PODCAST · business
The EBN Dispatch
by Employer Branding News (EBN)
Welcome to The EBN Dispatch, the official podcast from Employer Branding News.We’re here to deliver smart talk and sharp takes on the branding of work, one dispatch at a time.Each episode breaks down the latest moves in employer branding, culture, leadership, and talent attraction - minus the jargon, and with a healthy disregard for conventional wisdom. Think newsroom meets boardroom, with a side of dry wit.If you work in HR, brand, or anywhere in the business of people, this is your feed. We unpack the strategy behind the slogans, the reality behind the reputations, and the trends that actually matter.Less fluff. More facts. Occasionally funny. Always unfiltered.
Episodes
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CEOs Promise Hiring, Employers Keep Cutting, Graduates Feel It | Paper Cut
Nine in ten US CEOs expect to hire. Kroger, Netflix, TomTom and Airtable are cutting. Singapore's president says the first graduate job is losing demand. This week's Paper Cut asks how much of it is really AI. Four themes: the cuts and the reasons given for them, the squeeze on the first job...
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Org Chart Redrawn: Fewer Managers, Shorter Ladders, Frozen Hiring | Paper Cut
Goldman's new hires manage AI agents, Citi shortens the ladder, Bayer cuts 70% of managers. This week's Paper Cut covers the org chart being redrawn. Four themes: hiring that has frozen while the bottom rungs of the ladder shrink, AI rollouts with no clear owner for the people side, how companies...
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Every Number Went Up This Week. Nobody Felt Better. | Paper Cut
Jobless claims fell. AI adoption climbed. Job applications are up. On paper, this was a good week. Then Nike, Workday and Citi all confirmed job cuts, a lawsuit alleged Ford disguised layoffs as poor performance, and tech-sector layoffs rose 77% in a single month. This week's Paper Cut looks at…
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Nobody Affected Was in the Room This Week.
Six companies confirmed job cuts this week, spanning insurance, media, pharmaceuticals, automotive and tech, while new research finds nearly half of CHROs are excluded from AI strategy entirely. Add graduates fighting brutal odds for entry-level roles and experienced women quietly pushed out of...
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Bosses Won’t Blame AI for the Layoffs. Their Employees Will.
Uber's own laid-off staff say AI was already doing their jobs, even though the company's layoff memo never mentioned it. Omnicom, Oracle and KPMG are all cutting too, and none of them are calling it a straightforward layoff either. Barclays staff are revolting against a tighter office mandate…
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Get Good at AI, and You Might Prove You’re Not Needed
One employee says his AI bonus scheme is really proof he's not needed anymore. Meanwhile UK data centres will create a quarter of the jobs the industry promised, managers are being cut in one company and asked back in another, and this week's reckonings over who pays land three different ways.…
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The Catch Behind This Week’s Round of Layoffs
Uber, Volkswagen and WPP all cut deeper this week, and the people who stayed were asked for more hours or more work, not more pay. Plus new data showing over half of laid-off workers don't believe the AI explanation for their own redundancy. This week on Paper Cut: - Uber's layoffs and the…
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”AI-Washing”: Why Most Layoffs Blamed on AI Aren’t
Fei Zhaojun's boss asked if AI could replace coders. Two weeks later, he and 160 colleagues were laid off in Beijing. But a new HBR analysis, citing Goldman Sachs, argues most layoffs blamed on AI this year aren't actually AI's doing. Plus: Reed Hastings on why companies aren't families, Disney's...
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Layoffs Are Being Rebranded as a Turnaround | Paper Cut
Diageo, Starbucks, Sanofi and KPMG all cut jobs this week, three of them calling it a turnaround and one unable to even manage the euphemism. UK productivity is finally moving, Dutch unemployment is rising for a third straight month, and a new peer-reviewed study of 7,704 healthcare workers found...
