The Engagement Dilemma: Burnout, Layoffs, and the Future of Work
The BARFFebruary 07, 202501:09:41

The Engagement Dilemma: Burnout, Layoffs, and the Future of Work

Employee engagement is anything but one-size-fits-all. Burnout is rising, workplace discrimination cases keep making headlines, and companies are doubling down on corporate accountability (or avoiding it altogether). Meanwhile, job mobility is skyrocketing as workers chase better pay, and remote work continues to reshape employee expectations. Add in the rising skepticism around MBAs and a wave of strategic layoffs, and it’s clear: the workforce is in flux.


In this episode, we look at employee engagement, burnout, workplace discrimination, corporate accountability, pregnancy rights, employment trends, MBA value, acquisitions, layoffs, remote work, job mobility, employee communication, HR technology, funding, fleet safety, economic trends, workforce changes, employee expectations. From HR tech innovations to fleet safety advancements, we unpack what’s shifting in the job market and how companies—and employees—are adapting.


Key Takeaways

  1. Employee engagement isn’t universal—what works for one doesn’t work for all.
  2. Burnout rates are surging, and engaged employees are significantly less affected.
  3. Workplace discrimination lawsuits continue to push corporate accountability forward.
  4. Pregnancy rights remain a battleground in many industries.
  5. Layoffs are projected to rise, with 46% of employers considering cuts in 2025.
  6. MBA programs are losing value in a rapidly changing job market.
  7. Acquisitions and corporate roll-ups are reshaping industry power dynamics.
  8. Remote work is still a major factor in retention and job satisfaction.
  9. Workers are increasingly treating the job market like free agency, hopping for better pay.
  10. The communication gap between leadership and employees is wider than ever.
  11. HR tech funding is booming, signaling more automation in hiring and workforce management.
  12. Fleet safety innovations are evolving to combat distracted and drowsy driving.


Chapters:


00:00 Introduction and Context Setting

01:24Sports Talk and Team Dynamics

04:31 Diversity in Executive Roles

07:23 Corporate Layoffs and Communication Failures

10:17 Discrimination Settlements and Corporate Accountability

13:25 Pregnancy Discrimination and Workplace Rights

16:23 Financial Struggles of Clinicians

19:23 The Future of Management in an AI World

20:46The Changing Landscape of MBA Graduates

25:05 Acquisitions in the Corporate World

34:25 Layoffs and Workforce Dynamics

38:23 The Remote Work Debate

42:11 Job Hopping for Better Pay

45:19 Communication Gaps in Organizations

47:28 Understanding Business Goals and Employee Incentives

49:06 The Importance of Effective Communication in Corporations

51:11 Innovations in Internal Data Access and Security

52:40 The Role of Consulting Firms in Future-Proofing Businesses

54:20 Funding Trends in HR Tech and Automation

55:53 AI-Driven Resume Tailoring for Job Seekers

59:04 Safety Innovations in Fleet Management

01:04:50 Enhancing Communication Governance in Business


Connect with us:


William Tincup LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tincup/

Ryan Leary LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanleary/

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[00:00:00] Du liegst in der Badewanne und hörst deinen Podcast. Doch hui, das Plätschern des Wassers wird zum Meeresrauschen und plötzlich fliegst du in den Süden. Ägypten, Kanaren, Griechenland, Türkei, Karibik. Der warme Sand zwischen den Zehen, ein kühles Getränk in der Hand und die Sonne auf der Haut. Nicht träumen, Alturs buchen. Alles drin, alles gut, alles für dich. Alturs, alles aber günstig. Jetzt im Reisebüro oder auf alturs.de.

[00:00:29] All right, William, let me ask you a question. Okay. Have you ever driven to your destination, whatever you're going, church, home, the store, to not know how you got there? Like you just got there and you're like, fuck. 100%. How did I get here? Yeah. Especially when I was younger. Yeah. That still happens to me sometimes. Oh yeah. Like it's kind of freaky, right? Like,

[00:00:59] it's like, that's pro. How did I get here? Yeah. Yeah. Like there's some times where I'm like, I joke around, but the other times I'm like, holy crap. Oh yeah. And like, I wasn't tired. Like I wasn't falling asleep. Like, right. Just got here. Anyway. All right. Netrodine. Ready? Let's wait.

[00:01:30] What is going on everybody? Ryan Leary, William Tink up here with another episode of the barf. This is a look back at the week that was, so you can be prepared for the week that is. We're back, William. I know. I know. It's like we've never left actually. It kind of feels that way. Every time I see you, you're sitting in the same chair. I know. Same paintings. I got to move them around. I got to do something different there.

[00:01:55] Got to shoot. Big, big happenings today. Oh yeah. My Philadelphia Eagles are getting ready to trounce. Trounce? Trounce. Trounce. Trounce. Mark Feppers, Washington Commanders. Redskins. It's okay. Yeah. I know. It's, it's still difficult to say Commanders. It doesn't even sound right. You know, during the SAP event during this past week, another Eagles fan, she said Commanders and I, I literally, it didn't register for me.

[00:02:23] Yeah. Yeah. For a minute. Cause I'm like, who? And I'm like, it's the Redskins. And I've actually had someone call me on this before. Like you can't call them Redskins. I'm like, okay. So let's, let's talk through this. Let's talk through history. A, uh, I'm a member of the Cherokee Nation. So I'm actually, two, have a master's degree in American Indian studies. If anyone on the planet can fucking call them the Redskins. You qualify.

[00:02:49] I can't. So I'm not going to call them the Commanders or Commandos or whatever the fuck they're called. Commandos. I can do that. Call them whenever the hell you want this week. Beat them. They are not going forward. Although I'm kind of feeling like the Chiefs are going to go forward, but I would love to see an Eagles, Buffalo Bills, Super Bowl. That would be cool. That would be a great game, but it's going to be a tight game this week. It is. Their quarterback's badass.

[00:03:15] Yes, he is. He is. I don't buy this. I don't buy this thing. You're a rookie. You can't win. You can't play in a big game. This guy is good, man. They did one thing right. And this is the guy that's right. They've really. But Jalen isn't Jalen. The, the, the, the Reds, again, it's the same thing with the Cowboys. They got rid of a dysfunctional owner. And they brought in some professionals.

[00:03:38] And in bringing in professionals, they worked the, all, like their first four rounds of their draft last year are all starters. And then they went on to the free agent market and got a bunch of talent. Yeah. It's not shocking how they're good. Hmm. No, no, no. They're going to be, it'll be a tough game. I'm going to call the, I got, I hate saying this. 27, 24 birds. Yeah, I could go with that. Ideally, it's like 27 to 7. Yeah.

[00:04:08] But we're going to go, be realistic. Y'all have home, y'all have, it's, it's a home game, yeah? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Hoping for terrible weather. I mean, they have terrible weather. Y'all are like two hours from each other, so it's not that big a deal. However, terrible weather, that, that, that, that then lessens the throwing game. Yeah. Well, either way you look at it, it's a bird's win. Again, I know it drives you crazy, but I don't hate that. I got a hustle to get this done so I can get in position to eat.

