24 Sep Saturday Broadcast 17
Key topics:
✔️ ICYMI news, 9/19 – 9/23.
✔️ It’s funny that these cities are telling people to have bug out bags but then at the same time acting like “nothing to see here, no big deal, no need to worry.” What?!
✔️ It’s also funny that the “pandemic is over” once Corpo America wanted everyone to RTO and sit in the Cube Farm again. What a coincidence.
✔️ I warned you about weaponized PIPs and performance reviews earlier this summer. Now we’re here.
Links I mention:
https://www.buzzsprout.com/1125110/10851581
https://www.linkedin.com/news/story/rto-rates-highest-since-covid-4960393/
https://www.linkedin.com/news/story/didnt-get-the-job-was-it-fake-4956233/
https://www.cnn.com/2022/09/18/politics/biden-pandemic-60-minutes/index.html
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/mega-banks-dimon-jpmorgan-congressional-testimony-112113206.html
https://kdvr.com/news/local/what-is-a-bug-out-bag/
https://www.linkedin.com/news/story/the-return-of-performance-reviews-5440044/
Need more? Email me: https://causeyconsultingllc.com/contact-causey/
Transcription by Otter.ai. Please forgive any typos!
Hello Hello and thanks for tuning in recording this portion of the broadcast on Monday, September 19. on Yahoo Finance today we have headlines such as stocks closed higher as Wall Street braces for Fed meeting, FedEx in penalty box after profit warning, Netflix ad tear could launch company back into growth mode. Homebuyers grow more desperate as buyers retreat. What a difference a little time makes last summer, something like that would have seemed unfathomable during the Yolo and the FOMO When sellers acted like they were just royalty, like their poopoo did not stink, you should just come out there willing to grossly overpay for their lemon houses and realtors were the same way. Oh, well, I understand that this house might look like complete crap to you. But we already have two cash offers in hand and a couple of other buyers from out of state and blah, blah, blah. And it’s like, Well, I hope you’re saving your money. I really do. Oh, and by the way, here’s a lesson for you. If you treat people like dirt during a boom cycle, they’re going to remember and then Who do you think is going to help you during a bust cycle? think some of the youngbloods who came into the market when it was really hot. They’ve never been through a downturn. I think that they may be learning how to eat a slice of humble pie. If they treated prospective buyers look complete and utter dirt. Just my opinion. I could be wrong. But I bet we will see that happen. Meanwhile, over on CNN, we learned that according to Biden, the pandemic is over. He’s quoted there as saying the pandemic is over. We still have a problem with COVID. We’re still doing a lot of work on it. But the pandemic is over. Huh, huh, huh, huh. You know, I wonder if that could potentially possibly have anything to do with corporate America wanting you back but in seat. I mean, I just wonder, you know, it’s awfully coincidental that the mayors of these large cities have talked about how you need to be back cross pollinating. You need to be eating in the restaurants had taking your lunch in the cafes, shopping, rubbing shoulders with your fellow humans get back into the queue far. I just wonder. I just wonder. I mean, you know, surely there couldn’t be that kind of overt and obvious collusion between corporate America and the state. I mean, surely not. Right? Mm hmm. Interesting. So when we go to the side panel of LinkedIn, the very first headline is our to rates highest since COVID. We click on that we find our employers finally winning the return to Office battle staff in 10. major US cities are now coming back to the workplace at higher rates than any time since the start of the pandemic. According to swipe card data from Castle systems. The data show Tuesdays and Wednesdays are the most popular days for workers to attend offices, reaching 55% of pre pandemic levels. This coincides with many companies issuing RTO mandates from labor day onward as an uncertain economic climate emboldens businesses to be stricter. Warn y’all. But Forbes reports that while data suggest RTO is back, few expect a full return to pre COVID times and quote, please be careful, cannot give you advice. I cannot tell you what to do. I personally would be very careful about naivete and burying your head in the sand. Oh, well, I just don’t think we’re ever going to get the minute that you start that stuff. It’s almost like you’re putting a bull’s eye on your back. You’re not formulating a game plan. You’re not thinking ahead. Okay, what would I do? I enjoy working from home, we’ve built our domestic infrastructure around being at home, I don’t want to go back. I don’t want a long commute. I don’t want to sit in a cubicle in a digital pan Opticon all day. What would I do if and then roughing out or Wargaming out the scenario of where would I go and how would I handle it? If it’s more comfortable for some people to get in that sugar plums and gumdrops lollipops land and pretend like well, there’s just no way that my employer would ever Yeah, your employer might. I would be very careful with this idea of thinking. There’s just no possible way that we’re going to go back to pre COVID times. Of course we could. You know, Jamie Dimon was not shy in saying that he felt like the fall really needed to be the point when everybody came on back to the office. We need it to look like fall of 2019. Now I’m not saying we will achieve that that fast. It’s going to take some time because certain pockets will have to have rebellions particularly unionized workers who have some kind of backing, they have some kind of infrastructure there to put some real teeth to their threats. Some people might walk off some people might try to continue the great resignation. But I think overall speaking in a broad brushstroke, I think a lot of people will just say, alright, I don’t want to do it. I’m not happy about it, but I need a job. I live paycheck to paycheck we can’t be without, or we have to have good robust health insurance for the kids. So if it’s our to or lose your job, I guess we’re going to RTO that’s what I see happening. I wish I could tell you otherwise. But that’s where I think this is going. Other