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Chad Sowash

HackaJob + SkyNet


Do you like your snark served up with a heaping helping of despair? Then this episode is for you. Permanent layoffs, stock crashes, and a commercial real estate meltdown are just the beginning of what A.I. has in store for us. And let’s throw in robot baby daddies to boot and child labor run amok at McDonald’s. The good news may be ridding ourselves of high-priced CEOs forever. Oh yeah, and a couple of startups - Hackajob and Simpplr - got funding, but we’re kinda mixed on those too. We’ll even throw in fake obituaries and a Gen X rant. The end is nigh, humans. 🤖


PODCAST TRANSCRIPTION sponsored by:


Intro: 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 time for the Chad & Cheese Podcast.


Joel: Oh yeah, happy Cinco de Mayo! 47% of all drinks ordered in the US today are margaritas. Hola ninos. You're listening to the Chad & Cheese Podcast. This is your co-host Joel Cerveza Cheesman.


Chad: And this is Chad I'll-have-a-Corona Sowash.


Joel: And on this week's episode, Hackajob comes to America, not-so-happy meals at McDonald's, and the end is nigh humans.


S?: Shall we play a game?


Joel: Let's do this.







Chad: Damn, back from Vegas just in time to rest up and get ready. Well, you had a mini-marathon. [laughter] Now we get rest up, then we have Cinco de Mayo, then we find ourself back on the left coast again next week.


Joel: Yeah, there's a pool with my name on it. I'm a little concerned, though Chad, these hotels are getting really nice that these companies are having these events. I'm not sure they're gonna let a guy like me in, I'm gonna have to hit up a Motel 6 off of Highway 66 or something.


Chad: Econo Lodge.


Joel: Yeah, Econo Lodge, Holiday Inn Express, I don't know, I'm getting a little worried. A little high class.


Chad: The Cheesman brand has to be, it has to be solid. The Econo Lodge Cheesman brand.


Joel: That's my people. Give me an all-you-can-eat waffle bar and I am a happy, happy man everybody, happy.


Chad: Shout out.


Joel: I got a shout out, Chad. And I got a beef.


Chad: Oh God, here we go.


Joel: I got a beef with Gen-X.


Chad: Already? Oh with us?


Joel: I got a beef with Gen-X. A Gen-X beef, yeah.


Chad: Okay, fuck.


Joel: So you and I came of age when the baby boomers were going from their like hippie, Woodstock period to their Wall Street greed-is-good period, and we all swore like, "That's not gonna happen to us, we're... "


Chad: Their cool-to-asshole period, is what I call it, yeah.


Joel: Yeah, our pop-icons are gonna be solid. And I point anyone younger to go search an interview with Kurt Cobain back in the early '90s, where they told Kurt that Madonna's tickets, concert tickets were 50 plus dollars, and Kurt gob-smacked, couldn't believe it. I think Nirvana tickets at the time were probably $12 to $15. So anyway, my wife is a huge Pearl Jam fan, it's her favorite band, they're touring this year, and they're coming to Indianapolis for the first time in over a decade, they're only doing nine cities.


Chad: Yeah.


Joel: So she's super excited and people will also remember the '90s that Pearl Jam was this band that fought Ticketmaster, fought the man, was anti-capitalism, pro Green, they were sort of the poster childs for this. Well, you gotta register to even buy tickets, so you put your name in a little lottery, and then you get an email whether you can buy tickets. Well, my wife was selected, went to go buy tickets and wanted to get the best tickets possible. Well, to her surprise, the best tickets possible now to a Pearl Jam concert are in the $800 to the $1000 range.


Chad: Oh God.


Joel: Let me say it again, 800 to $1000 range.


S?: Boo.


Chad: Fighting the man to become the man.


Joel: How much pro-capitalist is the other guy, but if your brand is based on fighting the man, doing it for the fans, keeping it real, Dave Matthew style, Fish style, etcetera, you can't drop 800 to $1000 tickets at a concert, so I had to get that out, little Gen-X disappointment there, little beef with Pearl Jam, Ten and Vs. Are still fantastic albums, but I'm a little less bullish on Pearl Jam at the moment. And did they need money? Did Eddie? Was Eddie broke? Was Andy hurting? I mean, come on now.


Chad: Never meet your heroes. Never meet your heroes. My first shout out goes to Rahkeem Morris, the CEO of HourWork, he actually sat with our dumb asses for about an hour and a half, actually more than that, to create the New voices five-part series. We dropped it yesterday, Wednesday, a five-part binge-able series. So go check it out, you can go to the chadcheese.com, go to Voices, you can check it out there. Also, I created a Spotify playlist. That's right, all you have to do is search Voices and Rahkeem Morris. But five episodes. This dude's journey, I'm talking about way back when he was like a kid, like a pre-teen, his journey to all the way through today is just an amazing, an amazing story, and I'm glad we got a chance to do this series.


