Klarna AI replaces 700 employees., JP Morgan, Automatic Retirement, and More Deel Acquisitions

[00:00:00] Good God, that sucks.

[00:00:02] You forget my name.

[00:00:03] I did.

[00:00:04] I've never seen you mess up before.

[00:00:07] We're keeping it.

[00:00:08] We're keeping it.

[00:00:09] Oh, you should.

[00:00:10] This is a bullet.

[00:00:12] Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to another episode of The Bar.

[00:00:23] We're just going with this one. I am Ryan Leary. He is

[00:00:28] William Tink up and this is just a Sunday where we keep screwing up so we're

[00:00:33] just gonna go with it. It's just smoking weed. It would make sense to wish

[00:00:38] smoking weed. It would make sense. Like all this really says you'd be like, I

[00:00:42] elder high school is what it is. I'm sweating on video. I've got a shiny head on video.

[00:00:49] For those that are listening, they're just like, what the hell's going on?

[00:00:53] Eddie, how you're listening to the barf, which is our take on the week that was.

[00:00:58] So you prepare for the week that is. Thank you all for listening again.

[00:01:03] William, what's going on? How was your week?

[00:01:06] What do you got?

[00:01:07] Week was a blue bar and dealt with a little cold issue that I'm still kind of dealing with.

[00:01:13] But other than that, a lot of cool stories from this week. Can't wait to get into it.

[00:01:19] Kick us off. What do you got first?

[00:01:22] All right. Let's see here. The what is key moments from Biden's 2024 state

[00:01:27] of the Union address one. How we get to the next story. I didn't watch this thing. I didn't even

[00:01:39] know what was happening. I've totally forgot it was happening. I was at a swim board meeting, but I digressed Tony top points

[00:01:46] Three points that are work related probably for paid leave to

[00:01:52] Increase in federal minimum wage three low barriers to a lower labor organization. That's via NPR

[00:02:00] So you can go look at that store yourself. There's a bunch of them actually. Yeah, things were said not said

[00:02:06] My opinion, I think state of the union addresses are dumb

[00:02:12] Especially in an election year because it's just going to be this kind of the same old stuff in this particular one the HR

[00:02:19] items that I mentioned

[00:02:21] They could have been pulled from any Democratic public address the last 50 years.

[00:02:26] So like when you just full stop and go, hey, we need to raise the minimum wage. We need

[00:02:32] to, we need to do something about paid leave. And we need to do something with labor unions

[00:02:37] that support us. You know, you could have ripped this you know 1992 or 1993 or whatever like it literally

[00:02:46] To me again, we're in election year. So I know it's whole rising and all that stuff. It's like state of the unions are just boring

[00:02:55] And they just don't say anything and so I'm more keen to action like stop talking and do something

[00:03:02] But that being said it is newsworthy that those things were mentioned.

[00:03:08] Now, will anything actually happen?

[00:03:09] No, of course not.

[00:03:11] But what's your, what's your, what's your bit with state of the news?

[00:03:13] What was the last time you watched one?

[00:03:18] Last one, maybe.

[00:03:20] Oh, really?

[00:03:21] You know what?

[00:03:21] I, I, I actually do look forward to them.

[00:03:24] And then I, I, because I have

[00:03:27] good intentions, it's kind of like, it's kind of like taking prework out before going to

[00:03:33] the gym. Like I take it with the intention of actually getting into the gym. Yeah. And

[00:03:38] I'm going and then I sit in the car and I'm like, yeah, I'm getting kind of antsy here.

[00:03:42] I should go into the gym. I get to that point of watching the state of union and I just lose interest and probably because of all the theatrics coming in

[00:03:50] And then all the clapping and standing and then you've got the people making faces. It's just I don't know

[00:03:58] He's a survivor of the Ufaldi shooting

[00:04:03] They've never met they can care less about it.

[00:04:06] But I get it.

[00:04:07] I understand reason.

[00:04:08] But I, you know, it's so it's

[00:04:09] interesting you start off with

[00:04:10] that. And because I have one

[00:04:14] that I wanted to talk about,

[00:04:15] which is that overtime rules

[00:04:17] may be changing. And so for

[00:04:20] for those that follow this type

[00:04:22] of stuff, which I'm assuming if

[00:04:23] you're listening, chances

[00:04:26] are you do, the obviously we know the cost of living is just through the roof crazy,

[00:04:32] right?

[00:04:33] Somebody said 200 Ks the new six figures.

[00:04:39] And I forget who said that, but someone said that and it's stuck with me.

[00:04:41] I'm like, yeah, it kind of really is, right?

[00:04:43] Like you used to benchmark yourself by saying,

[00:04:46] I'm making six figures.

[00:04:47] That's not enough to live right now.

[00:04:49] That's for many people, that's not enough to live,

[00:04:52] especially with a family of three or four or five.

[00:04:54] It's just not gonna cut it.

[00:04:56] So anyhow, the crux here is that the overtime rules,

[00:05:10] there's been legislation put through for overtime rules to change. And I'm going to read these numbers here so I don't mess it up.

[00:05:13] So last August, it was proposed that the to raise the overtime eligibility threshold to $55,068 per year.

[00:05:24] That's up from $35,568. So from $35,000 to $55,000, what

[00:05:31] that means is it's a big jump. That's a huge jump. So if you once made $33,000 or $34,000,

[00:05:40] $35,000, you were eligible for overtime. Now that you've got to be up. You've got to be up in that 50.

[00:05:46] Not many people are making that. And that's tied to the minimum wage because even at minimum wage,

[00:05:52] you're not going to be eligible for that. So the question I have here is,

[00:05:59] will the employer, will the employee earn more money? Right? So if these changes go happen, will the employee earn more money or will the employer hire

[00:06:12] more people and cut the hours of the other people?

[00:06:16] Kind of like that threshold of full time.

[00:06:18] Are you working 40 hours or 38 hours?

[00:06:22] I would lean towards the business always doing what's what's in the best interest of the business.

[00:06:27] So what cost less?

[00:06:29] So if it costs less to pay someone time and a half

[00:06:31] or double time, then to hire and train

[00:06:35] and have another employee, then they'll do that.

[00:06:38] If it's ratchet back those hours to 40 hours

[00:06:43] or 39 hours or whatever.

[00:06:50] So they don't hit the threshold of overtime and they'll do that.

[00:06:54] Businesses will always, it's like water distancing to the lowest point.

[00:06:58] Businesses will always do what's in the best interest of the business.

[00:06:59] Yeah, absolutely.

[00:07:00] Over time, so different.

[00:07:00] Yeah.

[00:07:02] And in time, time will tell. I'm interested to see where this goes.

[00:07:03] I don't know that that's going to happen or not. Sherman is involved, obviously. Sherman is advocating

[00:07:11] to the DOL to delay this until 2025. Really? But it's it's it's actually happening. And we'll see

[00:07:19] what we'll see what the term is on advocating for it to happen. The term is advocating for it to be postponed.

[00:07:26] To be to be delayed to delay the implementation.

[00:07:29] Interesting.

[00:07:30] Yeah.

[00:07:31] So I wonder why that is.

[00:07:32] I wonder why what's I wonder why Sherm would want that be delayed.

[00:07:37] Like what does that what does that what does that say about Sherm?

[00:07:41] You know what I'm saying?

[00:07:41] Like yeah, share the society of human resource professionals.

[00:07:45] So wouldn't they want that to happen sooner? I mean, if they're on the on the side of advocacy

[00:07:53] for the human resources professional, which means they're the advocate for the employee,

[00:07:58] it seems like they would want that to happen, especially if you want to retain employees.

