country fried cost-cutting chaos
Hiiii,
Good morning to everyone except Punxsutawney Phil, since he predicted 6 more weeks of cold! 🥶
(Okay, I take it back, he can have a good morning too)
This week we're having a lil fun, talking about Cracker Barrel's absolutely unhinged new travel policy that forces Cracker Barrel employees to eat at Cracker Barrel for most/every meal on work trips.
Also revisiting a chat with Aparna Rae about why climate change is a workplace issue for everybody, and an interesting stat around PTO that highlights the consequences of nickel-and-diming people's time off.
Let the gossip begin!
🗞️ Here’s the Tea:Copy anchor linkCopied
😂 Cracker Barrel orders its employees traveling for work to only eat at its restaurants
The TL;DR: Cracker Barrel just rolled out a new travel policy requiring employees to eat at Cracker Barrel restaurants for "all or the majority of meals" while on business trips, and they're also banning alcohol reimbursements unless pre-approved by senior leadership. This comes as the company scrambles to cut costs after a disastrous 2025 rebrand that lost them $94 million in market value in a single day and had to immediately backtrack.
My POV: Forcing employees to eat at Cracker Barrel for every meal on work trips after customers have been bringing their own maple syrup because yours is that terrible is absolutely diabolical…and kinda hilarious.
What kind of cost-cutting strategy is this???
Instead of fixing the actual problems (like why people hate the new recipes), leadership decided the move is to micromanage employee lunch budgets like they're all children who can't be trusted with other (better) food options.
Policies like this don't save money, but they do make your best people update their LinkedIn profiles while they’re forced to eat all their meals at a place that even the actual customers have second-guessed.
🎙️ Mic Drop Moment:Copy anchor linkCopied
“No one today is talking about using AI to help us work fewer hours.”Copy anchor linkCopied
On the mic this week: Aparna Rae is an educator-turned-founder who’s spent the last decade working at the intersection of equity, data, and systemic organizational change. Her work has been recognized by outlets like Forbes, and she’s known for pushing leaders past performative workplace change and into the uncomfortable, measurable kind.
Pin this:
- A lot of work is busy, not useful. If you can’t explain the business impact, you’re probably doing organizational arts & crafts.
- AI is coming for entry-level knowledge work first. Notes, decks, memos, early marketing drafts…anything “starter tasks” are at risk, which messes with the entire career ladder.
- The four-day workweek isn’t happening by accident. Without regulation and power shifts, AI gets used to squeeze more output, instead of giving people their lives back.
- Climate change is already a work issue. Heat impacts sleep, mood, cognition, commute reliability, and safety. Your employees don’t need to work outside for this to impact performance and wellbeing.
My H*ly Sh*t Moment: The worst part of AI is realizing we’re sprinting into massive job displacement, climate instability, and weaker labor protections while acting like a few productivity hacks and a culture committee are going to save us. We need to think bigger.
▶️ Press Play
📊 Data Is My Love Language:Copy anchor linkCopied
Stat: Giving workers 6 to 10 days of PTO, not just 1 to 5 days of PTO, significantly reduces turnover
My spiral: We've been treating PTO like a nice-to-have perk when the data is screaming that it's actually a retention lever.
The difference between offering 1-5 days versus 6-10 days is the difference between people staying or walking, yet most organizations are still hovering right at that minimum threshold wondering why turnover is eating their budget.
(Who on earth is only offering 1 DAY of PTO????)
What really gets me is that 11+ days is where both men and women show significantly lower quit rates, which means we know the magic number, but we're still out here nickel-and-diming people's time off like it's 1995.
The US is the only high-income OECD country without mandated PTO, so private employers are left filling policy gaps while also being shocked that people are exhausted and leaving…make it make sense.
🛠️ In Your Toolkit Copy anchor linkCopied
Navigating impossible trade-offs between cutting costs and caring about people requires a lot more than good intentions.
It requires frameworks, community, and honestly just proof you're not losing your mind alone!
That's why this month's HR Therapy is tackling People vs. Payroll: The HR Cost Balancing Act on Feb 25th.
We're getting into the real decisions HR carries in silence: what gets cut, what gets protected, and how you make impossible calls when there's no right answer.
If you’ve ever been asked to perform literal miracles with shrinking budgets, join us!
🗣️ UNMUTE YOURSELF
Leadership doesn't always want to hear what's actually happening on the ground, but sometimes our job is to be the person who says it anyway.
Those conversations where you have to deliver hard truths reveal a lot about where you stand and what you're willing to protect.
“What's the hardest truth you've had to tell a leader this year?”
🛠️ TRY THIS TOMORROW:
The gap between what policies say and how people actually experience them is usually wider than we think.
Sometimes we're so close to the rulebook that we forget policies aren't neutral. They either make life easier or they don't.
Ask in your next team chat:
"What's one policy that could be more human?"
👂 OVERHEARD IN SAFE SPACE
The number of times I've been handed vague directions and told to "figure it out" while somehow also being blamed when it doesn't land perfectly is truly unhinged.
Read what members had to say here.
I hope you enjoyed this, please let me know what you think and what other topics you'd love for me to cover. I'm allll ears.
Reminder: Take care of yourself and know that I support you.