[00:04:38] Oh, 100%. Eat my wing, so. All right, let's do it. All right, do not look at ChatGBT when I tell you this. Okay. Okay. So between 2020 and 2023 with the S&P 500 executives, what would you think the increase would be for non-white share of executives? Like the increase between 20 and 2023? 20 and 23?

[00:05:08] Yeah, well, yeah. I'm going to go... 2020, 2023. ...34%. That'd be 5.3%. Wow. I thought I was going to... I thought I was actually targeting a little number saying that. Uh-uh. No. So I had the exact same... This is at the Wall Street Journal, so you can go take a look at it there, read more about it. It actually is fascinating on some level. I'm not sure why I thought it would be double digits like you. I guess maybe that's hope. I hope that it would be.

[00:05:36] I mean, we're caring and empathetic humans. 100%. I'm guessing that all the DEI programming and investments over those years helped. I'm hoping, again, that it helped other levels, entry level, mid-level, but it doesn't look like it impacted the executive level, especially for the S&P 500. But that is a 5.3. That's an ant bite. Yeah. That is not a good thing.

[00:06:04] So, anyhow, go read the article because, hey, it's just great journalism. And I think for those that are pro-DEI, they're going to be... Their hearts are going to be broken. Those that are, say, anti-DEI, they're going to look at it and say, yeah, no one cares. So, depending on your perspective, so to speak. Right. All right. So, I got one here. All right. Bring it. Stripe. Yeah.

[00:06:33] This is a funny one. This one cracks me up. You're trying to make it through without laughing? So, it's funny, but it's not. It's not funny because 300 people were affected by a layoff, right? So, we'll just get that out. Mm-hmm. So, that's never good. Mostly in ops and product roles. Oh, wow. But 300 people. That's a sizable cut to Stripe. But how they did it.

[00:07:01] This isn't like, oh, let's do everything over Zoom. Like, these guys, they said it was a mistake. Okay. They sent cartoons to the employees in the email, in the memo, as they called it. Cartoons? For the layoffs. Like Garfield? No, of a duck. Of a duck. Like, what the fuck? This redefines tone depth.

[00:07:28] This is stupidity at its finest right here. I can see the humor in it, though. If you got laid off, it's because you didn't duck. But wait. But wait. There's more. Oh, yeah. There's more. Impacted staff were also sent the incorrect termination date in the email. Oh, that's such... So, not only did they get a duck, they got the wrong get out of here date.

[00:07:58] That's horrible on so many levels. Now, for context's sake, Stripe has, I think they have about 11,000 employees. So, 300 of 11,000 is not... Not really. So, but it's 300 human beings were impacted. That's really what the important part. They're impacted in both ways. You get a duck and you got the wrong date. Okay.

[00:08:27] It doesn't matter if that was just 20 people. Of 11,000. It's just the fact that it happened. Yeah. Someone should take better care of those things. Yeah, yeah. You don't get to make these mistakes as an executive. I don't think this was humor. I don't think this was trying to be funny. I think this was potentially being funny prior to it going out. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The internal bit? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. It's sitting around like, hey, why don't we put ducks in it? Yeah. We got a bunch of lame ducks.

[00:08:56] Ha ha. Like, these are the losers. Right? I get it, right? There's the humor, the dark humor in the back and they forgot to remove it. And someone hit play. Whatever. It's what it is. Sorry, guys. But... Oh, that hurts. You got to do better. All right, Master agrees to pay $26 million class action settlement in a race and gender discrimination loss. So this is actually New York Times.

[00:09:23] So you can go and take a look ahead and read the article, et cetera. So the accused, the company was accused of underpaying 7,500 female, black, Hispanic, U.S. employees compared to their male, white colleagues doing the same work. So let all that kind of set in. I don't understand how this happens in 2025. Like, I just don't.

[00:09:51] I mean, again, this is probably going to take two years getting it all kind of negotiated out. Like, this isn't the 1800s. No. Raymond, 1900s. Like, these are the same positions. You're paying one group of people more than another group of people $26 million. It's not based on skills. Like, this isn't based on skills. That was the argument of 10 years ago. This is just discrimination. It is, yeah. Oh, and good. And they're getting smacked forward.

[00:10:21] So you know what? $26 million. There you go. Well, that's a bar tab for them, but still. All right. Well, with President Trump being inaugurated earlier in the week, we could do an entire show on all of his executive orders that impact work. Not the other stuff. Actually, a lot of them do. A lot of them do. A lot of them do. We could. We should. We should do. We do. Should do. Maybe let it settle for a couple months.

[00:10:50] But basically, the bit that I wanted to kind of bring up today, and this is from Reuters, so you can go read about it yourself. So President Trump names acting heads of the EEOC and LRRB, the agencies responsible for enforcing discrimination protections and protecting employees' rights to organize. So those two agencies, we talked about it, I think, two or three weeks ago, that, hey, listen, when Republicans get in power, this is what happens.

[00:11:20] When Democrats get in power, this is what happens. So change, that's not unusual. That's the shift in change. Like right now, the Democrats, technically, until all this plays out, they have a two-to-one majority, and it'll be a two-to-one majority Republican. Marvin Kaplan would lead the NLRB. Andrea Lucas would act as chair as the EEOC. Both Republicans, not unusual.

[00:11:48] Both support Trump's vision for how these agencies should be run. So get your popcorn ready. We're going to now look – I predict less unionization, fewer lawsuits, and less oversight. Good for employers, bad for employees. So it's going to open things up, and again, great for companies, great for employers. I should probably have a take on this. I don't – I haven't really looked at it. Not yet.

[00:12:16] Oh, we'll see it. We'll see. In the coming months, we'll see more of it. And we'll have some people on the talk with us about it because, yeah, we're going to need to. 100%. 100%. We'll do a show on President Trump at work. That will be a fun show. Never going to be fun. All right. Carrying the theme, EEOC.

[00:12:39] They took their first stab at a subpoena for enforcement action under the PWFA. So this is the Pregnant Workers Fairness. We've talked about this a couple of times. They've now issued their first subpoena to a company who I thought was local to me, but they're not. I see them every day. So they do have a hub near me. R&L Carriers shared services.

[00:13:06] So the EEOC is investigating allegations that the company discriminated against a driver based on sex and failed to provide her with reasonable accommodations for limitations on pregnancy. Breastfeeding. Basically said, yeah, basically said, take a desk job or peace out is what they did. Right. So, okay. That's horrible. Yeah. We haven't grown up and matured in the world of work. I get it. But this is the first time.

[00:13:35] And this, I think we started talking about this back in June, July timeframe, something like that. Yeah, because there's been tons of suits that have been settled. Yeah. I'm surprised this is the first time it's actually coming through. Oh, yeah. Interesting to see where it's going to head up. With the changeover, you can see that thing getting killed because the EEOC will fundamentally change and not go after companies. I hope not because, I mean, it's, I mean, again.

