The BARF: Navigating Workforce Trends: Remote Work, AI Jobs, and EEOC Judgments

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[00:00:42] What is going on everybody? Ryan Leary, William Tingkup here with the BARF. It is a look back at the week that was so you can prepare for the week that is. Wow, the week is not over. It's about to start. But how are you, William?

[00:01:03] I'm doing well. I'm doing well, man. How are you doing? Thank you. The Tootsie Roll shirt. I haven't had a Tootsie Roll in a very long time. Dude, seriously. It's probably been a couple of years. Love it.

[00:01:19] I love t-shirts like this. I mean, you know, I have a whole collection of them. So it's like, you know what? This is what I want to wear when I'm 80. Like this type of...this is my gear going forward. It just gets more...

[00:01:33] You have worn button up shirts maybe once or twice since I've been wearing it. And it looks weird. Like when you were like, what are you doing? What are you doing? Why? Yeah. But that's like when I wear a t-shirt, which I don't often wear a t-shirt.

[00:01:49] But when I do, I get looks from people. Yes. Well, because you're... You're like, yeah. Hoodie. Yeah. No. I couldn't be addicted to hoodies like y'all are because of the heat. Like for eight months out of the year, like you can't wear hoodies.

[00:02:06] Yeah, but it's cold inside. Like it's hot outside right now. It's just cold inside. Yeah? Is it that? Is it? I mean, I have my thermostat at 68. So I'm familiar with the concept of being cold inside. However, I'm still wearing a t-shirt.

[00:02:24] Yeah, I like to be toasty warm. I like the snuggles. What? I'm a lover. What can I say? Well, so...but you've also lost a lot of weight. So... Yes. And I don't have any hair. And that makes me cold. I'm not gonna lie. It does.

[00:02:39] We're talking about you losing some of your blubber and not having hair. You need to wear a hat. Yeah, I remember the first time I went out, the first winter after I shaved, I didn't even cross my mind. Oh, yeah. I was like, whoa, this is very different.

[00:02:57] He goes right straight out, man. I shaved my head. I didn't have the option. It was either that or it just looked like a fool. No, I know. Right? It was, yeah. It was very different. Like I have to wear a hat now. Oh, yeah.

[00:03:11] I have to wear a hat outside in the winter because it's actually really cold. Well, you don't have to worry about hats. You know, some people think that hats, they speed up balding. No, that's a myth. That's a complete myth, right? Yeah, we could depot that.

[00:03:26] But they still think that way. So it's like, I knew guys that they won't wear hats because like, you know, it's just going to speed up the process. Dude, the process is the process. The process is in your DNA, bro. You're good. Yeah, you're good.

[00:03:44] So what are you ready to do? Ready to kick this thing off? All right, let's do it. Let's do it. So, Dell, I like this story. I read this and I checked this. I read this way earlier in the week or maybe even over the weekend.

[00:04:02] But I had to put it in here because I just thought it was hilarious. So Dell gets the pink slip on RTO is what I'm calling it, right? So check this out. Nearly 50% of Dell's workforce rejected returning to the office. As in they just didn't show up.

[00:04:22] No, check that. They don't show up. So this new policy rolled out in March. The policy would they reclassified employees at the reclassified employees into remote and hybrid workers. So instead of just remote from the pandemic, it's now remote and hybrid. So they're just not showing up.

[00:04:48] They're just like, yeah, no, like I'm staying home. It's very Austin. Very awesome of them. So Dell started what they call the flag policy on how often employees swipe their key card or what their VPN usage is to see which employees actually are coming into the office.

[00:05:06] And not because some are trying to fake coming into the office. Yeah, punch cards. Yeah, so the flag policy. Those who receive blue flags are employees who showed up less free. I'm sorry. Those who showed up three days a week receive blue flags.

[00:05:23] Those who showed up less frequently receive green and yellow flags and those who never showed up got the red flags. Kindergarten. It is. It's kind of it's kind of amusing. Bobby, did you get a star next to your name? You got a blue flag.

[00:05:41] Well, dude, for me, it's all this is window dressing. It's very Austin. I mean, they're outside of Austin or in Round Rock. So they're the next town over if you will. But it's very Austin like to then have this little revolution.

[00:05:56] Yeah, just to not show up very often. Keep Austin weird. Totally comfortable. I wonder if they did that in, did they do that in Philly after they got ordered back in? We just better not. That's a different reaction. Different reaction.

[00:06:14] But my my thing with the blue, green, yellow flags and all that stuff is how does that impact on your performance review? Or does it? I shouldn't be assumptive. Does it come up in performance? Does it come up in comp or in succession or something else?

[00:06:30] So it's great that they have a policy. It's great. It's also great for the employees that they just just just followed the policy at all. But it's all fun. You know, it's like they sell you as a kid. It's all fun and games until somebody gets there.

[00:06:44] I could put out right. So if they're not putting it, if it doesn't impact performance reviews, then why do it? Like they have it has to. If it doesn't, then this is all for nothing and the employees went.

[00:06:58] So I thought it was a fun story to kick off with. Great story. Let me pitch this one to you. Dollar generals, $12 million safety settlement with the DOJ.

[00:07:10] So I found this on I'll spell it because I'm a butcher at its g o p r i g o m dot com. So safety and retail have always had this really strange relationship.

[00:07:28] It's always been somewhat of a dumpster fire, even when I was in retail because you're trying to do things really fast and retail, which is counter to do things doing things really safe. Right.

[00:07:42] Like when you're taking stuff off the truck in the back end that you're trying to put stuff up like I managed to break your back. Yeah, stuff like that. Not wearing a back brace. Right.

[00:07:52] So like I managed an overnight crew for a year and a half of my life. And then it's just fucking meth. Like I'm just be honest with you. It's meth and people with box cutters. So let's talk about two things that shouldn't go together. That is not yeah.

[00:08:10] Methamphetamines and box cutters. So but again, you're trying to unload two trucks. Right. You know, so it's been this teeter totter of they could just get sleep before we move on. I need to let you know about my friend Mark Pfeffer and his show, People Tech.

[00:08:29] 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 go to the work to find network, search up People Tech, Mark Pfeffer. You can find them anywhere. You know, man.

