That’s a serious problem for LinkedIn, and the boys dig into the issue and offer some possible remedies. LinkedIn isn’t the only one with problems, of course. Deel, an industry player who’s raised a total of $679 million to date, has its feet to the fire following an exposè by The Information. Plus, AI is trying to kill us, or at least the good folks of New Zealand, while kids in America are the new slave labor down on the farm. Then you have Delta who, along with Tom Brady, have formed an unholy alliance that’s wrong on so many levels. At least there’s some good news out of Indeed … wait, what?
Gotta listen to find out.
PODCAST TRANSCRIPTION sponsored by:
Intro: Hide your kids! Lock the doors! You're listening to HR's most dangerous Podcast. Chad Sowash and Joel Cheeseman 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 and Cheese Podcast.
[music]
Chad: Aw, yeah! It's International Star Trek Day, which means this show is ready to boldly go where no podcast has gone before. You're listening to the Chad and Cheese Podcast. This is your co-host, Joel...
Joel: I just can't do it, Captain! I don't have the power!
Chad: Cheeseman.
[laughter]
Chad: This is Chad, C is for Champion Sowash.
Joel: And on this week's show, "Why women are swiping left on LinkedIn." Big deal, little deal, or no deal. And Tom Brady's retirement is really taking off. Let's do this.
Chad: Oh so bad.
[laughter]
Joel: How was your labor day weekend? Summer's over.
Chad: It was great. Went to Edisto Island, just about an hour from Charleston. I spent long weekend there with some family, doing some golf, spent some time in Charleston, then I came back. And Bradley, oh, yeah, from Candidate Hub sent me the Red Bank, which is... I've never had before. It's Canadian, I don't generally choose Canadian, but when it's sent to me, Bradley, you know I'm gonna drink it.
Joel: Yup, he sent me a bottle of Laphroaig. Your favorite.
Chad: So bad!
Joel: Your favorite. Very nice, very nice bottle. I went to the opposite side or end of the country, I went to Minnesota.
Chad: And it was hotter.
Joel: It was hotter probably than where you were. It was in the 90s...
Chad: It was.
Joel: For God's sakes. And my wife is a huge Pearl Jam fan. Went to see them on Saturday night. During the day, we went to go see North Dakota State University football at the US Bank Stadium where the Vikings play. Which is a very cool stadium. It's very nice, it's a pretty brand new. And North Dakota...
Chad: It's cool.
Joel: They party, man. They know how to... Carson Wentz, they have a really proud football program...
Chad: What else can you do in North Dakota?
Joel: They've won like 17 national... Yeah, it's snow and football and beer, probably, but Minneapolis...
Chad: And goats!
Joel: It's a nice city. We had a good time in Minneapolis. Pearl Jam still brings it. They ended it with 'Purple Rain,' which was a great ending to that show.
Chad: Very smart. Very smart.
Joel: Apparently they're doing in every city, sort of... Yeah, they did a 'Cheap Trick' cover when they did Chicago. They're coming here to Indi this weekend, I will be there. I'm gonna go with 'Mellencamp' cover, if they're gonna do an Indiana...
Chad: Like 'Little Pink Houses' or something. The 'Jack and Diane.'
Joel: You gotta do 'Small Town' right? 'Small Town' would get everybody hyped up.
[laughter]
Chad: Okay. Whatever, okay.
Joel: So anyway, a good time. Fall is here. Conference season is here. Football is here. I'm pretty psyched up.
Chad: It is here. And we had our fantasy football draft last night. That's right, kids. Go ahead and go through the draft report. It was a pretty quick draft, which I like. I like that we had a quicker draft. The ones that I'm usually sitting through are like an hour and a half, two hours, this was less than an hour, which was fucking perfect.
Joel: This is no child's game. When you play Chad and Cheese fantasy, you're on the clock. This is like time chess. You gotta make decisions quickly.
Chad: Quickly, baby.
Joel: You get extra flex in our league, which includes a quarterback, so you can play two quarterbacks. Which also means, with 12 people, the good QBs, man, they start getting sucked up fast. So we saw that happen. We have a pretty...
Chad: 'Cause I took two QBs right outta the gate because I was 12th in the snake draft and I'm like, "Fuck this, I'm switching shit up. I'm going two fucking QBs right out of the gate." And that's what I did.
Joel: Yeah, and I picked 11th, so I was right there with you. We have a pretty short bench...
Chad: Yes.
Joel: If you have an injury...
Chad: Five.
Joel: Or something bad happens, there's not a lot of talent left for you to weed through the dead talent that's in the NFL. It's a tough league, but it's a fun league. I'm pretty excited. Let's go down the grades. If you're not familiar with Fantasy, Yahoo ESPN after the draft, they give you a grade, typical ABCDF. Here's a breakdown of how we did. Jasper, our European delegate, got an A plus. Big Jets fan, big football fan, so that doesn't surprise me, even though he's from Europe. Your boy here, the Roundabout, got an A plus as well, which I'm really proud of. Which actually, I got A plus in my other draft, which means I'm gonna finish last in both of them.