[00:08:03] Oh, that's a weird one for me.

[00:08:05] Seems like it's counterintuitive,

[00:08:08] but maybe it makes sense to somebody.

[00:08:09] So if it does, please throw in the comments

[00:08:13] or shoot us an email,

[00:08:14] because I would like to know kind of why that makes sense

[00:08:16] for sure to close tone.

[00:08:19] Let me throw a story at you.

[00:08:21] Oh, yeah, there's sound.

[00:08:22] Man, I love that sound.

[00:08:23] All right, Here we go

[00:08:28] Jamie Diamond D. I M O N Demone Demone

[00:08:29] Domino

[00:08:30] Why didn't lead off with this story? I did not see his name diamond. We'll go with that demo of JP Morgan Chase

[00:08:36] This is the wife wants to see teenagers landing 60k rolls with schools measured on

[00:08:44] job occupancy rather than at college admissions

[00:08:48] rates.

[00:08:49] So this comes out of fortune, so the wear is the fortune magazine.

[00:08:54] And so the irony is that it's a Harvard alumni.

[00:09:00] So I don't hate this.

[00:09:02] I don't hate to take actually, because not everyone should go to college.

[00:09:08] Not everyone should go to college right after high school. In fact, I didn't go to college right after I did a four-year stint working before I took four years off. And what? Well, people take a gap year. No, I took a gap year.

[00:09:25] Yeah.

[00:09:26] I took a, well, this is a real gap.

[00:09:28] This is a real gap.

[00:09:30] When people get in their degree, I get that as a gap.

[00:09:34] I was working.

[00:09:36] So it's like looking at it and saying, OK,

[00:09:41] master electricians, master plumbers,

[00:09:44] they're not going to get outsourced by robots soon.

[00:09:50] Will it happen in time? Yeah, probably. But is it soon? No. And again, kind of looking at like just looking at kids that I know about this age, just not all kids need to go to college. So I like his take. It's interesting that he has this hot take.

[00:10:09] And he's a Harvard alumni.

[00:10:11] So, but he's also saying, you know,

[00:10:14] he puts his money where his mouth is, you know,

[00:10:16] he actually, this is something he's been,

[00:10:20] when you look him up, he's been talking about this

[00:10:22] for a long time, Right. For a decade.

[00:10:26] And so it's not so it's not Johnny come lately type of thing.

[00:10:29] He really cares about this.

[00:10:30] What people do the rethink college?

[00:10:33] Yeah, I think it's a good take.

[00:10:35] Yeah.

[00:10:35] Who we were speaking with someone was it?

[00:10:37] Um, who were we talking to this week about education?

[00:10:44] I can't remember.

[00:10:44] Oh, we were talking about that was.

[00:10:46] Student loans, seal, student loans and all of that.

[00:10:50] And it's the same idea.

[00:10:52] I mean, rethinking education is in its health spot, right?

[00:10:56] Right.

[00:10:56] I'm certainly no expert here, but I do have three kids in the house.

[00:11:01] And I can tell you that they are not excited. Very different from

[00:11:06] some of your kids, right? They're not excited about the prospect of college. They don't

[00:11:12] see the value in college. And they, they are almost taught, they're not taught, but it

[00:11:18] almost feels like they are taught that student debt is bad. And if you go to college, you're coming out with student debt.

[00:11:27] And there's a lot of bad

[00:11:29] painted around that, which for good reason, right?

[00:11:32] We all lived through that.

[00:11:35] But yeah, I mean, like,

[00:11:37] it's not that there's just not interested in school.

[00:11:40] I think they have a real adverse feel to college.

[00:11:44] They don't want to be there right now.

[00:11:47] I don't know how universities are going to adapt to that.

[00:11:50] We're talking the wheel-seally of summer,

[00:11:53] and summer provides student assistance.

[00:11:58] They work with students through the enterprise

[00:12:02] to actually help them with all kinds of programs to reduce their

[00:12:07] student loan debt.

[00:12:08] It's actually a cool play.

[00:12:10] It's going to be a use case podcast so you can kind of look for it there and learn more.

[00:12:14] But that's, yeah, student loan debt.

[00:12:16] I didn't even think about it.

[00:12:17] When I went to college, when I went, when I eventually went to college, I just signed

[00:12:23] documents like, oh, yeah, yeah, I signed this, I signed that.

[00:12:26] I didn't look at the fine print.

[00:12:28] I didn't even look at the print.

[00:12:30] I just signed it.

[00:12:30] I'm like, that's a, I'll deal with that later problem.

[00:12:34] Yeah.

[00:12:34] Yeah.

[00:12:35] Yeah.

[00:12:35] Yeah.

[00:12:36] Yeah.

[00:12:36] Get your loans, go to school.

[00:12:38] Yeah.

[00:12:38] And you'll be fine.

[00:12:39] And you'll pay it back at one point, like, you know, one point.

[00:12:41] You'll pay it back.

[00:12:42] If you believe, if you believe in the Easter Bunny you you two should believe

[00:12:48] in student loan repayment.

[00:12:50] Oh, actually there's a there's a guy that was Dave Chappelle's writer partner on the

[00:12:59] shell show Neil Bruno. He has a bit in three mics, his Netflix comedy special, special, where he basically says it's a small business law.

[00:13:10] And as an 18 year old, that's going to go for four years, be blackout drunk, not go to class, not relearn anything, get a degree in English.

[00:13:20] You're a bad business.

[00:13:21] Yeah, you're a bad business.

[00:13:23] You don't deserve a loan.

[00:13:24] Like, yeah, it's a funny bit. So definitely go check out Neil Britain's business. Yeah, you're a bad business. You don't deserve a loan. Like, yeah, it's a,

[00:13:25] it's a funny bit. So definitely go check out Neil Britain's work. Yeah. All right. Next one I

[00:13:30] got here is automatic retirement. Curious to get your thoughts on this. So House Democrats

[00:13:38] recently backed legislation to automatically enroll employees into retirement plans.

[00:13:45] Oh, obviously there's a lot driving that. We're not starting at the top.

[00:13:50] Wellness, you know, all that stuff, right? Like there's good reason retirement.

[00:13:56] People are living a lot longer. Yeah. With with obviously with technology and

[00:14:03] medicine and all of that stuff people are living longer

[00:14:05] they don't have enough to retire right got it understood right so so here's here's what

[00:14:13] here's what with this legislation stipulates employers with more than 10 workers would be

[00:14:19] required to automatically enroll their employees into an IRA of some sort, whether it's a traditional

[00:14:25] or a Roth or a similar plan, such as a 401k.

[00:14:31] Employers with up to 100 employees will receive $500 annual tax credit for three years for

[00:14:38] setting up the automatic retirement.

[00:14:42] Employees can have the option to opt out of it if they want, but here's how it gets

[00:14:46] set up. Employees would contribute a minimum of 6% of their salary to their automatic account,

[00:14:53] whether it's CIA or okay, whatever it's going to be. And then it increases for 1% of your savings.

[00:14:59] It's for savings. So that you have something when you retire. Yeah, yeah, one of it's basically you're going to retire because we're going to set an age

[00:15:08] But in doing so, we're not just gonna leave you hanging. We're gonna force you to save

[00:15:13] Yeah, not help

[00:15:18] We're not we don't at least I didn't have in in high school or college

[00:15:24] we don't, at least I didn't have in, in high school or college.

[00:15:30] Here's how you say for my parents might have financial literacy in, in schools is.

[00:15:30] Yeah.

