April Fools - can we tell the real headlines from the fake?

In this special April Fool’s Day episode, host Stacey Nordwall hands over the reins to co-producer Lexi Croswell for a fun twist on the usual format. Instead of tooting or booting HR headlines, Stacey and HR consultant Nadia Eran have to decide if the headlines are real or fake – and why! 

Connect:

Nadia Eran ->

• on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nadiaeran/
• Or her website Future in Work: https://futureinwork.com/

Lexi Croswell ->

• on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexiscroswell/
• Or her website: https://www.alexiscroswell.com/services

Stacey Nordwall ->

• On LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/staceynordwall/

Transcript

Stacey Nordwall (00:00):

Welcome to Toot or Boot. I'm your host Stacey Nordwall with about 20 years in HR experience, mostly building people functions from the ground up at early stage tech companies. Each week we bring new HR thought leaders into the fold to talk about headlines. This week we're doing something a little bit different and special for April Fool's Day, and I will be stepping out of the host seat and handing that over to Lexi Croswell.

Alexis Croswell (00:29):

Hey, I'm excited to be in the host seat today. So instead of tooting or booting our headlines in today's episode, we will be asking Stacy and Nadia to call out if they are real or fake and why I'm the only one who knows the truth behind the headlines. And let me tell you, it was both a joy and a delight to curate this list. And if we have time, I can read you more. Nadia, can you introduce yourself for our listeners?

Nadia Eran (01:00):

Yeah, I am Nadia Eran. I'm an HR consultant. I work fractionally inside of companies that are going through change. Usually that means a series B through D that is scaling, moving grooving. And I really love working on all things hr, tech, performance management, all the fun things as companies are scaling and growing.

Alexis Croswell (01:24):

Awesome. Okay, are we ready? Kick it off. Okay. I will read you the headline and then I do have a two sentence description. So should I include that also, Stacey? Okay. Alright. Headline number one

Nadia Eran (01:40):

 I need the context because I don't watch the news, so I'm ready.

Alexis Croswell (01:43):

Cool. Okay. Our first headline is Dollar General tests same Day Delivery as Discounter chases Walmart. CEO, Todd Vaso says Dollar General Soft launched the delivery program in September. Now it offers same day delivery at about 75 stores offered through a third party company rather than using store employees or company employee delivery people. And he did not name this third party delivery company. Is it real or fake?

Stacey Nordwall (02:20):

I mean, I feel like that seems real. I totally can see a company trying to go the route of undercutting someone else and then I don't know, we find out that it's being delivered by drones or robots or dogs wearing little St. Bernard or something. So yeah, I'm going to say it's a real headline. Nadia, what do you think?

Nadia Eran (02:48):

I think it's real because they got to be cheap. It's Dollar General and they got to figure out the cheapest way to move goods around. I'm surprised they even have a delivery system.

Alexis Croswell (03:04):

You guys are right. This is real. It's not drone based, it is people based and this story is from NBC news.

Stacey Nordwall (03:19):

So how are they delivering their goods? Is this now another step of Uber where they just roll up to Dollar General, get a box in their car and take off? Or what have we got?

Alexis Croswell (03:32):

I mean that's what it seems like, but there is no information. This article about who this supposed ghost delivery company is.

Nadia Eran (03:42):

Oh, ghosts. That would be the ultimate sheep just to throw it out there.

Alexis Croswell (03:48):

They basically say that they're hoping, it also says that they don't don't charge a fee for delivery and they don't have a minimum order requirement, which seems just bananas.

Nadia Eran (04:02):

Honestly. Dollar General doesn't have things that are a dollar anyways. This is why that is also true. 5000% on Team Dollar Tree where things are literally a dollar. I love going there before I go on a camping trip. It's a joy.