[laughter]
Joel: Brent Lowe C, B plus. You got a B minus. Michelle Sergeant, C plus. Which she cleverly said, "C is for champion," so she kinda spun it.
Chad: I can't believe she's bringing out the C word already.
Joel: Yeah, Joe Dickson, the Factory Fix representative who is sponsoring Fantasy Football, came in with a C, so he's no smoking Joe. He's more of an average Joe at this point in the league.
[laughter]
Joel: Kristen Urban, C. Dena Parrow, C. Dennis Tupper, last year's champion, C minus. Marcy Mall, D. Dean Awsner, D minus. Jill Patterson, D minus. No one got an F, but there were some bad grades on this one, we'll see. It starts tonight.
Chad: Yes.
Joel: You'll be listening to this on Friday, so you will have known that the Chiefs... Lions... It starts tonight, I'm fired up.
Chad: Yup!
Joel: I'm fired up.
Chad: It is.
Joel: My wife is in Europe, so I have carte blanche to watch much football as I want. My six-year-old is gonna OD on iPad time, and I don't care.
Chad: It should be iPad... He should be ODing on NFL time. That's what he should be doing.
Joel: Did I say six? Yeah... He's not quite there with Dad.
Chad: What was I doing when I was six? Come on! Anyway.
Joel: On your pick, so who are you most excited about? Give us a couple of players that you're really into, that you got... Maybe some steals?
Chad: Yeah, I didn't get any steals, unfortunately, I had a couple in mind, and I think you took a couple of them, 'cause you were right before me and I was like, "Fuck!"
Joel: And don't think I didn't think about that. Don't think I didn't think about like, "Who would Chad take if I don't take them?"
Chad: And I don't just take the next ranked that ESPN or Yahoo says. I'm gleaning down through. And I even had Zeke, I had Elliot. I was okay, he's gonna get some time this year. I know he is. I'm gonna pick him a little bit later. And it was right before I was going to pick him. You didn't pick him? Somebody else did. I was, fuck. I've got a, obviously a good team, B minus, pretty cool with that. But yeah, I think Lamar Jackson, and Joe Burrow being my quarterbacks or the highlights. No question.
Joel: Yeah. I think Zeke has adopted my diet regimen 'cause he's looking more like the fridge than he is, the Zeke that we know. Maybe he'll punch in a lot of touchdowns like the fridge did back in the '80s.
Chad: Possibly.
Joel: So a lot of people pick quarterbacks first out the gate, which is not traditionally a fantasy strategy. It's get the receivers, get the highest, the high yardage guys. So I was happy at picking at 11th that Kelsey was around, so I just said, screw it. He's a good 10+ everyday, but he's got a bone bruise apparently. So we'll see how that goes.
Chad: Not your typical tight end.
Joel: Yeah, Trevor Lawrence pretty boy. I picked him last year and he started blowing up at the end. I think he's gonna have a really solid season. I'm excited about him. Otherwise, starters are pretty good. But my bench is crap. My bench is a whole lot of like Odell Beckham Jr, Dalvin Cook. Hopefully he'll play, so again, this league is not for the weak of heart, man, it's a tough league. So every week we'll start going down the leaderboards. We'll have this adventure together. And I'm really excited. I'm sure the Europeans are really excited to listen about fantasy football.
Chad: Thanks. FactoryFix. Well, they should be. It's the top grossing sport in the world. Are you kidding me? Come on.
[laughter]
SFX: Shout out.
Chad: Okay, I'm gonna do something here that's gonna shock a bunch of you. Shout out to Indeed.
SFX: Doesn't anyone notice this? I feel like I'm taking crazy pills.
Joel: I'm sorry. Did you say Indeed?
Chad: Yes.
Joel: Okay.
Chad: Yes. Shout out to Indeed for offering listen up kids, transgender employees who want to relocate for care or support a $10,000 benefit to cover their moving relocation expenses. So eligible employees will receive approval to relocate to a state or jurisdiction where they will be able to access the care and support they need. Can you imagine that, we're in the United States of a fucking America and people have to relocate to a state or jurisdiction where they're able to access the care and support they need. Missy Gaither, the VP of DEIB at Indeed said, "Our transgender non-binary and gender non-conforming colleagues are integral to our business and culture at Indeed." In a time when many states in the US are reverting back to 1930s mentality... We'll talk a little bit more about that later. Taking away women's rights, creating obstacles for voters, banning books, wanting to build walls, and not embracing child labor laws. That's the shortlist kids. Government, federal, state, and local who should be protecting their citizens are failing to do so. And instead, companies like Indeed, which I'm giving props to right now, they're actually having to protect their employees one way or another. So you all know I'm not a fan of Indeed, but you gotta give credit where credit is due. Shout out to Indeed for stepping up.
Joel: So you brought the red meat on the first one. I'm gonna come with a big lollipop for mine on shout out. So Chad, who doesn't love a little rich girl, Sara Smile or some she's gone by Hall & Oates. Am I right? Well.
Chad: Oh yeah.
