Penis Swastika Logo?
This episode is NSFW... So ut the kids away for this one and cozy up with that fire. The boys are discussing:
- Slack's new Penis Swastika logo
- Accenture screws over CBP and taxpayers
- Glassdoor expands to New Zealand, Singapore and Hong Kong
- Gillette's new toxic masculinity ad campaign
- China's military problem: masturbation and video games
Your eardrums are going to need a thorough cleaning. Enjoy, and give our sponsors some love: Sovren, Canvas and JobAdX.
PODCAST TRANSCRIPTION sponsored by:
Announcer: Hide your kids, lock the doors. You're listening to HR's most dangerous podcast, Chad Sowash and Joel Cheesman are here to punch the recruiting industry right where it hurts. Complete with breaking news, brash opinion, and loads of snark. Buckle up, boys and girls. It's on for The Chad & Cheese Podcast.
Joel: This episode is definitely not safe for work. Let's get that out of the way right now. Welcome to the weekly episode of The Chad and Cheese Podcast, HR's most dangerous duo. I'm Joel Cheesman.
Chad: And I'm Chad not safe for work Sowash.
Joel: On this week's show, Ladders, the artist formerly known as The Ladders, takes innovation down to the bottom rung, Gillette shows off its softer side, and swastika penises.
Chad: What?
Joel: Yeah. You heard that right. You'll need to stay tuned to find out exactly what the hell we're talking about, but first, a word from our advertiser Sovren.
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Joel: Boom. Yeah. It's about to get real up in this piece. Let's go to shout outs.
Chad: There it is. Michael B. Clegg.
Joel: Michael B. Shore Clegg, friend of Al B. Sure, I'm sure. Damn. See, I'm so fired up I'm jumping the gun.
Chad: Uh huh.
Joel: All right. Michael Clegg, longtime vet, stumbled upon the show, loves it. Michael, this shout out's for you.
Chad: Yes. Shout out for you. He actually tweeted back to us as we said thanks for listening. He's like, "Hey, dude. I meant that I love your show." Someone that's been in the industry for 20 years, like he has, he's now a business owner. He needs this type of content more than ever. Then, he actually said, "We dumped CareerBuilder last year."
Chad: So, I don't know that it was us who was responsible for him dumping CareerBuilder, if it was just CareerBuilder's antics and shit that they did, but thanks for listening, Michael. We really appreciate it.
Joel: Pretty sure if CareerBuilder was working for them they wouldn't dump them because of idiots like us with a podcast. All right. I'm going to to Ryan Gill, then
Chad: There it is.
Joel: I don't know even what to say. Dude has mad video interviewing skills. He's got a guy with a camera who's got mad skills.
Chad: Dabs. Yeah.
Joel: Anyway, I don't know. You and I did a video interview with Ryan talking about a variety of things, from starting companies and podcasts and success and kids and sex, and who knows what else we talked about.
Chad: Yep.
Joel: If you haven't checked that out, do a beeline to at least one of our social medias and check that out. Did he post it somewhere on their site?
Chad: Yeah. Well, they posted it on social media. It's called Linked Up. I don't know if it's weekly, but they do a ton of content, which is awesome.
Chad: I have to say this, it is a cinematic experience that everybody needs to see. These guys really pull together good video. Ryan's the founder of the gathering which we're actually going to go to here at ... In a few weeks in Banff, and also the CEO and founder of a new talent marketplace called Communo.
Joel: You know it's pronounced Branff, right? All right. Shout out to a Tengai. Did I pronounce that right for you?
Chad: Good job.
Joel: Tengai, and it's Elin not Ellen. Tengai unbiased video. Another video if you haven't seen this. They are coming to Death Match in Lisbon this year. They have this creepy-ass robot that I refer to as a cross between a Barbie hairstyle bus thingy.
Chad: Yes. Yep.
Joel: And the I-Robot robots from the Will Smith movie.
Chad: Yes.
Joel: Anyway, they're going to come. They did a video of the robot trash talking us, and it's fantastic.
Chad: Dude, it's awesome. TNG and their unbiased robot recruiter, they call, they named Tengai, yeah, it's definitely creepy. They created this acceptance video, which is fucking hilarious. Reposted it on Linkedin.
Chad: If you're not following The Chad & Cheese Facebook page, go follow that. It's on there. Also, Ryan's video's on there. Go and check it out. It is freaking hilarious.
Joel: I'm starting to get the sense that as more video gets produced we need to just embed this on the site and send people to the site to see these videos.
Chad: Yeah, that's probably a good idea. When I find some time I'll see if I can get that done.