[00:08:50] Drink and then you drink. No, that stuff doesn't work. You've got to have all that stuff up and out and ready for the customers for 8 a.m. Have to have floor clean. So I say all that, say first of all, $12 million is a lot of money.

[00:09:06] They've been negotiating with the DOJ for a while. This has been things that have gone across all their stores. This isn't a one issue thing. Dollar General has had a historical problem with safety. And so the thing is, where have they raised their prices? Yes.

[00:09:28] There's nothing in Dollar General that's a dollar. This is what I look. What I hear here is that they're raising their prices because of this. Oh, 100%. Now it's going to be five below. Great. Another company named that. Five below is like three shelves or $5 now.

[00:09:43] The rest are 10, 20, whatever. I did get my, you know, bands summer camp stuff. He didn't know this, but I went to five below and bought five watches. The exact same watch. Five, $5 watches. So I spent $25 on watches knowing damn full well that he'd come home. Yeah, the watches.

[00:10:05] Yeah, I got it wet or you know, whatever. I just, I'm like, okay. Here's a new one every time. Exactly. So he didn't clue in. What a watch. No, no, he didn't clue in until like the fourth one where he's like, do you just have like

[00:10:20] a sack of these watches somewhere? So don't worry, you're good. You're good. Anyhow, I think that the thing with safety and retail is the value system of the company then saying, listen, let's create the safety teams.

[00:10:37] And like we did this at one Walmart in Kansas where we empowered. We actually got, I bought employees from different parts of the store. They had, they did a safety check every week and we as leaders had to list, we chose

[00:10:53] to, but we had to listen to them. So they came in and said, okay, here's the things that are going wrong. We had this and this and this and this and we'd go fix it.

[00:11:02] And then they do a safety check the next week and we'd, you know, some of the things would, you'd see a recurring theme, but some of it was just new. They'd see new things.

[00:11:13] So when you do that in retail, when you empower, you have a safety team and then you empower them to go out and get a clipboard and go through and look at everything and then come back and go, all right, here's the 19 things that are unsafe.

[00:11:25] It's like, here's where we're all going to die this week. Yeah. You know, you can, you can fix these things. So I understand if you're in retail, you're hearing this, you're going, yeah, I hear you man, cool. We got it. We got to move fast.

[00:11:40] You can also do it safely. And I think that's one of the lessons for Dollar General and I hope that they, I'm sure they will now. Well, in the report itself, it actually says that there's, there's going to be like a chief safety officer and stuff like that.

[00:11:54] So hopefully they take a talk. They move fast and you rarely hear of them get drilling their hands through a tire. That's a good point. So that's a good point. They can do it. They're pretty fast though. They, good job for them. All right.

[00:12:08] JP Morgan CEO is standing up to the world and says that he's going to add thousands of jobs focused in the next couple of focus on AI. Sorry. In the next couple of years. This is actually, it's an interesting article.

[00:12:25] I got it from a business insider was reading that and excuse me. And so JP Morgan already has 2000 employees that are focused on jobs in AI. So focus on AI in the company. Now AI, obviously we don't have internal knowledge of all this,

[00:12:47] but from what I'm reading, AI is already infused. They're already infused throughout the entire business. Yep. They've, they've done that. So they have right now they have 2000 employees that are overseeing functions that leverage AI. So they're managing both people as well as the AI.

[00:13:04] So they're managing the tech in the next couple of years. He expects 5000 jobs. Overseeing AI. So when he was questioned or what he said was, yes, have people lost jobs, yeah, because their jobs have been replaced with the technology. Right.

[00:13:23] But those people that lost their jobs were not willing to learn the skills to manage the technology. Those 2000 are they still have a job, right? And so, so it's not all bad. And so they have 400 on average 400 AI projects on active and live at

[00:13:46] any time being worked on, tested or pushed into the organization. And see this, this has, this has the things that's not being reported will probably never be reported by any of the financial services firm is how they're using AI in their financial modeling.

[00:14:04] So yeah, they're not going to, this is all the back office stuff. Yeah, which is great. They're automating all of that stuff, but they're not going to tell us they should and they shouldn't tell us what they're, how they're using AI to predict

[00:14:19] where to invest or where to not to invest, et cetera. So this is just the stuff that's back office, which is great. Right. Right. Now, so the question he was asked, will this eliminate jobs? I'm going to read this because this was his quote. Yeah.

[00:14:38] Because we already see it. He said, it'll add jobs too. So the net net I don't know, but we're not going to stick our heads in the sand. Smart. That's why you see the JPMorgan, I guess. That's exactly. Yeah.

[00:14:54] And I think if you go to any of those people that lead the financial services world, the Goldman stocks of the world, they're going to say the same thing. Absolutely. It's like, listen, if we don't adapt and move forward, you know, we'll find ourselves

[00:15:08] still clinging to the models of the past. The most basic of basic counterarguments here, farming. Okay. So nobody wanted combines because you're going to remove the people, right? Okay. And nobody wanted to bring machines into the car manufacturer process. Yeah. Like, okay.

[00:15:29] So nobody would have cars today because we don't have enough people. Can't make it quick enough anyway. Arguments or arguments, but I thought that was a great article and it's actually if you go, yeah, adapt or die.

[00:15:39] It's a business insider, but it's got a lot of good insight there. So Ryan, this story, which I believe you'll love. So this is coming from the independent. When you say that, I feel like you found the story just for me.

[00:15:57] Does your, does it pucker a little bit? So, you know, this is on a flight where passengers are on a flight, a Delta flight, um, were felt unsafe because some of the people on the flight, the stewardess stewards, they were wearing Palestine flag pins and they called them

[00:16:25] Hamas pants. So the people that they didn't, the passengers called them out. And so they didn't feel safe. They didn't feel safe. And so they got on Twitter X and they, you know, they're taking photos of all the, the Palestinian flag pins and all this other stuff.

[00:16:42] So Delta, I mean, it's total shit show because you know, lasting Delta needs or any airline at this particular moment needs is for people to feel like they're not safe based on like flare. So they basically the policy which came into effect, I think July 15th,

[00:17:01] US flags only. If you're on a Delta flight and you're in the crew, that matter where you're at on a crew, you can wear a US flag or you cannot, but you cannot wear anything else. They have to plant that down. I really don't like that.