[00:15:32] No, you either learn it from parents.

[00:15:33] Yeah. Right.

[00:15:33] Yeah.

[00:15:34] But not everybody has that.

[00:15:36] Right.

[00:15:36] So, let me look at professional athletes.

[00:15:40] They come from college.

[00:15:41] They get a $30 million contract and it's gone.

[00:15:44] Right.

[00:15:44] So hammer. Yeah. Yeah. They come from college. They get a $30 million contract and it's gone, right? And say Hammer.

[00:15:45] Yeah, there you go. We spoke. I think we spoke about this, how they bring in wellness experts,

[00:15:51] financial people, and they put them through courses and classes and all of the above.

[00:15:55] That was one of my, one of my first startups was to be a financial planner first-person

[00:16:01] because they don't, they don't know what to do with their cash. No, seriously.

[00:16:05] Basically, I was going to take 15%

[00:16:07] and actually save it for them

[00:16:09] so that when they get out of their life,

[00:16:11] they have something to lean on.

[00:16:13] Because once you're in the life,

[00:16:14] you're spending all that money with Coke and alcohol

[00:16:17] and all kinds of other stuff.

[00:16:18] So that's my first business idea.

[00:16:20] I'm laughing because it's funny.

[00:16:22] No, but it's literally, that's why I that's why I wrote you. I wrote a business case

[00:16:28] Little I'm serious. I feel like I need to hit

[00:16:34] But I don't I don't hate this play though. I don't hate the automatic retirement

[00:16:39] I mean obviously you have to let people opt out of it. Yeah, but I don't hate the idea of that

[00:16:44] I mean a lot of our time it's for dead people. No, I don But I don't hate the idea of that. I mean, a lot of their entire

[00:16:45] efforts are dead people.

[00:16:46] I don't, I don't, would you retire?

[00:16:49] It's a path to death.

[00:16:52] For me, I look at retirement

[00:16:53] and I've seen it with multiple family members.

[00:16:55] They retire and then you just,

[00:16:59] it speeds up their, their, their health issues.

[00:17:04] And they die. So it's like you know what the

[00:17:06] way that I look at retirement is I'm just gonna die in the fields so you know

[00:17:11] at one point if you can't get me on a phone yeah I'm dead so you don't see

[00:17:16] him on the next bar there you go yeah I live my life yeah Right, so March 8th, that was Friday.

[00:17:25] For those of you keeping track.

[00:17:28] It was celebrated as worldwide, as International Women's Day.

[00:17:34] And I found out what a article on Stylsworks.

[00:17:37] So Stylsworks.com.

[00:17:39] And the article kind of gives actionable ideas to bridge the gap between men and women in tech.

[00:17:47] So click all the links.

[00:17:48] They have like links for programs and links for different things.

[00:17:53] But literally they interviewed probably 30 different women.

[00:17:58] And they basically said, how can we make this better?

[00:18:02] And so even though I don't necessarily like things like

[00:18:05] International Women's Day because we should be celebrating women all the time.

[00:18:09] Okay so I get kind of the argument like okay this is the moment where you do

[00:18:13] kind of stop down and really make a make a make a big celebration out of it.

[00:18:18] This article was really really giving great advice so check it out because it

[00:18:24] gives actionable,

[00:18:25] it's not just a feel good article, a puff piece if you will, it's actually giving some

[00:18:30] actionable advice for tech leaders to then kind of help with their recruiting and retention of

[00:18:37] women in tech. So we'll put those we'll put that link somewhere down below. Yes.

[00:18:43] We'll put that link somewhere down below. Yes, people.

[00:18:43] Or you could just go to spiceworks.com and search for it.

[00:18:47] You could do that too.

[00:18:48] We need another sound for acquisition.

[00:18:51] Deal alerts.

[00:18:52] Deal alerts.

[00:18:53] Another deal.

[00:18:54] Literally another deal.

[00:18:56] Last week, we just talked about these guys.

[00:18:58] Deal.

[00:18:59] Yeah.

[00:18:59] So it was a higher score, right?

[00:19:01] No, not a higher score.

[00:19:02] That was a.

[00:19:04] No, that was a work No, they worked out.

[00:19:06] Yeah.

[00:19:06] That was the.

[00:19:08] Survey for me.

[00:19:10] Zavi Zavi Zavi Zavi.

[00:19:12] Sorry.

[00:19:13] Otherwise, I don't think it hires.

[00:19:14] I know I had like two V's in it.

[00:19:16] I don't know.

[00:19:17] So yeah.

[00:19:18] So last last week, they announced the acquisition of Zavi Zavi, which is an AI based

[00:19:23] people development company.

[00:19:26] They've also acquired pay group, which is an APAC based payroll provider.

[00:19:31] This week they announced that they've acquired pay space,

[00:19:35] which is an African based startup. They've got more than 14,000

[00:19:41] customers or in 44 countries across Europe,

[00:19:45] thousand customers are in 44 countries across Europe, um,

[00:19:45] let them and Middle East and of course, Africa.

[00:19:49] So this is an interesting play. So deal is on a

[00:19:53] tariff. Right? They've got cash to burn. Yeah, they're,

[00:19:56] they're buying up the world. And so they're, they're making,

[00:19:59] they're making a push to get into enterprise here.

[00:20:02] And they are spending a ton of money to get there and that's fine

[00:20:07] companies. That's how they do it. So this is their largest acquisition to date. Their

[00:20:13] ultimate goal here, their four year push is to serve 100 countries with native payroll

[00:20:20] engines. And so this is, I think we we're gonna see more of this obviously throughout the industry

[00:20:27] We're gonna see all that consolidation and all this stuff, but but there's a real play here and

[00:20:32] Deal we said last year last week. They I like how they position it's a twelve billion dollar startup

[00:20:40] Yep, so we I think we can remove the startup

[00:20:43] Yeah, no, we could.

[00:20:45] Well, also in the same story, it says across 500 million in AR.

[00:20:52] Right.

[00:20:53] Oh yeah.

[00:20:54] You can do the math.

[00:20:55] If you're at home and you have a calculator, 12 billion, five, five million or 500 million

[00:21:00] in AR now, you know what the multiple on there on the on the 12 billion is so you

[00:21:06] have to do the math to come to that. I like I first of all this for you know contractors

[00:21:13] it's it's for you know remote employees it helps people get paid that are in different places.

[00:21:20] Yeah if you've got an employee in Zimbabwe or whatever, then and they need to be paid.

[00:21:26] You know, you've got rippling, you've got deal, you've got a number of different ways

[00:21:31] that you could do global payroll, but they also do other types of HR services. So I like

[00:21:36] it. And, you know, let's see what they do next week. I, I, what they do next week? I'm searching to remove the label startup.

[00:21:46] Startup? No, it's I'm sorry.

[00:21:48] It's gone. No more. I'm gonna go back to news for just one thing. I thought this I heard on the radio, but then I researched it and it's Dartmouth.

[00:21:58] Players detail how they put a plan together to unionize. So this is a basketball team.

[00:22:05] And this is a New York Times article.

[00:22:07] So you go to New York Times and put it in Dartmouth,

[00:22:10] unionize, and you'll find the article.

[00:22:12] But it's a really, really interesting thing to do.

[00:22:15] These are college athletes.

[00:22:18] And let's just say this is the basketball program

[00:22:19] at Dartmouth.

[00:22:20] Their last game was against Harvard.

[00:22:21] So let's not feel sorry for either one of them.