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TikTok vs Dropbox: The RTO Whiplash Mandate | Paper Cut
TikTok wants staff back five days a week. Dropbox is doubling down on remote. This episode covers that split, plus Oracle's layoffs against Singapore's AI employment gains, hiring data that can't agree with itself, and who actually gets blamed when the work doesn't get done. This week's Paper Cut...
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AI Boosts Output, Costs Jobs, Says the Bank of England | Paper Cut
The Bank of England says AI is lifting productivity and costing jobs, in the same breath. This episode covers that, plus a jobs report that says the market is fine while workers say otherwise, Gen Z's surprising ambition, and pay negotiation getting a new referee. This week's Paper Cut covers: -...
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Pay Rises, AI Layoffs, and EBN’s Big Community News | Paper Cut
Employers are planning pay rises and more hiring this quarter. Visa, Uber, and CBA are cutting roles and citing AI, in the same week. This episode covers the split, plus AI adoption without training, RTO culture, and EBN and EBClub joining forces. This week's Paper Cut covers: - Pay rises and...
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Contradictions Everywhere: Jobless Claims Fall, AI Cuts Rise | Paper Cut
US jobless claims just hit a decades-low. In the same week, Uber, British Gas, and Amazon all cut jobs citing AI, and Google employees organised a petition 4,500 signatures deep. This week's Paper Cut covers: the contradiction between decades-low jobless claims and a steady drumbeat of AI-cited...
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Meta’s AI Layoff Lawsuit, VW’s Confirmed Cuts | Paper Cut
A lawsuit alleges an algorithm chose who got laid off at Meta, and allegedly targeted staff on protected medical leave. Volkswagen's threatened cuts just became a confirmed number. And a new phrase, the forever layoff, is giving language to something a lot of HR leaders have felt for a while.…
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Big Tech’s Flip-Flop, Volkswagen’s Reckoning | Paper Cut
Big Tech stopped hiding behind euphemisms on AI layoffs this week and flip-flopped on its own story, the labour participation drop finally got a number nobody can explain, and Volkswagen is weighing 100,000 job cuts as its old headcount math stops working. This week's Paper Cut covers: Microsoft...
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Court Orders, Burnout, and the Office Comeback | Paper Cut
An algorithm ended up in court this week, an engineer described his job quietly outgrowing his week, and the labour market lost more people than the unemployment rate admits. Subscribe: https://ebn.to/sub25 Follow EBN on LinkedIn: https://ebn.to/lin25 This week's Paper Cut covers: the Workday...
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Work's Uncomfortable Summer: The Promises Are Cracking | PAPER CUT
Twenty-one thousand jobs. One government tracker. Two banks that forgot their own RTO policy. Hot enough for you? Subscribe: https://ebn.to/sub25 Follow EBN on LinkedIn: https://ebn.to/lin25 This fortnight's Paper Cut covers four stories that connect in ways nobody is saying out loud. AI is...
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The Botsitting Economy: AI’s Hidden Labour Problem | PAPER CUT
AI was meant to reduce work. Instead, employees are spending more time managing the machines. This week’s Paper Cut covers botsitting, broken graduate on-ramps, ghost jobs and regulated trust, white-collar hiring pressure, and The Cut List of layoffs shaped by AI spending and restructuring. 📰...
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The On-Ramp Cracked: Proof Culture Meets a Tougher Job Market | PAPER CUT | EBN
Graduates are struggling to break in as hybrid becomes a career filter and AI work shifts into a blame-and-proof culture. We cover the broken on-ramp, token-driven measurement, WFH surveillance, labour market strain, and The Cut List of layoffs and restructures. 📰 Subscribe: https://ebn.to/sub25...
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Efficiency Got Expensive: The AI Bill Comes Due | PAPER CUT
AI is being used to justify restructures, expand monitoring, and compress entry-level pathways. This week’s Paper Cut covers the efficiency trap (Jevons Paradox at work), agents moving into HR and finance, the pipeline risk when entry work disappears, the rising control stack, and The Cut List of...
