'Everybody's replaceable': The new ways bosses talk about workers

Corporate America's long-running war for talent sounds more like a war on the talent these days.

- Chip Cutter

Not long ago, bosses routinely praised workers as their most prized asset, so much that some hoarded new hires before having enough for them to do. Today, with a giant question mark hanging over the economy, executives are pulling no punches in saying employees need to work harder, complain less and be glad they still have jobs.

"Work-life balance is your problem," Emma Grede, co-founder of the shapewear company Skims and CEO of clothing label Good American, said this month. After recently cutting more than 1,000 jobs, Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol said remaining corporate staff needed to step it up and "own whether or not this place grows." JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon, in a profanity-laced internal meeting, told employees lamenting a return-to-work mandate that he didn't care. "I've had it with this kind of stuff," he said. "I've been working seven days a week since Covid, and I come in, and—where is everybody else?"

The shift in tone marks a shift in power now that companies are shrinking their white-collar staff. With jobs harder to find, many workers are seeing perks disappear and their grievances ignored.

The latest episode happened at a contentious all-hands at Uber last month. The company had just changed the requirements to get a month-long paid sabbatical to eight years of working at the ride-hail giant, from five years. A decision to require people to work at least three instead of two days in the office also drew complaints. CEO Dara Khosrowshahi suggested those unhappy with the changes deal with it.