[00:17:18] That's kind of like telling Disney, you can, they bring all their interns in. I'm just telling you can't put where you're from. Like that's this is like, remember the case back with the Home Depot thing where the guy put a black lives matter. Oh yeah.

[00:17:34] You know, basically just put a BLM like gimbal. Yeah, like drew with a marker or what that big deal and there was a retaliation against that. This one's that again, if you're in this customer facing role, you know,

[00:17:50] your political beliefs, whatever they may be, it's always going to be the benefit of the business. It's always going to air on the side of does this make our business better? Okay, you and your flag of whatever Mozambique or pick another country who cares?

[00:18:08] Like if this happened during Ukraine, well, while all that was really at the height, people would wear pro Israel program, Ukraine pro this or whatever. And it's like they're a company. They sell tickets for people from point A to point B. So they don't need politics there.

[00:18:25] So is this so are these the flags that represent in the country that they're from? No cares. That would be different for me. Like if it's like if it fits an employee that says I'm pro Israel or I'm pro palace. Okay, no, you're on company time company. Right.

[00:18:45] But if it's where is the flight attendant from? I'm from Cuba or I'm not here. Wherever. You can be from Darfur. I don't care. I care that you're, I mean, I don't even care about the US pins or the US flags quite frankly.

[00:19:05] It's just again, your customer facing. Again, there's a lot of jobs at Delta that aren't customer facing and you can probably wear any damn pin that you want in those roles. Yeah, I mean, it depends on the company, the culture of the country.

[00:19:22] I mean like if you go to Disney World, every employee has where they're from. Like where they're, where they're from. That's cool. Like that it's a cool thing. You're like, oh, you're from wherever, right? And it's like I've never been there and you get to talk to

[00:19:35] the people. The flight attendants because you're coming from. Doesn't care about that. Clearly. Yeah, clearly. But I, yeah. I also think this has to do with the election too. So I mean, this is just me reading into it again. This is independent. No backbone in their leadership.

[00:19:52] That's the other thing. Okay, situation. And it's, I mean, again, people just took pictures of it. They posted on Twitter. It became a shit show. Delta made a policy. Power of X. Yeah, the power of X. All right, I want to talk to you for a moment about

[00:20:12] retaining and developing your workforce is hard. Recruiting is hard. Retaining top employees is hard. Then you've got onboarding, payroll, benefits, time in labor management. You need to take care of your workforce and you can only do this successfully if you commit to transforming your employee experience.

[00:20:30] This is where I solve comes in. They empower you to be successful. We've seen it with a number of companies that we've worked with, and this is why we partner with them here at work to find we trust them and you should too.

[00:20:43] Check them out at I solved H C M. Com. So the third circuit. Affirms college athletes may may qualify as employees under FLSA. This is at GD's super dot com. Where's FLSA? Family leaf. Oh, so I it's well, I believe it's family if I should

[00:21:07] believe I should know that but so this has been argued back and forth and they've kicked it down. They kicked it across. So I'm going to go ahead and talk about the transfer portal. This has been argued back and forth and they've kicked it

[00:21:20] down and kicked it across. And so this is one of these deals that and some of this goes back before an I L and a before kind of the trading portal, the transfer portal. But this thing basically says no. We they might college athletes.

[00:21:40] They actually might qualify as employees. And so it's interesting until I think all this is going to end up with SCOTUS. So I think all this is going to go back and forth and back and forth as it usually does.

[00:21:54] It's going to go to them and they're going to have to make a decision that the for the NCAA and for everyone else that's a college athlete and just say you're either an employee or you're not. Yeah, if you're an employee then you're entitled

[00:22:08] to the employee, the protections that for employees. If you're not an employee, yeah, then there's all of that as well. But it's I think what you see is colleges trying to figure out, OK, which way is the wind going to

[00:22:23] blow once we get once it gets to SCOTUS? What's going to happen? Yeah, college athletics is that's tough, man. That's tough. It's like in middle school, you're playing for fun. High school, you're playing for fun. Some are playing to get to the next level.

[00:22:42] In college, if you're a D one athlete, you're there for a reason. You're not there. Well, I guess you're there for fun, but you're there to get to the next level and you're making a lot of money for that university too. It's weird. It is weird.

[00:23:02] So FLSA is a fair labor standards act of 1938. FMLA is a family medical leave. They may need to update that for the audience. 1938 though. Again, that's the thing. So once you have that it's like OK, how do you read that? How does Supreme Court, how do judges

[00:23:24] they're interpreting? OK, that's fair. That's how that always has happened and will happen. But at one point this is going to land a land at the end at SCOTUS and they're going to have to make a decision on OK, are you an employer based on FLSA?

[00:23:42] Are you an employer or not? And then that will have watershed decisions after that because then you could see them saying OK, well, you don't have scholarships. We're just going to take scholarships out of the way. Right. So we're going to take that money back or pay you.

[00:23:59] And if you choose to come to the school that you just pay to college. Right. And that's going to cost them more money to kids. So just be happy. But they should make I like the NIL deals for the people that qualify. So. All right.

[00:24:13] The EEOC was busy this week. So this week in the EEO we need some music for that this week in the EEOC. The judgements. So the judgements. Ow! Ow! It hurts. Stop. Yeah, I had a little too much trouble with this one. OK.

[00:24:33] So there's a number this week. We're just going to read them off and then whichever one strikes your fancy. Let's do it. Hank's furniture paid $110,000 or ordered to pay $110,000 for religion religious discrimination. Altman specialty plants $172,000 to for sexual harassment and retaliation charges. Dollar general. $290,000. Another one. Another one.

[00:25:05] Yeah. Not as bad. $295,000 for age discrimination. So clearly the people that were getting hurt they're like bro you're way too old get out of here. Yeah. Like they just couldn't stand right? On both age discrimination happens on both sides. So you're too young. Right. That's true. Bay amount.