headlines on the LinkedIn side panel today, US struggles with paid sick leave home flippers flail and slowing market. This class travel gets a downgrade. A beer shortage is brewing. Adobe figma deal draws skeptics 1000s Attend Queen’s funeral, Wegmans suspends self checkout app. Also, here’s another interesting headline didn’t get the job. Was it fake? Hmm. So that doesn’t sound like a great headline. In the blurb we read, attending job interviews with little success. One theory abounds that you may be the victim of fake job postings, which some recruiters believe are touted by companies who don’t really intend to hire anyone. According to a survey by lending firm clarify capital 40% of managers kept job postings up for more than two or three months. While half said they would keep a posting up to see what talent was out there. Even if they had no openings. These postings are taking place despite a tight labor Oh, here we go again, just can’t even say it anymore. Despite a tight labor market, with some companies potentially holding back on hiring amid economic uncertainty and quote, this is another statement that I am being completely and wholly vindicated on. If you go all the way back to Saturday, broadcast number four that I published at the end of June, I told you this was going on fake job postings, hiring sprees, just just get them in, just get people in put up those evergreen job orders just keep them posted. I also wrote on several YouTube accounts about this same thing. There were signs that went in the window whenever companies took out those PPP loans and the signs just never came down. Some jobs get posted for optics only some are evergreen roles that just never come down. Sometimes the hiring manager is shopping because he wants to try to see if he can hire Tony Stark genius billionaire playboy philanthropist for pennies on the dollar. This happens. This totally happens. And I warned you about it back in the summer. So if you listen to this podcast with any regularity, I believe you’re on the leading edge of what’s going on. You’re getting your information ahead of time so that once these headlines pop up for John and Jane Q Public, you’re like, oh, Sara already warned me about that. She already told me about this. Jesus is coming with busy mentality. And as I said, on that broadcast, I’m not endorsing it, and I don’t do it. I’m not telling you that it’s the way the world should work. I’m just telling you that. That’s how it goes. Some of these companies will post multiple requisitions just to look busy, just to look prosperous. Some will post a job, because they want to see who they get. We might fire Dan, we might not we’re just gonna kind of see what we get. There’s anybody better? Well, we might promote Sally Sue, we might not let’s just go ahead and run an ad or send a recruiter on a wild goose chase. And you know, if they find somebody better than Sally Sue great if they don’t, we just won’t hire anybody will promote her. These things happen. These things happen. And I warned you back in that broadcast that I myself would be very wary of making a job change that I didn’t feel 100% confident about. You want to do the research as to whether it’s a zombie company, is it propped up by nothing but debt and hot air and Bs? Is it a legitimate open job? Is it a duplicated position? What’s going on, you should try to use good judgment and good caveat and tour as much as possible, so that you can try to avoid being sucked down a rabbit hole of a fake BS job posting. But this is something that I warned you about some time back. I’ve talked about it on the blog. I’ve talked about it here on the Saturday broadcast. So if there’s somebody in your life that you feel like could benefit from getting this type of information, this type of here’s the let me pull the curtain back and show you how the job market works, how corporate America works. Please share this broadcast. As I’ve said many times, I can’t tell you what to do. I can’t give you advice. But if we can at least trudge through this weird economic uncertainty together, get a leg up on what’s coming. It might help recording this portion of the broadcast on Tuesday. Day September 20. In my part of the Midwest, it’s flat out gross outside today. It’s very muggy and the air temperature is like 101. So it sucks. Even though the a terminal Equinox is on Thursday it is not feeling fall like at all It feels like we’re in the dog days of summer. Over on Yahoo Finance Today we find Federal Reserve eyes another historic rate hike on Wednesday. Stocks sync treasury yields surge as Fed meeting gets underway. GAAP slashes 500 corporate jobs in cost cutting move forward shocked investors just like FedEx. The Fed is not the stock market’s friend right now. coinshares to launch platform for retail traders. Why investors fear a full percentage point Fed rate hike would unnerve Wall Street. I’m sure it probably will. When I opened LinkedIn to go to the side panel to read their news for the day. I saw a post from someone who indicated they had been laid off at Amazon back in August. They still haven’t found anything. And they’re asking their network for help. So it’s been over a month that they’ve been job hunting. This is something to keep in mind. Over on the side panel we read Zuckerberg wealth takes a $71 billion hit gap cuts 500 New York City and San Francisco corporate jobs. Amex reveals tech hiring spree. Well, what could possibly go wrong there? Uber names hackers behind breach. Hurricane Fiona is now a category three storm. Earlier today CNBC published a video on YouTube asking the question, Will this recession have massive layoffs. And I thought, here we go. Here’s the first wave of warning. I felt like an athlete who had been training like okay, you prepared for this, you knew this was coming, you’ve been sounding the alarm bell for months. Anytime someone would give you a platform to do it, you’ve been issuing warnings. And now here we are. I’ll actually be publishing an emergency broadcast in the morning to talk more specifically about that video and why I think it is so important. So important not to be overly naive not to be Pollyanna sunshine, Suzy cream cheese, not right now. I don’t get into the hashtag good vibes only I’m going to ignore