Joel: Yeah. Yeah. Roll the dice, come to ChadCheese.com, and see if these videos are up on the site.
Chad: Something like that.
Joel: Shout out to [Roy Mower 00:05:17], our buddy at SHRM.
Chad: Yeah, Roy.
Joel: He wrote a story on recruiting ethics and asked us for our ... Thought we should cover it. My thought was, "Us give criticism or insight on ethics? How about how to be a asshole podcaster? We'll give opinion on that, but ethics for recruiting? I don't know. Go to Steve Levy for that."
Chad: We might pull a recruiter on maybe and interview them around that and give them shit around it, and that's how we podcast, but I don't know if we should actually be doing the story on that. That's awesome.
Joel: Vendor ethics, maybe.
Chad: Oh, that's a good call, yeah.
Joel: Yeah.
Chad: Audra Knight and Katrina Collier, thank you so much for having me on The Social Recruiting Show.
Joel: Did they have a head injury or something? Maybe have some bad
pizza?
Chad: They called this the 2019 bitch fest, so they thought I might be able to add into the bitch session, I guess, so who knows. I guess we'll check it out.
Joel: Well, if anyone's a little bitch that can bitch, it's you, bitch. Shout out for me to Jobiak, right?
Chad: Ya.
Joel: The site we've had on for Firing Squad. They put your jobs on Google for jobs. Anyway, they reached out to me for a quote about where recruiting was going to go in 2019. I gave them a quote.
Joel: They put me in this thing called 20 Recruiting Experts, or 20 Experts Giving Their Insight into 2019. Double shout out for not including you in the top 20 experts, because they know what they're talking about.
Chad: Yeah. No. They just know that you're a sucker and hat was easy to be able to say, "Hey, we want you to share our shit." You got Cheesman. He's a sucker. Good job.
Joel: Yeah, yeah. Sugarcoat it however you want, Sowash.
Chad: Big shout out to Michael Strahan for pulling together a lobster dinner for the NCAA national champs, Clemson, since they had to eat burgers and chicken nuggets and shit at the White House.
Joel: Yeah. More on that later in the show, but, yeah, Strahan stepped up and bought lobster dinners for them, I guess.
Chad: Yep.
Joel: A nice PR for him as well doing that.
Chad: Very much, very much.
Joel: I'm surprised. How did Ruth's Chris or Morton's or somebody not come out and be like, "Oh, we'll do dinner?" Why no restaurant took advantage of that?
Chad: Dude, I guarantee you they had no fucking clue. He likes what he likes, and he likes fast food. He's like, "Fuck it. That's what I'm going to eat, that's what they're going to eat." There was no invitation out.
Joel: No, no, no, no, no, no, no. I'm saying why didn't every nice restaurant in the country see that he bought them burgers and say ...
Chad: Ah, I see. Afterward, yeah.
Joel: Yeah.
Chad: Gotcha.
Joel: Yeah.
Chad: Yeah.
Joel: Why didn't Ruth's Chris come out and say, "Hey, we'll invite the Clemson Tigers down to wherever and feed them a nice Ruth's Chris steak dinner?" Nobody jumped on that. I was kind of surprised.
Chad: Probably because they'll take the sanctions they just dropped on Russia and then put them on Ruth's Chris. That's why.
Joel: Yeah. Yeah.
Chad: Anyway ...
Joel: They're all employing immigrant workers that will all be put on furlough, or something. Jesus.
Chad: Shout out to Monster for their new ads. I think they're still the 15 second versions. They are fucking hilarious. I don't know if you've seen these or not. Have you seen these?
Joel: Yeah. It's the basic same premise, like I'm going to get a job, no you're not, and then they're gone basically getting a job really fast.
Chad: Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Joel: It's all mobile, which is good.
Chad: The copy's the same for every single experience, right? You've got a coder that's working right next to another coder. He's like, "Yeah, I found a job on Monster. I won't be here long." Guy's like, "Yeah, right." Looks back over and it's an entirely different person.
Joel: Yep.
Chad: Then you take it into an entirely different workspace. It's the exact same copy over and over and over in these different situations. It's fucking genius.
Joel: Chad likes comedy where he doesn't have to think too much.
Chad: Everybody does.
Joel: Yeah, I guess so.
Chad: Yeah.
Joel: Seinfeld. I'm done with shout outs. You done with shout outs?
Chad: Couple more I'm going to throw in [crosstalk 00:09:16].
Chad: Just opened ticket sales, so you definitely want to go to RecFest in London. Don't know. We might be there. TATech. Shit. We're going to be all over the place. We're going to be [crosstalk 00:09:27].
