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Hiiii,

Happy Wednesday to everyone spending Q4 trying to decode AI laws while your CEO forwards you another article titled “Why We Should Be Using More AI 😊.” 

The holidays are around the corner to temporarily save us all, but until then? 

We still have plenty of fun stuff to chat about!

This week’s reality check: states are rolling out brand-new AI rules, the feds are shrugging in 17 different directions, and HR is shockingly the only group in the building expected to make sense of it all.

I’ll briefly break down what this legal patchwork means for your policies, your governance, and what I assume to be your rapidly shrinking patience.

Plus, Dave Garcia joined me to talk about wellbeing (bringing it allll the way back to my FIRST PODCAST EPISODE Y’ALL), and an interesting stat on how people with hearing loss feel excluded long before the holiday drinks hit the table.

Excited? Hopeful? Anxious?

Same. Let’s dive in!

✨ Don't forget: You can always vent, celebrate a win, or find support in Safe Space

✨ Don't forget: You can always vent, celebrate a win, or find support in Safe Space

Was this email forwarded to you?

💡 State laws regulating AI take effect in the new year. Here’s what HR needs to know!

The TL;DR: States are rolling out new AI-at-work laws in 2026, and they do NOT match what the federal government is saying or doing. That leaves employers (hi, HR) stuck managing a messy patchwork of rules across multiple states, each with wildly different requirements.

The takeaway: HR teams need their own internal AI governance plan because no one in government is handing us a clean playbook.

My POV: This is the moment where HR either becomes the responsible one in the room on AI, or deals with the fallout when leadership buys a shiny tool and hopes for the best. These conflicting laws mean we are the guidance instead of waiting for any. If you don’t set governance, training, disclosures, and guardrails now, you’re opening the door to lawsuits, compliance gaps, and employee trust issues later. It’s not fun, but it’s necessary, and it’s the kind of strategic work that HR should be the lead on.

On the mic this week: Dave Garcia is the co-founder of Veep, a startup based that helps companies access world-class independent operators, offsite, and everywhere in between. Before Veep, he spent most of his career at Verizon, starting on the frontlines and eventually leading the in-house innovation team, followed by a stint in innovation consulting. Dave has been a people leader since he was 15, and his work now sits at the intersection of wellbeing, employee experience, and the very real way culture shows up in the day-to-day.

Pin this: 

• Wellbeing boils down to your emotional state at work shaped by stress, expectations, and how you’re treated day-to-day.
• The value exchange at work is broken. Employers want more while employees feel like they’re getting less, and that gap is driving dissatisfaction.
• Guilt-free downtime, real fellowship, and meaningful recognition (not just once a year) are three of the most powerful levers for improving wellbeing.
• Leaders who ignore wellbeing are basically choosing short-term output over long-term retention, trust, and actual performance.

My H*ly Sh*t Moment:  This was a good reminder of how delusional it is to talk about performance, engagement, or culture without putting wellbeing at the center of the conversation!

Most of our systems still assume everyone is fine and “fully productive” and that catches up to orgs sooner or later. 

▶️ Press Play

Stat: Three in four people with hearing loss feel excluded at Christmas get-togethers.

My spiral: What makes this stat so striking is how invisible the exclusion is.

Three in four people with hearing loss are sitting at the same table as everyone else, but experiencing a completely different, isolating reality. 

And if this is happening at holiday parties, imagine how often it’s happening in team meetings, celebrations, onboarding sessions, or off-sites! 

For HR, this is a reminder that inclusion goes beyond policies and accommodations. It’s also the everyday moments where people either feel seen or silently opt out. 

So if we want real belonging, we need to design workplaces where no one has to pretend they understand just to stay in the room.

🗣️ UNMUTE YOURSELF

You’re (probably) great at fighting for people, but I want you to zoom out and look at the gap between how you show up for others and how you show up for yourself. 

So here’s the question I want you to mull over:

When did you last advocate for yourself with the same energy you use to advocate for others?

🛠️ TRY THIS TOMORROW:

Before tomorrow turns into another blur of fires, meetings, and “quick questions,” I want you to try something tiny but powerful, just as a way to shift the energy in how you show up with other humans at work. 

Here’s your assignment:

Share one resource that genuinely helped you level up. No gatekeeping!

👂 OVERHEARD IN SAFE SPACE

Oh. My.

That’s it. That’s my reaction. 

Read what members had to say here.

See ya on Friday!

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