🏢 Paramount’s new CEO tells employees to return to office full-time or quit ahead of layoffs
The TL;DR: Paramount’s new CEO David Ellison is forcing employees back to the office five days a week starting 2026, or they can take a buyout by Sept. 15. The mandate comes ahead of mass layoffs (2,000–3,000 people) as the company looks to cut $2 billion in costs after its Skydance merger.
My POV: This is yet another textbook case of culture as collateral damage during a merger. Forcing a one-size-fits-all return-to-office while dangling layoffs creates more fear and less engagement.
We’ve seen how quickly talent hits the road when flexibility disappears!
So if you’re advising leadership right now, this is your reminder: mandates without trust and communication don’t “unlock potential,” they lock people out.
🎙️ Mic Drop Moment:
“We bring so much more than just work to work.”
On the mic this week: Latesha Bird is the founder and CEO of Perfeqta, where she partners with organizations to design people-first cultures. As an executive coach and speaker, she guides leaders through change with a focus on team alignment, culture clarity, and long-term sustainability. Her work sits at the intersection of leadership norms, data-driven accountability, and day-to-day behaviors that make cultures effective.
Pin this:
Real culture = values operationalized in meetings, feedback, and decisions, not just written on a wall.
Trust repair starts with naming the harm, asking for feedback, and acting quickly. Silence breeds disengagement.
Hold leaders accountable with clear norms, metrics, and reviews. Tie behavior to KPIs and performance, not vibes.
Don’t launch 10 initiatives at once—solve the root cause, not the headline. Avoid “band-aid on open-heart surgery” culture work.
My H*ly Sh*t Moment: Leaders love a metric, so tie culture and accountability directly to KPIs, because culture stops being fluff the second it’s measured like revenue or churn!
