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When Starbucks named a new chief executive on August 13, replacing Laxman Narasimhan with Chipotle CEO Brian Niccol, the company had its best day ever trading on the stock market. But investor excitement wasn’t the only thing generating headlines about the news: Niccol’s remote work arrangement drew plenty of coverage, too.
The new CEO, who doubled the sales of the fast-casual burrito chain during his six-year tenure, will not be required to relocate to Seattle, where the coffee giant’s headquarters are located, the company said in a financial filing. Rather, Starbucks will pay for temporary housing arrangements in Seattle until Niccol secures “permanent secondary housing,” within three months of his start date, and will establish a “small remote office” in Newport Beach, California, which will be paid for by Starbucks. Bloomberg reports the arrangement has become more common.
That hardly means Niccol can work remotely anytime—he’s agreeing to commute to Seattle and travel for business “as is required to perform your duties and responsibilities,” his contract says. But it comes as more white-collar workers, including those at Starbucks, have been asked to work on-site. A few months ago, for instance, Walmart employees based in smaller offices in cities like Dallas and Atlanta were asked to relocate to bigger hubs, with most being asked to work out of a new campus at its Bentonville, Arkansas headquarters. At Starbucks, headquarters employees were asked early last year to work in the office three days a week.
If Niccol is a weekly presence in Seattle—and there’s nothing yet to suggest he won’t be—this is unlikely to be a concern. But employees at Starbucks and elsewhere will likely be watching to see if the expectations that apply to them also apply to the corner office. As hybrid work becomes a standard way of working, people expect the rules to apply to everyone.
How to finally make hybrid work work—after four years of debate over the issue—will be just one of the topics we’ll address at this year’s Future of Work Summit on September 12 in New York. Along with conversations with high-profile leaders about AI, skills-based hiring, work overload and the obstacles holding back working parents, it promises to be a day full of thought-provoking discussions. We hope to see you there—apply to attend by completing the registration form here.
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
Hollywood’s largest actors union announced Wednesday that it reached a deal allowing actors to sell the rights to replicate their voices using artificial intelligence to advertisers on a case-by-case basis. Actors will connect with potential advertisers and approve or deny requests via Narrative, a third-party platform that works directly with businesses to create audio spots.
Forbes’ list of the Next Billion-Dollar Startups for 2024 has a host of AI-driven businesses that could help reshape work, from Clay, an AI-based assistant that helps companies manage customer relationships by automating tasks, to Coactive AI, which helps marketing folks wrangle visual data. San Francisco startup Cortex helps teams track the owner and status of projects to eliminate administrative work, while Linear streamlines workflows and helps people know who’s working on which parts of a project. Check out the full list here.
HUMAN CAPITAL
The United Auto Workers union filed federal labor charges Tuesday against billionaire Elon Musk and former President Donald Trump for allegedly “attempting to intimidate and threaten workers” following comments Trump made in his interview with Musk on X, the social media platform owned by Musk. In the interview, Trump said to Musk “You walk in, you say, ‘you want to quit?’ They go on strike, I won’t mention the name of the company, but they go on strike and you say, ‘that’s okay, you’re all gone. You’re all gone. So, every one of you is gone.’” Forbes’ Brian Bushard reached out to Musk and the Trump campaign for comment.
REMOTE WORK
Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt walked back comments he made suggesting the company he formerly led was falling behind in the AI race because of its remote work policies. In response to a question about competition with OpenAI during a Stanford University discussion, Schmidt said “Google decided that work-life balance and going home early and working from home was more important than winning,” the Wall Street Journal reported. “The reason startups work is because the people work like hell.” In an email to the Journal on Wednesday, the paper reported, Schmidt said “I misspoke about Google and their work hours,” noting “I regret my error.”
WHAT’S NEXT: GLASSDOOR CEO CHRISTIAN SUTHERLAND-WONG
As more people look for jobs in an uncertain market, many are turning to job reviews site Glassdoor. But after its 2021 acquisition of employee feedback tool Fishbowl, the employee reviews and job listings site hopes to get people talking between job searches, too. The integration of Fishbowl has since set off concerns from some users about how anonymous they would remain. Forbes spoke with CEO Christian Sutherland-Wong about those questions, as well as what he’s seeing in the job market and how AI might help users summarize all those employee reviews. Excerpts from the interview have been edited for length and clarity.
The job market is so bifurcated right now. Demand for many jobs remains strong, but so many white-collar professionals are having so much trouble finding work. What are you seeing in the job postings?