[00:25:26] Health. 30 grand. Beaumont. Beaumont. Yeah, there you go. Beaumont. This is my level of English. No. Beaumont. The only reason I know this is Beaumont, Texas. You're good. You're good. I would have said the same thing. This was not 30,000 but it was for race discrimination 30,000

[00:25:44] and didlaking pays more than a million dollars in disability discrimination and retaliation. So that was the busy week the EEOC had if you're following any of that. Well, the thing is, EEOC does good work. Yeah. And then again these things happen in business we might not like them

[00:26:04] and okay we don't like any of those right? Right. But they you know to actually follow a claim and then for it to go through the process for the EEOC to pick it up take it run for it and then render a judgment. They do good work. Absolutely.

[00:26:18] There's a reason we need the EEOC so that I mean think about what you've just described in these six different instances. Discrimination at every level right? Yeah, age, race, everything. Sexual harassment. Okay so like nobody disability nobody wants that stuff in society. Yeah.

[00:26:38] So again you need them there you know what you want them on that wall? You need them on that wall so good I mean I hate that people have to go through the process. Right. But I think it's just a part. But that's why we have them there.

[00:26:50] That's right. Ryan how much do you know about pet bereavement leave? Here we go. You always seem to get a store pet bereavement, pet insurance. Oh yeah. Gotta get pet bereavement. It's very clear. Pet bereavement leave. Yes. So pet bereavement leave enhances well being and productivity.

[00:27:10] This is at benefitnews.com so when I read that and when I went through the story the immediate thing is okay, I'm going to say the immediate thing is okay how do we know when too far is too far in some of these things

[00:27:28] like is this like my hamster died I need a week off. And what qualifies as pet right? Is it a fish? Is it a hamster? Is it? I mean we have a beta fish we've had it for about a year. It doesn't react to anybody

[00:27:46] in the family but me. Here's my voice. All the way up. It goes crazy like it's like come completely come to me. If Ruby died I'd be upset but I don't know that we'd need off for a week. Well would you would so the

[00:28:06] thing is like where's that line is actually a really great way of looking at this. What animals is where you just you know like okay is it dogs and cats? Okay people get that. It's like it's a cat that comes by once a week

[00:28:20] but it's an outside cat. It's a neighborhood cat right? He has a cat that comes by once a week and feeds him gives them milk the whole bit and then he won't see him for a week. Now that cat is he come by. It's like Wednesday

[00:28:36] very we have a cat in our neighborhood that dude you could plan you could plan you could literally plan your plan you could literally plan your night by because at 8 o'clock they walk all the way down the street they walk across our into our yard they walk

[00:28:54] and then go across every day. Rain or shine it doesn't matter. He, ice doesn't matter. This cat has got like a circuit that they're on some type of and they're just going working in a circuit and so like the lines is really what fascinates me

[00:29:14] about pet bereavement leave isn't so much the policy or if it's a benefit or if I went too far it's like okay how are you going to rain that in so that you can agree on okay this is just dogs and cats did a dog or cat?

[00:29:32] Great. Yeah, I don't know there could be a line right? Because I mean now you're getting into people's feelings. Yeah, you're getting in the field. I think and this is I've struggled with this internally and you know I've always thought about this just days off.

[00:29:52] We had that way backing we didn't even have any restriction that connects it was just unlimited like just take off stay healthy, stay happy. You don't have to tell us why. There's an Instagram thing that goes around you might have seen where it's like I'm calling out

[00:30:12] healthy day like I feel good today you know what I don't want to work I want to go out and do something I feel good today. I just I want to call out good not call out sick I want to call out healthy

[00:30:26] can't we just have time off you just get time off when you need it and I don't know how to manage that so it's not abused So tell you my rat snake story Do you need a day off for this? No, no, no No So I save turtles

[00:30:46] so whenever I'm driving in rural Texas and I see a turtle I always pick it up if it's out in the middle of the highway right and it hadn't been crushed already I pick it up I put it in my floorboard and then I drive it

[00:30:58] if it's a water turtle I drive it to a lake drop it off it's a box turtle What do you put it in? The passenger floorboard Let's put them there What's the floorboard? Floorboard, you know where you put your feet In your car

[00:31:14] I thought you had like a secret I've never heard of before No it's the floorboard I just called the floor Okay floorboard So I just put the turtle over there and then I just let it kind of roam around until I find a lake

[00:31:26] or a pond or something like that It's a water turtle They're all easy to pick up once you know turtles You pick it up put it in your car and then you just take it to a place If it's a box turtle I have an ecological place

[00:31:40] kind of a habitat around the way and I just release it So the other day I'm coming back from Sid Richardson Scout Camp and there was a rat snake out in the middle of It's a dirt road but it's a pretty well traveled road And so I stopped

[00:31:58] and I went back and I walked towards it and I was hanging out in the middle of the road I'm like This is the snake that whips you or bites you or something right No no it's a rat snake It eats rats I thought it was a rattlesnake

[00:32:14] Oh no rattlesnake No I know how to catch those two But this is just a rat snake But the thing is It's just out in the middle It's just kind of hanging out in the middle of the road I'm like dude not safe I need to move you

[00:32:30] Relocate your little ass So I went over to him And I grabbed him and I'm like I got you, I got you homie You're gonna be fine And then I walked into the cactus area Off the road I'm like alright buddy get along

[00:32:46] Get out of the fucking road I've learned so many things from this story I do all kinds of shit like that all the time It drives Michael crazy I'll just stop the car if I see a turtle But that's a good deed

[00:32:58] I can't have the turtles out there I've learned a couple of things Rats snakes And anything that kills Vermin like that Is they carry disease Snakes don't carry disease So that's why you don't kill snakes You need them on that wall This is some Texas shit right here

[00:33:18] You need them The fact that you know this So I've learned what a floorboard is Which I honestly never didn't know I learned that you can A rat You know how to pick up a turtle right I would just pick it up Is there a special way

[00:33:36] Just on the sides Their mouth and their claws can't Make sure his claws ain't gonna get me It's the size of a Frisbee You just pick them on the side You got two hands And their head can't get to Yeah We do have turtles And frogs out here

[00:33:56] We don't have snakes just roaming around Eating rats Yeah you do We don't have cactus But you do have snakes You just don't know that there's Something is killing I don't see them Something is killing vermin Something's killing rats And squirrels Something is It's something Yeah Elon Musk