Joel: I feel like we've either jumped the shark with this five-part series, or we're gonna start giving Netflix a run for its money. I'm not sure.


S?: Doesn't anyone notice this? I feel like I'm taking crazy pills.


Joel: Alright, so you mentioned my mini-marathon after my liver destruction tour date in Vegas.


Chad: Yes, yes.


Joel: So I'm sitting down, I go to Louisville, and Louisville will come up later in the show by the way, I'm sitting down with my nieces, my family, and my nieces are in their 20s, I like to get like what's trending, what's happening? What kind of app should I be paying attention to? They're on BeReal, they're obviously on TikTok and everything. And one of my nieces says, the latest trend is fake obituaries and people are faking deaths, faking like literal death certificates and statements to employers, and apparently it's easier than ever with work-from-home and remote, you can just pick these things online.


Chad: Come on.


Joel: There are templates.


Chad: Come on.


Joel: I'm telling you. So I just... I want all the HR people out there to listen, to know, to be on alert that fake obituaries are a thing. So I'm gonna play you the sound bite from the TikTok and just to give you a flavor. Here we go.


S?: My dad has died at every single job I've ever been at, sometimes I forget when he really died because I've said he died, I lied and said that he died so many times. My cousin Reed told me, she said, "If he don't do nothing else for you, at least he can get you a couple of days off work, and then when you come back, you get so much attention, everyone feels bad for you, and you might even get some motherfucking flowers." So ever since then like, "My dad died, I'm sorry I got a, you know, bereavement." That bereavement's a bitch too. Once you got that bereavement, set. He ain't do nothing else for you, might as well get you off a couple of days.


Joel: Hope it's still funny in hell, Gen-Z. I hope it's still funny in hell, shout out to fake obituaries.


Chad: It says something about our society when it's that hard to get a fucking day off, you gotta fake your dad's death. It says something about the character of that person, but it also says something about our society. One good thing about our society, I'm gonna give a big shout out to Mark Coleman and the UNLEASH team for an amazing event, number one, but I have a special shot out that's a little bit more personal. Are you ready for this one?


Joel: Oh, do you want?


Chad: It's not sexy, okay? It's not sexy at all.


Joel: Oh, no.


Chad: So you and some listeners might already know that my step-daughter Kennedy lives and works in Budapest. Less than a year ago, she started working with Mark and the UNLEASH team in the midst of preparing for a huge UNLEASH America event. Kennedy living in Budapest had a medical emergency, so Julie jumped on a flight and Mark and the team dropped everything and provided amazing support to Kennedy. Long story short, she had minor surgery, was on a flight to Vegas with Mama Julie less than a week after the surgery. So this was something that could have been major, but because of the quick reactions, the care and the support from Mark, Gina, Orci, and the team at UNLEASH, a crisis was averted. So shout out to an amazing UNLEASH team.


Chad: It's one of those things where you have friends in the industry, you have people that you have acquaintances in the industry, obviously, we are continuing to find the people that are more than friends, but family, and we're starting to, I think, have even deeper connections than we ever have, and I am thankful. So thanks guys.


Joel: It feels very European to me, I feel like if it had happened in America, it would have been like, "Good luck. See you at the bar."


Chad: Rugged individualism. You'll be fine.


Joel: Good luck. See you later, see you later. All right, Chad, well, we mention it on every show.


Chad: Yes.


Joel: We got free shit and I took a bunch of T-shirts items to Vegas. I got rid of all of them. These things are hot, hot, hot items.


Chad: They are.


Joel: The Canadians can't get enough. I think they're re-selling them at a top dollar in Calgary and Winnipeg, I think they're hot items. So anyway, if you wanna get one in your mailbox, you gotta go to Chadcheese.com/free or click the free link. We're talking beer from our friends at Aspen Tech Labs, whiskey from Textkernel, free t-shirts from JobGet. And if it's your birthday, Chad, you could win rum with plum, that's right, we'll send you a nice bottle of rum from our friends at Plum, but you gotta play if you wanna win. Chadcheese.com, click the free link to win.


S?: You know what that means. Can you feel the tension in the air right now? I know I can. I can feel it all the way down in my plums.


Joel: All right, that brings us to birthday shout-outs for the week, these people are spending another trip around the sun, shout out to Annie Jarvis, Glen Hill, Garvit Sharma, Jerry Frank, Peter Shapira, Shauna Berdholdt, Keegan Ocepek, Stefan James, Sarah Starkweather, Sarah Addison, Bennet Song, who we interviewed, so be on the look out for that. JT O'Donnel, the mouth of Portsmith, she's celebrating another year around the sun. Robert Rainer, Alfonso Zamora, Herb Drew, Lou Adler, Matt Kaiser, and our favorite Chicagoan, Joe Shaker.


S?: Happy birthday.