Alexis Croswell (04:18):

And the other kind of angle that they're doing with this is that they're hoping that because people are placing orders through their app, they have an app that people will buy more because they're advertising to them in app. Do you want to add this to your cart or you ordered this before, do you want to reorder? So

Nadia Eran (04:40):

I'm shocked that this exists. Honestly, dollar General,

Stacey Nordwall (04:45):

They're getting with the times, but I want to get your take on this. I'm thinking about, I want to, from an employee side, HR kind of perspective, I want to boot this because I feel like this is the same thing. I think that happens in Amazon warehouses where because there is now this pressure of same day, get it by 2:00 AM the next day, whatever kind of thing that you hear a lot of pretty not great experiences that people have not being able to take breaks, the pressure of just grinding to get orders out. So I really, are they hiring new staff? Are they expecting existing staff to and Lexi's taking, right? No, they're not. Yeah. Are they expecting existing staff to now absorb this as well? So I don't know. I'm feeling like that feels like a boot to me. What do you think?

Nadia Eran (05:53):

Agreed. It feels like what classically happens a layoff where someone tries to say that motivating phrase of we need to do more with less. And in this case it's like with way less for way less. And it's surprising that they would want to do same day anything because who needs same day? Anything Dollar General, you really need that aluminum foil tray yesterday and you need that knockoff toothpaste like nobody's business today by 3:00 PM and I just don't understand I why it needs to fall into the consumerism. It's not shiny, it's not new things. It's not the latest coolest gizmo. It's not even medicine that's unexpired. I don't know what the drive is, but from the HR perspective, I think it always stresses people out. And especially in an environment like Dollar General where most of the workers are going to be hourly. I'm hoping this means overtime and support for people who want that extra money instead of feeling the pressure that if they don't do more, then their job is on the line.

Alexis Croswell (07:09):

Yeah. Yep. One to your point, it very much calls this out as a play against Walmart and Walmart's prices. I feel like their prices are actually pretty comparable because to your point, things that Dollar General are not actually a dollar. So that's why they're losing out. Not that they don't offer delivery, it's that they're not giving people the discount that they want. I'll move on to the next, oh Stacey, do you want to add something?

Stacey Nordwall (07:37):

I just want to say also, I mean I think similar to my comment about that, the experience of employees in Amazon work warehouse, I think you hear some pretty not so great things about how Walmart treats its employees and that they have a number of their employees who aren't getting the hours they need, aren't getting benefits, aren't getting livable wages. So to your point, Nadia, let's not drive this down into the ground. We should be trying to really facilitate strategies that are sustainable for the business, sustainable for the workers, otherwise, what's kind of, what happens in the end? What is the end result of all of this? I don't think it's good, but yeah.

Nadia Eran (08:31):

And safety, I think was it Domino's in Asia had some really open gaff where it was like if you didn't get your pizza within a certain number of hours and it was free and it created a huge amount of safety issues with car crashes and motorcycle crashes that they had to peel it back. And I think even thinking from that perspective, we need things to be happy and safe and sustainable in all the different ways. I totally agree with you, Stacey.

Alexis Croswell (09:10):

Yeah. Okay. Our next timeline is very next timeline. Our next headline is very timely. I just combined it all into one. I'm sure y'all have heard about 23 and me, so going bankrupt. So this headline is laid off 23 and me employee packed up box full of bodily fluids and the description is employee Marsha Nash Hold reportedly packed up her box of bodily fluids Wednesday morning and vacated her office according to sources. The 52-year-old data engineer emptied the contents of her desk drawers, filing cabinet and mini fridge into the box and filled it to the brim.

Nadia Eran (09:57):

I think it's fake.

Stacey Nordwall (09:58):

I'm so concerned that somehow it's actually real. Oh gosh. Because it's just one of those things that's weird enough. No, it can't be. They have to have those. They have

Nadia Eran (10:13):

A data engineer touching organic materials. Just roll that bit. That's what you're finding issue with. When was the last data engineer that you saw make their own lunch? Literally dead organic materials. And on top of that, a company letting go of genetic materials that it could be selling for primo amounts of money and letting a 52-year-old data engineer roll rollout with potentially millions of dollars in tissue samples. If anybody's read Henrietta Lacks, that's a crap ton of money for pharma that cannot be rolling out the door further Frankenstein experiment that they're hoarding at home.