[00:34:26] Vows that To move X and SpaceX Headquarters From Calvary to Texas TechCrunch.com Take a look at this This is fascinating So you know you moved Tesla Okay very successful And he's bought up all kinds of land Outside of Austin Which has a huge building In San Francisco

[00:34:52] SpaceX He's moving all of his holdings To Texas And to straw We're gonna do straw and the final straw Straw was He was tired of him and his employee Dodging gangs of violent drug addicts To get in and out of the building

[00:35:10] That was Twitter or something like X Yeah wow and we've both seen That air It is literally on the doorstep Yeah legit Homeless great So final straw Was the passage of a California bill Last week by Gavin Newsom That prohibits schools From creating Or enforcing policies that would

[00:35:34] Require employees to disclose students Sexuality or gender identity To anyone without Their consent like parents Musk said And many others that preceded it It's an attack on both families Employers Companies So he basically he's done He's just like Net-net He's done with California California

[00:36:02] Has always lined very progressive Getting more progressive in some of their laws And businesses Like his are just gonna leave You know a track so the net net Of that would be It's gonna track progressive businesses So while it will lose Lost Tesla it will lose

[00:36:20] X and it will lose SpaceX it's gonna gain Other companies Oh sure He put all this on Twitter too by the way How much of his decision Obviously he's been thinking about this And you know But when he says something he generally does it The cost To move

[00:36:44] Those two From California to Texas It's gotta be immense I know this originally The city of San Francisco Gave Twitter the building Their corporate headquarters They gave them the building They didn't want it either Well there's that They could have just Decommissioned it With a bulldozer

[00:37:10] They gave it to Twitter And it was a beautiful building But You're dealing with A lot of Again as he said Drug addicts Homelessness In San Francisco Up to his neck Didn't want to deal with it anymore So he's moving to Texas

[00:37:34] Good luck you have a new neighbor soon Guns up Alright Guns up This story I just thought was absolutely Hilarious Is it better than pepper even Yeah it's better than pepper even No Not on the funny factor This one actually is serious However it was funny

[00:38:00] The way it just blew up On The big talk and all the other socials So Melissa Weaver Was applying for a VP Of HR job at a tech company Yep Did the whole video interview thing Went through her interviews She was denied And she wasn't happy about it

[00:38:22] She was confused because Everything about this job Fit her background and she was aligned And her goals were aligned And personal and professional And she was very sharp person She asked for feedback And feedback she got So she spoke with The recruiter And the recruiter said

[00:38:44] She was denied the job Because She didn't put enough into her appearance For the level of role That she was hiring Now the photos Of her For the interview She was showered, she was clean Had her hair done She was wearing really nice outfit The whole thing

[00:39:08] She only had chapstick on So she didn't put any makeup on For the interview And they felt that she wasn't Dressed accordingly Or made up enough Accordingly for the type of role It's just a First of all it's sexist Gender bias Male bullshit

[00:39:30] And it would never happen to a dude Dude comes in, he's not wearing makeup No one gives a shit Or if he is wearing makeup It probably would Yeah it would be the opposite What's the capabilities Like why would she judge based on her experience That's legit

[00:39:48] First of all that shitty Unless it's like Estee Lauder Or It's land comb Which brings up another point That you said this before In that situation No you gotta rep the brand homie You do, like R.J. Reynolds They hire most smokers Show up at 10-4 Yeah

[00:40:12] So I get it I understand that But if you're truly hiring For skill Does it matter if I I really says that we are It doesn't matter if I'm wearing Estee Lauder Lipstick or if I can't afford it If you're applying to a job At Estee Lauder

[00:40:32] It would be foolish not to be wearing makeup I agree So yes I understand The concept But it's A stupid reason To deny somebody And the fact that the recruiter actually gave The feedback that way Impressive on a number Of levels But anyway

[00:40:56] She's just about a million views on this video Since this Has happened, looks like she landed a new job A couple months ago So side note If you happen to be listening Melissa I did send you a message on LinkedIn We'd love to have you on the show

[00:41:12] Michael hates wearing makeup And she grew up her mom owned Meryl Normans She owned several more So she worked Meryl Normans, she actually did All of the business So she grew up in makeup And she will wear it to work And when she gets home she's done

[00:41:32] She takes it off as fast as possible And there's days where she'll also not wear Make up to work It's stupid from that standpoint If you don't wear makeup Don't wear makeup What the hell who cares I think it's only in the instance where

[00:41:48] If it's a company that makes makeup That's the only reason Because that's a part of the job You're repping the brand And that goes all the way through I can see it both ways but I don't think you should be denied a job

[00:42:00] Because I mean I can see going in the Nike With an Adidas sweatshirt They never hire you Yeah, that makes sense right Same thing In the world of makeup it's the exact same thing Yeah I don't know what the company was I don't know That was the story

[00:42:20] I loved it I sent her a message Hopefully if she's listening She'll check her LinkedIn I'm sure she's getting clobber now Because this video had 887,000 views Her last video had over People trying to give her makeup Her last video Has over a million views

[00:42:40] But everything before that has a couple thousand She's getting clobbered right now She did a Hawaiian girl in high school Actually, she was in middle school And she didn't wear a Drop of fucking makeup Do I need to use the transition button? No, she was drop dead gorgeous

[00:42:56] And like All the time And so some people can pull that off Some people they feel better Like you talk to some women and it's like It's a personal preference It is an absolute personal preference Are you familiar with Andreessen Horowitz I've never heard of them

[00:43:18] Tell me more If I just asked you Democrat or Republican Where do you think they are? I think the majority of investors Are Republican Just pure money right Tax breaks So Andreessen Horowitz Co-founder has explained why they're supporting Trump So Andreessen, a Democrat President Donald Trump

[00:43:47] Believes this is where it touches work Believes his policies are much more favorable To tech And specifically For the ecosystem And he's on record of saying The Democratic Party Believes in AI regulations And he doesn't So he's looking at from a very Specific lens, not just the capitalist

[00:44:09] I believe you're right there Everybody that's in capital The tax breaks Whether or not they believe in policies Doesn't matter, but he actually gets into the policy Right As he should At the level they are He gets into it and says We want to fund companies