anything. That seems like it might say there’s an economic poopoo storm coming, that doesn’t even make any sense. Even from an investment perspective, let’s say that you’re sitting there and you’re filthy rich, it would still be important for you to know so that you can make good investments. I just, it’s hard for me to wrap my mind around this idea that I should just not at all care about what’s happening in the world around me, I should just live in a bubble and pretend that none of it is ever going to impact my life in the slightest. Go to the grocery store. And let me know how that plays out for you. When every time you go, it’s more expensive than it was the time before. So I’ll publish that episode in the morning because I just think it is so important to not get confirmation bias and to not assume that you’re working in an industry that would just never be impacted by mass layoffs. One of the things that’s been particularly interesting about this go round is that Some so called industry darlings are the ones that have really taken the hardest hits. As I say all the time. I can’t give you advice. I cannot tell you what to do. In my opinion, I feel like naivete about all of this will come at too high of a price. I think back to arrogant realtors and mortgage brokers last summer who tried to tell me that we were not in a housing bubble. Houses were just always going to stay at these inflated prices. The days of being able to get a house at an affordable price. Were just over dunzo Zippo and I’m sitting there like that literally doesn’t even make any sense. We’ve seen this movie play out before and I remember how it ended. Huh? Wow, what a crazy time to be alive. Recording this portion of the broadcast on Wednesday, September 21. Over on CNBC, we have headlines today such as the Fed raises rates by another three quarters of a percentage point pledges more hikes to fight inflation. The Fed forecasts hiking rates as high as 4.6% Before ending inflation fight. Here’s what the Feds tough love message means for you. I think we pretty much already know Jerome Powell has already said the people who are least able to bear the brunt of this are the ones who are going to have to. In other words, people that are already in the lower are economic strata that are suffering living paycheck to paycheck feeling pinched, are really the ones that are going to get even more pinched by this which is awful. There’s also a headline which says Dow closes 500 points lower after the Fed delivers another aggressive rate hike along with a breaking news ticker, saying the Fed should slow down rate hikes because it is pushing the economy into a recession. It’s like the good old fashioned corporate blame game. You’re gonna all point fingers at each other. It’s like that meme of all the different Spider Man’s pointing at each other. It’s your fault. No, it’s your fault. No, it’s your fault. We’re gonna find someone to blame dammit, for this recession. The only thing that I can figure as to why they’re doing this death by 1000 cuts here’s a rate hike and there’s one here a hike their hike everywhere a hike hike. I think the reason why they’re doing it that way instead of just doing it once and having done with it is to try to preserve some kind of something for the fat cats on Wall Street. We don’t want to completely crash the stock market in one fell swoop wink. So we’re just gonna do death by 1000 cuts. Meanwhile, what’s really being accomplished here? What’s what’s actually being solved? I don’t get it. Other headlines include meta looks to cut costs by 10% or more over the next few months. In a random headline. We read actor Tom Hardy secretly entered and won a Brazilian jujitsu competition. So I guess there’s that if it matters. Over on Yahoo Finance is a similar scene. Powell after another 75 basis points interest rate hike, we can’t fail in the inflation fight. I guess we’ll see about that. I guess we will we will live to tell the tale. Stocks plunge after rate hike and pals comments. existing home sales fall for seven straight month. Again, who can be surprised by that nobody wants to be left holding that bag right now. The Fed is building in a lot of uncertainty while fighting inflation. Fed rate hike could add $2.1 trillion to the deficit. Oh great, because that’s exactly what we need. Powell signals more pain to come with fed sending rates higher. All these US sales rise as shoppers seek cheaper groceries. I have never had good luck finding cheap stuff at all these Okay, so me I know some of y’all probably shop there and it’s your store but I’ve always found cheaper things at Dollar General and Walmart at least that’s how it is in my part of the Midwest. Maybe if you found something on sale at all these but whenever I’ve priced compared the local all these to the other stores in town, the other stores at cheaper prices. So I’ve never really gotten the appeal, I guess of all these. But if that’s the cheapest place in town for you, I get it. I totally do. We also read the headline Jamie Dimon, the US economy today is a classic tale of two cities. Oh boy. When I initially read that headline, I thought, yeah, you’re damn right. It’s a tale of two cities. It’s a tale of a K shaped economy, where the rich people at the very top of this who no doubt are going to profiteer off of this crash or are already wealthy and will get wealthier. Meanwhile, everybody else at the bottom of the cache is being squeezed and pinched to all hell, like no joke. So when he’s talking about here, he says the US economy today is a classic tale of two cities, there are headwinds and tailwinds making it challenging to predict the future. Diamonds prepared remarks mentioned strong consumer spending plentiful job openings that continue to surprise to the upside and healthy businesses what while also highlighting crushing inflation that has eroded worker incomes, supply chain imbalances, the ongoing war in Ukraine and rapid quantitative tightening and quote Yeah, yeah, here we are, again. Here we are, again, plan to full job openings, healthy businesses. Hmm. Yeah, I mean, meanwhile, a lot of businesses are talking about how they’re going to lay off and or implement hiring freezes, they’re going to have to pull back every day when I get on LinkedIn. There’s