Zoom and Deloitte are scaling back parental leave and other benefits — a potential harbinger of a broader benefits rollback amid a tight labor market. With job growth stagnant and workers less likely to quit, employers have more room to pare down perks that were once considered safe. More than three-quarters of workers call paid leave a "must-have," according to a 2026 MetLife survey — but with limited leverage, employees may have little recourse. "They don't have the leverage they did a few years ago," one executive says. READ MORE
"How the Working Families Tax Cut Act is Affecting America’s Small Businesses"
Chairman, Ranking Member, and Members of the Committee:
Thank you for the opportunity to testify today. My name is Traci Tapani. I am the Co-President and owner of Wyoming Machine, Inc. a manufacturing company in Stacy, Minnesota. My family-owned company specializes in sheet metal fabrication. We offer a variety of services to clients, from laser cutting to welding.
I also serve on the Board of Directors for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and I am the incoming Chair of the Chamber's Small Business Council. The U.S. Chamber serves and supports more than 5 million small businesses through membership, our nationwide federation, and digital platforms—giving small businesses representation, resources, and a powerful voice at national scale. READ MORE
New York Job Offers Massive Salary To Have Dogs Lick Your Face
This might be one of the strangest job postings you will see all year. It might also be one of the most fun.
A company in New York is offering up to $1,000 an hour for someone willing to get very close to dogs and, yes, smell their breath. READ MORE
Bills to rein in outside investment in law firms advance in California, Illinois
State lawmakers in two of the largest legal markets in the United States are moving to erect ethical firewalls between law firms and outside capital, as investors and lawyers increasingly explore back-office partnerships and other deals. READ MORE
Box CEO: This is the one job AI won’t replace
Fear of displacement by AI is rampant across all industries and jobs. But there’s one role where job security shouldn’t be a worry for the occupants, says Aaron Levie, CEO and co-founder of Box: the chief people officer.
The head of the content management platform says the degree to which HR executives have to “interface with the outside world” makes the role AI-proof. READ MORE
Oracle’s layoff package puts severance benchmarking under the microscope
Thousands of Oracle employees were let go recently in a workforce reduction that analysts have estimated could affect up to 30,000 workers. Reporting has linked the cuts to funding the company’s AI data-center expansion. The scale alone makes it a significant workforce event. But it’s the terms Oracle offered, and how it chose to deliver the news, that are drawing the sharpest scrutiny from HR leaders.
Affected employees received an email signed by “Oracle Leadership” and were immediately locked out of internal systems when the notices went out at 6 a.m. ET, according to HR Executive reporting. The message cited “Oracle’s current business needs” and “broader organizational change” without elaboration. READ MORE
Is AI really killing entry-level jobs?
A prevailing narrative at the moment is that AI is reshaping entry-level roles so rapidly that it is significantly altering annual hiring numbers for early-career talent. In short: the end of entry-level roles is nigh.
There’s no denying that AI is automating routine, repeatable tasks that have historically formed foundational skills for many early career roles (e.g., junior analysts, paralegals, basic coding roles, customer service representatives, etc.). But is the perception of radically reduced opportunity for early career talent, in fact, reality? READ MORE
9 things you should never do after starting a new job, according to etiquette experts
Starting a new job can be overwhelming — there's a lot to learn about the role, organization, and team members.
However, it's important to show yourself in the best possible light to avoid starting off on the wrong foot.
That's why Business Insider asked two etiquette experts to share the mistakes new hires should avoid making. Here's what they said. READ MORE
Coca-Cola and Walmart’s outgoing CEOs have a warning for the C-suite
AI transformation is an ongoing, multi-year journey facing C-suites. And for some at the top, it may make more sense to jump ship before diving fully in, which could continue to fuel already-high CEO churn.
In separate interviews with CNBC about their departures, outgoing Coca-Cola CEO James Quincey and former Walmart CEO Douglas McMillon both acknowledged that AI was a contributing factor in their decision to step down. READ MORE
Here’s where HR and finance aren’t in lockstep
Each year, Deloitte publishes a guide to technology trends for CFOs and a separate report on human capital trends for HR leaders. Both tackle the same AI-driven disruption reshaping work in 2026. Both are written for senior leaders under real pressure. And yet the two functions are, in places, solving for different problems while using different languages to describe what is essentially the same moment.