[00:44:29] On their innovation We don't want regulators We don't want AI regulators specifically So Anyhow I thought it was fascinating TechCrunch.com So go and check it out Check it out The day of work is back Workday So It's out there Everyone knows about this

[00:44:57] A lot of people are talking about it in the space But lawsuit alleging workdays AI tools are discriminatory Are now allowed to move forward So I think this Is actually a big deal for me Yeah This is about fairness It's about anti-discrimination

[00:45:17] I think this case is going to have However this ends up Is going to have a direct impact On what we see happening With legislation talking about regulations With legislation AI screening Excuse me, hiring Different hiring practices You know, so for those

[00:45:37] Who are listening, don't know what this is about So job seekers are required To complete assessments For the most part, right? And or personality test that Likely reveals in screens Candidates out because of things like Depression or anxiety Or whatever it found So

[00:45:57] That's what this case is about So the judge is ruling that workday software Is not simply Implementing The criteria That the employer set forth But instead is participating In the decision making In the decision making process By recommending Some candidates to move forward And rejecting others

[00:46:21] Whether it be Recommended rejections Or they immediately remove them From the shortlist So this is interesting We're going to do this as a class action Because Derek Mowgli In 23 had a better Had the best case And it's applying For 100 jobs That use workday He's black, he's over 40

[00:46:47] His anxiety and depression And so he I mean in his mind He applied to jobs he was qualified for And didn't get pushed forward In any of those jobs that use Workday software Legal I hate to drop it all off at Skotis at the doorstep But I think

[00:47:09] It's going to keep getting Appealed until it gets there And this was one of these things Workday tried to get the case dismissed As they should That's their job That's the lawyer's job For workday And the judge said no this has enough merit It has to go forward

[00:47:29] And go nowhere But the fact that it's going forward That it is going forward And I know you've got a source for it But I picked it up on Reuters So you go to Reuters.com Top in workday Like last week workday had the Doom loop

[00:47:47] Which was a great kind of It was a fascinating take And so This is actually one of these deals It could be workday It could be any company And it will be other companies 100% And I think workday is going to be the example One of the first

[00:48:07] And it's going to continue One of him Interesting story Are we talking about money next? We are, yeah. That's going to have an impact on What we do Let's do some acquisitions This is the A people Navigate A well being company Health solutions Cliently based advice and consulting

[00:48:31] Very smart acquisition Oddly enough Both companies are headquartered in Iowa West Des Moines Which I don't know the difference between East and West Des Moines But evidently there is I'll tell you North Memphis The first one The first one North Memphis There is a difference

[00:48:57] Is that really? Yes One is over here and the other one is over here My favorite My favorite is North Memphis What's going on with North Memphis Anyhow North Memphis is on the top In Iowa Des Moines and Cedar Rapids Respectively But this is a great acquisition

[00:49:19] Because you got one company that's a well being company Versus clinical Advice and consulting It's not going to be that big of a commute Between the two So I think it's good on a lot of levels So congratulations to them Congrats Alright our friends over at

[00:49:37] Deal is back at it Is this the acquired or company Called Huffy Did you say Huffy That's how I say Huffy I like Huffy Huffy sounds better So yet Another acquisition for Deal So We're starting to see a trend here So Huffy is onboarding So Huffy equals onboarding

[00:50:05] Device management and off boarding So these are three things that most companies Fail They shit the bet at This is it I think this is a good play That's going to be able To be able to obviously push us Into a healthy chunk of those

[00:50:23] Huffy is a lot smaller A little more than 700 customers They support roughly 30,000 people In 127 Countries across the world But I think this Is a company That I don't often think about Not just Huffy But what they do With device management When you know just Shipping phones and laptops

[00:50:53] And devices everywhere I just remember The days of this is a long time ago now Going into the office And doing my onboarding paperwork And say okay what's your address And then it shows up And it was just done by the local person In that office

[00:51:11] If you're doing this for For the people here And somebody's in Egypt You need to manage that There's shipping issues There's logistics I think it's a wonderful acquisition For deal because they're a global Parallel provided And they acquire a company That helps manage equipment For remote hires

[00:51:35] So that onboarding part Of being able to set somebody up You've hired somebody So now you can pay them with deal You can also set them up for success In a remote environment I think it's a good deal Pun intended But also I think it helps them differentiate

[00:51:53] In a crowded market So you've got all the other players that are doing this Now they can say oh yeah we can do global payroll That's easy We can also set those employees up for success Right Make sense to me Good deal We are researching brother What

[00:52:13] I'm going to listen So what's your take on Workplace romances If there's a class that I'm game In general You're coming out of the corner I did not say that We just added that You know Is it a good thing or bad thing Let's just make it simple

[00:52:41] I think it's I'm neutral I can see it being a good thing For the right people Even the people in positions of power And things like that Subordinates Fair game It's for a fun office life I've never done that Because I don't want the drama Like you know

[00:53:05] My hands are bloody My hands are bloody Stripping from blood Because Yeah So anyway So first of all the research Go to zeddy.com Z-e-t-y Type in workplace Romance It is a really fascinating report Because it shows all the complexities And contradictions

[00:53:33] And it shows a couple of stats And lets you respond to those 8 and 10 boys claim that they have experienced A romantic relationship Casual dating or sexual encounter With someone at work 8 of 10 That's no way 80% hobby So your daughter is working At a restaurant 8 and 10

[00:53:57] But the romance doesn't start until like Mid 20s 8 out of 10 That's a head in the sand Good 8 out of 10 is a lot I would say I'm gonna say like full 8 out of 10 I think it was 2500 Respondents on the survey dude It's legit That's people who are get

[00:54:23] They got 2500 unhappy people No because they also got the other side too That showed the The risk associated with it too So let me go on to the next one 41% of employees Have engaged In a romantic relationship With their direct supervisor 24%

[00:54:43] Of those were in a long term relationship 9% of those had a 1 night stand I can see that I can see that and I don't think it's because Of getting your head No pun intended Harvey Weinstein I know what I meant Wow Hashtag me too Thanks Ryan

[00:55:05] What I meant to say there was Your career advancing Your career advancing Your I forgot what I was gonna say So during Depending on the environment that you're in If you're close With your supervisor Your boss and you're getting a lot of performance reviews