Joel: The next time the wifi goes out and the data plan is running dry, you can get your Hall & Oates fix by getting this calling 71926 Oates. That's right. Calling Oates. Calling Oates get it. You get a computerized woman's voice telling you what numbers to press to hear one of four Hall & Oates, great songs.
Chad: Very nice.
Joel: Why does this exist? Why the hell not? I say. You can go for that. You man eater. Shout out to Callin Oates.
[applause]
Chad: No, can do.
[music]
Chad: My next shout out again. Can't believe this kids, but it's still Elon Musk. Apparently Twitter has lost 90% of its value and could be worth just 4 billion compared to the 40 billion Elon paid for it. I guess, advertisers like the MyPillow guy could make up the advertising losses after Elon took over and allowed hate groups back on the platform. Shout out to the Once Rocket ship, now lead balloon we once knew as Twitter.
Joel: Have you been to Whataburger? It's the southern thing. It's a Texas thing for sure.
Chad: No.
Joel: All right. Before there was Five Guys and a lot of the others, there was Whataburger, freshly served, really good custom burgers. Anyway, Whataburger and Texans will know who this is, has opened its first digital kitchen in Austin, Texas. That means it's open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 364 a year. They are closed on Christmas day because that's how...
Chad: Is it flippy in there? I mean, how does this work?
Joel: That's how Davey Crockett would've wanted it. The digital kitchen does not have any interior seating areas and customers can only order food through the Whataburger app or the website, and it's no cash, of course. Humans still cook the food, Chad, but let's be honest, that will change eventually. Shout out to Whataburger. The staple of my high school diet was a double, double with jalapenos. You can't go wrong with that and now I'm really hungry.
Chad: Well, we've been saying again, Chad and Cheese t-shirts on the socials. And I gotta say kids, if you're out there and you don't know how to get free stuff, we're not just talking about t-shirts. We're talking about t-shirts from JobGet, of course whiskey. That's two bottles of whiskey. One from yours truly, and the other from the Cheese Man, from TextKernel beer, craft beer. Not this bullshit Coors Light or something... None of that, but craft beer from Aspen Tech Labs. All of this delivered straight to your front door, not by Chad and Cheese. We've got UPS and FedEx that does that. But then we have birthdays, oh, kids rum with plum.io. And if you have a birthday...
[laughter]
SFX: Really?
Chad: Guess what? You could win.
SFX: Can you feel the tension.
Chad: From Plum.
SFX: In the air right now? I know I can. I can feel it all the way down in my plums.
Joel: That's right, Chad. Another, trip around the sun for some of our listeners. It's a short list today. It's a short list. It's just been big lately so we're gonna crank through these. Alicia Bookler, Alan Bourne, Laura Martinelli, James Ellis, our friends, and Kari Quas all celebrating...
SFX: Happy birthday.
Joel: Another trip around the sun. Happy birthday to them.
Chad: Is it Kari or is it Carrie?
Joel: Kari Quas.
[music]
Joel: Oh man, my liver is scared.
Chad: Brought to you by Shaker Recruitment Marketing Kids. That's right. Chad and Cheese Adventures and/or let's say Travel. Next Tuesday, the 12th of September at the Tin Roof on Broadway is the Pre-Rec Fest party. Thanks to our friends at plum.io and Aaron App. Hot chicken on the stick, top shelf booze and music. I mean, it's Nashville, so you're getting music whether you like it or not. But this is the start. This is next week. But remember, if you come to the party, it's a marathon, not a sprint, so don't go getting your ass all crazy hungover for the next day 'cause Wednesday, Joel and I are going to be MCing the Disrupt stage, which is all about technology and tom foolery with our friends, Lynn and Tracy from the newly formed Brash and Boozy podcast.
[music]
Chad: Apparently they trashed the talent rebel cast, and they're now going with Brash and Boozy, which I like the evolution I like. And then Shelley and Serge from the Recruitment Flex, they're gonna be on stage with us. After that, we've got a post party, we've got an after party. On Thursday, we're gonna finish up Rec Fest and then roll over to the after party Booze Cruise. Thanks to the team at Hackajob. That's right, Hackajob is gonna be there and because of Hackajob, we're gonna have Hattie B's Barbecue.
SFX: All right. All right. All right.
Chad: And all the booze you can handle. Probably more booze than you can handle, but we're gonna have a lot of booze.
Joel: Don't fall off the boat people. Please. Please, everyone has to sign a waiver, which I thought was great. Only a Chad and Cheese party does a waiver need to be signed.
Chad: Then we're gonna find ourselves in Vegas. That's right. Two days on the expo hall at HR Tech. Obviously, we're gonna be drinking, eating, doing interviews, and the Fuel 50 booth two days in a row. We gotta thank Fuel 50 for letting us crash at their place in Vegas. So big shout out to Fuel 50. If you want to see us, come to the Fuel 50 booth there at HR Tech, that's gonna be a big show kids. Then a few days later, we're leaving on a jet plane. Don't know when we'll be back again. Yes, we're hopping on a plane for what? Unleash. Unleash World in Paris. If you're a vendor or a practitioner in Europe and you're not going to unleash what's...
Joel: What's wrong with you?