Stacey Nordwall (11:06):

You know what well done. I did the 23 and me, so I am currently working to delete all of my data from there. But yeah, to your point, yeah, I can't imagine. Why would that person have spit tubes? That's what it is. It's like spit tubes. That wouldn't be there, would it? And also

Nadia Eran (11:28):

I feel like I'm wrong. The more I convince you, the more I feel like Lexi's going to whip it out and be like this data engineer does spit and has been holding them for years.

Stacey Nordwall (11:40):

Okay, wait, no. Okay, so here's my final, this is my final reasoning for why I think it's fake. I think that many fridges just aren't good enough to keep samples at the right temperature. They're just like the mini fridge. It is too warm, it's too volatile. Right? So that is,

Nadia Eran (12:00):

I need to go to the general store, general dollar store and upgrade that fridge is what I'm hearing.

Stacey Nordwall (12:08):

Okay. Yeah.

Alexis Croswell (12:10):

Yeah. It is fake, but I really did not, I thought that by reading the specific details it would convince you it was true. But you guys really picked those apart. Bridge data. Come on. That's true. I should have changed data engineer, data engineers from the story, but I should have changed it to lab tech who was, and maybe if I had put a vigilante spin on it, they were taking it so that 23 me couldn't sell it. They were trying to do a kind of uprising thing. They were freeing the samples. Yes, they were freeing the samples like

Nadia Eran (12:50):

Monkeys and a laugh, but spit in a

Alexis Croswell (12:52):

Tube. Yep.

Stacey Nordwall (12:55):

Okay, good. Yeah, not true. We were thinking about it almost got us

Alexis Croswell (13:01):

Also, I tested these, I have 12 or 12 to 16 headlines and I tested them on my dad and my stepmom. My dad only got one wrong. My stepmom got half wrong. So it was my way of testing. How easy are these going to be for you to pick? Alright, onto the next, this headline is a solution to the retirement crisis. Americans should work for more years. BlackRock, CEO says, and the description is

Stacey Nordwall (13:38):

True.

Nadia Eran (13:40):

No, keep going, keep going. Here's the punchline.

Alexis Croswell (13:44):

With Americans living longer and spending more years in retirement, the nation's changing demographics are putting the US retirement system under immense strain. According to BlackRock, CEO, Larry Fink, his fix is for Americans to consider working longer before they head into retirement. He says, I don't know what his voice sounds like, but I was trying to do an accent and then I pulled back. He says, I do think it's a bit crazy that our anchor idea for the right retirement age, 65 years old originates from the time of the Ottoman Empire end quote. Is it real or is it fake?

Stacey Nordwall (14:24):

Oh, it's real

Nadia Eran (14:25):

True. It's so real. Also, so old people have been saying this for a while instead of thinking of ways to actually recreate a retirement fund, I thought you were about to give a headline that was like the US is building a pension fund and trying to help our elders before they get too old to not be able to help themselves. But no, it is the same stuff that we've been hearing I think for the last five years or so of just work more. Just work longer. How unoriginal?

Stacey Nordwall (15:03):

Yeah. I mean the only way it would end up being fake is if you're like, actually it wasn't BlackRock. It was this other company instead. But clearly

Alexis Croswell (15:14):

You are right. It is true. I do like that he added in the Ottoman Empire throwout to be like, look, I know about history.

Nadia Eran (15:24):

Did they even live that long back then? That was the industrial age. When we were dying of BlackRock lung in our thirties, we were drinking sewage water. I don't know. I don't understand how he thinks that because people push themselves to work into their sixties, which was maxing it out that now when we actually live longer, which doesn't mean anything, living longer, doesn't actually mean anything about quality of life and mobility and health and there's lots of different factors. But I really appreciate him protecting his assets and really hoping that we can keep working longer and harder. Good job, Larry.