I think we’re seeing very mixed signals as well. After the initial scare of Covid, there was crazy growth in job openings and a lot of recruiting activity happening. Then, it felt like it was correcting in 2023 and even through to now. … It’s not clear it has bottomed out yet, although we may be starting to see the bottom. In terms of activity on Glassdoor, there’s some sectors which still seem to be very strong: Nursing, retail, restaurants, tourism. There’s been a correction [in white-collar jobs]. But … it feels like at some point in the next 12 months we’ll turn a corner.
This job market—what impact is it having on Glassdoor’s business?
There’s two ways to look at our business: The consumer side and the employer side. … In this period, when we see more job seekers, that generally means we’ll have more people coming to Glassdoor. We’re also manufacturing more reasons to come to Glassdoor, as we expand into [with the acquisition of Fishbowl] trying to be relevant to more aspects of your work life. Not just when you’re looking for a job, but when you’ve got a job and you want to be talking with colleagues. … That’s been leading to a lot of growth internally on the consumer side.
Employers find value because consumers are there. We’ve historically made money through helping employers recruit on our platform, whether that be through sponsoring their open job positions, our partnership with Indeed or employer branding. Recruiting in general has gone through a tough market. Last year, we saw revenue contract. But we now have more optimism in what’s ahead.
What kind of traction are you getting on the integration of Fishbowl? Are people really using it?
The big opportunity here is that, historically, we thought about ourselves as a workplace reviews and salary site. We [were] relevant to people when they’re looking for a job. But there’s a lot of other parts of their work life, and historically, there wasn’t a reason to come to Glassdoor during that time.
Right now we have more than 25 million members registered into the [Fishbowl] community. That’s up from about 7 million the same time last year.
Employee pulse surveys happen twice a year and go stale very quickly. … I think our ability to create value for leadership with this tool is going to be phenomenal [with what employees are talking about in the online communities] once it scales within each of these companies. We don’t sell anything specifically today on that; that’s a future area of monetization.
There was a lot of coverage about adding verified names with the acquisition, and how anonymous users would remain. If I’m a Glassdoor user, make me feel confident that my name could never be associated with a scathing online review of my CEO or boss.
Anonymity is the lifeblood of Glassdoor and has always been and will always continue to be. When it comes to your reviews on our platform, and your salary submissions there, they have always been and will always be anonymous. There was some confusion around it as we’ve been entering into the community [space with Fishbowl]. We have been creating not just the opportunity to show up anonymously, but also to show up identified if you choose to do so. In doing so, it also helps out with our verification of you [as an employee].
We’re also taking feedback on that. For some people that can be scary. So we’re thinking through what is the right balance around how to balance both the verification and also some people’s desire for greater anonymity. We’re thinking through that.
AI would seem to offer a lot of help for summarizing the hundreds or even thousands of employee reviews about a large company for Glassdoor users. How are you using AI?
We’re actively working on features like that to summarize [reviews]. I think that’s the low-hanging fruit.
FACTS + COMMENT
Jobs site Indeed (which is owned by the same company as Glassdoor) recently polled Gen Z and Millennial professionals to understand what they think about politics and the workplace, surveying more than 1,000 young adult workers. As the run-up to the November election gets underway, here’s a glimpse of what the poll found:
40%: The percentage of Gen Z and Millennial workers who said they would quit their job due to political differences with their employer, or even over disagreeing with their CEO’s political stance.
44%: The share of respondents who said they have overheard politics being discussed in the workplace. More than half (54%) said they would feel uncomfortable with such discussions arising in a work meeting.
“The fact that almost half of us would rather quit our jobs over politically charged fractions than be open to respectfully coexisting is a telling sign of just how divisive we’ve become,” the Indeed report reads.
STRATEGIES + ADVICE
Here’s why asking women to lean in undermines your efforts at gender equality.
You can scale a business without over-hiring. Here’s how to avoid the most expensive mistakes.
Rigid hierarchies may be killing your team’s creativity. Here’s what to do instead.
VIDEO
These Next Billion-Dollar Founders Raised $110 Million To Treat Eating Disorders Virtually
QUIZ
After a rocky few years that included hundreds of recalls of its semi trucks, one electric vehicle manufacturer seems to be turning things around. Which company is producing hydrogen-powered big rigs that one logistics leader calls “the Bentley of trucks”?
- Tesla
- Nikola
- Rivian
- Mack
