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- the friday 5 - october 31st
the friday 5 - october 31st
what's happened this week in HR?
Howdy HR friends!👋
Hope you’re all having a relaxed Friday—and maybe sneaking in a bit of Halloween spirit today. 🎃
On Tuesday, we talked about a different kind of burnout— the kind caused by too much technology. Organizations that ignore technostress—the anxiety triggered by constant notifications, overflowing inboxes, and endless new platforms—risk declining productivity and accelerating turnover in an already competitive talent market.
Now before you go hunting for candy (or ghosts in your inbox 👻), it’s time for a quick rundown of this week’s HR news. That’s right: the Friday 5!
Five articles, five takeaways. Five minutes away from the chaos to grab a coffee and get caught up on everything that’s been happening in HR this week!
Let’s jump in shall we?
🚦Coming up
In today’s edition
🤖 AI replacing sales teams at Vercel
✈️ Boeing workers reject another contract offer,
⚖️ IBM's DEI drama hits the courts
🏪 Walmart firing sparks retaliation lawsuit
🎬 YouTube's AI pivot includes voluntary exits
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💭The Friday Five
The real monsters aren't under your bed, they're in HR meetings
🤖 Vercel replaced 10 salespeople with one human and a bot. The company shadowed its top performer for six weeks, then built an AI agent to handle inbound queries. The nine displaced workers? Reassigned to outbound sales, not fired.
🔗 Read more → [The HR Digest]
⚖️ IBM allegedly fired Black executives to comply with Trump's anti-DEI order. A former director claims she and other Black leaders were terminated without cause to appease the administration—a dramatic reversal for a company previously sued for pro-DEI discrimination.
🔗 Read more [HR Dive]
🏪 Walmart employee claims firing came hours after HR complaint. Elisa Bandi alleges she was terminated the same day she emailed HR about workplace issues, with her final paycheck suspiciously ready—following months of ignored accommodation requests and harassment complaints.
🔗 Read more [HRD America]
🎬 YouTube offers voluntary buyouts as it restructures for AI future. CEO Neal Mohan announced the platform is reorganizing into three product divisions and offering US employees severance packages to exit—though he insists "there are no role eliminations" (yet).
🔗 Read more [The HR Digest]
✈️ Boeing's contract rejection enters month three. Around 3,200 machinists voted down the latest proposal at Midwest facilities, with union leaders saying executives "continue to insult" workers building advanced military aircraft. Strike drags on.
🔗 Read more → [HR Grapevine]
For easy reading
Today’s edition is presented by SelectSoftware Reviews
This session can help HR leaders simplify these processes and build systems that scale with their business. Join this panel of payroll and HR experts as they share practical ways to streamline payroll operations, choose the right tools, and manage benefits efficiently without stretching your resources. |  |
That’s it for today.
Thanks for reading to the end and we hope today’s edition helped saved you a few hours in scouring the web for the latest news! 🧠
We know you’re super busy and as ever, we really appreciate you saving some room for us in your inbox 😀
Have a great weekend!
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