Alexis Croswell (16:17):

He does. He prefaces the quote with no one should have to work longer than they want to, but

Stacey Nordwall (16:25):

Everyone is working longer than they want to. Yeah. Yeah. I mean I think it's a boot for me too, because to Nadia's point, like okay, if this is something that people are pretty widely recognizing as a challenge, and I've also seen reports of other than Gen Z, the biggest increase or influx into the job market is people in their seventies or in that age bracket instead of saying, yeah, we should continue to work longer. Why are we not looking at why that age group is flooding back into the job market? I would think it has a fair amount to do with that their retirement because of the volatility of stock markets or all of these different things that their retirements and social security aren't holding them. So let's step back and start looking at some of those things. And also one of the early episodes that we did of Tutor Boot where Kim Rohrer was on

Nadia Eran (17:30):

Love Her.

Stacey Nordwall (17:30):

Yes, shout out to Kim. We read this article that was about X essentially being the 401k experiment experiment generation, because prior to that it was pensions and all of these other things. So you step back and look at all of that data and think, oh, people should just work longer. Is this the solution? It's like, oh man, you're not addressing the problem at all. So it's a big boot for me.

Nadia Eran (18:08):

And that was actually a little bit of a conversation I think that was happening at Transform at a panel with Clearwater. They were talking about the influx of elders coming back into the workforce. And so they were talking about things like pairing with AI or thinking about fractional or part-time jobs to make it more accessible for people so that they're not working eight hour shifts and adjusting or accommodating to different types of people who maybe need to only work four hours or five hours, but keep them into the workforce for longer.

Stacey Nordwall (18:46):

It's fascinating. What do you got for us next, Lexi?

Alexis Croswell (18:50):

Okay, last one, and I can give you more if you want them. Our last one, the headline is Alan Joyce to pay back 9 million Qantas salary in the form of flight vouchers. And the description is in a letter to the board. Former Quantas, CEO Joyce said that he understood the concerns of Qantas shareholders in paying in vouchers over cash, but added that it was a matter of convenience saying the funds could be accessed using a code sent to their email.

Nadia Eran (19:29):

Wait, so let me try to do recall here, airline is trying to pay cash instead of vouchers or pay

Alexis Croswell (19:41):

Vouchers instead of cash

Nadia Eran (19:43):

To do vouchers instead of cash. I guess that feels real because nobody wants to spend cash.

Stacey Nordwall (19:53):

Wait, so this is part of, wait, yeah, say it again. This is part of the CEO wants to pay back in. I feel like we need another headline. The

Alexis Croswell (20:02):

CEO is being forced to pay back their salary. I can't tell you

Stacey Nordwall (20:07):

That oh $9 million, but in vouchers, how much salary is this person making that the payback in? They would accumulate 9 million in vouchers. So I clearly don't understand what's happening in the corporate world. I mean, the person's probably making hundreds of millions of dollars and so for me, while this amount seems just incomprehensible, it's probably like a drop in the bucket. But yeah, I mean that's okay. Yeah. I'm going to go real. I'm going to also, I'm going to say real.

Alexis Croswell (20:48):

I got you on one of them, but mostly I think because it was confusing. So this is, and I did remove one word from the headline. I thought it would give it away. The headline is that the CEO has to is paying back their salary in the form of unusable flight vouchers. So this is from a satire site from Australia called the Shovel. I mean the article is very short, but it's funny. But what does it say? Joyce said The fair is available using the voucher. Were priced differently from normal flights. So for example, a flight from Melbourne to Sydney might usually cost $150, but when using the voucher it will cost 9 million.

Stacey Nordwall (21:41):

Wait, so is this actually based on something

Alexis Croswell (21:44):

Real?

Stacey Nordwall (21:47):

I mean

Nadia Eran (21:48):

This person is this Australian? Haha,

Alexis Croswell (21:52):

But that's a good question. Lemme do a quick

Nadia Eran (21:56):

Where they put Vegemite on toast and we have no idea what that means.

