🎉 CEO vs. Applicant showdown

^Advertise

Read time: 2.5 minutes

Good Afternoon Party People! 🎉

It’s officially the first day of Summer! Let’s party!

PARTY PLAN 🎉

💢 CEO vs. applicant showdown

🤨 This company is asking employees for money?

✖️ Latest in layoffs

And, of course, MEMES!

MEME OF THE DAY

JOB SEARCH

Job Party! 

Need a new resume?

Tired of writing cover letters?

What about career advice? Need some of that too?

That’s why we created Job Party, your AI toolbox for your job search.

Now you can get instant resumes, cover letters, interview questions, and advice from our AI career coach.

Try Job Party here.

JOB SEARCH

The VIRAL CEO vs. Applicant Showdown

People who have looked for a job recently have realized that getting hired isn’t as simple as submitting a resume and doing an interview…l

It’s becoming increasingly common for job seekers to prove their competence and dedication to getting the job by completing aptitude tests, take-home projects, presentations, etc.

In other words, unpaid labor.

An employer just sparked a classic internet debate by venting on X about a candidate who refused to spend 90 minutes on a hiring test because it “looked like a lot of work.”

One candidate just found out the hard way that pushing back on the take-home tasks can cause more harm than good.

Here’s what the CEO posted on X:

In an interview with Fortune, Stanfield added: “If you want to get hired as an investment analyst, at least at my fund, you need to demonstrate your ability to analyze an investment. I think it’s pretty customary in the investment business to perform modeling tests. Otherwise, how is an employer supposed to know if you have the skills to do the job?”

Seems pretty reasonable actually.

But young people on the internet disagreed. Here’s what a few of them said in the replies on X:

“If you can’t pay the person for their work, you’re not the right employer.”

“Applicant is right. Unless you offered to compensate for that 90 minutes. He has no idea how many applicants remain in the process. He probably has interviews with other businesses. Effort vs reward definitely not there for this. Good for him.”

“From the applicant’s perspective, they're applying to dozens of jobs. They don't have time to do hours of multi-round interviews plus tests for every potential employer, most of whom don't have the decency to send a rejection letter. Employers poisoned the well.”

In a later statement, Stanfield said he would’ve “gladly paid and probably hired” the candidate if he would have said something like “Give me $1,000 and I’ll break this deal down in amazing detail.”

He also added that the entire generation “would benefit from being in more fistfights at a young age. A few bumps and bruises do a lot of good.”

Fist fights eh?

LAYOFFS

This Company is Asking Employees for Money?

For the first time ever, one of Elon Musk’s companies has found itself in the middle of controversy.

Earlier this month, X sent out a stern warning to a group of former employees.

After the social media company cut the last of its staff in Australia last year, X says they made a significant overpayment error as part of the severance packages.

“X allegedly claims that the error stemmed from “deferred cash compensation” in the form of company shares granted to employees when they first joined the company. The shares were valued at $54.20 per share (about $82 in AUD) when Musk acquired Twitter (now X) in 2022. X claims that it made “currency conversion errors” when employees were paid severance, leading to overpayments of $1,500 and $70,000.” -Report from media outlet The Street.

One employee was allegedly paid a severance at a conversion rate of 2.5 times the value of the shares!

The employee replied to Musk’s request for repayment with “new phone, who dis?”

Now, the company is threatening to recover the overpaid funds from former employees “together with interest” if they don’t comply.

The threat of a court case hasn’t motivated any of the former employees to cough up the funds yet.

Maybe they all spent it on buying new Teslas!

Speaking of Tesla, Elon Musk’s most valuable company was in the middle of a severance package controversy just a few months ago when Musk cut 10% of the workforce.

In that case, the axed employees were underpaid, a mistake that Musk apologized for in an email and corrected right away.

A month before that, X was served with a lawsuit from a group of former executives who alleged that the company declined to pay them around $200 million in severance after “firing them without reason” in 2022.

Seems like Elon needs to fire his financial team!!

Drama, drama, drama.

LAYOFFS

The Latest in Layoffs

Below is the latest in layoffs, via MacroEdge:

• Chegg is eliminating around a quarter of its workforce, or 500 employees.

• Walmart to eliminate hundreds of jobs in Georgia as it closes stores in the state.

• Ford plans to cut up to 1,600 jobs in Europe.

• Pfizer is expected to lay off hundreds of employees in Sanford.

• On Semiconductor is laying off 1,000 employees in Arizona and Oregon as a part of a new cost-cutting drive.

• Oracle is laying off around 700 employees and is shutting down Oracle Advertising.

• Another round of layoffs is happening at Rivian as part of the electric vehicle maker’s efforts to cut costs, primarily impacting manufacturing. People don’t want $200k Lego cars??

• Meta is reportedly eliminating a significant number of its Vice President positions company-wide.

• FedEx to eliminate another 2,000 white-collar employees globally.

• Best Buy is laying off more employees as it reckons with falling sales.

• Crown Castle Intl reportedly underwent mass layoffs that affected 500+.

• Northrop Grumman is laying off around 1,000 employees - primarily in Arizona.

• The University of the Arts is ceasing operations in Pennsylvania, eliminating over 600 employees.

• Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) informed its staff that they would be laying off 500-1000 people in the next 90 days.

• Danone will lay off over 2% of its workforce in the United States, impacting over 1,000 employees.

• Bridgestone Tire announces mass layoffs at Des Moines plant. Iowa's economy in shambles without Caitlin Clark.

VIDEO 🎉

“I wish every job seeker would watch this"

GET IN FRONT OF 12,700+ HR LEADERS, FOUNDERS, AND RECRUITERS

Advertise with The Office Party and promote your company to decision-makers at top companies. Get in touch.

LET’S HEAR IT…