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Graduates entering the workforce right now are facing a labor market where AI is being prominently cited as the reason for mass layoffs and hiring freezes at major companies. Commencement speakers who frame AI as an exciting opportunity, without acknowledging the disruption\u00a0<\/span>it’s<\/span>\u00a0causing for people entering the job market today, come across as tone deaf. The booing reflects real anxiety about student debt, limited job prospects, and a future where the rules of white-collar work feel less certain than they did for prior generations.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n \n \n
\n Is the comparison between AI and the Industrial Revolution fair? <\/span>\n <\/button>\n\n \n
Historically, there are genuine parallels: both transitions involved the displacement of large numbers of workers in existing roles, followed eventually by the creation of entirely new job categories and a broader rise in living standards. The Industrial Revolution\u00a0<\/span>ultimately produced<\/span>\u00a0the largest middle class in American history. The challenge with the comparison is\u00a0<\/span>timing, since<\/span>\u00a0that transition took generations while AI is moving in years. For workers experiencing displacement now, the eventual upside is cold comfort.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n \n \n
\n What did TTC do with its 401k match, and why does it matter? <\/span>\n <\/button>\n\n \n
TT<\/span>E<\/span>C<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>suspended its employer 401k match mid-year and redirected those funds toward AI tools and infrastructure. The decision matters for two reasons. First, it\u00a0<\/span>represents<\/span>\u00a0a direct cut to employee\u00a0<\/span>compensation, since<\/span>\u00a0retirement matching is a core part of total comp for most workers. Second, it signals a growing willingness among companies to treat previously untouchable benefits as variable costs, which lowers the bar for others to follow.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n \n \n
\n What should companies be doing differently when they cut benefits or headcount for AI investment? <\/span>\n <\/button>\n\n \n
The missing piece in\u00a0<\/span>nearly\u00a0<\/span>all<\/span>\u00a0of<\/span>\u00a0these announcements is a commitment to share the gains. Companies\u00a0<\/span>are being<\/span>\u00a0explicit that AI investment is driving workforce reductions and benefit cuts, but\u00a0<\/span>they’re<\/span>\u00a0not telling the employees who\u00a0<\/span>remain<\/span>\u00a0what they can expect if the investment pays off. A structured profit-sharing plan, a bonus contingency tied to AI-driven growth, or an explicit reinvestment commitment would at least connect the short-term pain to a tangible future\u00a0<\/span>upside, and<\/span>\u00a0would meaningfully change how those announcements are received.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n \n \n
\n What actually happened when the Bolt CEO fired his entire HR team? <\/span>\n <\/button>\n\n \n
Bolt CEO Ryan Breslow dissolved his HR department and replaced it with a\u00a0<\/span>P<\/span>eople\u00a0<\/span>O<\/span>ps team focused on core operational functions, including payroll, headcount management, and compliance, while shifting softer HR responsibilities to line managers. In practice, the HR functions\u00a0<\/span>didn’t<\/span>\u00a0disappear; they were redistributed. The more significant aspect of the story is what it\u00a0<\/span>reflects about<\/span>\u00a0the broader trend of flattening organizational structures and reducing middle management layers, which is happening across industries in the AI restructuring wave.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n \n \n
\n How much of current white-collar layoffs are actually driven by AI? <\/span>\n <\/button>\n\n \n
The honest answer is that\u00a0<\/span>it’s<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>likely a<\/span>\u00a0combination. Post-COVID, many companies, especially in tech, significantly over-hired, and some of the current rationalization reflects a correction to that bloat rather than pure AI-driven displacement. CEOs are loudly attributing cuts to AI investment because that framing serves a narrative about transformation and future-readiness. The reality is more mixed, but the public narrative is\u00a0<\/span>almost entirely<\/span>\u00a0focused on AI, which shapes how workers and graduates perceive the situation regardless of the underlying cause.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n \n <\/div>\n <\/section>\n\n \n\n\n\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Full Episode Transcript<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n \n \n\n \n