somebody new posting a sad story about how they’ve been laid off it’s taking them longer to find work than they thought it’s very difficult where all these plentiful job openings but right right Sure, sure. Yet again, looking over here at this hot job market, don’t pay attention to anything else. Don’t Don’t look for the last lifeboat off the Titanic don’t pay any attention to the fact that the ship is sinking just look at this hot job market. Over on the side panel for LinkedIn, we find fed delivers third jumbo rate rise, meta and Google’s plans to cut costs. Sandwich chain dominates us growth, student loan relief state by state anxiety check for us adults and more layoffs at Compass. Hmm. But what about all of these businesses that are doing great? What about all of this hot job growth? I mean, how, how do we reconcile companies saying they need to cut costs and more layoffs happening with this idea that there are headwinds and tailwinds and hot job market and companies do and great and economic gains we don’t want to lose. Hmm, hmm. Something is just not quite passing the sniff test, is it? A couple of other tidbits I’d like to report on today. Apparently last week, sometime, the Denver Office of Emergency Management announced that it would giveaway bug out bags in order to help people prepare just in case there was ever an emergency they needed to respond to, and hey, we’re only doing this because September is National Preparedness Month, nothing to see here. People move along, move along. Apparently, the event will take place on September 24. And subsequent articles have popped up saying but this is not a conspiracy theory. We’re not giving these away as part of some conspiracy. It’s not like we know that anything’s coming. You guys need to stop with the silly rumors. And I’m like, But wait a minute. I mean, you said you’re giving the bags out and you’re You even gave people a date, and a timeframe and a location to show up. So I mean, how is that a conspiracy theory? No, it’d be a little bit like if I walked up punched you in the nose. And as your nose is bleeding, and I literally have your blood streaks on the back of my hand. You said to me, Hey, you just punched me in the nose. And I replied back to you. No, I didn’t. That’s just a conspiracy theory. I mean, like it literally just happened. And the the evidence of it is there. So I don’t really understand this idea of oh, this is just a silly conspiracy theory. It wasn’t that long ago in the scheme of things that the city of New York told people, Hey, here’s what you need to do in the event of nuclear warfare. Oh, and by the way, it probably wouldn’t be a terrible idea for you to have to go back, which is just another way of saying a bug out bag. So mean, to me, there does seem to be something maybe a little bit more than coincidental to all that. Maybe not who knows, just for me personally, it doesn’t seem like that’s a completely random thing for a city to do out of nowhere. I’ve been alive a while. Let’s not say how long, but I don’t remember these cities just all of a sudden saying because it’s September, it’s National Preparedness Month or just out of an abundance of caution. We’re going to teach you how to make bug out bags or we’re going to give you want to go back for free. You know, just because we’re nice like that. I don’t remember that happening. seems kind of odd to me. I’m just saying. Also tonight on the CBS Evening News, there was a story about how inflation is causing prices to go up at discount stores. They popped up a very interesting infographic, and it reads meat, poultry, fish and eggs from August 2021 to August 2022. Here’s how much they went up. $1 General, the price increase was 24.9%. at Aldi, it was 22.9% at Albertsons, 70, Walmart, 14.3, Publix, 9.3 and Whole Foods only 4% Isn’t that interesting? But you know, remember, supposedly inflation is only like 9%. So why in the hell would you have Dollar General and Aldi having to go up by 24.9 and 22.9% respectively. If we were really only dealing with less than 10% inflation, there was an infographic for dairy and related products for the same timeframe, August of last year to August of this year. Very similar situation, Dollar General was up 19.5% All D was up 20.4% Albertsons, 15.6%, Walmart, 15, Publix, 10 and Whole Foods 8.4%. At the beginning of this report, when the journalist was talking about the inflation gap, she said something like when it comes to food, the people who can least afford it are the ones who are getting hit the hardest. But there was an inflection in her voice like of surprise. Those who can least afford it are the ones getting hit the hardest, almost like it was difficult for her to believe it and I thought well done. Yeah, it’s the same thing as Jerome Powell the people who are going to have to bear the brunt This inflation are the ones who are least capable of doing so. Okay, well what are you gonna do about it mean these fat cats and their corporate media? It’s like they all want to just sit and talk about how sad it is for the little guy. Well, what are you doing about it? To me it feels a lot like Neo the legend anyway, we okay historically all for you history nerds. I don’t want to get a bunch of hate mail. Historically, we don’t know. But it’s like the legend of Nero fiddling while Rome burned. I mean, okay, it’s one thing to go on TV or to make a statement to the media about the people who can afford it the least are the ones getting hit the hardest. Well, what are you prepared to do about it? Oh, other than give people a free bug out bag and say, but now this is just for no apparent reason, don’t ya a little idiot. Start any conspiracy theories. We’re today it is Thursday, September 22. Heavy, a terminal Equinox. I’m so glad we’re finally here. This is my time of the year and I’m excited for it. Today it was actually not sweaty and gross outside. So at least we had a little bit of a sneak preview of fall was about 70 degrees, give or take a little. There was a nice breeze blowing out of the north. So it had some cool air it was overcast, didn’t actually see any rain. But at least it felt and looked a little bit more a tunnel. It was not like going outside and immediately bursting into flames. I think it’s going to be that way