[00:14:04] This is something that should be protected. Yeah, yeah. And I can understand the issue. I can understand the challenge here, right? Yeah. The boss, the person in charge wants to make sure that they might feel they're accommodating. Right? They might feel that they're being accommodating by saying, hey, look, you can work on a desk. You don't have to do that because they don't want to see a pregnant woman getting out of an 18-wheeler. I get it. Yeah. But that's not the law.

[00:14:34] That's not the law. So, yeah, you need to be better. You need to know the laws, number one. It wouldn't shock me if they legislate that law, if they do something with that law. That would not shock me at all. Well, we'll see. We'll see where it goes. But first time for everything, and they finally took it through a lot longer than I thought it would. This one threw me. So, when I read the headline, I'm like, hmm, did I read that right? 62% of U.S. clinicians live paycheck to paycheck.

[00:15:05] So, this is on staffingindustry.com. So, a clinician is someone who's involved in clinical practice. A physician is a professional who's licensed to practice medicine. So, in general, a physician is a clinician, but not all clinicians are physicians. So, think nurse, nurse practitioner, speech pathologist, psychologist, et cetera. So, digging into the article, it's like, well, why? Why is it paycheck to paycheck?

[00:15:34] It seems like we've been talking about these jobs and not having enough people do this. Because what's happening in the staffing world is those folks are taking temp work over perm work. Because temp work pays more. And so, but temp work, not stable. So, you take a temp work deal, and so it's like this, but you get paid more.

[00:16:01] Whereas, if you take a perm in these positions, if you take a perm job, it's stable, but it's less money. And it's like a significantly different money. Yeah. And I think there's less flexibility in that. And people have grown. I almost think this was taboo 15 years ago. 100%. Oh, you're a temp worker. Oh, you're a contractor. You're 100%. It means you're countless. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:16:27] Now, you know, now it's, it's, it's, actually, I think it's that, that title, I think has evolved. Yeah. I think when I was in high school, in, in school back in like the 80s and 90s, I think when you were a consultant, you were looked up on. Oh, 100%. You were, oh, oh, he's a consultant. Then it became, you're a consultant. You're, you're unemployed. You're doing your own bit.

[00:16:54] Now, it's like, it's acceptable again. Yeah. Like, you're a consultant, you're a contractor. It's a flexibility. It's like. What is old is new. Yeah. Yeah. What is new is old. So, yeah, but that, go read the article for the folks that are listening, watching, et cetera. Go listen and read the article because it's just, it's fascinating because it's just not what you think. When you think of that particular part of the market, you think scarcity.

[00:17:21] Obviously, pay has to be high just to deal with scarcity. Not so much. So, anyhow. All right. CEOs. This is a funny one. CEOs will be the last to manage all human workforces, says Mark Badoff. Binoff. Binoff. That's what I call him. Binoff. That's what I call him. And I also said, I also say Pat. No, no. No, no.

[00:17:49] Who's the guy that, who's the guy in New York that stole all the money from people? Oh, Badoff. Badoff. Yeah. That's what I heard when you first said it. Yeah. No, no, no. No, no. Yeah, no. I totally just butchered your name. Mark Binoff is completely different. All right. Got it. Very, very different. Yeah. So, I don't disagree here, right?

[00:18:07] I think the crux here is that Salesforce projects 20%, over 20% of the jobs that they hire for will include, or jobs, sorry, that will be hired in the workforce by 2030 will include AI collaboration. Yeah. And they're investing in that too. Heavily. Yeah, heavily.

[00:18:30] And global AI adoption rates, excuse me, will, with 90% of enterprises investing in AI solutions in that same timeframe. Yeah. So, what he's saying is managers are not, are no longer going to be normal, regular managers of old.

[00:18:49] They are now managing a hybrid workforce of both AI, robots, I hate saying robots, but AI assistants, you know, those types, digital employees, and human employees. And that is a very different management structure. Yeah. And it got me to think, what questions do we need to ask of managers now? Can you just do battlefield promotions?

[00:19:12] Can you bring in a really good, you know, ops manager who's performing well and promotes someone who's an ops manager? They may not be able to run the technology or understand it as good just because they're, we've always had the issue of high performers become a manager and then they shit the bed as a manager because they're not managers. They haven't been trained as a manager. This is going to be very, very different.

[00:19:38] And I think we're going to see a whole new breed of managers with a different skill set. They have to. They have to. That we would not have seen a couple of years ago now have opportunity. Right. Well, they don't have to have, I mean, the crazy thing is sociopaths and psychopaths now have a career path in the sense of. It's a really good point. It's a really good point. I like that better than. They don't have empathy. I like that better. Because they're doing with machines. So, you know what? Yeah. Yeah. Maybe they won't.

[00:20:08] I like that better than when you say humanities and arts and all that. I'm going with psychopaths. Sociopaths. Sociopaths and psychopaths. That's it. That's a new breed. Career path for those folks out there because they don't have empathy. And with robots, you don't have to have empathy. It's very true. So, you were a terrible leader with a human workforce. Amazing. You'll be a great leader with a robot. Yeah. Yeah. It's really something. Can I see the positivity? Yeah.

[00:20:38] If I was still in the world of corporate somewhere, I would thrive. Oh, 100%. As a manager. I thought I did well with people. I was always horrible with people. There's a point of like, you're just fucking stupid. Like, stop. Seriously. Yeah. Always throughout my entire career. I would quit day one. I would quit day one. If I ever. No. No. It just wouldn't. I'm just not good at it.

[00:21:05] I mean, I realize, I realized very early in my life, in my career, that I'm just not good at that. That's just not my thing. Not a shot in hell, dude. Not a shot in hell. Not a shot in hell. So this is, followed us in the, not a lot of people are going to cry for these folks. However, Ivy League MBA graduates faced more challenging job markets. Oh. Yep.

[00:21:27] Three months after graduating Harvard last spring, 23% of job-seeking MBAs were still seeking employment. That's a fourth. So you have, you know, 100 kids graduating. That's 25. It's a big number. It got me thinking about my own MBA. I graduated in 99, which was kind of the birth of the more popularized mainstream internet,

[00:21:57] if you will. And I'm not sure if I'd earned an MBA in the same way that two hours, taking two years off and doing that. But with this era of work, I'm not sure I'd even think about an MBA. I might even think about a BA or BS. With this era of work, I might just go straight into skills development and not even think about the degrees. But, you know, shocking, not shocking, MBAs are expensive hires. Yeah.

[00:22:27] So this 23% bill could be as simple as just the economy. Yeah. Or it could be a paradigm shift. I want us to keep a track of this in that, okay, in a tight economy, they're not hiring MBAs. Okay. Well, that's happened several different times over the last 40 years. Okay. But what happens when things loosen up? Are they going to go and hire MBAs? This is McKinsey and Bain. These are big companies.