For HR leaders, understanding where these perspectives align, where they partially overlap and where they diverge is a map of where influence battles will be fought. READ MORE
How Top Executives Structure Their 401(k) to Pay Zero Taxes in Retirement
A C-suite executive retiring at 62 with $1.8 million in a traditional 401(k), $400,000 in RSUs, a nonqualified deferred compensation (NQDC) plan still paying out, and a brokerage account full of appreciated stock does not have a retirement income problem. The problem is that every one of those assets carries a different tax treatment, and without a model showing all of them in a single view, they will collide in ways that make a zero-tax year structurally impossible. READ MORE
How Working in America Became So Joyless
For employees at a Dell Technologies office, mornings used to start with a tiny dose of joy. The office coffee machines doled out free daily espresso shots, a small perk that workers relished.
Then came the buzz kill: Last year the company started charging staffers a fee every time they used the machine. READ MORE
How to Become an AI Engineer Fast (Skills, Projects, Salary)
n AI engineer is the new “hot” role in the tech scene, and many people are desperate to land this job.
I see so many posts online saying how you can become an AI engineer in a few months. READ MORE
AI as a performance requirement? Employees, managers are divided
As AI use in the workplace explodes, companies like Google, Meta and Amazon are baking AI utilization into performance management. But a recent survey found that managers and employees are far apart in their understanding of how AI utilization factors into positive performance evaluations.
Background screening company Checkr surveyed 3,000 workers—split evenly between managers and non-managers—to understand how AI is reshaping the workplace. Fifty-eight percent of managers said AI use is becoming an “unspoken performance requirement” at work—yet only 29% of employees agree, and 37% say they genuinely aren’t sure. READ MORE
GOAT or Scapegoat: AI May (or May Not) Be Reason for Layoffs
According to recent news reportsOpen in a new tab, artificial intelligence (AI) was the stated reason for more than 50,000 layoffs in 2025, but some experts suggest that organizations are disingenuously blaming AI for layoffs, or “AI washing.”
But according to John Bremen, the managing director and chief innovation and acceleration officer at consulting firm WTW, only a small percentage of early AI implementationsOpen in a new tab are showing meaningful return on investment (ROI). READ MORE
Iran war unlikely to trigger global supply chain crisis, Goldman Sachs says
The war in Iran is pushing oil and gas prices higher, and while the world economy faces a shock from energy prices, an analysis by Goldman Sachs finds that the conflict is unlikely to lead to a broader supply chain crisis like what occurred due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Economists at Goldman Sachs found that the Iran war is expected to lead to higher oil prices that will reduce global economic growth by 0.3% of GDP while increasing headline inflation by about 0.5 to 0.6 percentage points over the next year, with a smaller 0.1 to 0.2 percentage point boost to core inflation. READ MORE
US recession by end of 2026?
This market will resolve to “Yes” if either of the following conditions is met: 1. The seasonally adjusted annualized percent change in quarterly U.S. real GDP from the previous quarter is less than 0.0 for two consecutive quarters between Q2 2025 and Q4 2026 (inclusive), as reported by the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA). 2. The National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) publicly announces that a recession has occurred in the United States, at any point during 2025 or 2026, with the announcement made by the time the BEA releases the advance estimate for Q4 2026. Otherwise, this market will resolve to "No". READ MORE
Should you be using AI for performance reviews?
During the last decade, digital innovations have produced a range of recruitment and evaluation tools: now, whenever you first apply for a job, you are less likely to be judged by humans and more likely to be assessed by AI. Before you can even get the opportunity to impress a human interviewer, you will first need to impress the algorithm! READ MORE
When Feedback Crosses the Line
Most leaders believe that being direct and honest with negative feedback helps employees improve. And it can—when done thoughtfully. Our research shows, however, that when feedback comes across as belittling or humiliating, it often backfires, impairing performance rather than enhancing it. READ MORE
How Employers Can Manage Risk When Using AI for Employee Performance Management
Artificial intelligence is increasingly being used by employers to support employee performance management. While AI has the potential to improve talent matching and expand opportunities for growth, it raises significant legal and compliance considerations that employers must take into account before deploying. This Insight will provide an overview of the ways in which you can use AI for performance management, summarize the inherent risks, and provide a list of steps you can take to address that risk. READ MORE