tomorrow, unfortunately. But at least we had a reprieve to bring in the equinox and really focus on the changing of the season without it being a sweaty disgusting mess outside. For the listeners in the southern hemisphere Happy Spring. You’re about to go into another change of the seasons yourself. So the Wheel of the Year is turning on like it or not. Over on CNBC we have headlines today such as stocks closed lower major averages on pace for weekly declines as recession fears mount. Meanwhile, it’s like who is still out here wondering waiting and wondering Oh, are we in a recession yet? Are we not I just don’t know mean? Really. FedEx hikes package rates details cost cutting as demand weakens globally. Bed Bath and Beyond merchandise problems will make it hard to pull off a turn around Bitcoin dips below 19,000 And Krakens new CEO David Ripley on company culture. Analyst loves Eli Lilly for its potential blockbuster obesity drug. And we do too, huh? Isn’t that interesting? You know, there’s a documentary that was published earlier today, I think on Java discoverer, and I’m excited to watch it. I mean, excited in kind of a sad way, I guess because I’m sure the information is going to be terrifying. But the title of the documentary is neuro marketing, how brands are manipulating your brain. So I think it’s very interesting that we have these industries, pushing foods that are not healthy and beverages that are not healthy. Oh, but then don’t worry. Here Big Pharma comes with a potential blockbuster obesity drug. Over on Yahoo Finance, we have stocks fall for third day as investors mole rate hike and Powell remarks. Mortgage rates jump remain at highest level since 2008. Supply chains easing but still a major problem. It’s every nation for itself as dollar battles global currencies, stocks extend losses to second straight day, Ford plans to restructure global supply chain amid inventory build ups. Morgan Stanley met his cost cutting could save $5 billion Microsoft survey reveals downsides of remote meetings. Yeah, I mean, who enjoys those I don’t necessarily disagree with Jamie diamonds thesis that trying to do everything on Zoom is like management via Hollywood Squares. He’s not entirely wrong there. I never liked any of those zoom calls. And whenever I got out of corporate America, I was like, I’m not doing that anymore. How ridiculous. It’s just not something that I incorporate into the way that I do business day in and day out. And whenever I’ve had RFIs or RFQs for people that were looking for an interim manager, or someone who could improve efficiency, some type of HR related project, if it involved management via Hollywood Squares, I’m like, I’m out. I’m not the person for you. That’s not what I want to be doing. I also don’t think it’s very effective. I feel like so many of those remote meetings were just a complete and utter waste of time. I don’t think I ever sat through a single remote meeting that couldn’t have been an email. Not a single time. It’s like people just want to get on camera and Preen. Do Just to get on camera just to see and be seen and I’m like, okay, but for those of us who have introversion and or neuro divergence, it’s not something that we enjoy. It makes us feel awkward and weird. Like, please stop, please, please consider that not everybody wants to LARP that they’re on a reality show by being on Zoom calls all the time. Kay, thanks. Billionaire investor Carl Icahn warns the worst is yet to come for investors and compares us inflation to the fall of the Roman Empire. We printed up too much money and just thought the party would never end Icahn said, adding that with the Fed, raising rates to fight inflation, the party’s over. So that doesn’t sound good. Whether you agree with any of that or not, it’s certainly not a great comparison to be thinking about the American economy in the fall of Rome. So over on LinkedIn today, an article was published titled The Return of performance reviews. And I am not shy. As you know, when I have a prediction that comes true, I will speak up and say so because what am I going to do hire a hitman to get on here and be like, Hey, Sarah didn’t want to say this herself. So I’m just going to randomly appear out of nowhere and say, she said yet another prediction that came true. It’s easier for me to just get on here and say, Look, I don’t have any false modesty about this. I told you this was coming. And now here we are, if you want to be on the leading edge of what’s going on, in my opinion, being on this podcast, and reading my blog is a really good place to do it. I’ve been in and out of the job market every day, for over a decade. So it’s easy for me to be able to read the tea leaves and say, Yeah, I can pretty much see where this is going. And generally be right. Okay, maybe some of you will unsubscribe and say that sounds arrogant. I don’t mean for it to what I’m trying to do here as best I can is give you some advanced warning. Hey, I’m not an all seeing Oracle from olden times. I don’t know everything. And I can’t give you advice. But what I can do is say based on my years of expertise, and I don’t know some common sense. Here’s what I see coming. And here we are going all the way back to Saturday broadcast six. I talked about pips. That episode was published on July 9, where I warned people that I felt like based on what meta was doing based on what Tesla was doing. These employers would start to pull out the PIP the performance improvement plan, and employees would get put on these stupid pips that not even God Himself could measure up to. And then after whatever the allotted time, 3060 90 days, whatever. After that a lot of time had passed, and they could not turn water into wine like Jesus at the wedding of Cana, they would be punted out the door. Hey, we tried to work with you. You just couldn’t cut it. So sorry. And that’s that. So now, apparently there are viral tiktoks warning people about pips. And I’m like, Well, no, duh. Why wait on somebody to tell you on a tick tock in September, about pips, you could have heard it in July from me reading the tea leaves saying yeah, these pips are coming and they’re not good news for the average person. I told you so. Now here we are, with LinkedIn publishing the return of performance reviews. In