[00:22:57] Yeah. So I think we need to just keep an eye on, like, I think just education degrees in general are almost outdated. You know? Not all. Not all. Not all. How much of this do you think is an MBA graduating knowing what they've paid, knowing what they have to pay back and what they're staring at in the face? It's hard to get the return on investment. Right.

[00:23:26] Anywhere. Right. And how much of that is driving them not to, maybe they're just not accepting the jobs because the income, the salary isn't there as promised, right? And they're waiting and holding out. A hundred percent. I want to, I mean, you're 250. Yeah. You're going to have Ivy League. You might be more than that. But with all the debt that you carry. Now, my MBA was paid for, so I didn't really have to deal with any of that stuff. However, I'm just looking at the time investment.

[00:23:55] If I would have taken those two years and moved out to San Francisco and just jumped into the dot-com stuff, it would have been a different, you know, it would have been a different experience. Now, I wouldn't have, I'll tell you, the MBA taught me a lot of things. Mostly, it taught me the ability to ask questions. So on top of the humanities degrees, I could then formulate really quickly how to ask and answer questions. So it did that.

[00:24:24] It helped me manage high performers. So in most of the situations, there's a lot of group work. In most of those situations, I'd raise my hand to lead the group. Because I wanted, I had a lab coat on. I wanted to learn how to manage people that are all high performers. Right. So I needed to learn that skill set because I'd never, I'd never done that. But it's also frameworks, things like that. But it's a, it's a degree to some degree. It's a degree in common sense.

[00:24:54] Like I learned most of what I know about business from Walmart. So like, that's how I learned business. Yeah. But I think most people do. And the MBA, the MBA that I got in particular, it helped because like 60% of our class was international students. So I went to a school that really focused on international students. And I had never been, you know, growing up at Texas, I'd never really been exposed to the rest of the world.

[00:25:24] And I knew that. That's actually one of the things that drew me to Case is I wanted to be around people from all over the world. Right. And then, and learn like, Oh shit, I can't say that. And look where I got you sitting here with me. Just saying it did really well. It did. It did. It did. And now it's time for the plum stat of the show. When people flourish, business thrives. Unlock the benefits of 360 degree talent insights at plum.io.

[00:25:56] All right, William, you ready for this? I am indeed. All right. According to plum's research, engaged employees. Hold on. Let's restart that. That sounded too contrived. Yay. So how's it go? The plum stat of the day. All right. All right, William. Here we go.

[00:26:17] According to plum's research, engaged employees experience a 68% decrease in feelings of burnout versus their stressed out counterparts. How do we get more people to be engaged at work? Well, it's highly personal. So engagement is not a cookie cutter. Yeah. It's not one thing. Because so what makes you engaged is not going to make me.

[00:26:43] So it's really difficult in this sense. It's by person by that moment of time. Meaning you can't just blank and go, okay, we're going to run this program and everyone will now be engaged. You have to understand the drivers and the motivators of that particular person at that particular moment. Yeah. Which changes like we, you know, change our socks. So I think the thing is it makes, it tracks.

[00:27:12] So I think the research is great because it tracks. If you're engaged, you're not thinking about burnout because you love what you're doing. It's like, man, I'm jacked. This is fun. Let's do more of this. You're not thinking about I'm working 80 hours. Do you have to love what you're doing to be engaged? No. Yeah, I don't think so. No, you just got to be inspired. It's got to be fun. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. If you're like in it, you and I have done this with work before. You jump into something and you lose time. Yeah.

[00:27:42] That's engagement. Now, do you love the company? Do you love your boss? Do you love the job? Maybe not. But for that moment, you lose time. Like years ago, actually all of my life, when I play pool, when I shoot pool, it's the only time that I lose time. I could totally see you in a pool hall. Yeah, I've been in a pool hall in my life. Cigar. Yeah, 100%.

[00:28:11] All my life. An old-fashioned or something like that in your hand? I grew up in a pool hall. I can play one-handed. I can play one-armed. Not good. So I'm one of those people. But when I go into a pool hall, even today, when I go into a pool hall, it could be 2 o'clock, and I blink, and it's 11 o'clock at night, and I haven't thought at all about it. And it's not about drinking or any of the other stuff. I just lose time because I'm in the game. You're engaged.

[00:28:40] I'm engaged. Yeah. So I think that tracks. And again, engagement isn't necessarily a thing. It's the retention of that talent over time that is the real thing. But on the way to that, you can't let them burn out. So I think as a manager, you understand, okay, what is going to get this person excited about this job so that they lose time and they don't think about that other stuff. And so it's hard.

[00:29:09] Engagement is not easy. Anyone that thinks that it is, it's not. No. I think engagement might be one of the toughest jobs that we've come across, that we've researched and studied. We should probably study it a bit more. It is difficult because people will do it with pulse surveys. And it's like, okay, at that particular moment, it's like you're in the airport. I came out of security, smiley face. All of a sudden, I go down to the terminal and the flight's canceled. Sad face.

[00:29:39] It's like, at that moment, there's a Polaroid. I'm happy. And so it's got to be in real time. It's got to be personalized. And that is very difficult. But I do like your idea about losing time and just being interested in the work or the project or who you're working with. Like, whatever it is, just be losing time. So I love it. I love the research. Good for Plum. And there you go. The Plum stat of the show.

[00:30:09] I love my experience at Case. And Cleveland, not as much. But no. Case, yes. Let's get some acquisition talk in here. What do you got? I think we've got three. So Snappy acquires swag gifting startup cover with two Vs, C-O-V-V-E-R, as it rolls up these players. So this is on TechCrunch. So you can go and put Snappy or cover. And you'll gather that.

[00:30:36] So what you have with this acquisition is a corporate swag giant swallows up a competitor. And you could say they augment each other, but really they were doing some of the same stuff. So something for the audience to nibble on is the corporate gifting world swag is about $260 billion. It's a big one. Yeah. It's a big one. Snappy works with a ton of the Fortune 1000. Solid acquisition.

[00:31:05] I really love it for both teams. And it looks like they have a good partnership anyhow. So good for them. Yeah. It really is. It's an interesting market. Yeah. And if you get in there and play with the softwares, I love it. I love picking my games. Did you say softwares? I did. I said it purposely this time, though. Oh, okay. I just wanted to see if you caught it. All right. I didn't say it purposely yesterday. Or Friday or Thursday, whatever it was.

[00:31:34] I'm like, did you just say softwares? I couldn't help myself. Like when you said it on that live stream. Yeah. What was that? Thursday, yeah. Did this move? Did he just say softwares? I did. Like we worked together. Software is one of the words that I constantly throughout my life just said softwares. Well, these all these miceys. What? All these miceys and these deers running around. I wasn't confused. Is it horsies? Or is it just horse? All right.

[00:32:03] Let me get back to ServiceNow. ServiceNow. ServiceNow plans to acquire a company called QIn. Hmm. So this is a workflow play, right? So ServiceNow. And so QIn does some they really do some cool things. And so they help improve customer experience. This is where they work in customer experience. They look at all the interactions across chat, voice, email, all the different channels. Oh, cool.