Joel: Yeah, we are.
Chad: [crosstalk 00:09:28] in Europe, and not to mention we're going to do a couple of TA Tech's here. One in Chicago for recruitment marketing, so all you recruitment marketers out there think about that one, and then Austin later this year for the big show for TATech. Check those out. Go to TATech.org, go to RecFest, and buy some fucking tickets.
Joel: The world is going to get very sick of us this year undoubtedly.
Chad: Sick of you [crosstalk 00:09:51].
Joel: [crosstalk 00:09:51]. Yeah. Okay. I love how RecFest tickets now available, like they're selling Woodstock or tickets to The Who like it's a big ...
Chad: Dude, it is a big fucking field right outside of London. It's supposed to be like a Lollapalooza kind of event. They start ... Even the bar's going to open at noon. It's going to be fucking crazy. I can't wait, man.
Joel: It's the Coachella of recruiting. That should be their little mantra.
Chad: Are we ready?
Joel: All right. Can we get to the damn show already?
Chad: Okay.
Joel: All right. Ladders. The artist formerly known as Ladders. By the way, don't go to Ladders.com because you'll actually go to a site about ladders.
Chad: Makes sense.
Joel: Even though they've changed their name, the URL doesn't work that way. You still have to go to The Ladders.
Chad: Yeah. From a marketing standpoint does that make any fucking sense? Why do I change my name to Ladders if my domain is The Ladders, knowing that people are going to search on Ladders and find ladders companies?
Joel: Well, Facebook used to be The Facebook and then they actually went out and bought Facebook.com to just be Facebook dot ... Just be Facebook.
Chad: Yeah. Right.
Joel: Now, if Facebook went to the Harvard students' directory we'd say that's the dumbest move in marketing history.
Chad: Yeah.
Joel: Ladders is no different. It's not as obviously big or influential as Facebook, but, yes. If you're going to change your name, go to the ladder guy who's got the URL and offer him some money, because you're so successful that you can actually own Ladders.com.
Chad: Okay. I digress.
Joel: There's a high price for ladders eCommerce, apparently.
Chad: Yeah, I'm sure.
Joel: Anyway, Ladders comes out with a press release this week. I get a lot of press releases and this one really stood out. Sometimes spammers will sort of regurgitate press releases from days gone by. I thought, "An announcement about [pay per click 00:11:51], maybe I missed that." Okay?
Joel: They announced that they're adding a pay per click solution to their job site. I go to the site and I'm like, "Maybe the date is from 2008, maybe I just missed this." No. It's a new announcement. Okay?
Chad: For pay per click?
Joel: For pay per click. Okay. From the release, this is a quote, "With cost per click Ladders continues to innovate to provide high-level talent acquisition in recruiting professionals with the right tools that attract the best and most active candidates." Is PPC innovation? Discuss.
Chad: No. There's no discussion behind it. I can't believe that they actually put together a press release.
Joel: Yeah, like an agency and everything.
Chad: Oh, so they had an agency. This wasn't just some intern that they said, "Hey, write something up about pay per click. We're going to put this shit out to see to see if it catches anybody."
Joel: Yeah. This is a tweet. This is like a, hey, head's up, we should've done this 10 years ago, but we're doing it now. We got pay per click. Thanks. No. Their agency got behind it, press release, everything, so it was a big deal.
Joel: Then I thought, "Well, maybe they're innovating in other ways," right? Given fresh eye. So, I go to the site. They have advertising options, so their advertising options are basically email blasts, sponsored posts, and everyone's favorite, banner ads. Remember leader boards and skyscrapers?
Chad: Oh, yeah.
Joel: They still got those at the Ladders. Nothing about AI, big data, [crosstalk 00:13:26], programmatic advertising.
Chad: Oh my god.
Joel: This was a really hilarious post for me to write and a news report that really, really made me laugh. Maybe we're missing something. Maybe we're not being fair, so let's just put it out there. Ladders, if you want to come on the show, tell us how you're innovating, tell us how you're kicking ass and taking names, you're more than welcome to come on and talk to us.
Chad: We'd love to have you, as a matter of fact. There's something beyond this press release. It probably should've been on the fucking press release, but if there is some insights beyond the press release we'd love to be able to hear it because that shit does not sound innovative at all in 2019. 2006, I could give you that, but today? Not even close.
Joel: Yeah. You and I, we had a good time reviewing the site for the show today. Things like there is no do it yourself job posting eCommerce functionality.
Chad: Yeah.
Joel: You can't just go on and post a job, which we're going back to the 90s for that kind of stuff.