the blurb for that the editor Jake Perez Writes, Performance reviews have been resurrected from their COVID induced suspension and they’re likely to be greeted with dismay by rank and file workers. The Wall Street Journal reports. It cites recent moves by meta and Goldman Sachs to use performance reviews to identify underperforming employees as they forecast more volatility ahead. Google has also slowed down hiring amid CEO Sundar Pichai is calls for workers to get 20% more productive, reduced output and higher labor costs are likely contributing to the return of reviews with productivity decreasing 4.1% in the second quarter as labor costs jumped 10.2% in quote. Yeah, let’s just call a thing a thing. In my opinion, it’s not really about reduced output and higher labor costs. It’s really about corporate America going from the carrot to the stick. They know, they know. Okay, they know. They know that unemployment is not really at any 3.5 or 3.7%. They know that there’s not too legitimate open jobs that pay a good living wage and offer good benefits for everyone unemployed person. They know that masses of people are not sitting in all of these random grandma’s basements, living off their stim echecks from 2020. They know they know I’m channeling that Biden energy you know where he gets out? EAGALA creeping into the microphone, he’s like He starts whispering. He’s whispers and gets kind of intense and weird. And politically agnostic, don’t send me hate mail. It’s just an observation of what he does. Anyway, I it’s not about in my opinion, it’s not about reduced output and higher labor costs. They know what’s coming. They know that unemployment is higher than what we’re being told. And they feel confident that they can start weeding out people that they don’t think should be there. Well, who are some of those people? Are some of them probably lazy and unmotivated? Sure, those people have always been around, they’re not going anywhere. That that is part of life. Just as I’ve talked before, about people who are spoiled, people whose parents and or grandparents doted on him and gave them everything they ever wanted. Those people have been around since forever. It’s not really fair to say they’re part of one generation, but not part of another there is they’re ubiquitous, okay, they’ve been around since time immemorial. And I think that some of the people that get weeded out by these pips and performance reviews probably are sitting there doing basically nothing. However, there will be other people where, okay, you didn’t want to play politics, you didn’t want to come back to the office when we told you to. You don’t want to lurk around the water cooler, you don’t want to lurk around the coffee pot, you don’t want to schmooze the right people and kiss the right behind. So we’re going to put you on a pip to get you the hell out of here. We want yes men and yes, women, we want sick offense, we want people who will do and say basically, whatever the hell they’re told, sit down, shut up. And don’t question anything. So I think that we may see individuals who are different from the mainstream individuals who don’t go along to get along, being put on a pip and told well, hey, look, we all just have to make the sacrifices. And if you can’t up your productivity by some random number, the CEO pulled out of his backside. Well, you’re just gonna have to wait. Wait and see. In the comment section for this, the bureau chief for careers and work at the Wall Street Journal, Lynn cook writes, the latest in the quiet quitting clash between workers and managers, performance reviews are coming back with a vengeance dropped off door. One new CEO has been telling employees in recent weeks that winter is coming. We’re asking everyone to raise the bar and raise the performance standards. He says and quote, this is going to happen more and more, just because it starts in big tech or just because it starts on Wall Street. Please do not think it will not eventually trickle down to small and medium sized companies. Oh, well, I work at a small company in the middle of nowhere, it will just never I don’t think in that direction. Be prepared, have a job last survival plan. I would also add to that have a pip survival plan. If you get put on one of those ghastly pips, what are you going to do? In the event that you’re not able to meet the standard, they give you requirements that are absurd, and you need to get the hell out of dodge before your time period is up? What’s your game plan to find other employment quickly? In my opinion, it’s smarter to think about these things ahead of time, so that you can revert to the plan or revert to your training when and if the event actually happens. If it doesn’t glory B, you’ve trained and you’ve prepped, and you’re ready in case you ever need that knowledge down the road. It’s critical thinking and having a game plan in my opinion, is not wasted time. At last is Friday. I’m so glad today it’s Friday, September 23. We’re back into the 90s. So our little sneak preview of fall for the equinox has been gone. Sadly, I went to the store at kind of an offbeat time today or so I had hoped it wasn’t as busy. But I needed to pick up a few groceries and things that we needed over the weekend. And the lady that was ahead of me at the checkout line, it looked like she was buying a bazillion things of two liter soda pops. And the thing that annoyed me was that instead of setting them up right on the conveyor belt, she put all of them down lengthwise and took up the entire span of the conveyor belt. So it took forever for me to be able to even set my stuff down up there, but it’s like just zip your lip. Don’t give any dirty looks. Don’t say anything because we’re still in kind of a powder keg environment. I’m still hearing from people in all parts of the country about individuals who just seem to be spoiling for a fight. The least little thing and it erupts into a big conflict people willing to go to jail for assault. I mean, it’s just crazy. So I looked in the other direction and tried my best to keep my annoyance to myself. Was it rude and unnecessary? Yeah, it was but I don’t want to get into an altercation over soda pops on a conveyor belt live equals yes, dy equals no, it’s a very simple equation I tried to go