[00:22:24] Anyhow. So like what happens if they do unionize? And where does that go from there? So you've got

[00:22:32] NIL, which is named Image and Likeness. You've got a transfer portal, right? And then you've got

[00:22:39] Unidization. Where that what all leads to is that collegiate amateur sports will be no longer.

[00:22:48] They'll actually be paid. They'll be employed. I mean, they should be employees.

[00:22:52] So, so first of all, it kind of sounds like I'm a hater. Not a hater at all.

[00:22:57] They've always been employees. But it's like that joke of the teams with t-shirts.

[00:23:06] You're rooting for teams with certain t-shirts

[00:23:09] against people with other t-shirts

[00:23:12] because the players are going to come and go so fast

[00:23:15] that you won't be able to keep track of.

[00:23:18] So it's just gonna be like looking at amateur sports

[00:23:21] in a different way.

[00:23:23] Now, if that happens, if Dartmouth is successful,

[00:23:25] which I would assume that they are, then where does that happen? Where does it happen? How

[00:23:30] do they unionize and create different deals like for all of the basketball programs,

[00:23:35] they have their own collective bargaining agreement for all the football teams, they

[00:23:38] have their own collective agreement. Like you can see this playing out now it helps two things if you're a sport of

[00:23:46] collegiate sport you make money let's say football football makes money a

[00:23:53] lot of money for college

[00:23:56] lacrosse sorry say not so much so now what do you deal with the inequity and like

[00:24:04] title nine issues

[00:24:05] where you have some women's sports where they don't make any money but because

[00:24:10] you make so much money in football it's easy to it's easy to pay for all those

[00:24:15] things and rightfully so. So the unionization thing comes in a really

[00:24:20] interesting time for okay what are we going to do and make things fair and equitable? Yeah. And the second thing is, how soon does this come to high school stores?

[00:24:32] How soon does this actually come to high school? I don't know, 18 year olds, they're adults.

[00:24:38] I mean, again, if they're minors, I get it. But the mommy you turn 18 and most boys are held back so they're older in high school

[00:24:46] Then then girls which is a different issue to that was in tackle at a different time

[00:24:51] But if you're 18, you're an adult you can serve in the army

[00:24:54] You vote

[00:24:56] So if you can vote you can unionize

[00:24:59] In theory in theory. Yeah, so I don't hate this at all for a collegiate level. I think I

[00:25:06] follow this a lot and especially with the NIL and the amount of money these kids are making now is

[00:25:12] just ridiculous. But they're making a ton of money for the universities. Like it's, I mean,

[00:25:20] they're not sure. Yeah, it's fair for them to get paid. I would I would like to see and I don't I don't I

[00:25:27] Would like to see

[00:25:29] former collegiate athletes especially those that didn't make it to the pro level right be compensated at some level somehow

[00:25:36] I don't know that you can but right it would be nice, but high school. I think that's you know, maybe

[00:25:43] We take a story of people that just went to the pros too soon.

[00:25:49] So let's say Johnny Menzel is an example.

[00:25:54] He was a Heisman-Treyfall trophy, right? Johnny football.

[00:25:58] They would have put a statue out in front of a Cal Field for him.

[00:26:03] If he would have been able to make money off of NIL in college,

[00:26:08] he probably would have stayed at A&M for four years.

[00:26:11] Before going into the pros, which would have helped his development.

[00:26:14] Sure.

[00:26:15] By the time he got to Cleveland, he would have actually maybe, maybe, maybe not.

[00:26:20] Maybe, probably not, because he still had the partying issue.

[00:26:23] Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[00:26:24] Well, I think he could have blown all of his money on that as well.

[00:26:28] I mean, but it's just like you look at those stories is like what if they didn't rush to

[00:26:33] go to the pros?

[00:26:34] What what if what if what if what if what if what if what if what if what if what if.

[00:26:36] Yeah, right.

[00:26:37] What the development happened?

[00:26:38] Were they have changed?

[00:26:39] Would they?

[00:26:40] Yeah, absolutely.

[00:26:41] So keep so keep an eye on that.

[00:26:43] That one's you can find it anywhere. But the New York Times is where I found it.

[00:26:47] All right. So story time. I remember just a few years ago when we were at HR Tech and we look up at the big bractors and the banners and all the big banners hanging down over at the Expo Hall.

[00:27:05] And it just felt like an overwhelming amount

[00:27:08] of learning and coaching companies.

[00:27:11] That word that they were there in force.

[00:27:13] It was kind of a bit uncomfortable for me

[00:27:15] because at that time, I was still talking

[00:27:18] with recruiting companies and in my mind,

[00:27:21] cool recruiting tech, which was like the 10 companies

[00:27:24] at HR Tech that would actually fall into my category

[00:27:29] Now I mean look it is

[00:27:33] exploded

[00:27:34] With the power of AI and all that stuff is exploded right so

[00:27:39] Anyhow, you say this all the time a lot of people say this powerpoint makes you stupid, right?

[00:27:45] So this is the time if you haven't just company alert smart alert if you haven't at this time

[00:27:54] Already I've taken notice training is very different right?

[00:27:58] So if you're serious about building a skilled workforce, it's time

[00:28:03] Time to change the way you that you're training, right? So I was

[00:28:07] and it said training is no longer done in a room with PowerPoint and a laser pointer. Like it's

[00:28:11] very, very different. So anyhow, I say all of that because we've had a couple of conversations in

[00:28:17] the past couple of weeks with companies that are doing this. And I came across a small study

[00:28:27] And I came across a small study on chat GPT, the Gen Z career coach.

[00:28:29] You may have seen it. So I was going to ask you to guess a number.

[00:28:31] But last time I asked you to guess a number.

[00:28:33] So I'm not going to ask you because it's not going to.

[00:28:36] It won't my joke won't work if I do that.

[00:28:39] So I'm just going to keep talking.

[00:28:42] Nearly half of Gen Z workers.

[00:28:48] going to keep talking. Nearly half of Gen Z workers. So 50% of Gen Z workers surveyed say they get a better career advice from chat GPT than their managers. That's insane.

[00:28:58] I agree with that. I actually agree with that because of the conversations that we've had. So we know that employee satisfaction

[00:29:08] and loyalty is tied to support and how you're investing in your employee is not always tied to

[00:29:15] salaries and all of that type of stuff. You got to read this the article. They put some really

[00:29:22] good numbers in there. Some people are going gonna roll their eyes. It was on CNBC

[00:29:27] I'll say that quietly, but it's good. It's good article and a lot of people don't like CNBC

[00:29:31] But good article you need to read it check it out

[00:29:34] But curious to get your thought here because I know you you like the learning space a whole lot. I

[00:29:40] Used chat to you did a merit badge

[00:29:44] College last Saturday, and I was teaching Indian or which I did a merit badge college last Saturday and I was teaching

[00:29:46] Indian or which I have a master's in so I could teach to teach to my eyes closed.

[00:29:51] But normally I would have thrown up a PowerPoint deck.

[00:29:56] There's two brothers, 12 and 11 years old.

[00:30:01] And I said, you know what? I sat down with them at a table and I just said,

[00:30:05] listen, I want to do this different.

[00:30:07] And I want to use YouTube and chat GPT because that's the tools,

[00:30:11] that's the things that you're asking to.

[00:30:13] So we're going to go through your worksheet.

[00:30:15] The workbooks were Indian, lower merit management.

[00:30:18] We're going to do it differently.

[00:30:20] And I literally, and it was funny is Lucas one of the kids

[00:30:27] Turns to me I said we're not gonna use what I use PowerPoint when I use Google and he says yeah, Google's for boomers

[00:30:37] A little part of me died at that particular moment

[00:30:40] I was like goomers googles from gamers.. That's it. That is our t-shirt.