[00:32:33] That customer interactions come in through and they analyze that. How do we make it better? How do we make it quicker? How do we make it, you know, how do we treat our customers better? That's a great acquisition. Yeah. It can help with sales. It can help with support. Everything. Everything. Sales, support, across the board. And obviously with ServiceNow, this is a workflow deal. So I like it. I'm excited for it. I didn't see any data on cost.

[00:33:03] And all that stuff. I think it's more of a plan at this point. Yeah. They don't. Acquisitions. They don't really. Yeah. It's not their bit. They don't want to release the numbers. Yeah. But. Keep that stuff. I like it. Oh, I love the acquisition. Yeah. I love the acquisition. ServiceNow has been doing some cool things. And we got to meet with them back in HR Tech. And we did some stuff. Oh, yeah. Was it after that? We had a podcast with Gretchen. Gretchen, yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Oh, there you go.

[00:33:30] So HR Path acquires INT, I-N-T, SIS solutions. Probably built by a person that's a technician. Okay. So this is strengthening their workday expertise and expanding their presence in Northern Ireland. So that's at HR-PATH.com. So you go look up all the bit. Now, their name looked familiar when I was looking at the acquisition. I'm like, man, I know something about HR Path. What do I know about HR Path?

[00:34:00] So I went back in. And we've talked about, since we've been doing the BARF, you know, coming up on a year. We've talked about, this is the third time we've talked about HR Path. Mm-hmm. First time we talked about them is they received a massive funding. I think it was $500 million. Yeah. Second was another acquisition like this one. So what I gather is, as what I'm looking at, went through a website, tool, through a tool around, is my gut tells me that this is a roll-up.

[00:34:30] That's why the big round. And this is the idea is there's all these different little players that are out doing all this cool shit. Let's just roll them all up. Right. Take them public. So, but congratulations to everybody involved. Yeah. Like, I got no hate. Roll-ups can be super effective. So HR Path. They could also go the other way. Oh. We've seen that. Seen that. But take a look at HR Path for the audience. Take a look at them and just kind of see what they're doing.

[00:35:00] All right. HR Path. I'm going to check it out. All right. HR. I'm going to move our attention to research and talk about some things that are going to make us smarter or sadder in this case. All right. Nearly half of employers' eye potential layoffs in 2025. Yes. That sucks. So this one I found on resume templates.com. It came through some searching I was doing. Yeah.

[00:35:29] It's actually a pretty cool site. They do a lot of good research. It's surveys, but they do a lot of good stuff like that. Yeah. They do, and it's right up their alley, but it's actually a pretty cool site. I'm not sure I'd buy a resume template, though. No. Wondering what they're going to be doing. Yeah, exactly. They're surviving, I guess. It's a good time to change the name to something else. Yeah.

[00:35:50] So anyhow, 46% of employers are considering layoffs in 2025, and they're calling this an inflation, recession, fear-driven workforce pivot, in air quotes. So that's that. 46% are bracing for the layoffs. One in four leaders cite rising operational costs as the reason. Yeah. That's easy.

[00:36:20] Yeah. That's an easy excuse. I think, you know, just like what we learned with Stripe, out of the failure of what they did, it's 300 of 11,000. That's just a shift in, you know, that could be just as easy as like, okay, we're getting rid of some players to then add a players. Well, we don't know in that scenario. Is they let go 300, but they added 600 in a different role and doing something different, et cetera.

[00:36:49] But the story is they laid off, and the way they did it, both with cartoons and with the wrong date, that's just dumb. Yeah. But I think that's important. You bring up an important point, though. And it's one. I know we talk about the layoff stories because people want to, in our industry, they want to know this, and they need to know this. Right. Especially in certain sectors. But there is another side to layoffs. Layoffs aren't always a bad thing, right?

[00:37:17] Companies are in the game to make money, right? Right. If companies aren't there, we're not here, kind of, right? Like, well, I guess we're here. It's the game. Yeah. It's the game. And so you're right. It's the only game. Yeah. If you want to be a hardcore capitalist, the only reason companies exist is to make money. To make money. That's it. That's it. But 300 go. If they're going to hire 600 more. Right. Right? So, I mean, it's not. It's not. And those 300 could be highly underperforming. That's right. That's what.

[00:37:46] Not everybody that gets laid off is on their. Like. Well, that's. Make that very clear. Get that. Well, like. Like you and I have talked about this. Turnover. Not a bad word. Regrettable turnover. Regrettable turnover. So what we don't know is, are these regrettable layoffs? Correct. Are these people, they really want to keep, but just. Yeah. Budget. They just couldn't keep them. Okay. Nope. I think that'd be a good area for us to study. Regrettable layoffs.

[00:38:10] I think the thing for us is, when we looked at it, I think when Trump was elected, actually, somewhere around there, we looked at COC growth with a Republican. You know, dominated Congress, Senate and President, Supreme Court. They see growth. So what's interesting is you see layoffs now. And you think to yourself, you know what? We're going to see a rise in recruiting.

[00:38:36] Crazy rise in recruiting because companies are, they haven't for three years. And they're just going to, they're going to need to hire. Now, they're not going to hire the same people that we're going to hire three years ago. They're going to hire people that have these new skills, like Benioff was saying. Not paying off. Man paying off. What? Keep walking. Nothing to see here.

[00:39:03] So 46% of U.S. employees would quit their jobs if they could not work remotely. I'm going to call BS on that before we even go further. I think that's a lot of people talking hard. You all need jobs. Shut up. Dude, first of all, this is at pewresearch.org. So if you want to go read the whole study, fascinating stuff. I just picked out, plucked out one thing.

[00:39:34] I call bullshit on it in the same way. So first of all, it's a considerable number. 50%? Yeah. That's legit. I'm assuming that what this is really is about white collar professional jobs, not blue collar jobs. Right? Well, I'm scared because they can't work remotely. Okay. So are these the same? Now, this is what I really want to get your take on.

[00:39:56] Are these the same people that are scared that their job will be augmented or automated out of a job? Probably a good chunk of them, yeah. I think probably a good chunk. Why would that number be that high if they fear losing their job? And I don't have any... Entitlement. Entitlement. COVID has entitled us to not want to go to work. I mean, if I stood up right now, you don't want to see what I'm wearing.

[00:40:26] Like, that's just... No, I'm just kidding. I'm actually dressed. I always wear the same shorts and a sweater. But I do. I think it's entitlement. And I think people grew to love being at home. And now when you... Generational? Generational. But also when you break it down white collar, blue collar, et cetera. Yeah. Most of our white collar workers work for... Well, not most. But let's say you have a chance, a good chance of working with a global or international company.

[00:40:56] Yeah. Right. And so you see your colleagues and counterparts in the UK, in London, in India. Like, taking... I just said there's a designer that we work with. She's on vacation now. Yep. And she does get back until February 17th. I don't hate that at all. No, I don't hate that. But when's the last time you did that? 2010. Summer of 2010. Well, that's a long time ago. It was. Right? It was a forever ago.