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The Memo That Changed the Mood | PAPER CUT
Pay is louder. Measurement is heavier. Cuts keep arriving. This week’s Paper Cut is about the bargain underneath it all: what employers are taking away, what they’re demanding in return, and why “efficiency” keeps landing as monitoring plus headcount reduction. We cover burnout and compensation...
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Layoffs, Logs, Lowballs: Work’s New Math | PAPER CUT
Low unemployment can hide a labour crisis. Underemployment is rising, AI is reshaping wages and expectations, monitoring is becoming normal, and engagement is sliding as the employee bargain tightens. Plus The Cut List of major layoffs. 📰 Subscribe: https://ebn.to/sub25 🔗 Follow EBN on…
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Perks, Proof, Pressure: The New Workplace Bargain | PAPER CUT
The workplace bargain is shifting. Benefits tighten, measurement grows, and AI becomes a benchmark for hiring and expectations. This week covers culture as an operating system, AI framing and job design, burnout boundaries returning, hidden risk from shadow IT and workplace comms, plus The Cut...
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Perks Down, Tracking Up: The New Deal at Work | PAPER CUT
Benefits are being trimmed, AI adoption is being measured, and HR is stuck managing the fallout. This week: the perks rollback, scorecards and monitoring, the widening career divide for graduates, and The Cut List. 📰 Subscribe: https://ebn.to/sub25 🔗 Follow EBN on LinkedIn: https://ebn.to/lin25…
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The Rework Tax: why workplace AI is losing trust | PAPER CUT
Workplace AI is turning into a rework tax. Employees opt out, gains vanish into error-fixing, and leaders respond with dashboards, monitoring, and performance rules. Plus the early-career squeeze, remote work resistance, and this week’s Cut List. 📰 Subscribe: https://ebn.to/sub25 🔗 Follow EBN…
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AI Trust Collapse | PAPER CUT
AI at work is turning into a trust problem. Employees are opting out, productivity gains are being lost to rework, and leaders are tying AI to pay and performance. Plus EU pay transparency rules, identity governance risks, and this week’s Cut List. 📰 Subscribe: https://ebn.to/sub25 🔗 Follow EBN...
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Gen Z Sabotage Meets the Megamanager Era | PAPER CUT
Gen Z backlash is colliding with flatter orgs and wider spans. Manager engagement is slipping, entry-level routes are tightening, and HR is experimenting with AI in pay decisions while fairness scrutiny rises. The trust gap is the story. 📰 Subscribe: https://ebn.to/sub25 🔗 Follow EBN on…
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Oracle’s 6AM Email Economy | PAPER CUT
Oracle’s “significant” job cuts have turned AI infrastructure into a global workforce story. This week: what the Oracle layoffs reveal about modern comms and control, why AI skills earn premiums while engagement slips, ILO “white-collar bypass” risk, and why identity may be the real AI threat at...
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Welcome to Managed Work | PAPER CUT
Work is getting more managed: skills gates, cautious hiring, monitoring, and tighter rules. This week: HR rebuilding foundations as engagement drops, workers using ChatGPT for wage guidance, the return of tougher RTO and monitoring, and the latest moves in layoffs, freezes, and restructuring. 📰...
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Meta’s AI Layoff Moment | PAPER CUT
Meta’s reported 20% layoff plan has turned “AI efficiency” into a headline. This week: AI workplace friction, Gen Z’s growth gap, open model risk and token costs, and how layoffs are increasingly narrated as automation. 📰 Subscribe: https://ebn.to/sub25 🔗 Follow EBN on LinkedIn:...
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The New Hiring Risk No One Budgeted For | PAPER CUT
Hiring is getting noisier and riskier. AI has flooded recruitment with “resume slop”, pushed candidates to hide experience, and opened the door to deepfake candidates and remote work fraud. Plus: why AI rollouts still need humans, process, and proof. 📰 Subscribe: https://ebn.to/sub25 🔗 Follow…
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AI Is Making People Work Longer | PAPER CUT
AI was meant to save time. For many teams, it’s stretching the day instead. This week: why AI can lengthen work hours, why L&D is being pushed to prove impact, how remote work is moving into law, and what the latest job cuts say about where the pressure is landing. 📰 Subscribe:...