Joel: All another year older. Happy Birthday everybody.


Chad: Happy Birthday.


Joel: God, and our list of fans is getting big, at what point do we like we can't... It's too many people, it's too many people.


Chad: We're just going to have to announce the winners, I think is where we're probably gonna have to go with this.


Joel: I'm gonna need a supply of oxygen.


Chad: That being said, we need to get to events also brought to you by Shaker Recruitment Marketing. That's right, kids. Whenever the Chad and Cheese travel, we travel in style with Shaker swag. Events coming up, we talked about UNLEASH, it was amazing. Now we're getting ready to go to California, baby. Coronado Beach for iCIMS INSPIRE where Chad and Cheese are closing out day one with Lauree Porter, who's the Director of HR systems at Penn Entertainment, who recently, Joel, acquired Barstool Sports and Christy Spilka, VP and Global Head of TA for iCIMS, we're gonna be doing a round-up of what we heard from the stage that day, and who knows. You're prepped and ready for Cali?


Joel: Again, similar to the high-end hotels that they're putting us in, I feel like the guests are getting way too solid for us, like I'm used to the degenerates in the vendor side of the house, we're talking to like the elitist in the employment and hiring process, so I might shave a little bit. I'm getting a little ratty, so I might shave a little bit, comb my hair and put on some cologne for this audience, for once.


Chad: I know Christy and the team over at iCIMS, they are avid listeners, so they're gonna be there and listening in, then we're gonna find ourselves... It's gonna be in July, so we're gonna take a little time off, which is nice, but July 6th, in Knebworth Park, just north of London, Chad and Cheese are gonna be hosting the Disrupt stage where it will be all things tech all damn day. And if you have not been to a RecFest, kids listen up, listen up listener, go to chadcheese.com, click on the events in the upper right hand corner, check out our events, register, but you've got to, if you're even close to the UK, you gotta go to RecFest. Jesus, this place is a fucking carnival, it is amazing.


Joel: By the way, there could be a Cole Cheeseman siting in Knebworth, which I know you see in European vacation National Lampoon's...


Chad: Rusty.


Joel: In the scene where Rusty makes out with the German girl. I'm having a little bit of fear that some British girl might have it her way with my 16-year-old son, so I'm gonna be...


Chad: A little fear... Yes, I'm sure.


Joel: I'm gonna have the leash on Cole Cheesman in Knebworth, for sure.


Chad: Topics.


Joel: Oh my God. Layoffs baby, we haven't talked about layoffs in a while, but we got some big ones here in our industry to talk about. Number one, Greenhouse who I predicted would go public this year, which does not seem very, very good for me at the moment...


Chad: I don't know.


Joel: But we'll see, it's only Q1 at this point. So they laid off according to layoffs.FYI, 12% of the workforce or 100 or some people. Gloat another big winner in the investment sweepstakes, laid off 12% of their workforce. And Culture Amp, another surprise there laid off 9% or 90 people according to layoffs.FYI. So talking layoffs.


Chad: So Greenhouse, being able to talk about IPOs still feeding into your prediction, this is generally part of the recipe to go to IPO, you're thinning out the ranks, you're focusing on obviously spend, revenue, all that stuff, so you could still... That prediction could still come true. Doubtful, but it could come true.


Joel: Well, you know what they say about my predictions Chad...


S?: 60% of the time it works, every time.


Joel: Alright, let's talk about London-based Hackajob, founded in 2014. They've raised $25 million in a series B, bringing their grand total to $33 million. The company will use the funds to accelerate expansion into the United States. Hackajob's product suite includes a two-sided marketplace for direct talent sourcing, online assessments, remote interviews, and the like. The company says it has a community of over half a million techies. Chad, your take on the Hackajob news.


Chad: So I think platforms like Hackajob are what all legacy job sites and applicant tracking systems, core talent platforms should be modeling after. I'm a huge fan of two-sided marketplaces, but I really like the feel of Hackajob as they position the platform as an employees come to you or employers rather come to you type of system, and that's a great way to entice top talent to join up. Then there's the up-skilling and testing modules in the platform, which I believe every single fucking marketplace should have. The companies receive 85% response rates, and they reduce their volume of candidates, which means they're getting more quality than they are quantity, I.e. Indeed still sucks. Also 25% of active candidates now based in the US, which means they have tremendous room for growth with this cash. Now HackerRank and GitHub are major competitors, but I believe if Hackajob creates the right partnerships, key to growth here in the US, kids, partnerships, they can compete in the market. We're seeing amazing types of marketplaces like Harri with an I, on the hospitality side, where they're building an entire ecosystem and also Applicant Tracking System onboarding, those types of things. This is the new age, right? This is the new age. So I love what Hackajob is doing, I think it's a model and a standard, and again, we're seeing the same thing in hospitality with Harri.


