An AI-powered payroll feature developed by Sorbet allows employees to monetize unused paid time off without leaving their jobs. The feature predicts PTO accrual and converts it into a loan that employees can repay through payroll deductions. The platform helps to address financial stress at a time when many people say they value employer-provided financial support, according to PwC's 2024 Employee Financial Wellness Survey.
The Session HR Pros Can't Miss Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey are bringing real talk and comedy gold to SHRM25. Grab your badge and your work BFF — this one's going viral. Register Now »
Millennials are currently the most at risk for burnout in the workplace, with 66% reporting moderate to high levels of exhaustion, according to an Aflac study. This generation faces a 'perfect storm' of stressors, including career pressures, caring for children and aging parents, and economic instability, making them more vulnerable to burnout than Gen X, Baby Boomers, or even Gen Z.
A WTW survey indicates employers are shifting their employee benefit strategies to emphasize value and cost control amid economic uncertainty and rising expenses. Employers are focusing on what employees need most -- including physical and mental health care, family support and financial wellbeing -- instead of expanding offerings, says WTW's Jeff Levin-Scherz.
Ford is requiring most of its salaried employees to return to the office four days a week starting Sept. 1, aiming to improve company performance and accelerate its transformation. This policy shift comes as many global companies reconsider remote work flexibility.
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About the Editor
Reflections
(Kanoe Namahoe)
Welcome to Friday Faves! Every Friday, I spotlight books, podcasts, articles, email newsletters, documentaries or other content pieces that I enjoy. I also share suggestions that I get from you. Got a favorite for your peers? Send it to me. I may include it here for a future column.
Losing your job is an unnerving thought. Losing it in your 50s and having to start over when you have a mortgage, car payments and kids in college can make you freeze in fear.
Unless you’re Stephen Grant, a former marketing executive who lost his job in March 2020, just as the pandemic was hitting the country. Grant, featured in this week’s Friday Fave story, did not wallow in misery. He took a very practical, straight-forward approach to his situation, which also included a cancer diagnosis two months prior to the layoff. He took a job that he could start quickly and that would include medical insurance on day one. He became a letter carrier.
This story stayed with me. I’m sure you can understand why. You’re not supposed to lose your high-level marketing job at 50 and have to start over in a new career, at a salary that is a third of what you were making. What if you don’t have adequate savings? What if your next gig doesn’t pay what the last one did? What will you tell the kids? How will their lives be affected? How do you get back up off the career floor?
All of this and more went through my head as I read Grant’s story. His no-nonsense candor was so refreshing and encouraging.
“Some people give up after things happen to them. Others get back up, over and over again. We think of this as a strength, as grit, determination, willpower. This kind of toughness has always struck me as essential to the Appalachian character. If you get laid off or shot, or people yell at you and call you an idiot or tell you that you’ll never amount to a [explicitive] thing, don’t think about it. Just get back up and try again," Grant writes.
Get up! We live in a world where you can go to college, get a degree (maybe even two or three!), get a job, get promoted, climb the ladder and then boom! The bottom falls out and you find yourself filing for unemployment.
Don’t waste time overthinking the situation. Be practical. Get up. Get back to the business of life. That’s resilience. That’s wisdom. That’s how you recover when Life sucker punches you.
And it will. Life is unpredictable -- there are no guarantees. The best way to approach uncertainty is with humility, common sense and integrity, as Grant did.
Have you been in this situation? How did you navigate it? Let me know! I'd love to hear your success story.
Do you enjoy this brief? Share it with others. Want different stories? Something about it bug you? Tell me. In the words of Frasier Crane, “I’m listening.”
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