Your Work Friends
Edgy Work Talk. Fresh Insights. We Break It Down So You Stay Ahead.
Its not just you - work is bonkers. You get hit from all sides. Your boss. Your team. Your clients. Another org change. A layoff. Which makes you want to chuck it all and live off the grid.
Friend-to-friend? We get it. We're in it. And we're finding the best ways to handle your work sh*t so you don't have to go sell candles in Montana.
We're two leadership pros, and friends, hitting you with the latest news, expert interviews, and real solutions.
Your Work Friends
New Week, New Headlines: 110-Hour Work Week Growing & 99.9% at Risk. Tariffs Killing Small Business Jobs
We're breaking down two massive workplace crises the US can't ignore.
We dive deep into the Wall Street Journal's shocking exposé on 110-hour workweeks pushing bankers to hospitalization and burnout, while examining the devastating impact of tariffs that threaten the very existence of America's small business backbone.
Listen for:
- The brutal reality of 110-hour workweeks and how they're becoming normalized across industries
- Why small businesses that make up 99.9% of American companies are facing extinction from 145% tariffs
- How tariffs are already creating job losses that will ripple through the entire economy
- The shocking story of the "morale pizza party" that turned into a demand for even more work
- Why container shipments are down 35-50% at major ports and what that means for your job
- Simple actions you can take to protect yourself from toxic work expectations
- How to support small businesses in your community before they disappear
Episode Highlights
⏰ 4:15 Work Crisis: How 110-hour workweeks led to hospitalizations at a major financial firm and what it reveals about toxic leadership
⏰ 10:30 Small Business Reality Check: Why these companies employ half of America and what happens when they can't survive
⏰ 15:45 The Tariff Tsunami: Real examples of businesses facing impossible choices between raising prices or closing down
⏰ 20:20 Employment Domino Effect: How every four shipping containers equals one American job (and they're disappearing fast)
⏰ 25:30 Survival Guide: Practical steps for protecting your work boundaries and supporting local businesses
Join us for the real, unfiltered story behind the work headlines affecting all of us right now.
Disclaimer: This podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be considered professional advice. We are not responsible for any losses, damages, or liabilities that may arise from the use of this podcast. The views expressed in this podcast may not be those of the host or the management.
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I'm Mel Plett, talent strategist coach and someone who survived big law, big four and more than a few broken org charts. I'm Francesca.
Speaker 2:I've led people strategy at Nike and Deloitte. I like my advice how I like my coffee strong and no bullshit.
Speaker 1:We host your work, friends, the podcast that breaks work down, so you stay ahead, we talk work stuff, the human stuff, the awkward messy, what the f*** is actually happening stuff. Each week we drop new episodes with real talk, smart guests, fresh insights and straight-up advice.
Speaker 2:Hit play. We've got you Ahas and ahas and, yeah, the occasional F-bomb or two Mel. What's going on? What's the good word? Have you watched the Conclave yet? Did you watch the Conclave? I have not.
Speaker 1:I have not but man US Pope, and in your hometown Chicago.
Speaker 2:I know this is. Look at the connection. You're welcome. It's interesting. It's exciting. What does that mean for the church? I have no idea. Yeah, no clue. If you want to go for a different aspect of papal life, the Wall Street Journal's podcast. The Journal did an amazing episode on the financial crisis hitting the Vatican. Completely worth the listen, especially if you're curious about what this new Pope's mandate might be. Yes, a saint, but also has to be a CFO. So there you go, it'll be interesting.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the church is a big business.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. So there was some papal news that dropped this week, which we certainly don't cover on this pod Promotion at the Vatican, which is pretty exciting. Yeah, promotion at the Vatican, which is pretty exciting.
Speaker 1:Some of the funniest things I've seen so far on TikTok. Like his siblings are on TikTok being interviewed. Imagine you're just like, yeah, my brother's the Pope and this one girl said her mom dated him in high school and he talked I don't know if how true this is so to get with a giant like salt shaker of salt, but like they were joking around about how, oh, your first boyfriend is now the pope oh my god, I would die happy like how funny is that?