Stacey Nordwall (22:03):

Oh, I've had it. It is strong. But it's funny. If you are in Australia and you want to put Vegemite on your toast, they absolutely will know that you're American from your accent and warn you off doing it. They're like, look, you think you want this, but you really

Nadia Eran (22:21):

Can't handle the Vegemite on the toes.

Alexis Croswell (22:23):

Yes, you can't handle it. Okay. It is based on some truth as most satire is. And what the Google AI bot is telling me is that I, so Qantas docked 9 million from his final payout as CEO citing a tumultuous final year that included a string of legal scandals before his early exit.

Stacey Nordwall (22:53):

Oh, well I

Nadia Eran (22:54):

Feel like so many divorces want to do this where they could just in the final accounting of everything to be like, I'm going to dock about 9 million from this transaction because you've just been so horrible in the last year of our relationship. I love that a company can do this. Fabulous.

Alexis Croswell (23:15):

And he worked there for 15 years.

Nadia Eran (23:20):

That looks like a culture that doesn't give a lot of feedback happens.

Stacey Nordwall (23:25):

Oh my gosh, that is all around. I'm fascinated by that now. I feel like I'll have to dig into that story at some point because one, again, obviously the docking of 9 million as just part of a paycheck has already my brain. But

Nadia Eran (23:47):

Yeah, what payroll system is managing that payout?

Alexis Croswell (23:52):

Well, and to your point Nadia, now I'm bopping around the internet on this topic. Sydney Morning Herald published an article about this, the real story that said citing amid the string of scandals, which found that the business had a top-down culture with too much deference to a long tenured CEO. So you were spot on and Stacey, for your number knowledge the business, he was paid out 21 million.

Stacey Nordwall (24:26):

Oh, okay.

Nadia Eran (24:28):

Alright. After they docked the 9 million, it was still 21 million. So we should have would've cut a 90 or 30 million. It's a lot for him.

Stacey Nordwall (24:40):

It's still a lot to walk away with after

Nadia Eran (24:44):

Literally not what rich people think. They're just salty about that 9 million

Stacey Nordwall (24:51):

And it's a lot to walk away with, especially if you haven't perhaps been doing your job well or appropriately. But I suppose that is a conversation for another day. That is a fools day. So you did manage to fool us at least once.

Alexis Croswell (25:11):

Right? It was really a joy because a lot of the headlines that I found from The Onion, the headline itself is funny and you can kind of tell it satire One is panicked. Pottery Barn executives announced they have lost control of the wicker. I think you would've known also my dad and stepmom were like, what does that even mean? I dunno. And the other one is Job applicant asked to submit 10,000 words thesis on why they want to work at soulless Corporation to commentary on how difficult it is applying to jobs these days.

Stacey Nordwall (25:55):

All right. Well that was fun. Thank you for putting together something different for us to react to for April Fool's Day. I wonder if anyone else was fooled by these headlines or if they were totally in the know. And Nadia, it's such a pleasure. So for everyone who has maybe listened previously or has not been able to listen to our episode of us Live at Transform, but Nadia famously tooted a $19 er one strawberry, and we thought it was so much fun that we had to invite her back for our April Fools edition. So thank you so much, Nadia, for joining us again.

Nadia Eran (26:39):

Thank you so much. Love to be fooled. Thanks for a great April fool day.

Alexis Croswell (26:45):

Before we wrap up, is there anything that you would like to share with the listeners? Anything that you are promoting or excited about in what you are offering these days?

Nadia Eran (27:00):

I am really excited about some of the fractional work that I've been doing. It's been such fun, and especially right now as people are gearing up for some performance management and thinking about do they have the right HR tech in place? And so I've been having a really fun time doing some new HRIS and performance platform implementation. So anybody's interested or wants to know what's the coolest HR tech that's around that might be a fit for where your org is right now. I would love to always give me a ring on LinkedIn or you could find me at futureinwork.com.

Alexis Croswell (27:39):

Awesome. Thank you.

Nadia Eran (27:41):

Thanks y'all.