Joel: So I have a little show that covers the European market, and we like to comment regularly that companies from Europe that come to the US typically face a pretty negative outcome. So Hackajob has its work cut out for it, to say the least. I think there are a few headwinds, I like the business overall, but there are some things outside of their purview that are gonna impact. The number one is the tech employment universe is freaking out right now. Elon's laying off everybody, but can do what they've done with less people. Meta, Apple, Amazon, laying off people. I'm hearing from tech folks that you can turn an entry-level or modest experienced recruiter into like a super 10X type recruiter. Can you do more with less? Can you do more with not senior people or the levels that you have had before? I think we're gonna find out. I think Twitter is sort of at the edge of that, and a lot of companies are gonna watch to see what happens there, what happens to all the... We'll talk about some companies here in a little bit that are also laying people off thinking that AI can do the job of developers. So there's a major headwind in terms of just the techy developer ecosystem that's gonna hit everybody, not just Hackajob but everybody, so that's number one.


Joel: Number two is timing again, timing's a little rough, high inflation, war in Europe, it's just not the best time to do a lot of stuff. A lot of companies are staying pat, so growing right now, you're getting ahead of the curve and hoping that things will get better. I hope they do, certainly, but we'll see what happens there. And the other one I think is the biggest is competition, looking at America, we got Turing and Della, HackerRank, Stack Overflow, you mentioned GitHub, I'll throw Dice in there dammit. I will throw in Dice and all the others out out there, the top tall, etcetera. It's gonna be a hard road to hoe for Hackajob. I'm bearish on them. You're bullish, but I think both of us look at it as things outside of their purview that are gonna impact them more than just the business itself and what they do.


Chad: We saw and I'll show my t-shirt here, it says "Fuck interviews" from HiringBranch them, the Tadeos of the world, and I feel like all of these marketplaces, the HackerRanks, the GitHubs, the Hackajobs, they are all focused on a couple of things, upskilling and or not just assessments, but tests, so most of these platforms at that point can get rid of the interview entirely, unless you're really looking for "culture fit", you don't need it, especially if you've got tech people who are working remote for the most part. So I see this is a great opportunity, and again, most of these marketplaces, they've gotta move toward upskilling and assessments either through partnerships or through building it themselves.


Chad: Now, from a timing standpoint, I agree from the standpoint of, I think this is perfect timing because if it was booming at this point, they wouldn't have enough time to actually focus on areas of the business that they could or should. I think they're going to have more time because they don't have as much demand on them, they've got the money, so now they can re-tool and when everything hits and it will because it's always the cycle.


Chad: They'll be ready for it. So again, I think that the Hackajobs, HackerRanks, GitHubs, all of these organizations that are focused on marketplaces that upskill and also test are getting well, well, in front of the old style career sites like the Indeeds, the ZipRecruiters, and even applicant tracking systems. These guys are going to leapfrog over them, if these companies, these old legacy organizations don't get their shit together.


Joel: It sounds like you're saying if they're gonna make it into America, they gotta go deep. Oh shit.


[automated voice]


Chad: Here we go. Not again.


Joel: Now we got what we're calling, the Doomsday segment in two parts, call it The White Album for Chad and Cheese, a double album, we'll have an advertising break in between, but some things are happening with AI that scary as shit should... Should be on everyone's radar. So let's go through some of these and we'll have a comment on each one, so number one, the week started with Geoffrey Hinton, known as the Godfather of AI... I bet that picks up chicks at the bar, don't you? He's quit Google. He regrets the work he's done and fear AI could lead to the proliferation of fake images, videos and text. No shit, he also warned AI could power killer robots and cause harmful disruption to the labor market. No shit. Chad your take on The Godfather bowing out?


Chad: Yeah, I mean, Skynet... Skynet, on its way, it's interesting, they asked AI experts what the likelihood was of AI actually taking over and being deadly, and they said, "Ah 10%." Okay, 10% is pretty fucking big, that's a little bit much kids. What do we need to do to regulate this shit, so as we hear about just literally this unregulated no guardrail AI that's happening out there, I can see why the guy wants to eject, he probably has plenty of money and chics again, being the Godfather of AI, so... Yeah, no, I see that now, being able to progress into what's the next step and are we gonna lose jobs in this market is the next question I think.


S?: That escalated quickly.


Joel: Did you see the killer drone that hit Moscow this week?


Chad: Yeah, it was funny because I think on the news today, they were talking about how somebody went out and got a couple of drones from a Radio Shack or something like that, it was all just like, Okay, this is really nothing much to do about anything, it's kind of like the drones that you might see around your neighborhood.


Joel: I'm calling a fake flag on that one, there's no way that was a legitimate hit on Putin's life, that was literally like a kite with a bomb, a firecracker on it.


Chad: Not from Ukraine for God's sake says, no.