[00:30:45] Googles harsh.

[00:30:46] Goomers.

[00:30:47] I said, Lucas, I'm a steel dog, brother.

[00:30:50] I got that.

[00:30:51] I appreciate that.

[00:30:52] But we went through the, you know, what are the names, 10 cities that are Indian names.

[00:30:57] What are the tribes and what are the meanings of the words?

[00:31:00] You know, like that's the easy stuff for Chad GPT.

[00:31:03] And so it's like they got into it

[00:31:05] and I could contextualize things for them

[00:31:09] when we got the results from chat GPT,

[00:31:11] like I could give them stories about this.

[00:31:14] And they enjoyed it, like it was an interactive,

[00:31:16] it's like how they like to learn.

[00:31:19] So and they're how they're accustomed to learning.

[00:31:21] So I think that's the way I'll teach merit matches going forward, unless it's real tactile. I think I'll do more chat GPT

[00:31:30] and more YouTube, more shorts, just something more TikToks or something

[00:31:34] that's kind of a stage where teachers can't. Why not? I mean, I love it. Why not?

[00:31:38] Yeah. Alright, so let me go through, We did one acquisition. Let me do another one that I thought was interesting.

[00:31:45] It's Accenture Acquires Udacity, which

[00:31:50] I was getting confused with the word.

[00:31:52] I did not see that one.

[00:31:55] Yeah, Udacity.

[00:31:57] To build a learning platform focused on AI.

[00:32:00] So this comes out of TechCrunch.

[00:32:02] And so you can just Google Accenture and Udacity. And so they

[00:32:06] clarified that this is what they want to do is they want to train their own employees. So they

[00:32:13] bought this company. It's a learning tech. And they want to speed up their learning for AI for

[00:32:19] themselves, for the employees, but also for their clients. And so what I'm interested in,

[00:32:25] for what became interesting to me,

[00:32:26] is consulting firms buying learning technology

[00:32:29] to speed up their learning about AI.

[00:32:33] And why would they buy this and not rent it?

[00:32:36] Like Udacity was out there on the market.

[00:32:40] Why just get a license?

[00:32:42] Why don't I just get a license

[00:32:43] and maybe a strategic partnership?

[00:32:45] Why buy it outright?

[00:32:48] I'm not completely clear why they bought it outright

[00:32:51] other than to build their own large language model

[00:32:54] or combine it with other large language models

[00:32:57] and speed up their own model, their Accenture model.

[00:33:02] So I think it's fascinating

[00:33:04] because you don't see Accenture buying a lot of tech, you see

[00:33:08] them buying other services companies, things that are

[00:33:10] peripheral. So this is actually, you might see them build

[00:33:14] their own gen AI platform for their clients. We might not

[00:33:19] ever see it, because it might be the secret sauce that they

[00:33:22] turn over their clients. Right. clients right right but yeah so there you go Accenture acquires Udacity it's always confusing because

[00:33:31] always say audacity audacity yeah not to be confused with audacity you

[00:33:36] that's for Odyssey me that's the so all right I absolutely I might I'm playing favoritism here because here because it's my story. I found.

[00:33:48] You should.

[00:33:49] But I like this one. I really do like this. And this is, this is, I think, the center of the debate for a lot of people that are saying AI is coming from my job. All of this stuff. This is a story that actually says, hell yeah, it's coming for your job,

[00:34:05] right? So, Klarna, which is a payment processing company for e-com companies,

[00:34:11] has an AI assistant that they deployed one month ago. This is really interesting to me. So,

[00:34:20] their gen AI assistant is handling customer service things, right?

[00:34:27] So refunds, returns, payment process, or payment related issues, cancellations,

[00:34:33] disputes, all of that stuff is what this bot is handling.

[00:34:38] Now they, they, they, they released this for a month.

[00:34:42] They used it for a month and they put it it put it right into their employee population. Okay, so this this is the results because this is just absurd

[00:34:53] What I think it's absurd. I read a lot about this and I was watching some stuff on it, which is really interesting

[00:34:59] So it handled 2.3 million conversations

[00:35:07] two point three million conversations in one month. That's two-thirds of the total customer service chats that came in for that month. That the AI assistant

[00:35:14] did the job of 700 full-time agents in one month. That is a ridiculous number.

[00:35:23] Now here's where it gets interesting. One might say,

[00:35:27] well, I use bots all the time. I use chat bots and they suck. I don't want to click here. I don't

[00:35:32] want to do this. I just want to talk to a human. Okay, I'm the same way. Yeah, all I do is type in

[00:35:39] agent agent agent until it gets me an agent. And then I watched the damn thing type and

[00:35:46] they asked me the same question. And it's an actual person asking me the question that

[00:35:49] I just answered previously. At some point and probably now I'm going to actually start

[00:35:55] communicating with these bots. Check this out. So side by side with the human agents. It is the, the assistant was on par with a human agent in, in, in regards to customer

[00:36:12] SAT scores.

[00:36:14] It outperformed in resolution disputes.

[00:36:18] There was a 25% drop in repeat inquiries on the bot versus the humans.

[00:36:25] Oh, interesting.

[00:36:27] That's a huge drop. Here's what's really getting me interested in actually just communicating with the bot next time.

[00:36:34] An average of two minutes to resolve your issue versus 11 minutes with a human.

[00:36:41] Well, that's how you're going to get people to use bots.

[00:36:44] That's how you're going to that's how you're going to get people to use what to use bots. That's how you're going to get people now. Clearly the argument. Okay, now

[00:36:49] you're taking 700 full time agents and all I get that right. But I think these are some

[00:36:54] pretty astounding numbers. And I think this is going to be the use case for a lot of companies

[00:36:59] moving over. Yeah, that's we're going to see a trend in that because we've got a couple stories that are all tied together here. So let me let me go into this story.

[00:37:09] The what C suite executive believe AI is key to increase productivity. Yet most workforces are not ready to transform according to Mercer's 2024 global trends global talent

[00:37:26] change service so you go to Mercer dot com and find that which what's

[00:37:31] fascinating to me what this kind of pulled out of me is like okay the why

[00:37:35] who's gonna train the workforces to get ready is it gonna be peers is gonna be

[00:37:41] kind of a training training is it gonna to be consultants or is it going to be AI co-policers. So if the C-suite believes that AI leads to productivity,

[00:37:51] this is a hack at AI and you just take give a great story of a great hack. Okay. And the

[00:38:01] same is true if workforces aren't ready to transform.

[00:38:05] To some degree, you could ask the question, do they need to transform?

[00:38:10] Or are they just going to be obsolete, like FOBO?

[00:38:12] If you're being obsolete, right?

[00:38:15] So what the study, what it drove me to think about was how are they going to be trained in order to transform?

[00:38:23] So what is the new normal?

[00:38:25] Okay.

[00:38:26] Well, somebody's got to set the table for what is the new normal and someone's got

[00:38:29] to train them.

[00:38:30] And the someone, we might not be a someone.

[00:38:33] It might be just AI is training them how to interact with your AI.

[00:38:37] Yeah.

[00:38:38] The transformation of AI.

[00:38:39] So any of Mercer, great study always puts out great research.

[00:38:45] Love it.

[00:38:46] Alright, so I want to do a thing here and I have to find my thing to do the thing.

[00:38:58] However, where is it?

[00:39:01] It's hard to find it to laugh at this.