Speaker 2:like you can't beat that in cocktail conversation.
Speaker 1:You have now just won for life.
Speaker 2:The fun fact about me icebreaker challenge anything you do thousand percent like yeah, the yeah, two truths and a lie. You're fucked. If you're in a conversation with that person, they have the best one they have the best we're back with new week, new headlines. What are you talking about today?
Speaker 1:yes, I am talking about the Wall Street Journal article that came out really scathing 110-hour workweeks. This article is claiming that 110-hour workweeks were driving young bankers at a boutique Midwest firm to the brink. So I'm going to talk about that.
Speaker 2:I feel like we're hearing more and more 110-hour workweek conversations. Those don't always end well at all for people.
Speaker 1:Not at all. What about you? What are you covering?
Speaker 2:I'm talking about impacts of tariffs on employment in small and medium sized businesses, because they make up the backbone of this economy and we're already starting to see less hiring because of the tariffs. So I want to talk about what's going on and, if they continue, what you can expect from a job market perspective. Oh yeah, there you go. I know everyone's probably sick of hearing about tariffs and they have very specific job implications. You're starting to hear the stories in daily life and it got me thinking about what is happening, what's going to happen and what could happen, specifically as it relates to small and medium-sized businesses, because small and medium-sized businesses in the US make up 99.9% of the businesses in the US and they will be the most impacted by tariffs. So I wanted to look at, if that goes, what happens, especially to employment, hearing stories about people that ordered $1,100 of clothes from China and they're getting a bill from DHL for $2,300. Or a florist that used to sell a rose stem for 65 cents is now having to sell it for $1.89. Are you hearing these stories?
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. I watched a congressional hearing this week about the impact of small business. This retailer was sharing that she needs to do her holiday orders within the next two weeks, but she can't. She used the example of the popular mid-calf booth.
Speaker 1:I like a good mid-calf who doesn, but that's her most popular item and it typically costs her $50 to work with artisans and craftsmen in China to make these boots.
Speaker 1:And what they were telling her now is the cost is going to be approximately $150 to get that same product. That was the price you would charge her customer for the boot, because they're custom made boots. But in order for her to make the same profit, she now has to charge $300 for that boot, and that will alienate her customer base, and so it's not a good financial decision. And that was an example of one product she can't order for her holiday inventory, which essentially impacts her entire business, and for her current inventory she has shipment to be picked up, but she can't in good conscience pay the tariffs on it because it's worth more than the goods she bought, and so now it's a poor financial decision, so that could bankrupt her business. So she's not picking up the goods she needs, so essentially her shelves. They're going to be updated. She's not going to be able to fulfill orders and she's going to run out of business as a result.
Speaker 2:We're seeing tariffs for various countries from 10% all the way up to 145%, aka China. Small and medium-sized businesses get about 46% of their goods from China. So your story around the shop owner with the boots is something that is almost half of small and medium-sized business owners are facing, and to understand the full impact of it, I think we need to look at just how important SMBs, or small and medium-sized businesses, are to the US economy. They make up anywhere between 33 to 35 million businesses in the US. They represent like I said just to repeat because it's very important 99.9% of all US businesses and they employ almost half of the people in this country. They contribute 43.5% to the US GDP about $5.9 trillion and when we talk about SMBs, we're talking about any company that has 500 or fewer employees. They typically are making somewhere between $1 million and $40 million a year. So that could be your local bookstore that employs 10 people and makes $2 million a year. It could be your small manufacturing firm that employs 499. It makes $12 million a year. That makes up 99.9% of the businesses in this country and, like I said, most of those businesses are getting goods from other countries. Almost half of them are getting their goods directly from China, which right now is standing at 145% tariff, which people cannot afford. These businesses when they hurt financially, it hurts employees. We feel it through job losses, price increases and reduced spending power.