[00:41:24] But it was a forever ago. Right? Like, and I... So I think what's happening is now this is the revolt. Right? COVID forced us quicker to be at home. It's... But it's the clash. I don't want to go back and I want these benefits. It's the clash of automated and augmented jobs being lost. Right? Yeah. So we know that that's... I mean, everyone's saying the same thing. Like, okay, some jobs are going to be lost, but it's because we're going to create a lot of new jobs. Yeah. Okay.

[00:41:48] But if RTO is like a deal breaker for you, okay, what are those folks going to do? I mean, are these the new entrepreneurs? No. And they're going to complain that the economy sucks. They're going to be jobless. They're going to not be able to pay their bills. And then they're going to go have to work somewhere and not get paid enough because they can't get a job. I'm laughing, but I don't disagree. Right? I don't disagree at all.

[00:42:16] Then they're going to say, well, the incomes are so low. Salaries are... You had a job. That paid well. You decided not to go. I get it. Choice. When I go to an office, I don't want to, but if I had to, yeah. Dude, if you... Especially if you've got responsibilities, you know, you've got kids, wife, luxury cars, private school, whatever the bits are that you do, your hobbies, et cetera. You do whatever the hell you got to do. Do what you got to do. And sometimes humble pie is good. Could be.

[00:42:46] All right. So what else? Whatever. That's my cancellation for today. 100%. Workers will job hop for better pay in 2025. This is a study from Robert Half. So according to Robert Half, 44% of U.S. workers are eyeing, in air quotes for those that are not watching, eyeing greener pastures based on a slightly higher salary.

[00:43:15] Number of 60% are chasing higher salaries. I don't hate that. No. And that's the way it should be. Especially if you're a high performer. You've hunkered down for the last three years. And all of a sudden now there's a little bit of a bump. And you want to kind of get back out of the market. Yeah. You know what? A lot of people still subscribe and believe strongly that you have to move up, you have to move out. Yeah.

[00:43:41] So if you really want to move up, you go, you know, this is in the ad agency world. Yeah. Historically, you don't stay with the same agency. You do account manager. Then you go over here, become a, you know. And then you just kind of keep going to different firms to get to that place. Yeah. Well, you've, you've always drawn, I don't know why I'm giving you more credit here. You should not do that. It hurts me sometimes to fucking do this. You never do that. But you've, you've always compared this to free agency. Yeah. And it really is.

[00:44:11] When you look at this, this is the era of free agency, right? This is, yeah, I can go out on the job market. And if I can get 30% higher and you don't want to give me 30% more to keep me. Right. Yeah. Do we, do we hate players when they get, you know, a salary? No, they're celebrating it. Exactly. They're celebrating. A quarterback leaves, there's getting 50 million, gets 150 million. No. God bless you. Exactly. Yeah. You deserve that.

[00:44:41] With football in particular, I always look at the guaranteed amount because football contracts. Yeah. It's a little. Are insane. But it's the guarantees. Like, how much money am I actually getting? Yeah. It's a five-year, 400 million. Yep, totally get it. Yeah. How much am I getting today? Yeah. Yeah. Well, you're guaranteed 150, but then you have all these incentives. Dude, if my kids were sports-oriented in baseball and soccer in particular, in those two areas,

[00:45:11] those are guaranteed contracts. No. So when you see Ronaldo got a five-year contract at 700. It's guaranteed. Oh, no. He's going to get every dollar. Yeah. So same is true of baseball. Yeah. Oh, baseball is. Yeah. Pujols, when he moved from. That was a contract. Yeah. Oh, that was a doozy. When he moved from St. Louis to the Angels, I can't remember what the amount was, but at the time it was staggering. Yeah. And it's like, he's going to get every dollar. Yeah.

[00:45:40] He could be on the injured reserve. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. He's getting his dollars. Yeah. Football is not the same. Football, basketball. Yeah. And football, of all the sports, football should be, should have more guaranteed money there. 100%. Got the most violence. Days on that. A slingshot report found that 80% of employers believe their communication goals, they communicate goals effectively.

[00:46:09] Only 20% of employees feel informed about objectives. Wait a minute. All right. 80% of employers say, we do a hell of a job. 20% of employees say, yeah, kind of, maybe. No, not. Yeah. So this is on worklife.news, worklife.news. So this is the 80-20 rule that you've learned through your life. Literally 80-20. But in a really awful way. Yeah.

[00:46:37] And this is the disconnect that we've seen play out in a lot of different ways. How do employees not know the business goals in this digital era? Now, I'll sidetrack just for a second. When I worked at Walmart, I started at Walmart when I was, I started like as a buggy clerk, a cashier. So I started at the bottom, moved to the top, like Drake. I was just literally singing that in my head when you said that. You know what I'm saying?

[00:47:08] So the thing is, is on the end caps of every end cap in Walmart back then, they'd have like a dot on it and it would say what the margin is. And so we do, you know, this is really going to date me and it's going to kind of make fun of me. But every morning you do the Walmart chair. Like it was a bit. Every employee, didn't matter where you work, you all got up in the front end and you all did the Walmart chair. And so, yeah, okay, I get it. All right, whatever.

[00:47:37] But they actually, the store manager, assistant store managers would actually talk about product at those meetings every day. Hey, listen, we got an extra shipment of this, whatever it is. Who cares? We got an extra shipment of this. It's going to be really important to us to push this today. Listen, it's 37% margin on this product. If you see anybody, if you can talk to anybody, know anybody that needs it, like they would talk like that, like just straight out.

[00:48:06] Hey man, we got this extra stuff. We're pushing just like a restaurant's pushing short, right? You know, we're pushing this. It's not that way anymore. It's insane. Like, and again, as an employee, as a lowly cart gatherer, cashier, whatever the bid I was at the time, I knew what the business goal, that store goal, I knew what the business goal was. Make money. Well, it's a great, it's a, it's a great way to, to bring people into the business and to grow them in the business.

[00:48:33] I mean, the, you know, it's, it's the, I mean, it's different now than it was then, but the, I had a look because the, you know, they, they post their general manager of the store real nice and big up there and, you know, and, and, and, you know, and I know you're running a big operation like Walmart, all jokes aside, a Walmart super center is pretty big fucking operation, right? I'm making my quarter of a million a week in revenue. Yeah, a week. A week.

[00:49:01] And so, the GMs are 300k plus. Oh yeah. Of a store, of one store. And I'm like. I worked, I worked in an era where you actually got a percentage of revenue. Well, that's what I was going to say, right? So why, why? And that's how it was when I was with enterprise. I got a percentage of my, of my branches revenue, which is why I worked my ass off. And I washed cars in suits like an idiot. 100%. Probably the best job I ever had. Like it was like, it really, but again, three accidents. I'd probably be there.