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\n Full Episode Transcript<\/strong><\/h2>\n <\/span>\n <\/button>\n\n \n
Nick:<\/span><\/b>\u00a0Welcome to the\u00a0Wellable\u00a0Weekly Podcast, where we talk about key topics and trends at the intersection of wellbeing, technology, and HR.\u00a0I’m\u00a0Nick, along with my good friend and colleague, Geoff. Geoff, happy Memorial Day weekend.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nGeoff:<\/span><\/b>\u00a0Yeah, happy Memorial Day weekend. Hard to believe it. Years\u00a0flying\u00a0by.\u00a0We’re\u00a0already\u00a0almost at\u00a0the end of May.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nNick:<\/span><\/b>\u00a0I know, this\u00a0whole year\u00a0has been a little bit of a roller coaster.\u00a0We’re\u00a0both based in New England. Had great, very summery weather this week, but it looks like the\u00a0weekend’s\u00a0going to be so-so.\u00a0So\u00a0diving in, speaking\u00a0of\u00a0May, May is a time of graduation. Boston’s\u00a0a very big\u00a0college city, so there’s tons of commencements and graduations, and every commencement has commencement speakers.\u00a0I\u00a0actually love\u00a0commencement speeches.\u00a0Ever since high school,\u00a0I’ve\u00a0always played them, back\u00a0before YouTube was\u00a0a big thing, C-SPAN would play them on Saturday mornings, sometimes live and sometimes recordings. I love them.\u00a0They’re\u00a0short, no commercials, lots of motivation, typically\u00a0great advice. When I hear a good one now, someone tells me about it and\u00a0I’ll\u00a0watch\u00a0on YouTube, but I do a lot less of that now.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nGeoff:<\/span><\/b>\u00a0Yeah,\u00a0it’s\u00a0kind of like\u00a0the original TED Talks, right? A little motivational burst.\u00a0The Steve Jobs\u00a0commencement speech is the one that always comes to mind.\u00a0That’s\u00a0kind of\u00a0the\u00a0gold standard.\u00a0What’s\u00a0your favorite?<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nNick:<\/span><\/b>\u00a0I love the Steve Jobs one, but\u00a0that’s\u00a0the classic answer. I\u00a0actually remember\u00a0it was 2005 because I graduated the next year and I was thinking, I would\u00a0love for\u00a0someone like that to be our commencement speaker. We did not get\u00a0a Steve\u00a0Jobs. But\u00a0there’s\u00a0one with James\u00a0Carville,\u00a0I think it\u00a0was LSU or somewhere, where he told the story of Abraham Lincoln. He went through the history of his life, how he failed, how he failed, how he failed,\u00a0over and over again, and tied it all together\u00a0really nicely\u00a0in a way that all those failures built up to him becoming arguably the most significant president in our history.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nGeoff:<\/span><\/b>\u00a0Wow,\u00a0that’s\u00a0a good one.\u00a0Probably a\u00a0warmer reception than some of the speakers have gotten over these past few weeks.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nNick:<\/span><\/b>\u00a0Exactly.\u00a0So\u00a0for those following the commencement news, this is national news, there\u00a0are commencement speakers across the country who have talked about AI and what that means for this future generation of young graduates. The most famous example is Google’s former CEO Eric Schmidt, who spoke at the University of Arizona. And these speakers are\u00a0largely talking\u00a0positively about the future of\u00a0AI\u00a0and\u00a0they’re\u00a0getting booed. You saw it at\u00a0University\u00a0of Central Florida, across the board. Honestly, it was happening so much that I bet a lot of speakers changed their speeches afterward, because this is clearly not a great topic to\u00a0lead with\u00a0for a Gen Z generation\u00a0that’s\u00a0getting impacted.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nGeoff:<\/span><\/b>\u00a0Totally. I mean, the commencement speeches I’ve\u00a0seen,\u00a0it’s almost always\u00a0a pretty uplifting\u00a0vibe.\u00a0It’s\u00a0an incredible day for graduates and usually the tone is one of optimism and hope. But clearly, when you have speakers talking about something like AI, and on one hand it probably helped many of those graduates write a paper or do research, they probably benefited from it during school, but right now they’re entering a labor market that is challenging, to say the least.