Chad: What's your problem? What's going on? What's going on here? Seriously, get your ass to Paris. Check out great tech, meeting amazing people, and buy us a drink or two while you're there. All of this wonderful stuff you can find at chadcheese.com/events or just go to chadcheese.com, click the events in the upper right hand corner. And also there's a free link there too if you wanna sign up for free stuff.
Joel: Did you say Serge and Shelley are joining us at Rec Fest?
SFX: Take off Lee. We're doing our movie. Don't wreck our show, you hoser.
Joel: I love it. By the way, Steven McGrath confirmed for Paris baby.
Chad: Yes!
[music]
Joel: Oh, topics. Well, let's start with something we haven't in a while.
SFX: Playoff layoffs.
Intro: Oh, that's right. Layoffs in the industry. Let's start with the big one first. Our friends at talent.com speaking of Canada formerly Neuvoo headquartered in Quebec, technically Montreal, I believe or specifically Montreal. So talent.com had a big run of layoffs. It's a little unsure about how many, but someone inside told me that it was definitely a bigger cut than the 18% to 20% that happened in April, which by the way, 18-20 is pretty big. So if it's bigger than that, then this is I don't know. I don't wanna say a bomb level layoffs. But this was certainly a big one. Apparently, a lot of sales and customer service teams took a big hit. Remember talent.com took $120 million, spent a lot of money on the talent.com domain. They were supposed to give indeed a run for their money. So far I'd say...
[music]
Joel: Things aren't going so well at this point on that strategy. As well, layoffs at HackerRank. Our friends at HackerRank said goodbye to 53 employees. Apparently, Atlas laid off 30%. Atlas we don't talk a lot about, but they raised $220 million so far. They laid off 150 people. A company called Join, which I've never heard of, but they were on the list at layoffs.fyi, and Pega Systems, which is a public company laid off 4%, which doesn't sound like a lot, but it did impact 240 people in the process. And that is...
SFX: Playoffs.
Joel: Layoffs for the week.
Chad: I think it's interesting because we always look at some of these other like Indeed competitors and we're like, what are you going to do different? Especially from a product deliverable standpoint for employers to be able to drive revenue. And if you take a look at 'em, I just can't see anything differently. I mean, there are some of like let's say for instance ZipRecruiter. They have fill, that does nothing for me as an employer. That is more of a job seeker experience thing. It's still not something that's huge, big fucking deal. But Talent, what have they done that is revolutionary, innovative, or anything like that, that really differentiates itself from Indeed. I can't think of anything. And if you can't, you can expect to wither and fail, and that's what sucks. I know they're Canadian all, and Canadians aren't the most innovative in the world, but there is some really good tech that's happening out there, and I would expect them to shit or get off the pot, man. Get on that innovation train.
Joel: Blackberry's coming back, Chad. Watch what you say about the Canadians and innovation. Blackberry is coming back.
Chad: Grim Jones, yeah.
Joel: Yeah. All right, let's pivot from that to DEEL, that's D-E-E-L, has come under scrutiny for facilitating financial payments for prop trading companies, which are known for their questionable practices. These prop trading firms struggle to find financial partners, because they promise customers the chance to trade using company capital and share in profits. Out of 21 reviewed prop trading firms, 17 of the 21 used DEEL for payouts, some involving cryptocurrency. DEEL has defended its actions stating that its involvement with these companies accounts for less than 1% of its revenue, and that it conducts KYC, or Know Your Clients checks on all their customers. US regulators may investigate DEEL's role in these transactions. Chad, big deal, little deal, or you see what I did there? No deal.
Chad: Atlas, as a matter of fact, one of their competitors we just talked about in layoffs. So when you're in startup land, you're moving fast and you're doing, well, and you're breaking shit, right? But you're doing everything that you can to find customers and drive MRR and ARR. So DEEL has taken nearly $680 million in funding. And at this point, I would assume they are moving fast and breaking as much as they possibly can. Now, I remember back in the early 2000s when we started getting scam jobs on job boards, we weren't ready for that. I mean, we were naive and didn't know how people with malintent would scam people using job postings. Well, we found out.
Chad: So back in the day, we started instituting standard operating procedures around who can and who can't post, including some QA, QC to make sure that we were doing it right. This being less than 1% of their revenue should be simple. You just cut away the fat, right? That it's fairly, this is an optics play and it's obviously an issue. If you've ever traveled in the UK, this is for our UK listeners, for our Europe listeners, you'll be used to hearing the phrase, see it, say it, sort it.
Joel: That was a horrible British accent, by the way, Chad.
Chad: Yeah, I'm not good at it anyway. This just ensures that if somebody sees something wrong, they say something about it and it'll get sorted out. DEEL needs to make, to not make excuses and just get this sorted out. It's not a big deal. It's less than 1% of their revenue and they can easily just chunk this off and say, "Hey, sorry, but have a nice day."
Joel: Yeah. My first thought was, holy shit, the information is covering a company in our space that isn't like LinkedIn or Indeed. If you know the information, it's a subscription only site. Most of their stories are like Tesla, Apple, like big brands that we all know. So the fact that they even covered DEEL to me was kind of a big deal and sorry. Go ahead.
