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 HELLLOOOO from the other side. The other side is me being OOO today. Well… it’s Labor Day so many folks are! If you’re looking for things to keep you occupied today: 🎧 A fresh ep of the I Hate it Here pod. Shirley Baubam joins me to talk about how HR leaders can lead AI transformations. We get into lessons learned from her years in product and why HR is the perfect function to lead this type of workforce transformation. 📺 THIS WEEK’S HR THERAPY!!! You fave event of the month is this week and we’re talking all things compliance, why it feels like we’re in the wild wild west and what HR needs to know. I’m bringing a legit lawyer so prepare to cross examine them with your live Q&A. 🙂 🏙️ Safe Space Summit! 2 speakers announced, 2 to gooo. Want a free trip to beautiful CA? Request a ticket and you may have your travel + hotel covered to attend this incredible summit. We’re talking inspirational keynotes, chill hangs, and fun activities. Surrounded yourself with people who get what you’re going through and are there to lend their support. SEE U THERE? ✍🏽 Writer’s Room: ever had a desire to write a newsletter (like this sick one!) but don’t know where to get started? The content coach who taught me everything about newsletters is joining me for an informal session about how to get started. Now, onto today… Labor Day now & then. Starting with then! Sponsored by Mitratech Firing someone is already uncomfortable, but accidentally creating a legal nightmare because they got terminated off of vibes only is much worse! 💔 Mitratech is hosting a free live AMA on Sept 24th where Principal Legal Analyst Kara Govro will answer all your termination questions, from performance and misconduct to leave laws, final pay, and the mistakes that make attorneys sigh deeply. Bring the messy scenario keeping you up at night and get practical guidance for making termination decisions that are fair and legally defensible. ✅ Save your spot and let's legalproof one of the worst parts of your job! SPECIAL EDITION Labor Day Then vs Now: Fun fact: Labor Day became a federal holiday in 1894. The times were DEF different then. Here’s what the U.S. was up against in 1894:
Workers in 1894 faced:
It was in this climate that Labor Day was established in 1894 and was signed into law by President Grover Cleveland just days after the violent Pullman Strike which left dozens of workers dead. I dug into the history of Labor Day and you can read more! While the holiday was meant as a concession to labor, reform didn’t actually come quickly. It took decades of strikes, union organizing, and public pressure before things like the eight-hour workday, child labor laws, and national safety standards became worker’s reality. Labor Day, then, was just the beginning of a long struggle to secure even the most basic worker protections. So, where does that leave us now? Now: ^^ 10 points to you if you remember who played her younger self in the flashback… Let's get into Now That's What I Call Work '26. Here's what the U.S. is up against now: A labor market that looks fine but might feel terrible when people are at work. Unemployment sat at 4.1% in August with 7.0 million people out of work. Sounds okay… but the average monthly job gain over the previous 12 months was 31,000. Thirty-one thousand. For an entire country… woof. Nobody's getting fired and nobody's getting hired. The 2026 layoff pace is the slowest in four years, which sounds like somewhat good news until you look at the other side… 1.9 million people have been unemployed for 27 weeks or longer, 27% of everyone out of work, and labor force participation has dropped half a point since January. If you have a job, you're probably keeping it. If you don't, it’s a legit struggle. I have sooo much empathy for people searching right now because it’s clearly not easy. Raises that aren't raises. The average weekly wage went from $1,247 to $1,290 between July 2025 and July 2026, a 3.5% bump. Adjusted for inflation that’s growth of 0.09%, which is about one extra dollar a week. When wages outpace inflation it means workers technically have more purchasing power, but one could argue one dollar doesn’t make that big of a difference. AI stopped being a hypothetical this year. Entry-level job postings are down 35% since early 2023, with some tech and data roles down as much as 67%, and roughly 43% of grads aged 22–27 were underemployed as of December 2025 which is the highest since the pandemic. And 48% of hiring managers now say they'd rather invest in AI tools than hire and train a recent college graduate. The rules under all of it are moving, quietly. The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) spent nearly a year without a quorum before it was restored in January 2026. In February it formally restored the 2020 joint employer standard, the "substantial direct and immediate control" test, and DOL proposed rescinding the 2024 independent contractor rule and replacing it with a streamlined analysis. Whatever your politics: who legally counts as your employee is being redefined right now, through rulemaking, while everyone is busy arguing about implementing AI. The power imbalance, employer vs employee: In January 2025, 51% of workers said they'd quit outright over a mandatory RTO policy. Now it's 7%. Seventy-four percent think their bargaining power will stay flat or get worse in 2026, and 73% expect employers to expand surveillance like keystroke tracking, badge monitoring, and activity analytics. ICK. As we all know, the scales are always shifting. Workers today face:
Look, we've come a long way since 1894, I won’t dispute that! Gone are the 12-hour factory shifts and the kids on the line. Then vs now though… If 1894's danger was physical then 2026's danger feels structural. Nobody's losing body parts operating an unsafe machine while doing knowledge work. But the entire entry point into the workforce is in danger. You know, the crappy first job that taught you all those hard lessons? Yeah, those opportunities are seemingly disappearing. And, yes, we know progress takes time. Labor Day was signed into law days after the Pullman Strike, and then reform took decades. The holiday was more on an concession than an immediate fix. So solving today's challenges will take real and structural change but what worries me is that this year, some of the protections we treat as settled are actively being re-argued! 📣 So the call is the same as it was last time I wrote this edition. We need workplaces where employees can thrive, not just survive. ✨And HR has to be at the center of designing them.✨ I hope this was a rallying cry and a reminder that there is so much potential out there for HR. We don't have to do things like we've always done them, we don't have to build processes that don't work, and we don't have to treat employees poorly. We can (and will) design something better. ❤️ Thank you for reading today and thank you for all that you do to build better workplaces. A reminder & what’s next: ^^ I saw this on Linkedin and had to include it here, with Aparna’s permission OF COURSE. She also was a guest on my pod, listen here if you want to hear more from her. A reminder I needed!!! Now, what’s next… Over the last four years of writing I Hate it Here I’ve had LOTS of thoughts and I’ve said LOTS of things. Next week is the 4 year anniversary of writing this lil newsletter and I thought it was time for a retrospective. A now and then but I Hate it Here focused. Stay tuned for more! Sponsored by Gem Congrats on spending hours with AI just to get a pipeline full of people you absolutely did not ask for! 🙃 Gem’s free AI prompting guide teaches recruiters how to stop feeding robots sad little keyword salads and start describing great candidates like actual humans. AI can’t read your mind (thank god), so go get the guide and make your prompts do their damn job! (HUMAN) RESOURCES
*This one is brought to you by Justworks WORK-LIFE BALANCE
SONG OF THE WEEK 🎧 Only You, Yazoo This should surprise literally no one who has read this section ever but I LOVE SYNTH POP. So this song is easily a top fave. It sprung back up because it’s in a commercial thats on TV but I’ve alwaysss loved this song. HIghlight for me was when they used in in Rivals. And if you haven’t watched that show, YOU SHOULD. My obsession w/ the 80s from the movies to the music is never ending. I hope you enjoyed this, please let me know what you think and what other topics you'd love for me to cover. I'm allll ears. Reminder: Take care of yourself and know that I support you. | ||||||||
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