by. There was also a man in the store. I didn’t Don’t get close enough thank God to tell what he was intoxicated on whether it was alcohol or some other type of substance. But he was clearly not in his right mind. He was impaired in some way. And he was singing very loudly and kind of stumbling around, which made me suspect that he might have been drunk, which was kind of early in the day for that. But at any rate, people are just still behaving in ways that are odd and I can’t give you advice can’t tell you what to do. But speaking for myself, I don’t want to get close to anybody that seems impaired. And I don’t want to get into any kind of fights or altercation over things that are silly, including an annoying woman that wants to take up the entire conveyor belt at the grocery store. Over on CNBC. Today, we have headlines such as dow drops nearly 500 points to close at new low for 2022 on rising recession fears from the Fed to Europe’s currency crisis. Here’s what’s behind the sell off in financial markets. tech stocks just had their worst two weeks stretch since the start of the pandemic. Google CEO Pichai tells employees not to equate fun with money in heated all hands meeting. Oh, there’s an additional headline as 30 year mortgage rates hit 6.7% homebuyers are facing payment shock. Yeah, I’m sure they are. And I’m really glad that I’m not in that situation right now. And I’m so glad that I decided to just sit on the sidelines and wait. I can’t imagine being on the hook right now for a poopoo house that needs a lot of repairs a lot of work or you get from the frying pan into the furnace, maybe you’re in an area that you’re not particularly fond of. Then you get into a house and discover that you’ve moved into hell. I’m hearing some horror stories of that nature too. So when you click on this article about don’t equate fun with money, because we know there’s a story there. And the key points we read Google CEO Sundar Pichai spent much of this week’s all hands meeting addressing employee concerns about company cost cutting measures. Pichai, who expressed some annoyance during the meeting said I remember when Google was small and scrappy, and added that we shouldn’t always equate fun with money. Google’s finance head told employees to temper their expectations for holiday parties. Well, I mean, as an introvert, I really never gave a toss about holiday parties and all the food for all that goes along with the Christmas season, we want to force you to come to this party or this get together or the more passive aggressive approach. Well, I mean, you don’t have to go. But it would really look good if you did or would really look bad. If you didn’t. In other words, it’s not voluntary, you better be there unless you want to get fired. I never liked any of that. So I myself would not be offended if somebody was like, Hey, we’re cutting out the holiday stuff and the Christmas party and whatever, I’d be like, I’d rather have the money. If anybody had said to me, here’s a $50 gift card or a holiday party, which would you rather have? I mean, it’s not even a comparison in my mind. But they never did that I always just seemed to work for companies where it was like butter go to lose party. So, further down in the article we read, Pichai was asked in a question that was highly rated by staffers on Google’s internal Dory system, why the company is nickel and diming employees by slashing travel and swag budgets. At a time when Google has record profits and huge cash reserves, as it did coming out of the COVID pandemic. How do I say it? Pichai begin his measured response. Look, I hope all of you are reading the news externally, the fact that you know, we are being a bit more responsible through one of the toughest macro economic conditions underway in the past decade. I think it’s important that as a company we pull together to get through moments like this, and quote, more of this is coming. I’ve warned you about pay cuts, I’ve warned you about hiring freezes. And here we go. Something else this sort of triggered a memory for me of the Great Recession. I remember, as we were getting no more 401k No more bonuses, no more profit share, all of that went away. It was pretty much like you can have your job and that’s it. I remember that during that time, the owner of that particular company that I was working for, went and bought like a boat and a new car. And then he also wanted to have this area built. My friend referred to it as his toy barn. I don’t know what you would really call it a shoe calling in a shed. It doesn’t really seem to do it justice. But anyway, so he goes and gets a sports car. He goes and gets a boat. And he goes and has this toy barn built and it’s like Okay, okay, I kind of see where we all stand. So no more 401k No more profit, share no more bonus, just sit in the cube and do whatever you have to do to survive the recession. Meanwhile, I’m clearly making really good profits. And so I’m going to get the car and the boat in the toy barn. Nothing quite improves morale like that. And essentially, that’s what this CEO is telling everybody. record profits for us really shouldn’t matter to you. I mean, are you peons not reading the news? You should be like paying attention to what’s happening externally. I mean, hello. Another interpretation of that, in my opinion is he knows we’re in a recession already. He knows we’re getting ready to go into or further into an economic poop storm. So to him he’s sitting there thinking it’s obvious to me, why is it not obvious to you? Rules for the but not for me. I’ve also told you repeatedly that some rich individuals will get even more rich off of whatever poop storm we’re headed into. If it always happens that way. It always happens that way. Someone at the top of the top of the top profiteers while everybody else suffers. Over on Yahoo Finance, we see stocks crater, Dow hits 2022 low oil plunges as growth fears, Royal markets, US stocks spiraled to cap a volatile week, I would say lower Friday as fears that aggressive central bank tightening would trigger a recession wreaked havoc on financial markets would trigger a recession. So this is more of in my opinion, denialists language like oh, oh, the recession is coming through recession is here. I don’t know who is