Newsletter #3 (August 12, 2024)
Self-fulfilling recession, HR hatin' HR, Wells Fargo in hot water again, Boeing, the Texas economy and more
Welcome to Business Thoughts and More from an HR Guy, Newsletter #3! This is my twice-monthly, long-form newsletter post where I write about all things HR and L&D, the business world, and/or other current events I find interesting. LET’S GO!
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1. There are enough doomsayers doubting the economy that we may be entering the self-fulfilled prophecy phase of a possible recession.
Fear is a powerful thing. Wall Street is just now waking up to the effects on the wallet that so many people and businesses have felt for some time. The average US consumer continues to throttle back, leading to the inevitable headlines where the doom loop is now kicking in. Headlines are now showing up quite often eschewing how investors have borrowed too much during this inflationary cycle, colleges and universities are tightening their spending belts, and there is also evidence that the AI hype train will eventually lead to disappointment in productivity, as an underlying driver of inflationary investing tapers. Will we, or won’t we, experience a recession? Time will tell, but you cannot dispute the ongoing onslaught of ever-increasing prices has taken its toll on everyone.
2. Even HR people hate HR now.
That’s at least according to a New York Times article that dropped on August 3rd. I think the last 4 years have been challenging on everyone in the workplace, not just HR. I have seen people act uncharacteristically frustrated and out of line with historical norms since the onset of COVID, and I know you have too. Does that mean HR practitioners have had it worse than other people in the workplace? I’m not so sure. Have there been seemingly new behaviors to address, talent issues to fix, and engagement issues to tackle? Sure. But that doesn’t mean it has uniquely affected the HR space. That said, when the latest research shows nearly 50% of HR practitioners are ‘new’ to their company, there may be something to this. Something to monitor.
3. Speaking of monitoring, Wells Fargo seems to ‘always’ find itself in hot water.
Following literally years of legal issues tied to how it operates its business, Wells Fargo seems to think being in the courtroom, or at least the doghouse of public opinion, is just the cost of doing business. The day after a jury awarded a terminated supervisor $22 million in a discrimination case, Wells Fargo received a ruling they must face a lawsuit contending they defrauded investors through fake interviews tied to a ‘sham DEI initiative.’
4. Boeing continues to set its own water temperature to “hot as hell”.
The whistleblowers continue to come out of the woodwork to speak out about the company’s employment and business practices. We had the NTSB hearing over a week ago detailing repetitive issues with workmanship, quality, and training (or lack thereof). Now, we have the Boeing Starliner astronauts who are at 60+ days in space when they were expecting to be there for under 2 weeks. The latest speculation is they could be there for 6 months, which is incredible, to say the least. For a company who used to be viewed as a quality and production mecca, the wheels have come off.
5. Skills-based learning, internships focused on skills growth through application, and apprenticeships show us the way to alleviate some of the effects from the war for talent.
Yes, skills-based learning and hiring continue to be mentioned and talked about often online, on podcasts, articles, etc, but with good reason. There are plenty of examples out there of companies who have long had success employing these techniques to homegrow their own talent. In reality, most people work for companies who just cannot afford to go out and buy the talent on the marketplace when they have a hiring need, so they must develop programs to develop the talent in-house. When you are running a company and realize the amount of productivity that is lacking to achieve your goals, steps must be taken to invest in programs to address it. Programs such as what Trane employs can help you revitalize your company, increase engagement and drive down turnover at a time when almost every company cannot afford a talent flight.
6. The Texas economy keeps on humming. Does it have the strength to stay that way?
With the latest jobs reading for the United States coming in under 125K jobs (in July), Texas is looking mighty strong compared to the rest of the nation. Recruitonomics recently noticed this in a research article you can read here.
For all the hyperbole, Texas has its own economic challenges which could stall this money-making machine. Housing affordability, power generation and water are significant challenges for Texas to tackle.
With so many people moving here, the so-called ‘affordable housing’ is no longer affordable for many working families. According to Zillow, the average home value is $308,121. In January 2020, before the great COVID reshuffle and massive injection of stimulus into the market, it was $219,411. That is a dramatic increase for anyone in any state to afford, but when you add in the surprise property tax bill you get in Texas, especially before your homestead exemption kicks in, housing takes a significant amount of household income.
In addition, the power grid, at times, seems like it is near failure. Continued dereliction of duty when it comes to modernizing the power grid, combined with the challenges of AI and crypto computing power needs, leads to the possibility there is not enough power generation for the growing population of people and companies.
Water, though, is likely to be the state’s most pressing concern. The dramatic increase in population from interstate relocation is challenging the aging water infrastructure already in shock over continued drought. While the power grid does seem to be addressed further in 2025, water does not seem to rank very high on the list of government priorities for the 2025 biannual session.
7. I’m not sure what the solution is, if there is one, but LinkedIn is still taking flak for some of the activity on the platform.
I spotted this recent article about worker frustration with LinkedIn. While I can understand the points of view and their frustration with the platform, LinkedIn is usually a must-have for so many businesses and employees. There frankly is not another platform like it. While it was once solely for business networking, it has become some kind of mash-up between Facebook, Twitter and what LinkedIn used to be. I don’t know how you fix it, as least in the eyes of those who wish it to go back to being ‘just’ a business networking/living resume site. From my vantage point, take it for what it is.
8. Speaking of LinkedIn, r/LinkedInLunatics continues to not disappoint.
LinkedIn Lunatics biweekly sightings from the past two weeks were enjoyable. Though this one came in second place, enjoy this one. I felt it best summarizes what article from #7 was referencing.
9. The 2024 NFL season is finally here!
Are the Chiefs going to repeat as champs? Will someone in the NFC step up to dethrone the Chiefs? Will the Lions finally get over the hump and get to the Super Bowl? Can the Raiders win more than 6 games? All the preseason storylines, breathless prognostication, and ceaseless speculation of who is going to do what is now in full swing.
10. And finally, a huge shoutout to several farmers for celebrating the 75th anniversary of Charlie Brown and the rest of the Peanuts gang by using their crops.
Yep, that’s right. A group of enterprising farmers in the United States and Canada carved scenes into their cornfields to celebrate the 75th anniversary of Peanuts. Nothing tied to this from a business sense, just something really cool that fans of the cartoon strip and Charles Schulz did.
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That’s a wrap for this newsletter. I’ll be back in two weeks. Let me know what you think!
© August 2024 Brandon Caldwell, all rights reserved. Hyperlinks are used frequently to reference source materials for proper credit to the original authors on their websites, news articles, social media or other sources. While it can be a useful tool, no ChatGPT or other generative AI was used in the production of this newsletter. Opinions are mine and do not reflect the opinion or policy of others including employers past or present.