Chad: Oh, yeah.
Joel: You actually have to put in your email and have someone contact you, which I'm sure is a nice little funnel for leads for them, but, anyway, yeah, the site doesn't scream innovation. If we're missing something, let us know, but otherwise this is just 2007 back to the future, making money the old way job site.
Chad: In the meantime, quit putting out stupid fucking press releases.
Joel: Yeah. The money that you're giving to your agency, hire some developers and make some real stuff. When you make some real stuff, people like us will talk about it and go, "Hey, that's pretty cool."
Chad: Yeah. You know what I would think is pretty cool?
Joel: Go check out the Ladders.
Chad: I think it would be pretty cool if ... Tell us how you go through the matching process of, or the courting process or being able to help from a negotiation standpoint, navigation, give us something new. This is old shit, right?
Joel: Sure. The business model is challenged. Let's be honest. When Ladders came out in 2003, whatever it was, if you put on 100K job every Tom, Dick and idiot applied to it. There weren't filtering functions, there was no way to pre-screen people and filter those folks out.
Chad: Well, you had to subscribe. Remember that, right?
Joel: Yeah.
Chad: That was the only filtering that you had is if you wanted to have a 100K job and above you had to subscribe.
Joel: Pay to play.
Chad: You had to pay to actually gain access to those jobs, which, to be quite frank, you could find them anywhere else on the web.
Joel: Yep.
Chad: It just made people feel special. You go in, you pay your little thing, and then, yeah, you're right, you can just hammer the shit out of anybody who's in the database.
Joel: Sure. 2008 happened and every job site went to hell for a while. In that meantime, profiles started getting put on websites like Linkedin. Everyone had information, and Github happened.
Joel: Now, if you need a high-level executive making six figures, my guess is most companies are going straight to the source and going to Linkedin or wherever. They're not probably even posting a lot of these jobs.
Chad: No.
Joel: To me, I don't even know how the business model works today with everything that has changed since when they first launched.
Chad: Yeah. You don't have to post those jobs. That's the big key, right?
Joel: Yeah, and if you do it's programmatic. The machines do it and find out where the best sources are. You can screen these folks and you can chat bot them up and find out if they're really qualified.
Chad: Yeah.
Joel: Yeah.
Chad: You let executive search take care of that shit.
Joel: Or there's that.
Chad: Yeah.
Joel: Yeah. That's expensive, but, yeah, you could do that.
Chad: Yeah. Well, it's expensive to get someone who's good and vetted,
right?
Joel: Quality ain't cheap, Chad.
Chad: No. Exactly.
Joel: But, bad, bad podcasters are a dime a dozen.
Chad: We're everywhere.
Joel: Exactly.
Chad: What about-
Joel: Well, I've said all I want to say about the Ladders.
Chad: Okay, well, what about good advertising campaigns as we flow and segue into the next one?
Joel: Okay. Well, we can debate whether this is a good ad strategy. You paint the picture. You're a big fan of this ad. You like it. Some people haven't seen it, I'm sure, particularly people overseas. Gillette, who historically has been a very machismo product, Gillette, the best a man can get. It's power suits and chiseled jaws in the shower.
Chad: Yep.
Joel: This is what we're used to. They did a 180 on their latest ad campaign.
Chad: Yeah. It's still behind the best a man can get, right? It just revitalized for 2019. The internet just lit up. People really ... Okay, so, men, really, they're going apeshit because this ad broaches toxic masculinity.
Chad: The ad in itself really it goes through mansplaining, bullying, dads saying the boys will be boys making everything all right, catcalling, aggressive types of behavior toward women. Then, it actually shows, which is interesting, Terry Tate, I can't remember his real name, but [Terry Tate 00:18:45] the actor who is testifying in Congress, saying that men need to hold other men accountable.
Chad: Then, the commercial shifts gears. Buddies and dads step into role models and show that that behavior isn't acceptable. The boys watching today will be the men of tomorrow. That was one of the big kind of role model lines in the ad.
Chad: From my standpoint I thought it was gold, especially that after Gillette did the Shakeem Griffin ad, the dude who has a disability, doesn't have one of his hands. He made it into the NFL, and telling that story. They're really getting behind storytelling and trying to change what their brand looks like.
Joel: I'm totally for the message and the movement that's happening in our world.
Chad: Yeah, me too.
Joel: Because we're the same age, you'll remember some of this stuff. A lot of it isn't new.
Chad: Yeah.
Joel: I remember growing up being told it's okay to cry. I remember growing up, and this is the 70s.