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Your Promotion Now Requires AI | PAPER CUT
AI adoption is shifting from optional to enforced. This week: promotions tied to AI use, graduate hiring flooded by AI-enabled applications and AI screening, Teams-style location visibility, and why employer brand now depends on trustworthy systems, not messaging. 📰 Subscribe…
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Productivity Promises, Performance Pressure. | PAPER CUT
AI is spreading fast. Measurable productivity gains are not. This week: why ROI is elusive, why “context” becomes the competitive edge, how PIPs and RTO are being read as pressure tactics, and how the student pipeline is already shifting. 📰 Subscribe: https://ebn.to/sub25 🔗 LinkedIn:...
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Your Employer Brand Can’t Be a Slogan Anymore | PAPER CUT
Employer branding is becoming operational. The winners are building systems that hold up under scrutiny: shared ownership across HR and marketing, real accountability when leaders misbehave, hiring that doesn’t manufacture friction, and AI adoption that improves work instead of expanding it. 📰...
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Layoffs, Flat Raises, and Resume Botox | PAPER CUT
Layoffs are rising, pay is flattening, and AI still struggles to prove ROI. This week’s brief breaks down what those shifts mean for hiring, retention, and employer brand trust. 📰 Subscribe to the free newsletter: https://ebn.to/sub25 🔗 Follow EBN on LinkedIn: https://ebn.to/lin25 📌 Sources &...
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Layoff Leak and the AI Trust Gap | PAPER CUT
Amazon’s layoff leak is the week’s defining signal: trust is fragile, and AI hype does not run the business. This Paper Cut looks at the AI reality gap, rising job anxiety, and what “proof” looks like in rollouts, skills, and comms. 📰 Subscribe: https://ebn.to/sub25 🔗 LinkedIn:...
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CEOs Say AI Is Boosting Efficiency. Employees Aren’t Convinced. | PAPER CUT
AI agents are arriving fast, but the proof is lagging. This week’s Paper Cut looks at the gap between “efficiency” claims and employee reality, why retention depends on systems not slogans, and what a tighter hiring mood means for employer brand leaders. 📰 Subscribe to the free Paper Cut...
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Time Is the New Perk | PAPER CUT
AI will keep dominating the headlines. The practical 2026 story for HR and employer brand leaders is time: schedule control, workflow design, and whether skills and pathways are being built in reality, not just in messaging. This week’s Paper Cut looks at the AI jobs narrative versus labour data,...
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PAPER CUT - Brains, Bots, and the HR Plot Twist
This week’s Paper Cut slices through AI agent hype, labour market whiplash, hybrid headaches, and the growing trust tax at work. No fluff, just the context HR and employer brand leaders need to act with confidence. This episode cuts through the spin to give HR, TA, and employer brand leaders the...
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PAPER CUT - The Overcapacity Era: AI, Layoffs and the Culture Recession
The overcapacity era is here. We cut through hype versus headcount and map the moves that keep your employer brand credible when AI agents rise, entry routes shrink, and culture confidence slides. This week’s Paper Cut slices through the spin and gives HR and employer brand leaders the context…
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[23 NOV] PAPER CUT - Pink Slips, Quiet Scripts, and RTO Flip-Flops
This week’s Paper Cut looks past the headlines on layoffs, AI checklist hiring, hybrid confusion, and culture awards to ask what they really signal about trust. This edition of Paper Cut from Employer Branding News cuts through the spin to give HR, talent, and employer brand leaders the context...