Speaker 2:Weeks. Be on the lookout over the next couple of months. Let's talk about just supply chain disruptions Again getting those goods to get on the shelves so we can continue to have employees that are stocking those shelves, selling those goods. Putting them all together, whatever Ocean Freight. You and I have been talking about supply chain and what's going on with the ports this week. Overall, from China it's down 50 to 60% since tariffs took place. The Port of LA, which is the biggest port on the West Coast, is down 35%. Over here in Portland we're down 51%. Tacoma is down 28%. 89% of companies have already canceled orders due to uncertainty and this has such huge ripple effects.
Speaker 2:You and I were talking earlier for every container, ie that big box that they put on the back of a truck to ship somewhere else. Those come off of ships. For every four containers unloaded in the US, that's one American job 51%, 28%. We're already seeing unemployment and we're already starting to see this. Employment in small and medium-sized businesses declined already last month. This time last year it was 1.6%, this year it's 3%. That equates to 366,400 less jobs in the small and medium-sized business space than there were last year. So we're already starting to see it. Most of these small and medium-sized businesses are a bit in survival mode. They're freezing hiring, they're laying people off and they're waiting to see what's going to happen, because they don't know if they can buy, they don't know if they can hire, they don't know if they can hold on.
Speaker 1:You've talked about this, but right, like the implications, it's after those four containers that one dock workers job is gone. But then the truck driver who would pick up those goods, their job is gone Down to the stock person who would stock the shelves, that person's job is gone. Now, all of a sudden, it's three jobs gone automatically from this one downstream effect. It's going to get really intense really quickly.
Speaker 2:Love that funnel that you just walked us through. In terms of, that's the impact of jobs. On the other end, on the consumer end, prices of things that are on the shelf are going to go through the roof. The boots you paid $150 for last year, paid $150 for last year. At minimum they're going to be 250, maybe 300. And so you're going to buy less, and the less you buy, the less jobs there are. So now we're in this vicious cycle.
Speaker 2:This has done irreversible damage to small and medium-sized businesses because even if they said psych, we'll go back to the way it was. Go back to your shoe lady, right, if she makes half the sales she made last year, that's enough to put most small, medium-sized businesses under Right out of business. Yeah, they're out. This is not a what should you do. It's an awareness of my biggest concern with these tariffs is not large companies, it's small and medium-sized companies that might not survive this. So much of your life is experienced within a 10, 15 mile radius. Yeah, protect that. This is the thing when life feels on fire for me is to start thinking about what can I control, what are little things I can do, like buying a book from Powell's instead of buying a book from Amazon.
Speaker 1:Wall Street Journal came out with an article this week titled 110-Hour Workweeks Drove Young Bankers at a Boutique Firm to the Brink. This article alleged that junior bankers at Robert Baird's industrials team endured extreme workloads, often exceeding 110-hour work weeks. The article also alleged that there was a morale-boosting pizza party that turned into a call for increased performance. Many assumed the party was a gesture of appreciation for the hard work that they've been doing over past several weeks, like some of them had been working around the clock, sleeping in the office all the bad things that are equated to this. However, during that gathering, managers told the team that they needed to step up their performance, and when some bankers raised concerns about their long hours, they were told they should work more efficiently. Reports also indicated that some employees suffered severe health issues, including hospitalization, again all alleged. The situation garnered attention after an anonymous online post went viral, leading to internal discussions and the dismissal of a mid-level banker who had been associated with the demanding work culture. And I just want to call out this isn't unique, as you just mentioned, right, you and I have seen this popped up all the time, and in fact, last year alone, we did an entire little mini study on the salaried worker, because this is across industries. We see it in legal, we see it in consulting, we see it in health care, we see it in banking, and what we're seeing is that there are these persistent challenges right across anything that's having to do with well-being or boundaries with work, despite public outcries about this, despite people crying uncle, because you're a human being, not a robot who shouldn't be working 24 hours a day. It's not unique, and last year, bank of America was also under scrutiny for something similar, for another alleged banker's death related to 100-hour work weeks and Korn Ferry.