\u00a0We’ve\u00a0talked on the pod so much about all the reductions in force occurring, especially at larger tech companies, and the way organizations are\u00a0seemingly prioritizing\u00a0investment in technology over investment in people, particularly for those highly coveted entry-level roles. I understand it. You can empathize with the\u00a0grads. A speaker is touting the benefits of AI, saying\u00a0it’s\u00a0such an exciting and transformational time, but here they are with substantial student debt and job prospects that\u00a0aren’t\u00a0strong. It makes me think back to graduating in 2011, a couple of years removed from the\u00a0financial crisis, going into a market that\u00a0wasn’t\u00a0exactly prosperous for new\u00a0grads. But this feels a little different.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nNick:<\/span><\/b>\u00a0It does. I heard a motivational speech about how every generation has their thing,\u00a0it’s\u00a0not the best of times,\u00a0it’s\u00a0not the worst of times, but\u00a0it’s\u00a0your time. And one of the speakers who got booed early on tried to liken the AI movement to the Industrial Revolution. It was not well received. But if you really think about it, the Industrial Revolution was telling a huge agrarian economy full of agricultural workers that they were going to lose their jobs, but they’d get a whole new set of jobs in the industrial workforce, which would eventually create the largest, fastest-growing middle class in history. It was a positive story at the end. But if\u00a0you’re\u00a0in\u00a0that moment and\u00a0you’re\u00a0someone in the agricultural workforce,\u00a0it’s\u00a0a little scary. I think\u00a0it’s\u00a0a little scarier now because the speed at which the change is happening is much quicker than then. The positive outlook this person was trying to articulate just\u00a0wasn’t\u00a0well received, because these student-debt-laden graduates\u00a0aren’t\u00a0finding the jobs they wanted. And even the fortunate ones who do have jobs often took ones that\u00a0weren’t\u00a0the ones they aspired to get. And then where are they seeing the news? Tons of layoffs in the white-collar workforce, with CEOs not being shy about attributing it to AI. Honestly, you and I talked about this on another episode, how much of this is really AI, and how much is just right-sizing post-COVID hiring and having a bloated workforce? The answer is\u00a0probably a\u00a0combination, but\u00a0you’re\u00a0not hearing the latter narrative.\u00a0You’re\u00a0only hearing about AI. And then\u00a0you’re\u00a0seeing companies cut benefits, parental leave, 401k matching.\u00a0There’s\u00a0this\u00a0company,\u00a0I think\u00a0it’s\u00a0based out of Austin, called TTC. They offer a 401k employer match,\u00a0very common\u00a0in corporate America, and in the middle of the plan year, they decided to completely suspend it. Everyone in the middle of the year just stopped getting their matches. And the public rationale was that they were going to use those funds to invest in, quote, “tools, training, and capabilities that would define our future.” And if\u00a0you’re\u00a0an employee,\u00a0you’re\u00a0like:\u00a0that’s real compensation I just lost, going to invest in something that could\u00a0arguably take\u00a0my job. AI has a tough brand.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nGeoff:<\/span><\/b>\u00a0Yeah.\u00a0There’s\u00a0no\u00a0good way\u00a0to deliver news like that, but\u00a0I think sometimes the messaging\u00a0is just coming off a little\u00a0tone deaf. The CEO of TTC is saying, I think, a message\u00a0that’s\u00a0actually meant\u00a0to be positive, that we have more flexibility to invest in the growth of the business. The second part of that statement is\u00a0somewhat reasonable. But telling a workforce that this is a positive message when\u00a0it’s\u00a0directly\u00a0impacting\u00a0their compensation and their long-term financial well-being,\u00a0that’s\u00a0a tough message to send. It makes me think of the conversation we had a few weeks ago with Zoom and Deloitte making\u00a0pretty substantial\u00a0benefit adjustments to line items that we always thought of as untouchable,\u00a0maternity leave, things like that. Those table stakes that for a long time, especially in the employee benefits world, were perceived as off-limits for adjustment. Once a few companies start making changes that were previously considered non-starters, it\u00a0kind of opens\u00a0the floodgates for others to follow suit. It\u00a0doesn’t\u00a0make it any easier for someone whose 401k contribution is getting cut.