Chad: Yeah.
Joel: Turning the other cheek, right? There was actually a Kenny Rogers song about turning the other cheek and looking the other way, right? The message to me ... I think ... I don't want to say it's recycled and it's refurbished for a new era, but men being sensitive is not a new thing, at least from my memory growing up and this thing.
Joel: Now, where it's new is is when companies that are historically macho and they've built their brand on that men masculinity, that they're changing their brand. While I agree with the message, I'm really skeptical as to the brand pivot for Gillette.
Chad: Yeah.
Joel: To go from man's man, macho, power suits, hot women rubbing your cheeks, going from that to what they've gone to it's just a real risk with brand. For me, the bigger thing that ... The bigger problem they have is the trend of beards, as well as Dollar Shave Club.
Chad: Yeah.
Joel: Because I have to imagine those two things are a bigger blow to their business. I would've preferred from a marketing standpoint to try to tackle those issues than make a political statement.
Chad: Yeah. I think you're really shortsighted on this issue because I don't think that this ad was only focused on men.
Joel: Yeah.
Chad: Gillette also makes products for women, right? Yeah, they do, so therefore if you take a look at ...
Joel: No clue.
Chad: Well, I have a wife, and she shaves, so I kind of know these things.
Joel: Let's assume Gillette makes women products. Okay, gotcha.
Chad: No, they do. It's pretty simple. This is not just an ad that is focused on one segment just being men. Yes, it is speaking to men, but it's speaking to everybody. All those people could perspectively buy their products.
Chad: I did have somebody on Facebook actually say, "Great message, wrong messenger. Gillette is just doing this to look good." It's like, yeah, no shit. That's what
advertising and marketing and PR is about, right?
Chad: I think when it comes down to the brand, not just from buying something but also working there, so we also talk about employer branding, and wanting to be able to go to a company that's ... Really represents your values, right? It's not just about the product, it's about working for a company as well.
Chad: Being able to set this brand up overall I think is incredibly smart and real business. I understand that we're all in talent acquisition, HR, or whatever, but are we so divorced from real business that we can't understand the actual basics of brand? Because that's what this is.
Chad: Now, here's the problem, right? If Gillette is not focusing on equity then there's a serious problem. If their ranks and their positions are not flushed with equity with women, people of color, if the pay scale is not equitable, yeah, there's a huge problem.
Chad: That could actually create damage for that brand, but for everybody to be able to see a message like this, not just men, but everybody, I think it's awesome for their brand. Not just their product brand, but also their employer brand.
Joel: I certainly agree that for ... They're going to sell a lot more women's products because of the message, and I agree that from a recruiting standpoint this is going to open up a whole new sort of awareness of the company through a much broader spectrum of candidates. I think you've turned me on that. I think time will tell in terms of the
numbers of what this does.
Chad: Okay.
Joel: They're probably letting their ... They're ignoring their position of being the masculine product. Someone will probably come along and try to take that from them and hold that brand, because there is some value in that, right? There is. Men are still men.
Chad: They are.
Joel: [crosstalk 00:24:05].
Chad: I don't think that they're saying that men aren't. I think what they're trying to say is that we have a responsibility as men. Boys will be boys, right? We don't treat each other like that.
Chad: That was the big difference in the message. Where there are guys at grills, there's two boys are fighting. When the gears shift, one of the dads actually walk over. It goes from boys will be boys, which was an excuse to allow that kind of aggressive behavior, number one, to, two, hey, we don't treat each other that way.
Joel: Sure.
Chad: It's not masculinity. You're trying to throw this away as, well, they don't care about masculinity. That's total bullshit. What they're saying is we've evolved as a people, which we should, not all of us, and we should understand that we shouldn't treat other human beings like this, whether it's another guy or another female, right? It's a pure definition of what they believe masculinity should be.
Joel: Okay.
Chad: That's a great employment brand, by the way.
Joel: Yeah. Yeah. I think brand is what your customers say masculinity is, not what you say it is. So, we'll see.
Chad: Yeah. Yeah. This is coming from a guy who likes to fight, right? I enjoy it as a sport, but I see that.
Joel: Sure.
Chad: And I agree with it.
Joel: Yeah. You don't ... Yeah. Being a meathead does not automatically make you a catcaller and an idiot.
Chad: Yeah.
Joel: To me, masculinity is you're the opposite of that, right? Like, you're strong enough to honor people and be respectful and not hit people.
Chad: And don't get me wrong, I've mansplained shit before, right?
Joel: Yeah.