[00:39:04] This is me trying to be slick and not look

[00:39:06] off the camera. Do you want me to do you want me to tell a story? No, no, no, no, no. I

[00:39:13] only have two of them because I poorly prepared for this. No, no, no, there's a jet that's

[00:39:18] okay. That's okay. I wanted to put you on the spot and get your hot takes for thirty seven and thirty second analysis on topics, but I only have two

[00:39:30] Because I got distracted so this week we're gonna test it. There'll be a pilot

[00:39:36] What do you think about any it'll be it'll be it'll be unpaid paid pilot for you

[00:39:42] Hot takes okay 30 second analysis when you hear the whoosh, you got to stop talking, we're only going to do it once.

[00:39:50] And next week I'll have a bunch. So, how much is too much?, always has been, and always will be, until they're put in check.

[00:40:10] That's not 30 seconds. I wasn't ready to switch. Hold on. You said no or less.

[00:40:19] I focused on the OR-LESS. This is a son, now.

[00:40:26] All right.

[00:40:27] So we've heard it a four day work week, right?

[00:40:29] So our friend Jamie overseas there, he started this.

[00:40:34] So he did this, a four day work week.

[00:40:38] There was an article which is what I thought you were going to talk about earlier on a three day work week. And I'm not going to share the details of it and all of that. We can get into that later.

[00:40:50] But your take on a three day work week. Yeah, that's stupid. So what happens is you just cram

[00:40:57] 50 hours worth of work in a four or four days. As Americans, we're taught to work hard. We work hard. And it's like vacation.

[00:41:09] The week before vacation, you put in 80 hours. That's why most people when they go on vacation

[00:41:13] they get colds because they've worked themselves into a low immune system. So, three day work

[00:41:20] week, four day work week, yeah, it's all dumb. Just work when you need to work and don't work when you don't have to work like be a dope being adult. I could see the

[00:41:29] four day like you can put that in the four day work week. I don't think you need, you

[00:41:33] know, all that but three three days. Now there's a philosophy behind it and all that. But

[00:41:37] that's all I have to take. What if I told you seven day work week, but you only need to work three or four hours a day.

[00:41:45] Think about it. Think about what the hobbies that you have, the hobbies that I have.

[00:41:51] And it's just said, you know what, three hours. Put it in whatever you want, it doesn't matter.

[00:41:57] Let's just make it three. Make it simple. I could do that. I could do that.

[00:42:02] Do I get to choose? Well, let me ask you questions.

[00:42:05] Yeah.

[00:42:06] Do I get to choose my hours?

[00:42:07] Yeah.

[00:42:08] 100% out of the space.

[00:42:09] I could do that.

[00:42:10] Yeah.

[00:42:11] I could do that.

[00:42:12] I think most people do that anyway.

[00:42:14] Exactly.

[00:42:15] If you're in a corporate job, you're doing that anyway.

[00:42:18] If you're not actually physically doing the work on a Sunday, you're thinking about it,

[00:42:23] right?

[00:42:24] You're out on a Saturday night and you're doing something and somebody says something, you're thinking about it, right? You're out on a Saturday night and you do have something and

[00:42:26] somebody says something you're like, Oh, shit. I need to make

[00:42:31] sure I write that down. I need to make sure I'll get the

[00:42:35] benefits for it. So no fish fishing. Yeah, fishing. Yeah,

[00:42:40] from 12 to six every day and work from certain degree work needs to fit around fishing or whatever your hobby is that

[00:42:50] that's going to be fishing. But whatever your hobby is work needs to fit around it.

[00:42:53] Yeah. So let me let me go run through a couple of these things.

[00:42:56] Yeah. That's all the hot takes that I have.

[00:42:58] I got you. So HCM 2024 outlook.

[00:43:04] Look ahead to more robust M&A activity shocking

[00:43:07] You know, we've been talking about a lot about M&A

[00:43:10] Over the coming over the last couple weeks

[00:43:13] So when you want to dig into this you always go and look at investor banks investment banks and you look at their reports

[00:43:20] and what was the report from last week or last month? Usually there are quarter trailing.

[00:43:27] And you know, 2023 was horrible with M&A, but you know, they're bullish, extremely bullish on

[00:43:36] looking at what's going to happen with end, you know what, in the barfs that we've had so far,

[00:43:42] with a lot of acquisitions, a lot of funding.

[00:43:45] Seems fair.

[00:43:47] But the main thing I wanted to make sure the audience understands is just follow the money.

[00:43:52] Go and look at investor investment banks reports.

[00:43:55] This was from Harvard View Advisors.

[00:43:58] So you can go to their website and sign up for their newsletter.

[00:44:01] They'll give you insight into what they think the market is doing

[00:44:06] and where they see the money being invested and the acquisitions. Again, you can kind of follow that

[00:44:12] and it's fun. It doesn't have to be a beating. It's actually kind of fun.

[00:44:17] So second story, bad news for basis. So this was actually, I found this on musicradar.com. And Sony researchers

[00:44:28] have created an AI baseline generator that responds to the style and tonality of the music you feed it,

[00:44:36] feed it. So you feed it the music to you like, and it creates the baselock based on the music to you you like it in it creates the bass lock

[00:44:45] Based on the music to you feed it

[00:44:48] so

[00:44:49] Of course, it's just it's not a work story here's per se

[00:44:53] But it did give me to think about well, do we care if the bass line is really great

[00:44:58] Which is something you've told me before well?

[00:45:01] Do we care if the resume fits if it was AI generator or not? Who do we care if the resume fits? If it was AI generator or not, who do we care?

[00:45:06] And so it got me to think about that, like, okay, wait a minute, this is something that comes from

[00:45:12] AI because you fed it something. And it's just great. I don't know if I care. I mean,

[00:45:18] I love Bootsy Collins and Flea as bassist, but I'm not sure I care that it's AI driven. So anyhow, it's a fantastic article.

[00:45:27] I want to have to go take a look at that one.

[00:45:29] That's that actually.

[00:45:31] Music radar.com.

[00:45:32] Yeah.

[00:45:32] AI researchers.

[00:45:34] So if they did it with beta with basis, you know, what's going to happen next?

[00:45:37] Yeah.

[00:45:37] I should.

[00:45:38] They're going to go all the way.

[00:45:39] Yeah.

[00:45:39] Yeah.

[00:45:40] That's that's interesting.

[00:45:41] So I got I got one here.

[00:45:42] I want to run by you.

[00:45:44] So bring it.

[00:45:45] This is about vacation days.

[00:45:50] Ooh.

[00:45:51] OK, vacation days.

[00:45:52] So news at 11, the United States does not

[00:45:57] get a lot of vacation days.

[00:45:59] Shot in spoiler alert.

[00:46:01] However, however, okay, so I found an article went down vacation days and which

[00:46:12] countries are the top 10 countries, the top lowest, they're the top lowest, the 10 lowest,

[00:46:18] you know, you get what I'm trying to say.

[00:46:20] Yeah, I got you.

[00:46:22] Long.

[00:46:23] Okay.

[00:46:24] So I'm going to give you some guesses here.

[00:46:26] Country, the number one country.

[00:46:30] Well, I'll just give me a country

[00:46:32] that you think's in the top 10 for number of total holidays.

[00:46:37] Australia.

[00:46:38] No.

[00:46:39] What?

[00:46:41] Anything with the British Empire.

[00:46:43] So anywhere where the British Empire landed

[00:46:46] So the UK

[00:46:48] Now you're gonna get me in trouble for saying the wrong things. I don't think so

[00:46:55] Okay, so

[00:46:59] The number one country has 53 total days

[00:47:03] 26 paid vacation days, and 27 public holidays. 53 compared to

[00:47:13] the United States has 10 paid holidays, and there's no guarantee of paid vacation days.