Speaker 1:I just highlighted them last week in my newsletter. They came out with an article talking about the 60-hour work week and the return. Not that they were not advocates for it, but their research was amplifying how, even if you work 50, 55 hours a week, you're not doing your best work. That's a wall. That's the max most people can work, and so my question is if that's the max and we know this is the capacity limit for human beings, why are we asking for more? And if you're a client or a stakeholder or a shareholder, why are you expecting more when people aren't going to do their best work? And you're't going to do their best work and you're not going to get the best work from them. It just seems like a snake eating its tail at this point. What do you think about this?
Speaker 2:I think it points to a strategy that's not working. I think it points to using a very lazy tactic, ie asking people to just be more efficient and work more, as opposed to recognizing that you actually need more people or more agentic AI or something of this sort. Your resource planning is off completely and it also, philosophically and morally, is beneath the position of leadership.
Speaker 1:100 hundred percent, because leadership models the way. At least it sparked a conversation and whoever was allegedly causing the issue removed immediately, because sometimes it is that you find out that there's somebody who's asking people to work nights and weekends, and that's not your culture, nor do you want it to be. But damn, leaders have a responsibility here to protect the health and wellbeing of the people that work for them.
Speaker 2:You hear these stories and I always try to get to the bottom of. What is that leader or that boss or that company? What do they really think about employees Like? How do they view them? And whenever I hear stories like this, I'll just be very honest I feel like there are leaders in place that think, um, employees are there to work like a dog and they don't trust that they're working enough. So it's just, it's almost like I'm going to get the most out of you. I don't care if you're a human or not. I'm going to push you to your limit and they don't care. I literally think they don't care.
Speaker 1:I've always wondered like when does that happen for someone, that they start to not recognize the humanity and the people that work with them or for them? I just don't get it. But the research shows that the output is going to be shit.
Speaker 2:Those people aren't reading the fucking data. Either they were asked to do that or when shit hits the fan, their emotional reaction is to get in control. Yeah, and they're not going to be like, wait, maybe my strides off or or maybe I need to think about this differently, or maybe I haven't led my team do the highest value work or whatever. It's never a reflection on them. You see this organizationally. You see this in leaders too. I'm going to get myself into a position of control and they go to the most basic position, which is butts in seats. I need to see time. Yeah, it's so weird. It's basically. It's basically hell.
Speaker 1:I'm so bored with this story yeah, it's so ridiculous and we shouldn't be hearing any stories like this. And just yesterday there was another banker who sadly passed away. They're coming out to say that he had a drug overdose, but they directly like there are these claims. You can't directly correlate anything. But in these industries where you see high addiction rates, it's because they're not handling the stress well, and you see it often in a number of different industries.
Speaker 1:Anyway, friend to friend, here's our advice. If you're an employee today, here's what you can do Assess your work hours, identify your own patterns of overwork. Here's what you could do next week. Start to initiate conversations with supervisors about your workload, seeking clarity on what's really expected, and start to build your own boundaries, because your workplace isn't going to do that for you and you need to decide what you're willing to trade off. If you find that you're having this conversation and it's met with pushback or you need to work more efficiently, you might need to have some larger considerations to think about, like whether you still want to work for that company and then just going forward, if you're in a leadership position or in a seat of influence, if you're on the C-suite or an executive, you really need to start advocating for org policies that promote greater balance here and care and protection for your people, greater guidelines around the expectations of what constitutes the infamous work emergency. I think that's a really sage advice If you're in that situation.
Speaker 2:these are all ways that you can put yourself in the control seat.
Speaker 1:Don't rely on anyone else to do it. This episode was produced, edited and all things by us myself, mel Plett and Francesca Ranieri. Our music is by Pink Zebra and if you loved this conversation and you want to contribute your thoughts with us, please do. You can visit us at yourworkfriendscom, but you can also join us over on LinkedIn. We have a LinkedIn community page and we have the TikToks and Instagrams, so please join us in the socials. And if you like this and you've benefited from this episode and you think someone else can benefit from this episode, please rate and subscribe. We'd really appreciate it. That helps keep us going. Take care, friends. Bye, friends. Thank you.