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[16 NOV] PAPER CUT - Commutes, Cuts & Credibility
Office rules stiffen, AI agents start delivering, and the labor story splits. Here is how to keep credibility when everyone else is playing optics. This week’s Paper Cut slices through the spin to give HR and employer brand leaders the insight they actually need. No fluff, just facts. 📰…
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[09 NOV] - PAPER CUT - Count the Cuts, Ditch Ultimatums, Fix the Middle
This week we cut through the noise: AI layoffs get counted, CEOs flirt with ultimatums, hybrid needs better managers, and HR turns into a growth engine. 📰 Subscribe: https://ebn.to/sub25 ⸻ 📌 Sources & Links: Layoffs Go Transparent: Start Counting AI...
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[02 NOV] PAPER CUT - The Freeze, The Bot, The Backlash
Starter jobs are turning into agent workflows while boards rediscover layoffs and RTO. We cut through noise and show what to fix now: rebuild the first rung, make hybrid a system, and narrate change like adults. This week’s Paper Cut slices through the spin to give HR and employer brand leaders…
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[26 OCT] PAPER CUT - The Productivity Mirage Meets The Pink-Slip Economy
This week’s lead story: AI agents scale while layoffs surge. We unpack the cultural signal in the cuts, why middle managers decide AI success, and how to rebuild early-career rungs and remote strategy. This week’s Paper Cut slices through the spin to give HR and employer brand leaders the insight...
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[19 OCT] PAPER CUT - Fear, Not AI, Is Fueling The Cuts
Leaders keep invoking AI to justify cuts. The truth this week is sharper. Fear, not code, is driving many decisions. Here is how to turn skills into policy and stop torching trust on location. This week’s Paper Cut slices through the spin to give HR and employer brand leaders the insight they...
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[12 OCT] PAPER CUT - Trust Theater, AI Scoreboards, and Hiring Whiplash
How do you rebuild trust when your systems scream control? This week we cut through RTO threats, AI scoreboards, and hiring mazes to show the path to real performance. This week’s Paper Cut slices through the spin to give HR and employer brand leaders the insight they actually need. No fluff…
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[05 OCT] PAPER CUT - The Jobs Are There. The Offers Aren’t.
A cooler market with hot spots. Skills beat degrees. Managers decide growth. Pipelines move to attention markets. Here is what actually matters for HR this week. This week’s Paper Cut slices through the spin to give HR and employer brand leaders the insight they actually need. No fluff, just…
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[28 SEP] PAPER CUT - Hybrid Creep, Burnout, and Workslop
RTO creeps up, HR burns out, visas tighten, and AI workslop eats real work. This week’s Paper Cut breaks down the choices that shape your employer brand. This week’s Paper Cut slices through the spin to give HR and employer brand leaders the insight they actually need. No fluff, just facts. 📰...
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
Welcome to The EBN Dispatch, the official podcast from Employer Branding News.We’re here to deliver smart talk and sharp takes on the branding of work, one dispatch at a time.Each episode breaks down the latest moves in employer branding, culture, leadership, and talent attraction - minus the jargon, and with a healthy disregard for conventional wisdom. Think newsroom meets boardroom, with a side of dry wit.If you work in HR, brand, or anywhere in the business of people, this is your feed. We unpack the strategy behind the slogans, the reality behind the reputations, and the trends that actually matter.Less fluff. More facts. Occasionally funny. Always unfiltered.
HOSTED BY
Employer Branding News (EBN)
CATEGORIES
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does The EBN Dispatch have?
The EBN Dispatch currently has 79 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is The EBN Dispatch about?
Welcome to The EBN Dispatch, the official podcast from Employer Branding News.We’re here to deliver smart talk and sharp takes on the branding of work, one dispatch at a time.Each episode breaks down the latest moves in employer branding, culture, leadership, and talent attraction - minus the...
How often does The EBN Dispatch release new episodes?
The EBN Dispatch has 79 episodes. Check the episode list to see recent publication dates and frequency.
Where can I listen to The EBN Dispatch?
You can listen to The EBN Dispatch on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts The EBN Dispatch?
The EBN Dispatch is created and hosted by Employer Branding News (EBN).
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