Joel: And they're blaming us for it. Look, say what you want about America. If we wanna take a guy out, we're probably gonna take the guy out no matter which they are. So that leads us into more doomsday scenarios, let's talk about the IBM CEO who said quote, "He expects to pause hiring for roles as roughly 7800 jobs could be replaced by AI in the coming years. 30% of non-customer-facing roles could be replaced by AI and automations within five years." Chad, your take on the IBM CEO comments.


Chad: So first and foremost, we've all recognized that most of the corporate ranks have become bloated, we're seeing... We're seeing these layoffs because of the huge bloat that's happened, so cuts shouldn't surprise us, even though the C-suite's job is to plan and manage the business, so CEOs and the C-suites almost across the board have underperformed in these tasks and doing their damn jobs, for most of what we're hearing though, over and over and over is the phrase cutting mundane tasks, which does not equal jobs. So we continue to have that discussion about tasks, which does make sense, but it's augmenting the human, not replacing the human. So let's be serious, we're not talking about less humans performing different positions, we're talking about being able to give them a better experience, and then also prospectively customer's better experience as well, but here's the big question, so during this whole discussion, you've gotta ask yourself, why is IBM CEO saying this out loud, this isn't great for optics when it comes to holding onto top talent, so why is he saying this out loud.


Joel: Are you gonna tell us?


Chad: I have a conspiracy theory, but think about it, you can be replaced, so I feel like this is almost like a power play of just saying, "Hey look, we could replace thousands, thousands of positions, you could be replaced, so get your ass back into the office." It's the exact same bullshit move that Johnny C. Taylor made at SHRM when an employee made a case that their job could be done remotely, so Johnny's dumbass just fired them and outsourced the job to India for 40% less. So these are the power plays that reign in the peasants, it's nothing more than control at this point, that's a level that I see because there's no reason for the CEO to come out and say this stupid shit other than trying to rein in the peasants.


Joel: I like a good conspiracy theory, Chad when Johnny's mentioned, yes. So I posted this on LinkedIn, I was surprised to see how many people are like, "It sounds like he's trying to set the table to justify layoffs, he said like, he's creating the expectation like, people are gonna lose jobs, and it's not my fault, it's technology's fault, so you're not the only conspiracy theorist out there, Chad. There are a lot of people thinking that. He said that to serve a purpose of laying off people. Now, he did say that they wouldn't lay off people, they would just say they wouldn't be replacing people once those folks left for another job, but you're right, and that those people probably don't feel real secure in their job right now, and they're probably looking to get out and you save yourself from the bad PR when people just leave and you don't have to lay people off, and you get a little bit of extra severance to keep in the coffer, so conspiracy theories abound on this one at IBM, which leads us through Chad, your Xanadu, your paradise, your Nirvana.


Joel: Can I interest you in a robotic CEO, AI CEO...


Chad: Oh, wait a minute, what?


Joel: That's an article from Futurism argues rather than replacing employees with AI-powered robots, CEO should consider replacing themselves with artificial intelligence, a CEO's primary function is often to measure business growth, a task that can be outsourced to AI pretty easily, but Chad, I wanna know your thoughts. My favorite CEO hater.


Chad: So I don't hate CEOs, I hate that they have become overrated. Let's just say that. So CEO-pay has skyrocketed nearly 1500, 1500% since 1978. While the people who are actually doing the fucking work, their wage increase is guess what? Not even 20%, 18%, so the average CEO today is earning 400 times more than the employee who's doing the work. Another quote from Futurism Amazon CEO, Andrew Jassy, 2021 salary is capped at a staggering $213 million, a number amounting to the collective earnings of 6474 average Amazon employees, that's salary, not total comp, CEOs get paid ungodly amounts of cash. If we could just ratchet that down to where it was before, it just makes sense, but, but listen to this, even the CEO of Warner Brother's discovery, David Zaslav, who raked in $200, almost $250 million back in 2021, was named on the worst CEO list of 2022. They're still getting paid even though they're doing shitty fucking jobs, they're bloating, they're not managing the company, right, so we're seeing all these huge lay-offs, they're not doing their job, so one or two things need to happen, they need to take a huge pay cut and or they need to get the fuck fired.


[automated voice]


Joel: CEOs aren't going anywhere, Chad.


Chad: They aren't. I know.


Joel: Unless the Red Army shows up in San Francisco. The system will prevail over the working class every day of the week.


Chad: The peasants. Yes.


Joel: Which we should mention a couple other startups that came out recently, so Harvey as a company, they just raised $21 million, they're looking to augment or replace a lot of the tasks of a lawyer, and you and I both have some familiarity with lawyers...


Chad: Unfortunately.