Chad: 680 million in funding, like a $12 billion valuation. That's why they care.
Joel: Yeah. My first sense was that. My second was like, yeah, they're a startup. Startups do stupid shit. It's grow at all costs, especially when you take as much money as you have. The best thing they can do is like come out and say, look, we've parted ways with these organizations. Because if it's 1%, like the PR from it would be worth doing it. And in fact, today, Rippling came out and said that they have cut ways with any prop trading companies that they're doing business with. So...
Chad: It's too easy.
Joel: Rippling said, "Hey, we're gonna do it. So are you gonna do it?" I gotta think by this week, they will have cut ties with these companies that they're doing business with.
Chad: Oh yeah.
Joel: So DEEL is crushing it, by the way. I think it's worth noting that while so many in our space are either laying off or freezing headcount, DEEL has increased their headcount a 166% in the past six months, 321% in the last year, and over a 1000% in the last two years. Their headcount and assuming that they're making money to justify these headcounts, they are clearly crushing it based on how many people are adding to the company, while many others are cutting back or not doing anything at all. So I think it's worth saying like, yeah, they fucked up, but they are growing like a weed and they are one to watch. When we talk about DEEL, Remote, Oyster, Velocity Global, like all these companies, like who's gonna own this space? DEEL might be in the first place spot, man.
Chad: We've gotta remember they've got nearly $700 million in funding. So they might be playing the sugar rush game and we fooled ourselves into believing in late 2020, '21 and some of 2022, that that would be the new norm, and this is killing expectations right now. So we're literally seeing companies like the FAANG companies for the most part, who literally was trying to starve the market by buying up talents and getting talent literally to do nothing. But they were keeping the talent away from their competitors. I don't think that DEEL is doing this, although they could see some fatigue when it comes to that much hiring. There are tons and tons of competitors out there for them now. I thought it was interesting though, in the news that there was a report that they might buy Papaya Global, who also took $444.5 million in funding and have 750 employees. That's the total on LinkedIn. This is gonna be an interesting space to watch. EOR I think is hot.
Joel: Yeah.
Chad: I really do.
Joel: There's a lot of sizzle Chad, let's see if there's states.
SFX: 60% of the time, it works every time.
Joel: All right, well let's go to a company that we do talk about quite a bit, LinkedIn. A new survey reveals that 91%, I said 91% of female LinkedIn users experience unwelcome advances, resembling Tinder-like encounters. Many women confront senders, but it affects their LinkedIn activity in a negative way. Some women have left LinkedIn due to the issue, and they suggest increasing awareness, stricter guidelines, and bans for repeat offenders. LinkedIn expressed concern and urged reporting such behavior, Chad, what are your thoughts?
Chad: Have you ever had this happen to you on LinkedIn? Has anybody connected with you and then said, hey, and they started getting these stupid, intimate types of catfishing conversations.
Joel: They're usually from Ukraine and their account is banned a week later 'cause they're probably not a real person.
Chad: Exactly. I understand there's a much different expectation for your experience on LinkedIn versus Grindr, Tinder and hell at this point, even Twitter right now, but it's still the internet. I receive requests like that on LinkedIn about five times a month that are total bullshit catfishing. I used to not look at the person's profile before connecting because I thought, eh, any connection's a good connection, right? Yeah. No, not in 2023. It's not.
Joel: Yeah.
Chad: I've had women or people posing to be women start intimate chats right out of the gate. And I've also had proud boys-like people connect with me and the next thing I know I have all this radical bullshit in my feed. My suggestion is don't click the LinkedIns, just focus like on any other social network on taking a look at who is asking to connect first and foremost. And then if you do connect and have this issue report or block 'em. And in this story that this lady was talking about, the first thing the guy asked is, okay, what's your bra size? Screenshot that shit, put it on LinkedIn and shame the fuck outta that dude. Seriously, public shaming is probably one of the best ways to get these fuckers to quit acting like assholes.
Joel: Yeah. So my first thought was, and Twitter/X wants to be the next LinkedIn. You think this is a problem on LinkedIn? Wait till X?
Chad: No.
Joel: Doing some shit like this. The other thing was like, why doesn't an all female LinkedIn exist? How come no one's thought of that? Like, no men.
Chad: Bumble, Bumble Buzz...
Joel: Men could be on Bumble Buzz. Yeah.
Chad: Bumble Bizz.
Joel: Yeah, I don't know that there's a...
Chad: Don't they have to be invited on or no?
Joel: The dating site.
Chad: Ah, okay.
Joel: I've been out of it too long. But the dating site is, the women initiate the conversation.
Chad: Yes. Yeah.
Joel: Bumble Buzz. Bumble Biz.
Chad: Bizz, Bizz yeah.
Joel: Yeah. I think it's male female. Anyone can look, it's a separate app, but there's no all female like, fairy God boss kind of could do it, but they didn't. So anyway, those were two thoughts that came to my head. The wife and I went to go see 'Barbie' recently, and I don't think you've seen it yet.