[00:49:30] That's, I'd be podcasting about cars. Why not? Why would Walmart not want to have an incentive program for, for, for different departments to understand margin to understand, Hey, we're overstocked on this. 80% of the employers are saying, yep, they get it. We do a great job. Yeah. They get it. 20% of the workforce. I have no idea what the, yeah. Well, what do we even do? There you go.

[00:49:58] Research of stupidity, I guess. That's insane. I mean, you almost have to do that bit in communications where you have them. I saw a Bobby Knight video actually, uh, the other day where he says, listen, you got a two minute huddle and you're about to play a play, bring all your players into the huddle and give them no cards. And, uh, you, you write out what you want them to do. You know what the play is.

[00:50:27] And then you run the play, come back and you can then look at the note card and know who's stupid. Oh, there you go. And it's classic Bobby Knight, right? But he's basically saying, listen, you only have two minutes during the huddle at time out. You only have that two minutes to convey. Here's what needs to be done. And if the person doesn't hear what you're saying, doesn't understand what you're saying.

[00:50:57] And this is literally, this is corporate communications one-on-one. You have to repeat. Okay. What did you, what did you hear? Yeah. We said, but what did you hear? Yeah. And oftentimes they didn't hear you. It wasn't that they didn't communicate. So like, I think the corporate communication communications folks are wonderful. I think during COVID they did a, an absolutely Herculean job.

[00:51:21] However, they're not closing the loop on that and asking employees to go, okay, we just sent our email. Everybody got it. Right. Let's make sure we all agree and all understand what we just said. Well, they sent the email. That was it. Yeah. Right. And a lot of them were checking boxes. Yeah. That's not enough. That's not enough. All right. Time to talk money. Money. Bring us down to some funding dollars. What do we got? D-O-T-I-A-I. Well, I don't, it could be Doty.

[00:51:51] I was thinking that, but Doty sounds right. It sounds right, right? 7 million in seed funding for instant access to internal company data. So once you dig into this, it's basically your data inside of a company is all siloed. It's in all these different applications. It's, you know, on a server. It's all this stuff. What this does is lay on top of that. And then an employee can then access questions. It's like prompt.

[00:52:19] So it can actually prompt and get data from everywhere internally. And so they can get to data that they didn't have access to before. So it's all permission based. So no one's like, all right, so you can get it faster. They can get more reliable and it's secure. So I found this actually on securityweek.com because of the security part. It's like, because now you're actually opening up all these silos. It's got to be secure. Like it's got to be the right people getting access to the right stuff. Yeah. But good for them.

[00:52:48] I think it's a cool play. I think it's Israeli based. It doesn't really matter. I don't really care. Probably in Tel Aviv like everything is now. Right. I generally don't care about where a company is. But in this case, it's just a cool play. So take a look at them. All right. All right. Work Era. I was going to say Work Era. Work Era. Work Era. Work Era. Work Era. Work Era. Lands in investment from Accenture. Yeah. Which I think is pretty significant.

[00:53:18] They didn't mention deal terms or anything like that. Right. But Accenture is a big, big fish. Right. And they're putting some weight behind this. And so I think what we're going to see here, this is a power move for me. I think this is about scale. We're here. We're ready to go. I think we just talked about this on Thursday on the live stream with SAP with skills. Right. We talked about skills. Here's a player now that's got some muscle behind it. I love it.

[00:53:46] I love consulting firms getting smarter about this new world because then it puts them in the position to actually teach companies and get paid. Well, and get paid. But 20 years, they're thinking 10, 15, 20 years ahead. Oh, 100%. They have to. Yeah. They have to. And this is a primary example of why would they do this? Well, it makes sense to us. Maybe not to – it might not make sense to everybody.

[00:54:14] But in 10 years, you're going to look back and say, damn. That's a good investment. That was a good investment because now look at everything we've done for the last decade, decade and a half, and look at what it drove us. It'd be real interesting to look at the major consulting firms and what they've invested in. Yeah. Not just bought or acquired, but what they're investing in in terms of all the things that they're investing in. Yeah. Because they're future-proofing their business. Yeah. Absolutely. To some degree.

[00:54:43] And they're all doing the same – I mean, they're not doing the same thing, but they're all going about it. And because, I mean, we go back through and look at funding and see probably 10 firms that have been acquired by consulting firms. Yeah. And I like it because you're right. They have to see 15 years – That's why they get paid. That's right. So they come back to companies and go, you're 15 years behind. Yeah. Yeah. This is your consulting of the 90s, not the 2012s. 100%. 100%, baby. All right.

[00:55:12] So Borderless AI raises another $5 million, bringing their total funding to $30 million. Basically, this is an extension. So this is fintech.global. So you can go kind of read a little bit more about the raise. So Borderless AI, for those that don't follow them, they focus on streamlining HR processes through generative AI, enabling businesses to automate tasks such as onboarding, payroll,

[00:55:41] and international payments. What I've been looking at with Borderless AI and other kind of their competitors is what other processes are they going to tackle? Yeah. So this was – I think it was a $22 million raise at one point or $27 million raise. And this is just an extension, which basically means either a current investor or a new investor basically said, we want in on that. Yeah. They're doing good. We see the value here. $27 million was raised. Yep.

[00:56:10] We didn't get in. Or somebody took another stake. Like one of their current investors basically said, yeah, I want in. And so they opened it up. So good for them. First of all, congratulations to them. And I also love what they're doing in terms of augmentation and automation. Yeah. There you go. Good. All right. I've got one here that I like a lot. All right. Bring it. I don't know Teal. The company's name is Teal.

[00:56:39] They raised $7.5 million Series A. I don't know them. I've never spoken to anybody there. But this is a resume tailoring process or software. Software. Singular. It's a resume tailoring software. So you want to apply to a job? Tailor your resume. You want to apply to 10 jobs? Tailor your resume. This is AI-based, of course, and all of that. This I love. I love this because I hate the debate.

[00:57:09] I absolutely hate and despise the debate. Job seekers should not tailor their – not tailor. Shouldn't be able to do it in volume. Should I as a job see be able to apply to 20 jobs today with a click of a button? Yeah, I should. You should. Position me as a candidate in volume because your ATS said I don't meet these thresholds. Then, yeah, I should be able to apply and tell you I meet those thresholds. Sure.

[00:57:38] And have software help me do that. It creates – That's what Teal does. It creates noise. So for recruiters, for the people that have to deal with the volume, it's a little hard. Now, of course, they've got automation tools that then kind of get it down to does that person actually have those skills and all that type stuff. But, again, I like the personalization.

[00:57:59] It's also when I – as I read the – as I read it as well, it's AI capabilities that give people the resource to thrive. Yeah. And grow in their careers. So like you've been talking about for a while, an AI assistant that's thinking about your career management. Yeah. And this has been kind of an age-old kind of discussion of does the company help you manage your advancement or is it your responsibility to manage your advancement?