Joel: And believe you me a lot of the shit they do can be automated or at least augmented. The other one, a company called an NinjaTech AI, horrible name, but some really smart folks at some really big companies just raised $5 million in alpha, you gotta sign up on their waiting list to get access to that, they're gonna replace assistants, executive and otherwise with real-looking people like facial, this is some next generation shit head out to Ninjatech AI at ninjatech.ai I think if you wanna look at more, but I will reiterate, the CEOs and the shareholders will be the last one standing in the castle when the peasants come with the pitch forks to take over. Now CEOs will augment their job and probably have more time on the golf course, more time on the beach, hanging out with you in Portugal...


Chad: Still get paid.


Joel: Using AI, but they'll be damned if they're gonna be replaced by AI.


Chad: And they're not gonna be replaced, like you said, they're gonna be augmented and they're just gonna continue to make this crazy amount of cash, and that's the thing, is that we need to focus on the narrative that we've been told our entire life. If you take a look at just basic economics, whenever "inflation" happens, we don't look at price gouging or profiteering, we look at wages and wage growth, and we focus on middle class, and it's like, "Oh wait, these wages are growing too fast." Motherfucker please. 1500% compared to 18%. You fuck off, Steve Rattner.


Joel: And that is part one of our Doomsday segment, we'll take a quick break and come back with another start-up, raising some money. Alright, Chad, I like things that are simpler. How about a company called SIMPPLR? That spelled S-I-M-P-P-L-R. There's two p's on it, SIMPPLR or not, but anyway, the California-based internal social network platform has raised $70 million in a funding round. This brings total funding to $131.1 million. SIMPPLR aims to enhance employee engagement. SIMPPLR platform also uses sentiment and emotion analysis to track and monitor employee attitudes and language patterns. Scary. The funds raised will be used to expand the company's workforce and product R&D. Chad, your thoughts on SIMPPLR.


Chad: Horrible name, the whole misspelling generation won't even get this one right.


Joel: Only those using Flickr will get this one right.


Chad: So has Facebook, Twitter, TikTok and others ruin the social network forever allowing these types of platforms to pop up? Does a company really want and or need their very own social network? I mean, who polices it, will employees really even use it and then from TechCrunch, what you'd actually said, SIMPPLR also uses AI for sentiment and emotional analysis. What employee is gonna wanna put any of their information and or data or anything into that? Moreover SIMPPLR's CEO declined to answer questions about the company's privacy policy, including how long, sorry, SIMPPLR stores user data and whether users can easily delete the data, this is a big fuck you, man. I don't know how they got $70 million. Isn't Slack, Teams and that Facebook work thing enough for business already?


[automated voice]


Joel: Facebook for your company. What could be more fun than that, Chad, create a profile, connect, share pictures, do polls, play music to each... I don't know what's going on, but it certainly sounds good, and I'm sure a lot of employees will think it's a lot of fun to get on the social network internally and engage with their co-workers.


Chad: And get monitored.


Joel: However Chad I must caution you. How did Facebook make all their money? Data, they know everything about you.


Chad: You're the product.


Joel: While you're having fun, sharing pictures at the company picnic, the company is learning more and more about you, including when you wanna leave, maybe you're lobbying other co-workers to leave with you, maybe you wanna start a company that's a competitor. Oh boy, Chad, SIMPPLR sounds like a fantastic way for your company to monitor you and keep you in line.


Chad: It's like your own Cambridge Analytica.


Joel: Say no to the SIMPPLR... Simpler life. This has disaster written all over it. If they start importing data, exporting your data to other companies, and that company can create a score on you of like what kind of employee you are, are you... Is it gonna be mutiny on the bounty when you show up like, this is a really bad idea. And the only way that they could get that kind of money is because they spun this story to investors about, we're gonna be able to track people all across their entire professional life, and it's gonna make us a ton of money.


Chad: Yeah, no.


[automated voice]


Joel: Alright, Doomsday part two, baby, here we go, let's go to a little more corporate angle on this and. Alright, so number one, shares of Chegg, Chad we're too young to know what Chegg is, or benefit from it, 'cause we were in school when CliffsNotes were considered cheating. Anyway, so shares of Chegg, coming to help students with homework, exam prep and writing support fell by 50 freaking percent after they reported a fall in revenue due to, "Significant spike in student interest in ChatGPT." Chad, your take on the Chegg news.


Chad: Chegg is the Blockbuster in the scenario, while Khan Academy is the Netflix, and they are actually piloting ChatGPT in the hopes that the tech can turbo-charge it system with generative AI tutors that leverage the content already provided in Khan Academy. So we're going to see this throughout every single industry, kids, period. We're gonna have the Cheggs of the world, the Encyclopedia Britannica of the world, they're just gonna die because they didn't innovate, because they didn't go that next step, and then you're gonna have the Khan Academies where they automatically I mean they're feverishly going into this saying, "Wow, this could really super charge what we do, and it could help us really force multiply how we tutor students in our platform," so there is a great opportunity to turbo-charge platforms and companies versus what Chegg is looking at the blockbuster is having one store in Alaska, I don't even think that one exists anymore.