still out there that thinks otherwise. Other than corporate controlled media, who is still out there going through a resurgence common man, it’s here and it’s been here. It doesn’t matter. In my opinion, if you change the technical definition of a recession to try to avoid saying we’re in a recession, I mean, look around tech valuations down to pretty reasonable levels, says slack founder, Goldman Sachs cuts 2022 target for s&p 500 by 16%, credit card interest rates poised to hit record high. As I’ve said many times before, not advice cannot tell you what to do. I’m not a financial planner, or advisor, not an economist would never claim to be, I would say if you are in a position to pay down personal debt, that’s not a bad idea. And if you need to seek out the advice of a professional financial planner, or advisor, or if you need to sit down with one of those free community resources that certain cities have, where you can get credit counseling either for free or for a very low cost. If you feel that that’s something that would be beneficial to do, it’s not necessarily a bad idea. As the interest rates go up, and whatever personal debt you’re carrying, will become more and more expensive. I think it’s a wise idea, again, in my opinion, to talk to a professional and get some kind of game plan put together about paying that personal debt down. I’m a realist. I’m not one of these people like Dave Ramsey, that wants to act like if you have personal debt, you’re a piece of crap, shame on you, you must have automatically gotten that debt by living high on the hog. Really, sometimes crap happens. And it happens to all of us. The rain falls on the just and the unjust. There are times we get hit with an unforeseen expense, a home repair a medical bill, something out of left field comes up. And there are times in life when the only option you have is to put that on a credit card. I get it. When my first business failed. I had quite a lot of debt that I had to be responsible for and it sucks. It totally does. So I think if there’s any way that you can try to get on a plan to get out of that personal debt, get out of that credit card debt. In my opinion, it’s not a bad idea. Jerome Powell just warned that the US housing market needs a difficult correction so that folks can afford homes again. Mm hmm. We’ll see here in my corner of the Midwest, that’s all I can really speak to can’t speak to what’s going on on the coast or some huge metropolitan area. I’m still seeing a lot of overpriced bullcrap. Just being honest with you people that want an insane amount of money for houses that are not in a good area, or houses that look like they might blow apart in the next stiff wind, which we have plenty of here in the Midwest. The wind really does come sweeping down the plains. And it looks like oh, this matchbox will probably blow apart the next time that we have a thunderstorm. Oh, but I want my make 750k for it. Good luck. I think you missed the boat if you wanted to fleece somebody and conned them into taking your bullcrap house and you probably should have done that last summer, because at this point, I’m not seeing very many takers. For the smaller starter homes that are reasonably priced. Yes, people in this part of the Midwest are still buying those homes for larger homes or for homes that are on an acreage where somebody might want to homestead or do farming, if the house is a piece of crap. And it’s grossly overpriced. No takers. What what’s yet to come? I don’t know. I do know that typically, it takes time for whatever is trending on the coast to trickle inward to the Midwest. So we’ll see. I don’t know if there will be a crash that happens fast. Or if it will be a slow burn. I have no idea. But I am definitely content to wait on the sidelines until I see something that I really like and really want when also I can afford it. And what are the interest rates going to be like at that point in time? Who knows? Who knows? Also, there have been all kinds of rumors going around the interwebs, about September 24, which is tomorrow, aka when this broadcast will drop. Is something momentous going to happen? I don’t know. Whenever you look online, you’ll see people saying well, that’s just some kind of conspiracy theory. It’s possibly misinformation. Maybe this German politician who said September 24 was going to be an historic day. Maybe he misspoke. I don’t know. Personally, I think sometimes these messages get put out as misinformation. And I would say in my opinion, deliberate acts of misinformation. Now who’s the one pulling the strings behind the curtain? I don’t know. And wouldn’t wouldn’t even want to start throwing out theories and conjectures. But I do think sometimes the internet will take a crumb or a morsel of something and then blow it up into something insane so that Oh, I’m scared even leave my house. I don’t even want to go to the Dollar General on September 24. Because what if something bad happens? I have no idea. If anything terrible is going to happen? I hope not. Haven’t we been through enough? And whatever is yet to come in the economy, isn’t that going to be bad enough? We don’t need to be looking over our shoulder and fear feeling like we can’t, we can’t even get groceries on that particular day. Nevertheless, I don’t think it hurts to have good situational awareness and I don’t care whether we’re talking about cookie internet conspiracy theories, or whether we’re talking about just general basic safety. Like I said, dude in the in the store, and an offbeat time of the day, apparently drunk or high as hell dancing and singing and stumbling around. I mean, situational awareness is very important. You don’t want to get close enough to somebody for them to do something negative. I’ve also heard about people being on the parking lot of grocery store trying to put their things away and people just steal their stuff. They’re bought and paid for groceries, they just steal them drive off in a car and they’re gone before the person can even react. situation on the way awareness will not steer steer you in the wrong direction in my opinion. Getting tongue tied and tired is about time to go to bed. Stay safe, stay sane. I will see you in the next episode.
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