Chad: No.
Joel: You're one of the only few people in America apparently that haven't. My 13-year-old daughter went to go see it before we did. And so apparently, you get choked up at the end. There's a sad part.
Chad: In 'Barbie?'
Joel: On 'Barbie.' Yeah.
Chad: Jesus. Okay.
Joel: I'm sitting there watching 'Barbie' and at the end, my wife, who, if you know my wife pretty tough as nails in terms of showing emotion and crying and she starts tearing up. I'm watching it, what the hell is she... Why? There's no dog dying. There's no parent in the hospital. There's no obvious reason to cry. And when I said, "Honey, you gotta explain to me the ending and why that's such a tear jerker clearly for you." And her response was based, "You don't understand, don't worry about it. It's a woman thing you wouldn't understand." When I thought about this story, I thought women deal with shit, we can't even comprehend the shit...
Chad: Constantly, dude.
Joel: Day in and day out that women deal with, and we get a Ukrainian prostitute, we laugh it off, but they get this shit every day. Harassment, and what's your bra size. I don't even know what people are saying, but these little microaggressions they gotta deal with every day. It's gotta be... So apparently the 'Barbie' thing was, things haven't changed. Things are tough for women anyway. It's pretty cerebral. Go see 'Barbie' and tell me what you think about it. But look, yes, you need to be smart about who you connect with. Don't just connect with somebody who wants to connect with you. Do they actually have a profile that makes sense? Are they in your arena of profession? Don't be an idiot when you connect with people. I think that verifying accounts is a good step forward for LinkedIn. I think partnering with clear...
Chad: Have you done the clear thing yet?
Joel: I have. I have.
Chad: Yeah, me too.
Joel: Getting some kind of verified will help this process... This is a big deal for LinkedIn. Look, according to this survey, 75% of the respondents found that the relentless flirtations were too much to bear and either limited their use or left the network entirely. If you have a user base that 74% say they are mad enough to stop using your service or use it a lot less, that's a major problem that they need to figure out. So have harder restrictions, put people in timeouts, have better spam filters, have algorithms like, if you literally put, what's your bra size in a message that LinkedIn says, hey, wait a second, there's some potentially aggressive language in this message. Do you really want to send it? Guys are dumb. Making them think like, oh, wait a minute, I said something really stupid that might offend somebody, may decrease the number of stupid messages and aggressive messages that go out. So LinkedIn can do a lot more stuff, and I'm saying it's important enough to them. This isn't 2% of their users, this is a huge amount of users. And this is a blind spot that they need to cover, and I hope that they make efforts in the future to whether algorithmically, verification-wise, education, whatever, that this stops, because clearly, we don't understand or comprehend how bad this is for women, and it needs to stop.
Chad: Now, here's the thing for me, is I don't wanna see women leave the platform. Don't allow these assholes to drive you off. I mean, report them, block them, screenshot, shame them, do those kinds of things, because without you in the workforce, or in those types of social networks, literally, we're half as good as we could be.
Joel: I think it's a stretch to expect women to shame men publicly on the platform.
Chad: Why? If you're acting like an asshole.
Joel: Again, I'm not a woman, I'm not a woman, but like...
Chad: I know.
Joel: Does it open you up for, oh, what a bitch, or way to go, Karen, or I mean, again, I'm not a woman, but I would think, oh, it's much easier to just ignore, block, get the hell off the platform.
Chad: Can you imagine how many women, 74% of the women who are actually already experiencing that right now, they need to know that it's happening to other women. If they see that happening, almost guarantee that you would actually have a groundswell of other women saying, that's bullshit. If they are experiencing it, they need to know that somebody else is experiencing it too.
Joel: Yeah, but most women aren't warriors like that. They just wanna go on and network and be like...
Chad: Women are fucking warriors, dude. Women are fucking warriors. They're just a much more silent warriors than our dumb asses.
Joel: Most just wanna move on with their lives. Now, what would be interesting is if LinkedIn put out a most wanted page of douchiest dudes on the platform where you could access, and LinkedIn called out these people. That won't happen either, but that would be a fun compromise, I guess.
Chad: It would, it would. Stay on the platform.
Joel: Yeah, don't leave. That's...
Chad: Don't leave.
Joel: Don't quit. Don't leave us.
Chad: Don't you quit me.
Joel: Some of us are okay. Some of us are all right. All right, Chad. So much for AI replacing Gordon Ramsay. A New Zealand supermarket's AI meal planning app generated unusual and potentially dangerous recipes, including chlorine gas, poisoned bread sandwiches, a mosquito repellent roast potato. The app created by Pak'nSave, originally aimed to help users creatively use leftovers, but led to unexpected and concerning recommendations. Yeah, you think poisoned bread sandwiches is concerning? Yeah. The app's terms and conditions state that users should be over 18 and that recipes are not reviewed by humans or guaranteed to be safe or balanced. They would be sued out of their lives if they were in the US. New Zealand must have much, much more lenient legal rules. And you wonder why I choose Chipotle.
SFX: Oh my God, I love Chipotle. Chipotle is my life.