Joel: So Chad if you wanna know what's coming, watch the kids, remember Napster, that was a revolution driven by the kids and the kids are gonna go around over and under the fences and walls that we as adults create, and I think Chegg is just the tip of the iceberg for what the kids and eventually the adults are going to be doing to public companies and regular old companies all around every industry whatsoever. You and I talked about a little company called Textio in our space a couple of weeks ago. Imagine if Textio was a public company, there would be headlines like this coming out of Textio and fear of companies just go into ChatGPT and writing their own unbiased job postings and their stock with tank more than 50, I promise you that if that news came out, so this... Watch what the kids do, 'cause this is coming to a company near you and it might be coming to the company that you currently work for, and you should be aware of that.


Joel: But yes tip of the iceberg. This is gonna be a common thing. If the company you're using or working for can be disrupted, this shit and these kind of headlines are gonna be hitting you, and I guarantee you they're hitting a lot of the companies in our space, a lot of the unicorns that we talked about, 2020 through 2022, they're going through the same shit, they're just not public companies that have to put out headlines on this stuff, but I promise you, they are feeling the pain, just like the people who own commercial real estate everywhere, but certainly places like San Francisco and New York City that have a high density of people in downtown. So this week, we learned that nearly 30% of San Francisco's office space is now vacant, most notably, a building in Downtown San Francisco that is worth or was sold for $300 million four years ago, is likely to sell for 80% less on the market now.


Joel: 80% less. And in New York City, a report from Columbia University says New York City office buildings could tumble $48.75 billion in value in the coming years. These are just New York and San Francisco, but I guarantee you every city in the world, thanks to remote work, is feeling the pain. What's your take Chad?


Chad: We need to re-imagine cities, much like our relationship has changed to work, our relationship to cities need to be different, in some cases, we need to turn into destination, more of a destination location, even for people who are "locals." We have to innovate as opposed to have this fear-mongering that's going on. Yes, prices are coming down, okay, and they're dropping, they're plummeting, okay, that's an opportunity for organizations to actually get in there, and also for the city of New York to start looking at innovating how they're pulling people in, everything is changing so fluidly with technology today, even brick and mortar. So we have to evolve to be able to say that, well, we need to force people into the cities because of rent. No. This is what we call evolution. The pandemic did this, it demonstrated how fluid we could be as human beings, it also helped us re-prioritize our lives in some cases and work, and that long ass commute is not a part of it anymore, so we've gotta re-imagine these things, we've gotta be smarter, we've got to evolve.


Joel: Yeah. And there's gonna be a lot of pain in that evolution.


Chad: Yeah, of course.


Joel: You and I talked about Sam Zell last week...


Chad: Fuck that guy.


Joel: Who's pounding the table to get back to work, get back in the office, morale will improve once the beating start anyway. How many rich people do you think own commercial real estate around the world?


Chad: All of them.


Joel: A lot.


Chad: All of them.


Joel: So it's no shocker that all these people are like, get back in the office, work from home is bullshit, remote sucks, etcetera. So the first of the cycle is them bitching about this, trying to get people back to work, which isn't gonna work for the most part, the second is, you're gonna see defaults, bankruptcies, runs on bank. A lot of the loans that came for these local markets, commercial real estate are regional banks, local banks, they're gonna feel a lot of pain, and you're starting to see it now in the news with smaller regional banks under pressure from shareholders and fear of what's gonna go on there, so that's gonna be really painful too. The banking system is gonna take a lot of pain from this, and then the next thing is, there are a lot of laws right now, zoning laws that say you can't build residential shit here, you can't build whatever. This is a commercial real estate section of town, those laws have to change and change very fast. We gotta put on the expediting of those in a big way, but... Yeah, you're right.


Joel: Look, they're not gonna tear these buildings down and grow farms, they're not gonna put a Six Flags in the middle of Manhattan, so these changes are gonna happen just like in 2008 when everything went to shit. It took five, 10 years for things to come back, and I was in Phoenix at that time, Phoenix is back like it was... Florida's back like it was before 2008 and 2009. These cities will be back, but there will be a lot of pain that happens before that, and speaking of pain, Chad, let's talk about reproduction.


Chad: Oh good God. That was never painful for me, at least...


Joel: Yeah.


Chad: On my side.


Joel: But this story might be painful, so robots apparently are taking our women. This was in the news this week. Two babies have been born after a robot guided by a PlayStation 5 controller. Yeah, I said Playstation 5 controller fertilized human eggs. This is in Barcelona, your neighbor there in Portugal, Chad. The procedure created by Overture Life is intended to make it easier for women to become pregnant in a cheaper and more accessible way and... Yes, without men. Chad, talk me off the ledge of all these catastrophe news. What are your thoughts on robot daddies?