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nNick:<\/span><\/b>\u00a0Exactly. The one thing I\u00a0don’t\u00a0understand is why employers, especially large ones with internal comms teams and all these processes,\u00a0aren’t\u00a0pushing a different narrative. I hope this happens, but I\u00a0don’t\u00a0think it\u00a0will. The narrative that should be pushed\u00a0is:\u00a0we will distribute the gains from AI. I\u00a0literally have\u00a0not heard a single CEO say that. The message should\u00a0be:\u00a0AI\u00a0requires\u00a0a ton of investment today. That investment requires us to rationalize our cash flow.\u00a0To do that, we\u00a0have to\u00a0do some layoffs, cut some benefits, maybe stop hiring, one of the three or a combination.\u00a0But this investment, we have strong conviction, will help drive the success of our business going forward. And if it does, our plans are to distribute those gains. You could even create a bonus contingency factor: if AI is\u00a0super efficient,\u00a0we’re\u00a0going to grow our top line, and to the extent we do,\u00a0we’ll\u00a0have a bonus plan for individuals who\u00a0remain\u00a0to receive that benefit.\u00a0We’re\u00a0able to do the same amount of work with half the\u00a0workforce,\u00a0we’ll\u00a0take those extra gains and distribute them to employees. It\u00a0doesn’t\u00a0fix the folks who got laid off, and it\u00a0doesn’t\u00a0restore the short-term 401k match, but it creates a promise. It shows employees: I believe in this management team, I believe in this company, and\u00a0I believe AI\u00a0is going to help drive some success, and to the extent it does,\u00a0I’m\u00a0going to get some financial benefit in the future. I\u00a0don’t\u00a0know if that solves everything, but\u00a0it’s\u00a0at least a step forward in how companies manage the brand of AI.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nGeoff:<\/span><\/b>\u00a0The closest example\u00a0I’ve\u00a0seen is\u00a0ClickUp. Their CEO Zeb Evans just announced\u00a0he’s\u00a0cutting 22% of the workforce and introducing $1 million salary bands for\u00a0remaining\u00a0staff, restructuring around this 100x model where AI agents outnumber employees three to one.\u00a0It’s\u00a0not a direct reinvestment of AI gains, but for those who\u00a0remain,\u00a0it\u00a0kind of is. Because of this rationalization and restructuring,\u00a0they’re\u00a0able to adjust pay bands in a way they\u00a0couldn’t\u00a0previously justify given the margin profile of the business.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nNick:<\/span><\/b>\u00a0Agreed. So the second article we’re going to talk about today, and this is not really an AI story even though on the surface you might read it that way, is about the Bolt CEO, Ryan Breslow, who has a very big social media following and whose company Bolt has had a turbulent history.\u00a0He’s\u00a0kind of a\u00a0polarizing figure. We\u00a0wouldn’t\u00a0be talking about Ryan Breslow if he\u00a0hadn’t\u00a0been\u00a0controversial,\u00a0controversy is what the algorithms love.\u00a0But effectively he’s on a video or interview talking about something that\u00a0actually happened\u00a011 months ago.\u00a0When you read the article,\u00a0you’re\u00a0thinking\u00a0it’s\u00a0an AI story, but\u00a0it’s\u00a0not. In a single day, he fired the entire HR team,\u00a0literally the\u00a0entire HR team. In our world, that seems a little scary. But his rationale, and\u00a0I think the headline\u00a0catches you one\u00a0way\u00a0but the details tell a different story, is that he created a people ops team to fill in the gaps of HR. His view was: HR\u00a0middlemen\u00a0need to be removed.\u00a0That’s\u00a0not a novel conversation. A lot of the AI restructuring stories are all about cutting middle management, middle managers becoming individual contributors, or companies just not needing that layer anymore. Most famously, Jack Dorsey and Block, a 6,000-person company, where his vision is that everyone directly reports to him, 6,000 direct reports and zero middle management. But Breslow’s view was that HR serves two functions: certain critical operations, and then a lot of\u00a0middlemen\u00a0work. The operations\u00a0stuff, payroll, headcount management, overseeing workplace culture, conducting surveys, all the things that need to happen, those\u00a0don’t\u00a0go away just because you fire the HR team. Those needs still exist.