[00:47:25] Right.

[00:47:26] Right.

[00:47:27] I ran as number one.

[00:47:30] 26 paid vacation days, 27 holidays.

[00:47:34] Then you've got San Marino, Yemen, and Dora,

[00:47:39] Madagascar, like Bahrain.

[00:47:43] Yeah, now that the lowest you've got the US is number two.

[00:47:48] Micronesia. It's like insane, right? We're like Taiwan, the Philippines, Nigeria. Like these are

[00:47:55] the countries that we're competing with to be the worst of the worst in taking care of our employees.

[00:48:01] And I saw this and I thought you get a kick out of it. You know what I'd like to see that data juxtaposed against is the the economies or you know,

[00:48:11] Gee, yeah, like I'd like to know like is there is there anything in the data that says more

[00:48:16] vacation days equals more productivity or more a better economy, let's say, or more happiness. Like, like, we would,

[00:48:26] what do you think?

[00:48:28] Do you think, but like, I'm not sure.

[00:48:31] I'm not sure.

[00:48:32] Again, if you're stimulated by the work that you do,

[00:48:37] vacation isn't, you know, people that love vacation days,

[00:48:41] people that love or hate Mondays, they hate their job.

[00:48:51] Yeah, I mean, I can see it both ways. But yeah, in general, I would say so. But

[00:48:54] all right, let me I still think I take your seven days a week for three hours a day. You see, I mean, you can fish every day. I'm all for it.

[00:48:58] Right. Red thread, which is a research firm that Ryan and I absolutely love, they just put us

[00:49:06] study.

[00:49:07] The what is they uncover as a start decline in trust and performance management practices

[00:49:15] amid reduced support for employee development.

[00:49:19] So the best quote from the report, I mean, there's a bunch of them.

[00:49:22] They do such a wonderful job. Companies are shipping away at employee trust for no discernible gain.

[00:49:35] Okay, so we're just we're just basically taking away their trust. So what I want to see in that

[00:49:40] study and what I want to see after that study is how do you reconcile that with our return to office?

[00:49:47] Right.

[00:49:48] So, again, a decline in trust and performance management practice, and we're not developing employees enough.

[00:49:56] So, yeah, shout out to Red Thread for the research. Great stuff. Go to their website, and you you find the latest research reports free. So I'm

[00:50:06] gonna piggyback off of that. Because I have on this counter right up the alley.

[00:50:10] So Glassdoor released its employee confidence index. Oh yeah. Shocker,

[00:50:15] Shocker. Employee confidence is at its lowest since 2016 and less than 50% are optimistic about their employer's future.

[00:50:29] And they don't like their leadership.

[00:50:32] They don't trust their companies.

[00:50:36] Not shocking.

[00:50:38] Yeah, not 44% specifically, according to the index of employees do not trust their

[00:50:44] leadership. But last spring spring that number was 35%

[00:50:50] Wow getting worse. Yes, it's getting worse and worse and worse. So

[00:50:56] Anyhow, that was a glass door employee confidence. Obviously, there's a whole lot more information there, but

[00:51:03] Yeah, go to go check it out. We'll drop the link down there.

[00:51:05] It's just go to Glass Story, you'll find it.

[00:51:08] All right, I got some funding things.

[00:51:10] You want to step into some funding?

[00:51:12] Yeah, yeah, run through them.

[00:51:13] I know you got a bunch of run through all the funding.

[00:51:16] Okay.

[00:51:16] So our goal, $30 million fund raise and our goal does income

[00:51:24] and employment verification.

[00:51:27] So what I like about this funding is verification, verification, verification.

[00:51:32] Gen AI, in my opinion, will create a bunch of distrust about everything you see and read,

[00:51:38] hear, and feel and smell, whatever.

[00:51:40] And this company is in the business of verification.

[00:51:44] I think it's just great timing on RGL's point of, you know, because they're going to come in and they're going to actually verify the stuff so that you know what you're getting in terms of income and employment verification.

[00:52:00] So that's a cool thing. You just go to their websites, argow.com and it's in the blog.

[00:52:06] It's a note from the CEO and the funding and what they're doing with it, stuff like that.

[00:52:10] So these next two deals are kind of similar and they're in the similar space. So,

[00:52:18] Remo first. So let's just, I would assume that it's remote, but Remo first takes them $25 million to take on

[00:52:27] deal and rippling in the the HR tech, the global HR tech space. So they help hire employees and

[00:52:35] contract in more than 180 countries on behalf of the companies. So they don't have to set up local entities. They're more affordable than deal or rippling, which code sounds like a race to the bottom.

[00:52:51] So if you're in a price war, okay.

[00:52:54] So, remote first.

[00:52:56] Look, they were any good deal would have picked them up last week.

[00:52:59] So I'm just counting them.

[00:53:01] And they might next week.

[00:53:03] The next one is remote pass, which is a UAE based making remote work easier.

[00:53:11] Talent shortage in the Middle East is real by the way.

[00:53:14] Absolutely real.

[00:53:15] So I'm assuming because this is just a series A and it's 5.5.

[00:53:20] I'm assuming because they're focused on the UAE, the Middle East.

[00:53:23] I'm assuming that somebody's going to acquire

[00:53:26] But again kind of a theme theme from when we saw deal require

[00:53:30] Yeah last week this week and now you've got two companies in the same space taking on funding

[00:53:36] Right, there's you know how it plays out. It's like the big fish are gonna get bigger

[00:53:40] They're gonna just swallow some of these other fish, but again, it's even kind of hard to keep up with the names. Remo first, remote pass. Okay, sounds a little

[00:53:50] similar. And they're doing things that are similar. Of course, they would tell you that they're doing

[00:53:54] things that are different and they're focused on different markets and all that other stuff,

[00:53:58] as they should. But the last one I have is the one that I find the most interesting. So I buried the lead.

[00:54:06] So this is a San Francisco startup. It just came out of stealth mode, which is a phrase that I

[00:54:12] absolutely disdain. That's kept secret. So yeah, thanks. So it's a startup called

[00:54:25] It's a startup called EMA EMA secures 25 million in AI tech. Now I want to read you three things that they do and why this is terrifying.

[00:54:30] I mean exciting. One is it's designated to replicate the capabilities of a human employee.

[00:54:38] The solution can perform such tasks as engaging in conversation,

[00:54:41] comprehending context, taking continuous human feedback, reasoning,

[00:54:46] decision making, collaborating with human employees on difficult projects.

[00:54:50] That's one.

[00:54:51] Two, mission is to transform enterprise and to help every employee work faster with simple

[00:54:59] to activate and accurate AI employees. Three, MafusionTM, which exceeds two trillion parameters,

[00:55:10] combines over 30 public large language models,

[00:55:14] including CHAP-GPT-4, 3.5 Turbo,

[00:55:19] Claude 2.1, Gemini, Mistral, and Lama 2.

[00:55:23] So, if we mentioned that the last end of the store last

[00:55:29] time, that's time, FOBO, fear of being obsolete.

[00:55:33] This startup.

[00:55:34] This is it.

[00:55:35] This is it.

[00:55:36] This is it, people.

[00:55:37] Yeah.

[00:55:39] EMA.

[00:55:39] Now, I found that actually on DevX.

[00:55:42] DevX is a great source, by the way.

[00:55:43] If you ever want to find stories about this.

[00:55:45] A couple of weeks back, we talked about newo and w o.

[00:55:49] Similar sounds like almost, right?

