew

[00:52:58] for this after, you know, to teaching. So on the summers, they go around paint schools. He's he drove a bus. He drove a bus a bunch of different times. And then he got a job one time at, I mean,

[00:53:10] he was probably in his 70s and he got a job at Home Depot. Yeah, that's you see those old men can walk around. It's just like he was one of those guys like, oh yeah, you OK? Now let me tell you a little bit about that. Yeah.

[00:53:24] Yeah, I'm looking for this. Let me tell you there's seven things you can do. They got more knowledge. That was that was my dad. He loved it too. Got yeah, not looking for. I shouldn't say that because even if even if I had the opportunity to retire now,

[00:53:44] I mean, I'm too young now, but even in 15, 20 years. I have some toys. Yeah, I'd have to. I still have to do something. I'd have to be active. We're just very different than our parents. Yeah, well, all right. Let me picture the last research that we have here.

[00:54:01] So ADP National Employment Report, a private sector in employment increased by 150,000 jobs in June. Annual pay was up 4.9%. That's at ADP Employment Report dot com. Always has great research. It's always really good. So however, what they don't say and that's first statement is job creation

[00:54:25] among private employers slowed for the third straight month. Turns out inflation is real. The gas prices as our gas prices job growth or lack thereof is also real, too. I don't think this is a good look for anyone running for office this term.

[00:54:43] Just, you know, the whenever these things happen, you get blamed as a politician. If it's if it's good, you get the praise. If it's bad, you're the head coach. That's exactly right. Players don't play. You're the head coach. So I think my right now

[00:55:00] and this has nothing to do with the debate. I do believe the Republicans are going to win in a landslide and have all three branches of government because they've already got the Supreme Court. Now it's just a matter of getting presidency and in Congress.

[00:55:16] I think they're going to lock it up and be able to steamroll a bunch of things through because they'll own them. They'll own all three. And so, you know, probably if you're if you're if you're progressive for your liberal or Democrat, you should probably emotionally

[00:55:34] and then intellectually just going ahead and start focusing on the midterms at this point. Just focus on two years from now, 26 and focus on those elections, not these elections because these are these are over. I mean, you just it's July 7th. They're over. There's there's still another debate.

[00:55:56] Oh, come on. Now, Kamala brings in the governor. You can't remember her name right now, Whitmer Whitmer. And it's two women at the top of the ticket. I I think you'd see I think you'd see something different because now you've got two women running.

[00:56:18] I think a lot of people would come out for that. I think so. I think so. That would be interesting. But right now, Joe Biden running. God love him. No, he may he may croak before the next debate. So it's unfortunate.

[00:56:35] But yeah, so ADP take a look at their take a look at they always put out good job growth and a number of some good. Take a look at that. All right, we are to the funding. Money time.

[00:56:48] All right, we got some we got a lot of money getting tossed around in these parts. Yeah, so 140 million USD for for smart HR, which is a Japanese country series E led by KKR, which is the growth investment arm for Ontario's teachers pension plan. Go figure.

[00:57:10] All right, so this move, I think is this is interest. I'm not for obviously reasons. Good. I know you got some thoughts on it. This is a trend that we've been seeing. A trend that we've been seeing a lot of this across country, yeah, cross border,

[00:57:25] cross country, cross border investments. We've seen it with deal. We've seen it with our friends at Oyster Global HR cross border process is important. It's not easy to manage. And the more that tech becomes incredibly smart at this and able to do it,

[00:57:45] we're going to see more of this, especially when we get into payrolls and local taxations and all of this stuff. So this is this is not I mean, I don't know smart HR and their site is in Japanese.

[00:57:58] You can you can go look, you can you can try it. Yeah, but it's interesting how to read it in Japanese. So I, you know, one of the things I take away with all of these investments that we've seen that are global HR plays

[00:58:12] is they're they're trying to focus a lot of energy on the biggest cost base, which is people staff. And the oddity in this particular press release, by the way, this is at techcrunch.com. So if you want to go read a little bit more

[00:58:29] about smart HR and arrays, et cetera, they don't mention the valuation. And normally when you raise $140 million, it says right after that what the valuation is. And so I think- You would say unicorns. Right. Because they raised 140 million, 150 million a couple of years ago.

[00:58:51] And now valuation was mentioned and this one wasn't which makes me think it was a cram down that they had run out of money. But there was another odd part of this KKR like everybody knows KKR, they make good bets totally get it, but they have pensions.

[00:59:10] They had an actually an employment pension. I think it was Ontario teachers, pensions that was also in this deal. So I found that also interesting but valuation was not mentioned that was odd. But other than that, anybody that raises 140 million God bless them. Yeah. No hate. Yeah.

[00:59:32] Either way. Crito raises 200 million reflecting the company's ongoing innovation in the CRM and workflow automation space through its AI powered no code platform. This is that creator that's CRE, C-R-E-A-T-I-O.com. So basically what this does is it makes workforce workflow creation and modification easier.

[01:00:00] So people don't have to code. They want to actually change the process or change a workflow. They don't have to know the code of how to do that. And that's why when it says a no code platform like you and I can do it without learning

[01:00:12] how to actually make those changes, you can work in that it'll change. Let's say we're doing something and it's the underpinnings are in UKG. Well, we can actually make the changes and it'll change it in UKG or Oracle work day or whatever. Yeah.