[00:55:25] Or you have a caring supervisor Who genuinely Cares or Maybe is praying but genuinely cares Makes it feel like they care About your career and they want to help you Okay how can we do better What can we do and you Develop that like connect like oh man

[00:55:43] She really cares about me Direct supervisor Yeah I could see That I could see that actually being hired Bill Clinton cared deeply About Monica Walensky's Career advancement Gets us to the next bullet point 33% admit To cheating on their partner With a colleague Well that has to be higher

[00:56:07] If 8 in 10 say they have Experienced it 80% weren't single at the time Not at the time I'm just saying 8% of employees feel that work Place romances should be reported to HR Meaning This did not happen That's why that's so low Because the fun of the workplace

[00:56:29] Romance is that nobody knows And you're sitting next to each other Nobody knows that's why that's 8% The other stuff is 80% which I think Is really high That's exactly right so as we talk about RTO return to office Here's something to look forward to You too

[00:56:47] Pudies benefits just come to the office We're gonna add alcohol And everybody's good The report itself y'all Seriously kidding us on The report is great because I just talked about The sexual encounter stuff There's all kinds of other stats That balance that stuff out That show actually

[00:57:07] The positive parts of this So anyhow go take a look Zeddy.com The state of workplace Romance And I'm gonna do this to Erica And be like So what's the deal I don't have any workplace What's going on here It's William and I So you make this one

[00:57:31] Seem boring now So sorry to Kyle Lagunas and Laurie Ruderman because I really Enjoyed your report by the way It just Seems less fun right now But how performance intelligence Redefines the future of HR So this is over to aptitude research Go check it out

[00:57:53] Because this is actually a really solid Solidly written report And the graphics in there are phenomenal They tell you a lot Even if you skim through the report The graphics will help you out So this was released by aptitude researchers Written by Kyle and Laurie Ruderman

[00:58:11] First off report is good So go read it It talks about Performance intelligence, data analytics And AI And what organizations need to Consider in deployment To ensure equity And to align So we're gonna erase That part of the report Clearly the E is gone Just hot tooth

[00:58:38] Yeah hot We spit out the equity That's actually pretty funny So they surveyed An interview 225 HR leaders About performance management So anyway There's a lot to unpack But off the top There was a stat that I want to share And I believe that this is actually 80%

[00:59:04] No I don't think so 80% More probably more close to 80% Than your 80% was I don't even believe in that one So 80% of HR The HR leaders interviewed Felt their performance management program Was effective They have to believe that Of course they did That's how they get paid

[00:59:28] They bought the software It's their process What would you say it's truly at Oh less than 30% Yeah I had it 35% Yeah and probably If you're dealing with younger generations It's probably even less than that Not to say the research is flawed Because it's not

[00:59:50] I want to know what performance intelligence Is Is this just the intelligence Around performance management So I don't Have an intelligent Enter on that Don't worry we'll look at that It helps them with Making decisive decisions Hmm I probably butchered that Sorry No worries Get on board

[01:00:20] You ever feel distracted Usually it's during Usually during the barf Keep going Yeah so Distracted every 15 minutes The impact of digital Noise in the workplace This is at Unilea UNILY.com This is a report they did around digital noise And so research calls On all leaders to act

[01:00:52] On tackling digital noise And the crisis In the workplace or lose out In the performance So for you Ryan And you alone What is noise to you And who decides Chewing No no no noise From a sense of your effectiveness at work Like what gets you distracted

[01:01:18] What gets you distracted Yeah chewing It's one of those I know there's a name for that too But there are some people in this house That chew awfully loud And they are in the same room as me I can't do it I can't do it

[01:01:36] So when you're working What distracts you The phone Messages on the phone Text messages and whatsapp messages I have to mute them So that's what That's what they're trying with this research That's what they're trying to get at Is what is noise

[01:01:56] And how do you as an employer How do you manage noise Which is fascinating Cause everyone has a different definition of noise Yeah your noise is different Like I can do music all day Until I can I've done I've done shows I've done podcasts with music often

[01:02:16] Where in my ears I have Spotify playing And I'm doing podcasts That explains a lot Why is he so angry So Check out them going up and down So take a look at the reward Again, Unile Unile.com Take a look at it It's fascinating to see distraction

[01:02:40] And noise being talked about in this way So go take a look at it Music is like that I can listen to music until I can Once I can It has to go off You can't just turn it down No, I get mad Like it's weird

[01:02:58] It's interacting with my writing Ah, dammit Everyone has a button You turn it off That is true That is true Alright, let's do some money Alright Funding, RiceKit receives 1.5 million dollar Grant To advanced opportunity For underserved populations That's cool This is a nice play That enables economic mobility

[01:03:30] So this is helping Underrepresented talent with employers That need to hire critical skills So an employer has a very specific Critical skills Or skill that they need The underrepresented group In that local community Maybe has it Maybe doesn't have it

[01:03:50] But they work with them to get the skill Or transfer that skill I like it So they were awarded 1.5 million dollar Grant from the Bill Melinda Gates Foundation Good on you, Bill Melinda They will use this grant to drive Employer adoption of skills Based hiring

[01:04:08] And help to create the blueprint for community Driven hiring So I like that term Community driven hiring I don't know that it gets to be A dinner table term An everyday term in town acquisition But I do like the term community driven hiring

[01:04:26] I think it sounds more of a mission Than a thing So Side note on the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Is Melinda Gates Resigned her role as co-chair Of the foundation Her last day of work was in June 7th To be specific Money laundering? So there's that

[01:04:52] So the thing is She cares deeply about the foundation I'm interested to see How that changes Like what's Will it still be called the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Yeah, probably The foundation It's a foundation Do instruct Secures 7.6 million euros To disrupt Frontline worker training

[01:05:20] So this is on Startupdope.com You can go and put do instruct It's all one word, do, do, instruct And go take a look at them And what I love about This particular funding Is it serves an under Kind of underserved market And it's mobile first

[01:05:40] So it's training It's bite-sized training, it's on your phone It's for people that go, I want to learn something here They learn it 30 seconds later They're onto something else So I love that and good for them Making space Raises $2 million to scale Tell the acquisition and learning platform