Joel: What's your take on this AI nightmare in the kitchen?
Chad: Yeah, to think that Ts and Cs, right? The terms and conditions are actually like a get out of jail free card for poisoning people. That to me is fucking ridiculous. I think it's about time we start performing QA/QC on these large language models before somebody dies maybe. The attorney that used ChatGPT for remarks and then got nailed with a fine because the AI hallucinated and made shit up should have been a shot heard around the world. So do your fucking research. You can't let these things around loose without supervision. And that's apparently what's happening. It's ridiculous that this could even happen. And again, we just talked about deal, being a startup, so on and so forth, but yeah, they're not poisoning people.
Joel: This sounds like the worst Brothers Grimm fairy tale ever, like witches serving poisoned bread and mosquito repellent roast potatoes. Yeah, this is a real story. Look, the supermarket expressed disappointment and pledged to improve controls, emphasizing that users must exercise their judgment when using the app. Again, it's not our fault people, we'll check it out, but this is really on you guys, part of this. Look.
Chad: Yeah, it's your fault.
Joel: Yeah, don't blindly just do what the machines, the AI tells you to do.
Chad: Please God.
Joel: Don't just click serve and like the lawyer got pinched. I don't know if he got disbarred or not.
Chad: No, he should have.
Joel: Hallucinations, especially if it's something you're putting in your body or something you're putting in someone else's body. Like don't just blindly listen to the AI. They're not infallible, they make mistakes and this is a perfect example. This is going to make its way into employment and hiring and recruitment and retention. Some story like this is coming, and I can't wait for it because it's gonna be great podcast content. Well, from one horrible story to the next.
Joel: In Colorado's San Luis Valley, the clash between the demand for cheap labor and child labor protection laws has drawn some attention. Children as young as 12 are working in agriculture, especially in the lettuce fields alongside adult laborers, many of whom are Hispanic and Latino. Some Republican-led states have been seeking to roll back child labor protection laws, making it easier for children age 14 to 17 to work longer hours and in previously off-limit jobs. But Colorado already allows children to work in agriculture. Child labor in agriculture is a concern with frequent injuries and fatalities reported. Chad, your thoughts on child labor in America?
Chad: So the Fair Labor Standards Act was enacted in 1938. 19 fucking 38. So back in the 1930s, is this what Making America Great is all about? I mean, child labor? This is from the New Jersey Monitor. Arkansas, Iowa, New Jersey, and New Hampshire have enacted legislation to weaken America's child labor protections at the state level and lawmakers in at least another eight states have introduced similar laws, outstanding investigations, including the deaths of three 16 year olds in Mississippi, Missouri, and Wisconsin, including a Guatemalan boy who was killed working in a poultry plant. A boy who was killed in a sawmill, and one working in a landfill site. So people are asking, here in our country and outside of the country, why is this happening in America today in 2023, not 1923?
Chad: Well, here's the dynamics that I'm seeing. Rich white people, white nationalists, let's say, don't want immigrants in the country because America is already estimated to be predominantly non-white by the year 2040. So, but the immigrants, which this nation was built on, by the way, they performed some of the most backbreaking jobs in America since the number of immigrants will be lower if we keep them out, we're gonna need a workforce. So send in the poor kids. Iowa has the most radical new law designed to roll back child labor protections. It allows children as young as 14 to work in meat coolers and industrial laundries. And teens, 15 and older can work on assembly lines around dangerous machinery. Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds should be forced to send her grandkids into these jobs first. 'Cause I guaran-fucking-tee you, nobody that she knows or none of her family are going to have kids working in these jobs. Keep the immigrants out, have the poor kids do the job. This is fucking ridiculous. And it's horrible because it's the haves and have nots.
Joel: So I have farmers in my family, let's say. My aunt, uncle, farmer, my grandfather, very typical in Indiana. Midwest. And I had two cousins, one was older, one was younger, and both of them were driving tractors at around 12, 13 years old. Like big ass John Deere tractors. And I was the "city kid" who couldn't drive till he was 16. So it was very odd to me that these young kids could drive tractors and work on the farm. Well, America has this rich history of like, the family farm, agriculture, puritan sort of history. And then in a perfect puritan world, it makes sense to let the 12 year old work on the farm, milk cows, feed the pigs. Like it's a vision of America that I think a lot of people have.
Joel: Unfortunately, these laws have now been skewed and bent to allow non-family, 12 year olds, 13, 14, and younger, to work on these farms. And these laws haven't been changed because it used to be, well, if you're working on the farm, then you could be younger than if you worked in a normal job. So the laws in a lot of these states are antiquated and haven't been updated in forever. So it's sort of a loophole that farm these plus you have these big factory farms, the family farm of the olden days has mostly gone by the wayside in America.