[00:58:28] And what they're doing at Teal is you've got an assistant right here helping you 24-7 that helps you with your advancement. What was a company we spoke with? If they did the passport on credentials and you took it with you from – Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. What was the name of that company? No, I didn't. God, I can't remember. I have to go back. That's – these are the types of tools I want to see. 100%. In 25, 26.

[00:58:56] It's enabling employees and candidates to be more successful. Yeah. Give them a shot. Yeah. Why not build your employee's resume, whether they're with you or not? Like why not give them the skills they need and then put it on their resume for them? Right. If you're good, they're going to stay. And that's what it comes down to. See, I think it's the age-old argument 100 years ago against training that CFOs and CEOs would use.

[00:59:26] If we train them, they'll leave. Right. Yeah. Let's just train them for this, not all of this. Right, right, right, right. Let's make sure they can go A to B, but they can get to C. We're in trouble. Good for Teal. And then you've got Netrodon. Oh, shit. All right. I saw the blue. God. All right. Let me mark this. 56, 25. Dang it. It's okay. Almost got through with no editing.

[00:59:56] Motherfucker. I have to say it's your fault. Damn. Do-do-do-do-do. Do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do. It was right after Teal, right? Dude, we need to have a show on cars and, like, pick our favorite cars. Uh-huh. And go head-to-head. Top 10. I like the Chevy Cavalier. Dude, I've already got my car. I've already got a list. I've already got a list, literally, of the cars that I'd buy.

[01:00:26] So, I'm ready whenever you're ready. That's what I'm really trying to say. Netrodine. Rams with Cinsidine. Or Paradine. All right. So, cut the pause. All right. After Teal, before Netrodine, because you forgot where you were. Yep. Yes. Well, I didn't put that. I just said after Teal. All right. Okay.

[01:00:55] Well, we should do, like... Oh, shit. We got it. God dang it. What? Oh, the plum stat of the day. Well, we'll just record it separately. It's okay. I know, but it was, like, right here. We could have just did it. That's all right. We got to get... You know what? I'm going to hook up the Roadcaster. Ah. So, I have the fucking buttons right in front of me. I don't have to search. Right. All right. Come back in. Netrodine.

[01:01:31] All right. What you got? William, let me ask you a question. Okay. Have you ever driven to your destination, whenever you're going, church, home, the store, to not know how you got there? Oh, all the time. Like, you just got there and you're like, fuck. 100%. How did I get here? Yeah. Especially when I was younger. Yeah. That still happens to be sometimes. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Like, it's kind of freaky, right?

[01:02:01] Like, it's like... It's the best pro. How did I get here? Yeah. Yeah. Like, there's some times where I'm like, I joke around, but the other times I'm like, holy crap. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I wasn't tired. Like, I wasn't falling asleep. Right. Like, I just got here. Anyway. All right. Netrodine raised $90 million in a Series D funding. Okay. So, Netrodine keeps drivers safe and fleets safe. They do a whole bunch of stuff. I just want to focus on this one thing, though.

[01:02:31] Right. There's so much to unpack with these guys that they do. But think of technology, video analysis, sounds, all that stuff inside of tractor trailers, inside of cars, or not cars, trucks, and vans, fleets, and fuel consumption. All of that distractions on the phone, things like that, right? So, like, I'm on the phone. Oh, distraction sensed. Things like that. I just want to focus on one thing, though, on drowsy drivers.

[01:03:01] Where do I ask you the question? So, for drowsy drivers, they trigger an alert by measuring what they call micro sleeps. Hmm. So, blinks, haziness in the eyes. Oh, interesting. You kind of drift in your head. I don't hate that. So, it's facial recognizing. Yeah. It's looking at you, basically saying, you know, where are you at? Exactly. Are you hopped up on meth? So, I'm driving. I'm good. I feel good. I'm a da-da. Oh, he's not blinking. Or, he's blinking too slow.

[01:03:30] His splints aren't the same. And it measures that. And it says, hey, driver, you need to take a break. I love it for so many reasons. There's a whole host of things that they do. Safety for that driver and that cargo. It's safety for everyone else who's out on the road. Everything. Which means that that's going to help their insurance cost. Right. Less accidents. Save lives. Save lives. Well, I was thinking about the cost. Yeah. But the other thing I like, though, is also on the phone.

[01:03:59] So, if you're on your phone, it'll recognize it as a distraction. Or if you're playing with the radio too much, it's a distraction. If you're playing with the window, like everything, not just, you know. Right. Radio is on your – it's like you should be able to get to it on your – On your wheel. Yeah. On your wheel, right? Yeah, yeah. Or through your voice. Distracted driving, to me, because I grew up in an era of drinking and driving. So, like drinking and drugs, drugs and driving, drowsy driving.

[01:04:27] I think distracted driving is the totality of the other three for me. I think it's the future so that – I love tools like this that basically – you're talking about drowsy, which is fantastic. But you've also – you can now blow into a tube and do a breathalyzer. Yeah. Whether or not you're drunk or whatever. To start your car. To start your car. To start your truck. Mm-hmm. So, I love this.

[01:04:55] And, again, some privacy people are probably going to say, well, you know, that's a little bit too much, et cetera. Not if you want to drive their 18-wheeler that's worth $15 million. Well, a lot of them are technically their trucks that they – Well, yeah. Owner-operator, sure. Yeah. Right. But it's their cargo. Yeah. Yeah. It's their cargo. Yeah. So, good for them. I love that play. I would have never seen that. So, that's cool. Yeah, I do. I like it a lot.

[01:05:25] Leap Expert. That's with an X. Pert. Raises $20 million. And then now. Enhance – this is funny because we just talked about this. To enhance enterprise communication governance. So, let me – this is fintech.global, so you can go and take a look at the article. So, this is fintech – excuse me, Leap Experts Communications Platform.

[01:05:49] It transforms how business communicates by allowing relationship owners to interact with clients on their preferred messaging channels while maintaining strict governance, compliance, and security. So, let's kind of – let's talk a little bit about what that means. So, you're working at a company. If you're working at a company and somebody – one of your clients is on WhatsApp. And that's their bit. They're just on WhatsApp. Okay.

[01:06:19] Well, you want to email them, blah, blah, blah. Well, before, you know, Leap Expert, you'd have to force them into your communication model. Right. So, with this, you can communicate with them in WhatsApp, and before you send that message, it actually goes through governance, compliance, and security. Before it heads out. Before it heads out. So, it preempts any types of problems. Mm-hmm.

[01:06:42] So, I think it's fantastic because it helps clients, customers, clients, because now you can meet them where they are, and you can also protect the company at the same time. So, anything that's in there that's racist, misogyny, or any other things in there, like you can nip that in the bud. So, I love it. 20 million. Good for them. Very nice. Leap. Capital X. Perked. Perked. Perked. That's it. We are – we're done. We barfed it out. We're good.

[01:07:12] We did. It's a good show. It is time to go see a big W, which I'm going to do. As you should. And chow it out on my wings. We'll do it. I hope they win. Because I hate the Redskins more than I hate the Eagles. So, we're good. That's good. I appreciate that.