The weekly conversation for people who shape how organizations work

A company can call an acquisition an integration while the people inside it live through an elimination. Slack co-founder Stewart Butterfield said as much to his own staff after Salesforce bought the company, and it sets the tone for Episode 82.

Chuck brings five stories this week: life inside Salesforce after the Slack deal, Microsoft’s voluntary exit offer to roughly 60,000 employees, the ever-growing CHRO job description, Deloitte’s four-part model of trust, and an Anthropic study showing how quietly an AI agent can steer an expert’s judgment. Jenni keeps pulling each one back to the same gap: what organizations say versus what employees actually experience.

Madison Square Garden told staff their championship rings had arrived. The link led to a mandatory cybersecurity course. Chuck opens with it as a fair answer to a question the rest of the episode keeps circling: why is anyone surprised that trust inside companies is at a record low?

It’s a report-heavy week, and Jenni makes no apology for it. Edelman’s Trust at Work study finds trust in CEOs, managers and co-workers at the lowest point in its data. The Guardian reports on companies quietly walking back their AI rush. G-P’s World at Work survey of 7,100 people finds sky-high confidence alongside widespread job fear. And crisis comms specialist Amanda Coleman asks a question designed to annoy the profession: is PR damaging society?