employees win this time
Hi y'all!!
Welp…we made it!!!! 🥳
The final day of 2025 is upon us, and my final newsletter of the year has graced your inbox! I, for one, am so happy to leave this year behind.
Before we all log off and hear those goofy “see you next year” jokes everywhere, I wanted to end on something that doesn’t spike your cortisol.
Yes, work has been a lot.
Yes, HR has been in the thick if it all!
But today I have a rare feel-good story where employees actually win, leadership doesn’t fumble the bag, and capitalism behaves for like five minutes.
Consider this your reminder that not every story is doom and gloom, even though it can very much feel like that on occasion!
Sometimes, alignment shows up.
So let’s sip to that and close this year out on a high note! ☕
🗞️ Here’s the Tea:Copy anchor linkCopied
🎁 Boss gifts employees $240M in bonuses after selling family company
The TL;DR: A CEO just did the most unhinged-in-a-good-way thing possible. Before selling Fibrebond for $1.7B, outgoing CEO Graham Walker made sure 15% of the sale ($240M) went directly to employees. That’s an average of ~$443K per person over five years if they stay, rewarding people who stuck around through fires, layoffs, downturns, and the eventual AI-fueled glow-up that made the company worth buying.
My POV: In an era where employee loyalty is often questioned, this demonstrates how treating the workforce as true stakeholders can define a company's history!
When leaders treat employees like value creators, you get retention, loyalty, and a culture that survives an acquisition.
HR doesn’t control exits like this, but we can influence how companies define who wins when liquidity happens.
🎙️ Mic Drop Moment:Copy anchor linkCopied
“If we’re saying the best idea can come from anywhere, are we creating the conditions where that person actually feels safe enough to voice it?”Copy anchor linkCopied
On the mic this week: Amina Gas is a people leader with 10+ years of experience building and scaling HR operations across fast-moving, global environments. Her work spans total rewards, compensation, benefits, equity, HR systems, workforce planning, and large org transformations. She’s also deeply focused on inclusive culture-building, especially where leadership wants the benefits of diversity without doing the work.
Pin this:
- Being “the only” is as lonely as it is extra work. You’re educating, translating, managing everyone else’s comfort, and still doing your actual job!
- Microaggressions compound into real outcomes like burnout, isolation, and health issues (and yes, HR gets hit too).
- “Representation” isn’t one hire. It’s also influence, sponsorship, mentorship, and safety to speak without being labeled.
- Real support is operational: codify norms, teach bias basics, name microaggressions, track equity data, and share the receipts.
My H*ly Sh*t Moment: Watching leaders outsource hard conversations to the person most affected is the clearest sign they want the optics of inclusion without paying the actual cost of it!
▶️ Press Play
📊 Data Is My Love Language:Copy anchor linkCopied
Stat: Nearly half of US workers say they’ll need $1M or more to retire
My spiral: Almost half of workers think they need a million dollars to retire, and only a quarter believe they’ll actually get there, yet most are still showing up to work trying to act like everything is fine. 🤔
That kind of math lives in people’s bodies as anxiety, then it shows up as burnout, delayed exits, and employees staying put longer than planned because they literally can’t afford to leave.
You’re seeing optimism and stress coexist, which is wild, but also very human.
It feels like a million things can contribute to burnout, and we end up managing the downstream effects of a system where confidence exists, but security doesn’t. It’s a weird duality, right???
🗣️ UNMUTE YOURSELF
Think about who you sound like at work versus who you actually are IRL when you feel safe and grounded.
Translating every sentence before it leaves your mouth and wondering how much of yourself you edit just to survive the room is a lot!
So, with that being said:
“What’s one part of your ‘HR voice’ that you’re ready to unlearn?”
🛠️ TRY THIS TOMORROW:
Before you jump into solving and buffering the mess…pause.
Notice how tense people get the second HR enters a room. You have more power than you think to lower the temperature!
Try telling someone, “You don’t have to have it all figured out,” and mean it.
👂 OVERHEARD IN SAFE SPACE
I can feel the scream in my bones…probably because I’ve been the one screaming it on more than one occasion. 😅
Read what members had to say here.
See ya on Friday!