Chad: Yeah, I got nothing there, man. I can't put myself in the shoes of a lot of the sex-less 20-year-old dudes that are out there today, and why this could, in some cases, be necessary now, there are lesbian couples who want to have kids, and this might be a great mechanism to be able to do that, but personally, this is well outside of my wheelhouse.


Joel: Well, yeah, it's nice that all those dudes in their basements are playing video games because that might be the only way that they get to impregnate a woman, with that PlayStation. Look, if women are gonna resort to pregnancy by PlayStation controllers, it'll be our fault, men and the sex robots that we're making right now and perfecting apparently, not that I would know anything about this, but I read the news and it'll probably start in Utah, Chad, because Utah has just blocked PornHub from the entire state, and with that Chad, only Bill Burr, one of our favorite comedians, can sum up the future of sex and how men are gonna be responsible for fucking it all up. Take a listen.


Bill Burr: They're gonna make Victoria's Secret super models, just like Paris runway, looking super models, and you can be able to come home to one of these things and it's gonna laugh at all your jokes.


[vocalization]


Bill Burr: It's gonna sit down and watch the game with you. Like it doesn't get any better than this. Yes, it does.


[vocalization]


Bill Burr: And it's gonna get up and make you a fucking bundt cake or a meat pie, whatever the fuck you people. Right? There's not gonna be a human woman in here that's gonna be able to compete with that, for longer than 90 minutes, even on your birthday, by the third trip to the fridge, she's gonna be like "Yeah, fucking get it yourself. What am I, your slave? Go fuck yourself." And after you've been with one of these robots like sex dolls, you're not gonna be able to go back to a real woman, right, with all their hopes and dreams and their needs. You're gonna be coming home, she's like, "What is going on with you? We're not connecting. We need a date night." All you've been thinking is how do I shut this fucking thing off. What is it on nagging mode? Why isn't it blowing me right now?


Joel: We'll be right back.


Joel: Alright Chad, McDonald's is in the news. Call it the not so happy meal, a McDonald's franchise in Louisville, Kentucky has been found to have violated federal labor laws by employing two 10-year-old children. That's right, I said 10 years old who were not paid and worked late hours, including operating a deep fryer, which is prohibited for workers even under 16, let alone 10 years old. The franchise has been fined nearly... You're ready for this Chad, $40,000 by the department of labor. Two other McDonald's franchises were also investigated and found to have employed 305 children to work more hours than legally permitted and perform prohibited tasks. Chad, what you got on this story out of the golden arches?


Chad: Welcome to America, kids. So this from the Economic Policy Institute, in the past two years, at least 10 states have introduced or passed laws rolling back child labor protections, here in the United States. Already in 2023, eight bills to weaken labor protections have been introduced in six Midwestern states, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio, and South Dakota, and in Arkansas where a bill replacing restrictions on work for 14 and 15-year-olds has now been signed into law. In Iowa, probably the most extreme... In Iowa, they've proposed lifting restrictions on hazardous work, lowers age for alcohol servers, extends work hours, grants employers immunity from civil liability for workplace injuries, illness, and death. That's right, your kids could go to work and die, that 10-year-old in Iowa because this is the state of America, kids.


Joel: So this is nothing new, apparently, this is news to me. The rise in illegal child labor has been observed by the department of labor since 2018, and the agency has issued millions in fines in just 2022 alone.


Chad: Wow.


Joel: $40,000, employing two 10-year-olds. Nothing's gonna change, and you and I talk about this all the time, nothing's gonna change with these little fines. That local McDonald's probably makes 40 grand in one day in terms of sales of chicken McNuggets and McShakes. So until we start seeing real fines or perp walks or the McDonald's headquarters, putting on some orange jumpsuits, this is gonna continue to be a problem.


Joel: I just can't believe no one noticed a couple of 10-year-olds at the store. And by the way, this is Louisville, I know it's Kentucky, but we're not talking like Dukes of Hazzard, Boss Hogg, Hazzard County, Kentucky. We're talking like a city in Kentucky, so how nobody noticed this or said something just blows my mind, and frankly, if there's an argument for automation in restaurants, I think there's not a better one than keeping little Johnny and Janey away from the fryer, which I can tell you as a fast food worker is not fun to be around, and it's even worse to clean. I'm loving it, McDonald's, not so much. And Chad, that's why I'm boycotting the quarter-pounder for at least a week. We out.


Chad: We out.


Outro: Wow. Look at you. You made it through an entire episode of the Chad & Cheese Podcast. Or maybe you cheated and fast forwarded to the end. Either way, there's no doubt you wish you had that time back, valuable time you could have used a buy a nutritious meal at Taco Bell. Enjoy a pour of your favorite whiskey, or just watch big booty Latinas and bug fights on TikTok. No, you hung out with these two chuckle heads instead. Now, go take a shower and wash off all the guilt, but save some soap because you will be back like an awful train wreck, you can click away and like Chad's favorite Western, you can quit them either. We out.

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