🗞️ Here’s the Tea:

Layoffs surge to near-record high 📈

The TL;DR: Federal layoffs hit a pandemic-level high in March (275K+ jobs cut), driven by Elon Musk’s “DOGE” efficiency overhaul—including 216K furloughs. Only early COVID layoffs (2020) were worse. D.C.’s job market is getting wrecked and DC’s local economy is struggling. 

My POV:

• Talent tsunami incoming: Federal workers = skilled hires suddenly on the market. If you want to get up to speed on all things the job market – reading the job report is a good place to start. Yes, it’s long but there are some good things in there to understand. It’s published around the first few days of every month.
• Ripple effect: Cuts at VA, IRS, and Treasury mean real service disruptions (hello, chaos). I’m still wondering if I should have filed my taxes… JK I was never wondering. I live in fear of messing up my taxes.
• It’s scary: Listen, I live in DC. I’m hearing it from everyone – folks are stressed. The federal government was once seen as the most stable employer and now that seems like it’s not the case anymore. 

The bottom line: Even if your org isn’t federal, this upheaval will touch you, whether through talent pools, vendor delays, or your CEO getting ideas. 

🎙️ Mic Drop Moment:

“You can’t have fairness without process. Document your philosophy, share bands, and educate, or employees will fill in the blanks (badly).”

On the mic this week: Sarika Lamont is a people executive who scales global businesses by leading talent, people, DEI, and total rewards. She’s obsessed with demystifying compensation (and calls it an “art and science”). Recently named a Top LinkedIn Voice in HR, she’s the friend you want when negotiating an offer—or fighting for pay equity.

Pin this:

• Comp isn’t just cash. Total rewards = salary + benefits + growth ops + culture. Sometimes this is lost on employees who don’t really consider anything outside cash as compensation.
• Bands overlap—on purpose. Overlapping pay bands allow employees to grow financially within their role without forcing premature promotions or title inflation. When bands overlap there’s more flexibility to reward performance while maintaining internal equity across different experience levels.
• Remote work has a hidden tax. With more companies returning to office, there may be a push to return to geolocated comp. During the pandemic a lot of folks shifted to location agnostic comp

My H*ly Sh*t Moment:  Persona mapping is a must. 

▶️ Press Play

📊 Data Is My Love Language:

Stat: For the 11th straight week Target’s foot traffic is down. 

My thought bubble: Well, well, well it’s almost as if going back on your DEI commitments might actually have ramifications. WHO WOULD HAVE THOUGHT? (I think we had a hunch). 

Before you come for me I know correlation is not causation okay!! There could be other things like the market or economic conditions that are impacting consumers. It’s just interesting to watch what’s happening to Target vs Costco…

🛠️ In Your Toolkit 

🤖 Ask AI: 

How often are you leveraging AI? If rarely, then I have something for you! 

Here’s a sample prompt you can use to ask AI for help with anything: 

I’m an HR professional dealing with [brief context: e.g., a compensation issue, manager training, policy rollout]. 

I need help with [specific task: e.g., drafting a communication, creating a training guide, strategizing a rollout]. 

Can you help me by [desired output: e.g., writing a sample email, outlining key talking points, giving me a template] that considers [any special context: e.g., remote team, early-stage startup, unionized workforce, global team]?

Please go try it and see what the outcome is!