Chad: I've been put in my place. I've also ... I've been that dumb quote unquote masculine kid slash man. We all change, so I think this is a great opportunity to see a brand actually change and evolve and say, "You know what? You know what? That probably wasn't good when we did that shit back there." That's fine. Change your behavior and move on. Look forward.
Joel: Fair enough. Let's hear from JobAdX and talk about swastika penises.
Chad: It's a great segue.
Joel: We'll be right back.
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Chad: Penises? Really? That's what we're going from?
Joel: Swastika penises.
Chad: Oh, okay.
Joel: You got to throw that one in there, too.
Chad: Yeah. Yeah, yeah.
Joel: You know what? I'm feeling older and older with so many of the societal changes and cultural and age and everything. It kind of sucks. I was looking at the lineup for Coachella this year. I knew and wanted to see maybe two of the bands that were there. I thought, "Man, I'm old."
Chad: Yeah, but I think this is a great opportunity for you to actually get out, see those bands, and experience some of these new bands. You might find a new band to follow.
Joel: Yeah. I used to have time to do that, listen to new bands. Anyway ...
Chad: Yes.
Joel: All right. Slack unveiled a new logo this week.
Chad: Yeah.
Joel: That it looks a little bit like a swastika with little I guess scrotums underneath, would you say?
Chad: I'd say it looks like kind of like a Microsoft ... Like, their little square where they have four different colors.
Joel: Yeah.
Chad: Now, this has four different colors, but it looks like four different penises on top of each other.
Joel: Yeah.
Chad: I don't know that I see a swastika as much, but I do see that this ...
Kind of like this stacked penis logo thing that ...
Joel: Oh, that's funny because when I looked at it I immediately saw swastika. I was like, "Okay, penises, look for those. Okay. Scrotum, phallic symbol. Okay, got it." Yeah. The internet is blowing up with talk about the swastika penises that Slack has
unveiled. Their old logo, as many know, was a hashtag sign.
Chad: Yeah.
Joel: Which to me works perfectly well.
Chad: Yeah.
Joel: I don't know why you need to change that. Companies get really overzealous with logo changes. Uber's changed it a few times, and Airbnb changed it to some weird V, upside-down V, thing. I don't know. It's very big now for agencies to want to push for logo changes for some reason.
Chad: Well, it's a good way to get cash from a company. From the reports
that we've seen, back in October of last year Slack had $900 million cash in hand, right?
Joel: Oh good god. Yes.
Chad: Yeah.
Joel: Yes. A report this week as well, Slack had apparently $640 million revenue predicted for next year. They had $900 million on hand. Now, they've gotten a ton of money, but nowhere near what we're talking about. It blows my mind to start talking about those kinds of numbers for a messaging platform.
Chad: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Joel: It's kind of crazy, dude.
Chad: Well, I'm going to fault JZ for sending this podcast down the wrong road, because it's going to get worse, my friend, I promise.
Joel: By the way, that's not the rapper JayZ in case anyone is wondering if Chad is actually that cool. He's really not.
Chad: No, I'm not.
Joel: No.
Chad: Really not. Let's go ahead and transition into the next non-penis, or at least it starts out that way.
Joel: Yeah. You've got some spare time on your hands, go look at Slack logos.
Chad: Yeah.
Joel: And have a good laugh.
Chad: It's ridiculous. Last week we were actually talking about the Army's recruiting woes and how it was really hard for them to recruit, and how they were doing some really cool and innovative things with eSports.
Joel: Yeah.
Chad: This week, [Task and Purpose 00:30:19] had some more data on that. Actually, they were talking about an estimated 72% of individuals in North Carolina are ineligible to join the military due to being overweight, lacking the adequate education, or having a history of crime or drug use. 71% of people living in North Carolina are ineligible for military service.
Joel: Okay, so you were in the military.
Chad: Yeah.
Joel: All right. I was not, which you can't tell by looking at me, but I wasn't in the military. Paint the scene for me. I'm a kid, I'm an 18 year old.
Chad: Yeah.
Joel: I go into the recruiting office. Do they look at you and go, "You're too fat?" Do they give you an IQ test? What is screening these kids out of the military exactly? What's the process?
Chad: Yeah. Generally ... Okay. Depends on whether we're at war and we need to beef up military or not, because this will change, right? It always does. You go in, you take an ASVAB test, which is a test across all military branches. It gives you a score. They do some physical testing. They also do some medical history background things that kick a lot of people out.
Chad: To be quite frank, as being a drill sergeant, an infantry drill sergeant, down in Fort Benning, Georgia, I had many an Army recruiter who I hate send me down range kids that are 40 pounds easy overweight, right?