[01:00:32] Very cool company, very cool tech. It just makes work workflow creation easier. So good for them. $200 million. Big. All right, our friends over at work tech, Mr. George Iraq released and he's got an upcoming webinar to run through all this. So H1 work tech investment reached $2.2 billion

[01:00:57] across 114 deals in H1 2024. So that's pretty big. It's a lot of numbers. That's a lot of numbers. I wish I had some of that. So it's up 43% over H2 of last year, which is very good. That's good news. So two things here, sustainability of investments.

[01:01:20] Is this a temporary rebound or will this continue and what's the impact on innovation? So a lot of tools and this is a be curious to get your thoughts here and maybe George can chime in at some point too. But what's the impact here on innovation?

[01:01:39] So there's so many tools that are on the market. A lot of them are the same thing with different colors. Right. There's 50 of this, there's a hundred of that. I feel like adoption is going to be impacted if these tools being pushed out are no good.

[01:01:58] They just suck. And so there's a lot of hype around all of this great stuff in HR tech that's happening. They're going to fall off, right? We get it like there's 50, 48 fall off, got it. Or they get absorbed somewhere else. But what does that do for innovation?

[01:02:14] Is everyone going to be doing the same thing and who's just going to get there quicker or are they actually pushing themselves and are they going to do something different? So I think, you know, first of all the little fists typically are the ones that innovate.

[01:02:28] And so either they grow, grow, grow, and they become a bilimium-sus fish, and they grow, grow, grow, grow, grow, grow. And then become a big fish. Well, they just become, yeah. That's that, it's outsourced R&D.

[01:02:39] So if you look at it and you think of it as outsourced R&D, it all makes sense. Now what doesn't make sense is why it says H1 and H2 and not Q1. Like what's H1 mean? Half one of the year. First half of the year. Huh, okay.

[01:03:00] Okay. I thought you didn't know that? I think I did, but it was just throwing me off because I was thinking Q1 and Q2. Oh, got it, got it, got it. But I think with adoption, that's why- It's kind of like extra time in soccer.

[01:03:14] Yeah, well, plus six. Watch some good football this weekend. All right, so- I don't get that at all. So one of the other things, that's why you saw like the importance of SAP acquiring WalkBee is an adoption tool platform.

[01:03:29] It's because they're gonna weave that into all of SAP, all of SuccessFactors, so that they can get everything. So you can get more usage out of the stuff that they already developed and then develop new things. But with the intent of integrating WalkBee

[01:03:44] from the very, very, very beginning. So- Yeah, and I think what you said there, I don't wanna let it, and we throw that conversation away because we talked about it all the time, but it's outsourced R&D. And I think that's a really good way

[01:03:58] for people to understand that that one tour, try to follow this stuff, is that this is outsource R&D. And there could be 100 companies out there that are this big, they're tiny. They're doing it, they're gonna get it done, they're gonna end up somewhere else. Yeah, no worries.

[01:04:14] Not on salmon making up the river. Unless they hit my door. Ah! That would actually go, that would be fun fishing. That would, I would dig that. Go to Alaska. Salmon fishing, I've never been to Alaska, but I'll tell you what, we'll do a live show

[01:04:32] on in Alaska. It sounds like a retreat. That's a corporate retreat to me. All right, so this is a company called People, P-E-P-U-L. Secures 4 million as it evolves into a dynamic positive social app specifically catering to career development and job opportunities. So startupstorymedia.com

[01:04:53] has a great article on this. I looked at this app and it is, and the website and all that stuff, it's clean. And it's really cool because it's geared towards Gen Z and away from them to share, learn and apply. So like you were talking about,

[01:05:09] or we were talking about career builder and monster and how they're gonna innovate. Well, you look no further than this company right here because they've already got an app for that. So Gen Z can just, and again where it says positive social app, there's no foul language.

[01:05:33] There's no, you can't be mean, there's none of that stuff. Like they'll just dequeue you? So like I looked in that because it's basically no cursing, no this, no that. Like any of that stuff that you see in the YouTube comments are yeah, they just dequeue you.

[01:05:49] You just don't, you can't get back in. Did you get dequeued? No, no, no, no. Because I didn't do anything, I just looked at the app. I would have if I had a comment for sure. But yeah, but it's a pretty clean app.

[01:06:02] I think it's cool, good way to think of career development and career sharing and even applying to jobs. So good for them. All right, yeah, congrats to them. Have we barfed? And that. Have we barfed? We feel like we've barfed? We have, I feel like I have, yeah.

[01:06:23] I feel like you have, it's Sunday afternoon and I'm gonna go to sleep, what's up with that? As you should. And I'm gonna wake up and I'm not gonna check. I'm not gonna check. Just get your bearing before you do. I'm gonna go to church and confess

[01:06:36] because I just feel like I'm not. I always worry about the cramp. Now that gets me to think of, you know what, the cramp's gonna be the cramp. Don't worry about the cramp. It's gonna be the cramp. But my hand on the other,

[01:06:49] anyway, thank you all so much for tuning in and listening. We got a big week coming up, a lot of great stuff, a lot of good episodes and interviews popping out. So make sure you catch that and follow us and do all that great stuff. Until next time.