Joel: Look, we talked about how AI is a potential mess of society with your recipes in New Zealand. This is where AI and automation definitely can help come into play. If machines are picking lettuce and crops, we don't need kids or adults to do the dangerous work and the incredibly hard work that's there. Now, we can't flip a switch and automate everything. Farmers live on borrowed money paying. I mean, it's a tough business. So it's not like they have all the money in the world to just buy robots to then start this. I think you need to have a balanced government, human, AI, hybrid, increase immigration, legal immigration. I mean, stop sending immigrants to Martha's Vineyard and send them to Iowa. Send them to Colorado. And then you need to pay them a living wage, pay them, like have a $25 minimum wage. So they don't have to be in a situation where all the kids have to work because I'm not making enough money. If the parents are making enough money, then the kids don't have to work.
Chad: Now. You're just making sense.
Joel: Then they can go to school and be productive citizens. And then also maybe increase investment or government, I don't wanna say subsidies, but encourage innovation around farming. Whether that's by tax, tax breaks or grants that go into agriculture to create more startups in this space. I think there's a really great sort of partnership between government, technology and everything come together. Anyway, you get where I'm going with this. We all need to come together. I don't think it's gonna happen. This is America. Shit is gonna be fucked up. But in a perfect world, all these things would happen and we wouldn't have children working as basically slaves. I mean, let's be honest. I mean, this is a new form of slavery for the most part.
Chad: It is. Well, and again, it goes beyond the farm. It's the saw mill. It's the poultry factories. It's the slaughter houses.
Joel: Yeah. Slaughter houses.
Chad: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, these are things that were happening in the 1920s, 1930s, and we made laws to stop this shit because kids were dying. And yet we're reverting back to that now. And we've got these assholes, like in Iowa, this governor in Iowa who is saying, we should roll all this back. It doesn't make any sense. Hell, Newt Gingrich said this shit years ago. Well, guess what? Put your fucking family in those jobs. As soon as you do that, we can start to have the conversation until then, shut the fuck up.
Joel: You can't have your cake and eat it too, Chad. You can't have your Chipotle and eat it too. Let's end with a little football, Chad. NFL legend Tom Brady. The GOAT...
Chad: TB12.
Joel: Undeniably, is set to become a strategic advisor to your favorite Delta Airlines. In this partnership, Brady will appear in Delta's marketing efforts and assist in creating "Teamwork tools for the airline's employees. He will also share insights on greatness, resilience, excellence, and team performance." Delta CEO, Ed Bastian expressed enthusiasm for the collaboration. Some fans have expressed skepticism about Brady's qualifications in the airline industry. Just 'cause he throws footballs doesn't mean he knows about airlines. While others noted his busy retirement schedule, including signing a significant contract with Fox Sports and investing in sports teams. Details about the duration and compensation of Brady's advisory role are yet to be disclosed. Chad, what do you think about this news TB and your favorite airline getting together?
Chad: We just talked about Tom Brady buying like or buying into a premier league team, right? And it was like, first off, did you not see welcome to Wrexham? You're buying the wrong side of the spectrum. You should be buying on the bottom, like Ryan and Rob did. Just watch the show, you'll get it. So he did that wrong. And then now, I think Delta's doing, other than really just the bright, shiny face and having the GOAT to be able to take through the halls of Delta every now and again, they obviously have money to spend, they should probably be putting that toward their people in training and making sure their shit's tight. I know as a Delta platinum kind of guy.
Joel: It's fair to say you're a fanboy, isn't it? You're a fanboy of Delta.
Chad: I do like Delta, but I don't like, this is the stupidest way to spend your money.
Joel: Yeah, yeah.
Chad: If you're going to spend it, spend it on your employees who give better service to the people who are actually spending money with you. This, to me, does nothing for me as somebody who spends a shit ton of cash with Delta.
Joel: So from Oscar the Grouch, remember that story from, I think united as a spokesperson to Tom Brady? Like airlines have lost their minds, apparently. So this is messed up on so many levels. When was the last time Tom Brady flew commercial? He's been flying private jets since 1999. How about the diversity message or the anti-diversity message on this? Like, was Serena not available to at least maybe co-sponsor or co-delegate of the company?
Chad: Jerry Rice. I mean...
Joel: I'm looking at Tom Brady with Delta's CEO on CNBC. And it's like watching an episode of 'Mad Men'. Like, they're ready to head off to their two martini lunch after the interview. It screams vanity project. It screams like, hey, I'm the CEO. I want to hang out with famous football players. And I can't afford a team. So I'm just going to buy the next best thing, which is a player. This is clearly feeding Delta's CEO's apparent man crush. Yeah, wrong on so many levels. I like Delta for the most part. I hated the fact that they made me run through Atlanta's airport with you and almost have a heart attack. But more or less, it's one of the better airlines out there.
Chad: It's always a great story, though.
Joel: Yeah, yeah. And oh, yeah. Fuck Michigan, because Brady went to Michigan. The NFL is back, baby. Fantasy football is back.
Chad: Yes.
Joel: For you and Nashville, rest in peace, Jimmy Buffett. We out...
Outro: Wow. Look at you. You made it through an entire episode of the Chad and 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. A valuable time you could have used to 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 chuckleheads instead. Now, go take a shower and wash off all the guilt. But save some soap, because you'll be back. Like an awful train wreck, you can't look away. And like Chad's favorite Western, you can't quit them either. We out.
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