Joel: Yeah.
Chad: It's my job in 14 weeks to do one of two things, to hopefully knock 40 pounds off that kid's ass or he's going to break because of all the weight on ... Obviously gravity does things.
Joel: If I'm just a high school graduate I couldn't ...
Chad: Yeah.
Joel: Would that be passing the intelligence test or do I still have to take the test of the ... From the Army?
Chad: Yeah. You have to take ... No, you have to take the ASVAB, which, again, it's just one test for all military.
Joel: Okay. Then, how hard is this thing?
Chad: It's not hard, but it's not incredibly easy. A lot of it what it is today is it actually focuses on how you troubleshoot and how you think about solving the questions that they ask. To be quite frank, it wasn't a breeze, but it wasn't incredibly hard.
Joel: With the Commander in Chief serving Big Macs and Filet-O-Fishes in the White House, it's no mystery why it all goes downhill, right? Kids see that.
Chad: Yeah. Yeah.
Joel: Fast food, our president does it.
Chad: Yeah.
Joel: The world's just falling apart pretty much.
Chad: Well, that, and then we're talking about not being able to have enough individuals in our military ranks in the first place for our national defense. Then, The Wall Street Journal comes out with a fucking op-ed or something like that that says women don't belong in combat units.
Chad: It's like we can't find enough people as it is, but yet women don't belong in combat units. Again, me being a guy who's been in the infantry, if you can do the job I don't care who you are, right? If you can do the job, if you can physically do the job, then you should be there.
Joel: Yeah.
Chad: My whole thought process was am I healthy enough to pick up the person next to me if they're injured, put them on my back, and get the hell out of the AO, right? That was ...
Joel: Yeah.
Chad: Now, the next question I was asking is looking to things person next to me and say, "Are they healthy enough to do that for me?" Right? It's fucking ridiculous. Then, transition to the next piece, border patrol, they're having issues as well. There's no question.
Joel: Yeah.
Chad: But, there's this ... Thanks for sharing Tim Hawk's story from NPR, border patrol had paid Accenture approximately $13.6 million of a close to $300 million contract to recruit and hire 7,500 individuals into custom and border patrol.
Joel: Yeah. That seems about right.
Chad: Yeah. No, it does not. That's $40,000 per hire, number one. Number
two, that's like a fucking $500 hammer, right? Within 10 months into this first year of this five year contract, Accenture had only two accepted job offers. Oh, god. It's fucking ridiculous.
Chad: There's serious problems and they're having performance issues. There's no question whatsoever. Accenture was doing this with $300 million, right? A contract for $300 million. They had already been fronted $13.6.
Chad: Then, they actually had to use the government agency's applicant tracking system when Accenture failed to deploy its own. With that kind of money, man, I can pull together a great team, a great process, and I guarantee you you'll have more than two fucking hires.
Joel: Well, the good news is, according to a New York Post article, the Chinese Red Army is in no better shape than our Army. According to the article, the People's Liberation Army ...
Chad: Yes.
Joel: I guess they're not the Red Army anymore is now dishing out advice after one city saw more than half its candidates fail their physicals. More troubling than that is a masturbation problem.
Chad: The Chinese military says excessive.
Joel: Excessive.
Chad: And too many video games are among the reasons its physical test failure rates have been ... You can't make this shit up. Dude, think of it.
Joel: No, you can't.
Chad: China's girl to guy ratio is totally out of whack. It's like five to one, or seven to one, or whatever the hell it is. What the hell did they expect? They'd better get their sex robot industry up and running quick.
Robot: Shall we play a game?
Joel: Yeah, well, eventually the robots are going to fight each other, anyway. All the fat, dumb people in the world can have sex with the sex robots.
Chad: Oh, this is ridiculous. Can we go to an ad?
Joel: Sure. We can go to an ad. Let's hear from ... Who we got now? Canvas. Yeah. Canvas will love being put on after that one.
Canvas: Canvas is the world's first intelligent text-based interviewing platform, empowering recruiters to engage, screen, and coordinate logistics via text, and so much more. We keep the human, that's you, at the center while Canvas Bot is at your side adding automation to your workflow.
Canvas: Canvas leverages the latest in machine learning technology and has powerful integrations that help you make the most of every minute of your day. Easily amplify your employment brand with your newest culture video or add some personality to the mix by firing off a Bitmoji.
Canvas: We make compliance easy and are laser-focused on recruiter success. Request a demo at Gocanvas.io and in 20 minutes we'll show you how to text at the speed of talent. That's Gocanvas.io. Get ready to text at the speed of talent.