[01:06:00] For disabled workers That's cool Yeah, this is another good one There's not a lot of information On it, but this is a learning platform That's designed to bridge the Education and employment Cap Among the disabled community So making space creates Learning programs that allows Companies to train

[01:06:24] Assess and retain Pre-qualified disabled Talents so they go through programs And then they're ready to go And if we could just do More funding in the Look at the three things we've reported on so far Yeah The bill rise kit Right, underserved population Do instruct

[01:06:46] Serves an underserved market Yeah And then making space, again Underserved talent I like that is fantastic It's just ended here, we're good No, it's done, end of show Even though we have 18 more funding It was a busy week in funding So German SAS platform Hero Software Raises

[01:07:10] 40 million euros To digitize SME operations So this is at techfundingnews.com And it's to help tradespeople in particular So it's again specialized kind of niche They're going after tradespeople Blue collar If you would like to say People that do trades And they're helping with automating And

[01:07:34] All the HR functions And I love it because it's an underserved Market worldwide And they're doing it in Germany But I also believe contiguous to Germany They're also doing it as well But they just got a huge round And I hope they

[01:07:50] I hope they continue to serve that market That is a healthy number So go for them Alright, go Joe Go Joe, not to be confused with Gig Pro Go Joe Raises 3.08 So 3 million Dollar seed round That's a weird number 3.08 What was the 80,000 for? Someone salary Maybe Runch

[01:08:22] Round up You know I didn't even think about that until you just said it That is kind of funny Let's hope I didn't Maybe it may be supposed to be three No there's all the ideals get done like that Because it's a person to the cap table

[01:08:38] So they come out with fewer numbers So this is the health and fitness app It focuses on employee engagement Corporate wellness, inclusive team challenges Health doesn't suck No, no this is good It's both physical and mental and social Well all three Well-being Obviously to improve the workplace

[01:08:58] Culture, reduced health related Cost for the company etc Go Joe I like it Go Joe Go Joe Go Joe Are you in my dojo? So does Joe Does that eventually get From a woke perspective Does Joe eventually get changed to Like go person What do you say

[01:09:28] Yeah, that's exactly what I'm saying Go human Go human Go human Tell us more about gig pro Gig pro Leaving hospitality Staffing solution Raises 15.6 million And you can find that at gigjedgepro.com And so this is Really the funding is for expanding the team

[01:09:56] Solutions for the hospitality market Which is getting hammered By Tyhont not wanting to be in hospitality So They're doing good work Because they're a staffing solution Just focus on that market And Again, they're trying to figure out a different way To serve the

[01:10:16] Hospitality market than the historic way That we've done it. So good for them Congrats Alright HR duo raises 1.83 million In a debt round So this is another UK company Working on streamlining The employee shift scheduling Time tracking and payroll reporting Alongside managing The entire employee

[01:10:42] Life cycle from recruitment to retirement So good for them But this is the Question that I have And maybe less of a question And more just a pet peeve in my mind I don't know why What did you say? I should run with it Managing the entire

[01:11:04] Employee life cycle from recruitment To retirement I don't know about that Yeah, I got that one I don't know It seems like a whole lot for A company to manage Why do they need to do all of that If they're They focus on something

[01:11:27] They've got to be doing a thin layer If they're doing it all the way across It's fine Maybe it's This shift You have to say that slow Shift scheduling and time tracking And payroll reporting Maybe they're talking about the analytics part Alongside Meaning we're Also dabbling

[01:11:51] I don't know the platform It's too small of a round And it's debt Which means it's a line of credit So It's too small money For them to be doing something substantive Of pulling data up into Reporting But congratulations Nonetheless Again, it's 1.83 In debt Worker hero

[01:12:21] Raises 4 million euros In series A for AI-driven recruitment That supports companies in the sourcing And recruiting For blue collar workers Again, we've talked about this Is a theme in this funding It's all about different types of Data Talent And so underserved talent In this case it's blue collar

[01:12:45] People that are not on LinkedIn You're not going to find them there So good for them Because they're looking For different ways to tap into Talent So good for them Worker hero, 4 million euros So Human risk management platform Culture AI raises 10 million Is at vestbestbe.com So

[01:13:14] They're aiming with the technology They're aiming to eliminate Human error related search Breaches That's the whole bit One bullet Barney This is what they're trying to do They're trying to eliminate the human Error related in all the breaches That we hear about in the news

[01:13:34] So good for them Good on them Culture AI, 10 million Focus on one thing And do it well Edit cloud Has secured our last funding Story for the day Edit cloud has secured 2 million funding 2 million in pounds So that's probably It's a heavy Almost 3 million in the dollars

[01:14:02] Depending on the day So anyway I'm funding to empower collaboration In the post production sector So think of post production as you normally would Like Brian and I when we think about Posts, Podcasts Post production Part of that Their software helps With the collaboration between different people

[01:14:22] Like you and I reviewed a website the other day Where they sent it to us And they basically sent A technology where we could Comment on different parts of the website And they could then resolve those comments So it's collaboration software So again This is very nichey

[01:14:40] This was on businesscloud.co.uk You can learn more about it That there, but it's niche Collaboration software So good for them Good raise And that's all we got for fun And we are done Unless you got something else You got something else to talk about

[01:15:00] Those were good stories A lot of good stuff this week It was a story we didn't cover With JP Morgan Doing something with felons We're doing a program now That we did report on the stuff With JP Morgan On some of it But there's an article out there

[01:15:20] About them doing a program specifically For felons To bring them into the workforce And it's interesting in financial services Because that's not an industry That you would assume Would be leading heavily Depends on the felony In financial service does it Because everything from white color crime To murder

[01:15:42] They're all bad But if it's Like a low-key felony As opposed to money laundering Yeah right There's that I totally understand what you're saying Like warehouse work You see a lot of people That will do things in warehouses With felons You can be a driver

[01:16:08] You don't have to There's nothing wrong with your license In financial services That's a tricky one I never thought I'd see that But maybe we'll catch it next week And do more on it JP Morgan is making a change Well they're hiring people for AI

[01:16:26] And now they're going to hire felons Putting people to work That's all we got this week So thank you all for listening We will see you when we see you Please subscribe, like, love us everywhere and all that We'll talk to you next week