[00:55:52] Like the digital employee that's gonna have fun.

[00:55:55] They're gonna run right next to you.

[00:55:56] Yeah.

[00:55:57] They're gonna make you faster.

[00:55:58] So at one point, humans can only go so fast.

[00:56:03] Yeah, like you can only go so fast as a human being.

[00:56:06] That's it, you tap out.

[00:56:08] So at what point does they start taking over the things

[00:56:11] that you just are not, you're just too slow at?

[00:56:14] Yeah.

[00:56:15] So it's fascinating.

[00:56:17] Again, they just came out of startup,

[00:56:18] stealth mode, $25 million,

[00:56:21] and devx, devx.com, com.

[00:56:26] And you can go look at kind of all the things

[00:56:28] they're doing, but I wanted to read those things

[00:56:30] so that people kind of get the bit that they are,

[00:56:33] they're a copilot, but at one point they,

[00:56:37] and in some ways they're going to become pilots.

[00:56:41] Right.

[00:56:42] So we're training the copilot,

[00:56:44] and the more we train the copilot, the

[00:56:45] more the call of it is like,

[00:56:46] yeah, what do we need a pilot?

[00:56:49] Probably not. Hey, look, as

[00:56:50] long as they can land the plane

[00:56:52] without a wheel, when it falls

[00:56:54] off, should take the pilot any

[00:56:57] time. I've got I've got I've got

[00:57:00] I've got another one. And I I

[00:57:01] wanted to before we forgot this

[00:57:03] one, I wanted to bring it up and

[00:57:11] and get your thought because you'll have some thoughts here. So racist behavior is shunning but not severe enough. So this is a story that I found. Where did I find this

[00:57:20] thing? I found this on HR Dive. So I found us on HR dive.

[00:57:29] This is a story about a maintenance worker that I'm probably going to mispronounce the company flowers. FLU or no FLU or yeah, flower facility and

[00:57:35] plant services. He's the only black member of his night shift crew.

[00:57:41] And what they're saying is that he did not provide sufficient evidence to support

[00:57:47] claims of a hostile work environment and retaliation.

[00:57:52] So my initial thought was, do I even need to bring this up and do we need to spend

[00:57:59] time explaining this?

[00:58:01] And I thought, are we in a time now where we even need to discuss this. But I dug deeper.

[00:58:07] I thought, let's not be lazy about this. Let's dig deeper. Look, I'm a lawyer, right? So

[00:58:11] throw all that stuff out. This is just on top it felt dirty. Right. After reading and watching some

[00:58:18] of the analysis on both sides, I understand there's a legal side to this, but then there's a human

[00:58:26] side to this as well, right? So spoiler alert, they lost their case. The employee lost the case.

[00:58:33] They because they fail to prove his case, according to the requirements of what is harassment and

[00:58:40] what is racism and all of that. There's another case like this in 2020.

[00:58:47] It was a woman who had a disability, a case relating to her disability, noting that her supervisor

[00:58:55] made derogatory statements about her. They said she was a problem child, that she's a troublemaker,

[00:59:01] and that they assigned her, they assigned her to longer shifts, etc, etc.

[00:59:06] This also didn't rise to the level of being hostile in the work environment.

[00:59:12] So there's precedence here.

[00:59:14] My thought is just care more and do better.

[00:59:18] But I want to let you comment on this because there is, you on why this hasn't raised

[00:59:28] to the level of a hostile work environment,

[00:59:30] even though they were talking to this person

[00:59:36] in derogatory ways or talking behind her back

[00:59:39] in a racist manner.

[00:59:41] Well, when you have to prove something,

[00:59:44] you and I have watched enough cop shows to know

[00:59:47] it's not what you know or what you think or what you feel, it's what can you prove.

[00:59:54] So now you deal with two things.

[00:59:56] What you do with the burden of proof, okay, is the threshold of proof is the threshold

[01:00:02] of proof too high. Right.

[01:00:05] So when we say hostile and work environment, okay, and we have to prove things, okay, is

[01:00:12] that threshold too high or are we too sensitive?

[01:00:17] And it doesn't have to be, it's not binary.

[01:00:21] Both can be true at the same time.

[01:00:23] Yeah.

[01:00:24] So we could be too sensitive and the threshold could be too hot.

[01:00:28] But I think your advice on just being nice.

[01:00:31] Just care more.

[01:00:32] Do better.

[01:00:33] Yeah.

[01:00:34] I tell people this all the time.

[01:00:35] It's the lesson of the movie Roadhouse.

[01:00:38] Mm.

[01:00:39] Be nice.

[01:00:40] Yeah.

[01:00:41] Be nice.

[01:00:42] So I'll read the three line judgment.

[01:00:46] The judge on the case relied on the US Supreme Court guidance that a hostile work environment

[01:00:51] should be judged based on the frequency and severity of discriminatory conduct, whether

[01:00:57] it is physically threatening or humiliating or by contrast a mere offensive utterance and whether it is

[01:01:05] unreasonably it whether it unreasonably interferes with an employee's performance.

[01:01:10] All there's all that it seems like all of those words are very subjective.

[01:01:16] Hmm.

[01:01:17] You know what I'm saying? Like what is what is what is something that's you

[01:01:23] humiliating to you,

[01:01:25] might not be humiliating to me?

[01:01:26] Exactly.

[01:01:27] How do we define that?

[01:01:28] All those phrases are subjective.

[01:01:31] Which again, I think again, when you're dealing with a law,

[01:01:34] none of that should be subjective.

[01:01:36] Like that's like a speed limit.

[01:01:38] If we look at traffic violations,

[01:01:42] if you're going over 65 miles an hour and it's posted, it's pretty

[01:01:46] sweet. It's pretty black and white. Yeah. When someone's the velocity or the amount of times that

[01:01:52] they use something to derogatory, like, well, okay, how many times? Right. More than two?

[01:01:59] Right. More than more than two in five minutes? Yeah, right. More than two in 10 years? Like,

[01:02:06] than two in five minutes or the two in ten years? Like what, what, yeah, who's setting the guardrails?

[01:02:13] And I think the subjectivity of that makes it hard for people to prove. Right. Well, it does. And I think the, for me, the bigger take here was, where's the employer in all of this, right?

[01:02:19] What it, what it, what is their, what does their handbook say and what kind of environment did a foster to allow this and I don't know if they were reprimanded or what the consequences were I wasn't able to find it I clearly suck at research so if you find So let me see if I can just write harassed enough that you can't work. I know no, no,

[01:02:47] no, no, no, no, use the reverse. I'm going to use the in

[01:02:51] word until it impacts your productivity. And then and

[01:02:55] then obviously then it's bad. Yeah, then it's yeah. Are you

[01:02:58] kidding me? That's horrible. Yeah, yeah, we just wanted to I

[01:03:02] saw it, I read it, and then I went like that. I was like,

[01:03:04] that's definitely talking about read that again. Anyhow, Yeah, yeah, we just wanted a it was I saw it I read it and then I went I was like

[01:03:08] Read that again

[01:03:15] Anyhow, this has been a bar you're full. I'm barf man. Yeah, it's a wonderful Sunday I'm drinking my my warm coffee because thank you. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

[01:03:20] Yeah, which by the way this this specific mug

[01:03:23] If you put it in the microwave gets extremely hot

[01:03:28] I don't know if it's the stuff on there, but yeah, it hurts my little lip

[01:03:35] For whatever reason you're still watching listening love is everywhere like is subscribe for sure

[01:03:41] You can find us on all your podcast channels of course here on YouTube and all the socials. You see us anywhere

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