\u00a0So\u00a0what he did was lay off the HR team, put in a people ops team to address the most critical and most common operational needs, and then shift the\u00a0middlemen\u00a0responsibilities to managers directly. In short,\u00a0he’s\u00a0not saying the HR function is not needed.\u00a0He’s\u00a0saying the HR role as currently structured is not\u00a0needed, and\u00a0replaced it with a people ops team and had managers fill in the gap.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nGeoff:<\/span><\/b>\u00a0Yeah, and the way he delivered the news, in his classic style,\u00a0it’s\u00a0going to get more attention and more headlines.\u00a0It’s certainly not an aspirational move, taking a\u00a0pretty sizable\u00a0cut to a core function.\u00a0The reality is that Bolt has\u00a0seesawed to\u00a0great heights and then had a real come-back-to-earth moment.\u00a0They’re\u00a0going into lean mode, rebuilding effectively. There are going to be challenges with this\u00a0decision, as soon as\u00a0you have your first people-oriented dispute. His point is that\u00a0they’re\u00a0all remote, so there\u00a0shouldn’t\u00a0be that many issues. But I think\u00a0that’s\u00a0probably oversimplifying\u00a0how business and life work. And\u00a0I think a well-rounded HR team\u00a0brings a soft skill set that\u00a0they’re\u00a0going to miss at some point.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nNick:<\/span><\/b>\u00a0Agreed. Two things struck me. One,\u00a0he’s\u00a0doing this\u00a0interview\u00a011\u00a0months\u00a0later\u00a0and he\u00a0doesn’t\u00a0seem remorseful. Leaders make decisions and often walk them back. The fact that he hasn’t\u00a0suggests\u00a0either he lacks context for how things are going inside the organization, or those changes were\u00a0actually fine.\u00a0And honestly, I’m not that surprised, because when you look at what he\u00a0actually did, he didn’t change that much.\u00a0He just changed the name and the structure. The announcement made it sound like he fired the entire HR team, but another way to say the exact same thing\u00a0is:\u00a0I moved some of the HR functions to managers.\u00a0That’s literally\u00a0what it was. Not as catchy. Which is\u00a0maybe why\u00a0he’s\u00a0good at marketing and getting asked\u00a0onto\u00a0big podcasts. The second thing is that\u00a0it’s\u00a0not that different from what\u00a0we’re\u00a0seeing in the broader white-collar restructuring being attributed to AI, the hollowing out of middle management. And\u00a0we’re\u00a0going to discover over time whether that has long-term impacts on the health of these businesses. Sometimes big business initiatives get reversed because over time you realize they\u00a0weren’t\u00a0as good as you thought. But sometimes they\u00a0aren’t. Most famously, when Elon Musk\u00a0acquired\u00a0Twitter and laid off 80% of the workforce, everyone said the app was going to go down. Not in terms of content quality,\u00a0that’s\u00a0a separate conversation, but functionally. And they were wrong.\u00a0The business\u00a0still works. And if\u00a0there’s\u00a0anything you dislike about Twitter now, that has nothing to do with the workforce reduction.\u00a0It’s\u00a0about the content decisions he made. But he showed that these tech companies are genuinely more bloated than they appear.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nGeoff:<\/span><\/b>\u00a0Yeah, and\u00a0that’s\u00a0an important thing to keep in mind as we talk about a lot of these headlines. So many of them are larger tech companies that may have over-hired, and some of what\u00a0we’re\u00a0calling AI-driven restructuring is just rationalization after a period of extra growth. That seems like a good place to wrap up. Thanks as always to everyone who tunes in. You can subscribe to\u00a0Wellable\u00a0Weekly on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, wherever you get your podcasts. And be sure to subscribe to the\u00a0Wellable\u00a0Weekly newsletter for all the latest insights. Thank you.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n \n <\/div>\n <\/section>\n\n \n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Wellable Weekly unpacks why Gen Z graduates are booing AI commencement speakers, how companies cutting 401k matches and benefits are fueling the backlash, and what the Bolt CEO’s decision to fire his entire HR team actually tells us about where the workforce is heading.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":34068,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34066","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-podcasts"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
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