Joel: Please tell me the Russian Army has similar issues.
Chad: I have no clue. I don't even want to do any research on that right now at all.
Joel: Let's talk about Glassdoor.
Chad: Okay.
Joel: Glassdoor opened shop in three markets internationally this week. They opened Hong Kong, Singapore, and New Zealand. Hobbits need jobs, too, apparently. My point on this is I've predicted that the Glassdoor brand will go away eventually. It'll just get sucked up by Indeed who's ... They're both owned by the same parent company.
Joel: If anything, this move of growth says maybe they're not going to go away anytime soon. They're actually opening up new markets. The word is they're going to be opening up more places, more cities and countries this year. Yeah, little bit of news tip there. If you're doing business in Hong Kong, Singapore, and New Zealand your employees have a new place to go talk shit about you.
Chad: Isn't that like Kununu? Are they trying to squeeze Kununu, do you think?
Joel: It is interesting. Kununu a little bit more European.
Chad: Okay.
Joel: Indeed is most definitely in those areas and I'm sure have the reviews sections as well. Yeah. They're not huge markets. From a population perspective, you're looking at probably 15 million people with those three markets, so it's not super huge.
Chad: Yeah.
Joel: New markets aren't super hard to open, right?
Chad: Yeah.
Joel: A little bit of language thing, a little bit of whatever, a new URL, and you're off and running. It's not like a huge herculean effort to open up in some of these places.
Chad: A little language thing. That's easy. That's not a big deal.
Joel: Translation.
Chad: Yeah. That is interesting because, as you have talked about, kind of Glassdoor coming under the Indeed umbrella, I agree that I see that happening, but I don't see it happening from a brand standpoint. We've talked about this before.
Chad: I think this actually kind of bodes to what I've been talking about. I think they really want two brands that can try to own more wallet share. If they continue to go down this path they have a good opportunity to do that.
Joel: If they continue on this path they will have proven Chad Sowash right for the first time on this podcast.
Chad: Lies. Lies.
Joel: All right. Gig economy, our final story in this painful episode.
Chad: Okay.
Joel: Many people probably know, at least in this country, that there's a government shutdown. 27 days at this point.
Chad: Yeah.
Joel: The longest in history. National parks are being flooded with fecal matter and trash. It's just a mess. It's horrible.
Chad: [crosstalk 00:40:44].
Joel: So, no surprise, we've talked about this before, when people get unemployed or don't have something to do it's ... I think both of us agree that they're going to start gravitating toward the gig economy.
Chad: Yeah.
Joel: How can I make money? How can I on the side drive an Uber, develop shit, make a graphic? Whatever it is. We have some proof and a story this week abut the gig economy really might explode if more and more people get knocked out of work.
Chad: Yeah, yeah. There's no question. Oh, man. 800,000 people. Those people, obviously they contribute to the economy every single day by spending money, and not everybody has a huge bank account that they can just draw from. All these 800,000 people are not millionaires, right?
Joel: Yeah.
Chad: They've got to find ways. I actually saw a story last night where a guy was saying, "Hey, look. I had to go pull weeds for one of my neighbors. They gave me 20 bucks so that I could have gas money to get to ... To take my kid to his appointment."
Joel: Yeah.
Chad: Those types of things. They're looking for any way to survive during this bullshit that's happening.
Joel: Yeah. I heard a number today that a very high percentage of Americans don't have more than $400 in a savings account for moments like this. With the federal workforce, you're looking at I think 16% of the population.
Chad: Yeah.
Joel: It's a huge number of people. The story talked about Fiverr, another popular ... We talk about Upwork quite a bit, but Fiverr is another sort of place for people to pick up contract work, or gigs if you will, experienced 350% increase since the government shutdown.
Joel: Yeah. We both think that a lot of good things growth-wise are going to happen with Upwork and Fiverr. We've talked about Microsoft potentially buying Upwork, or somebody. I think Fiverr's on the table as well because once the economy goes south these sites are going to explode.
Chad: Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think that was one area in Maryland, the Lexington Park area, that holds a very large percentage of the population there is obviously government workers. They experienced the 350% increase in gigs.
Joel: Buy your Upwork stock today, kids. Don't take financial advice from me, and we out.
Chad: We out.
Stella: Hi, this is Stella Cheesman. Thanks for listening to The Cheese & Chad Podcast, or at least that's what I call it. Anyway, make sure you subscribe on iTunes that silly Android thingy or wherever you listen to podcasts. Be sure to give buckets of money to our sponsors. Otherwise, I may be forced to take that coal mining job I saw on Monster.com. We out.
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