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Amid the mass layoffs in tech and retail in the past month, YouTubes CEO Neal Mohan sent out a recent internal memo that hes also looking to lay off employeeswho volunteer. Mohan details how YouTube is undergoing a major AI-focused reorganization and introduces a Voluntary Exit Program with a severance package to eligible YouTube employees. This voluntary exit deal has been couched as an opportunity for employees, but its really just a buyout. Companies have long used this strategy as a way to reduce headcount, usually to avert traditional layoffs. For employees approaching retirement, voluntary severance may be a great opportunity, a wonderful deus ex machina late-career plot twist. But many employees worry that saying no, thank you now may mean an involuntary layoff later on. So how do you decide if you should take a voluntary layoff? Here are four questions to consider. Whats happening in your industry? YouTube has offered its employees a buyout because of AI restructuring. Duke University created a voluntary severance program in April 2025 in response to federal funding cuts. UnitedHealthCare invited an undisclosed number of employees to take part in its Voluntary Resignation Separation Program in early 2025 in response to the financially tumultuous fallout of the murder of its CEO, Brian Thompson, and to a 2024 cyberattack that cost the company $3 billion. In all of these cases, the organizations are offering buyouts because of larger technological, political, and economic forces. The decisions are about more than just whats happening in the organization itselfwhich may indicate that more changes are coming as the industries adapt. But not all buyouts are prompted by larger industry forces. Thats why its important to understand the bigger trends. Then you can better predict whether voluntary layoffs are likely to be the end of your companys reduction in forceor just the beginning. Typically, voluntary buyout packages are more generous than the kinds of severance packages that come with involuntary layoffs. What are your employment prospects? The best-case scenario for a voluntary layoff is either stepping straight into retirement or having a new job already lined up. Then your severance package becomes an unexpected pot of gold in the path you were already walking. Unfortunately, most of us arent that lucky. So if you werent planning on leaving before the buyout was announced, what prospects would you have if you took the voluntary severance? One of the upsides of voluntary layoffs is the opt-in window. Typically, employers offer a window of several weeks to several months to opt-in to voluntary severance, giving you some time to put out feelers for other potential job prospects. This can let you see what the job market is like before you make your decision. Whats in the severance package? While the specific severance package will vary from one organization to another, voluntary layoff programs typically make the buyout a tempting carrot in order to avoid more painful involuntary layoffs later on. Often, these severance packages will give volunteers several weeks or months worth of base pay, depending on the number of years of service. (And depending on which state you live in, you may be eligible for unemployment benefits once the severance pay has run out.) For instance, when Duke University offered voluntary severance earlier this year, it gave volunteers a compensation package equal to one week of severance pay, multiplied by years of service, up to a maximum of 26 weeks. But cash may not be the only benefit in your severance package. Your employer may also offer to pay health insurance benefits for a few months, provide career counseling, or offer financial planning services to help with the transition. What do you want? Learning that your employer is offering voluntary layoffs is stressful, but it doesnt mean the company has all the cards. The organization wants somethinga reduction in forcewhich means you have leverage. Because you can help give that to them, if they give you what you want. So just like when you were hired, figure out what you want and decide what youre willing to compromise to get it. Dont assume the severance package your employer offers is a take-it-or-leave-it proposition. Start with the severance compensation package. Just because the severance pay offered by the voluntary layoff program is capped at a certain amount doesnt mean you cant ask for more. The company is willing to pay people to quit, so feel free to ask for more money to give them what they want. Similarly, you could ask to be vested in the companys retirement plan if youre not fully there yet or ask to stay on the organizations health insurance until the next calendar year. The worst they can say is no. Deciding what you want to make leaving feel good can make a voluntary layoff a winning proposition for you, rather than an employment catch-22. Lay off me! If youre facing a Voluntary Exit Program or other euphemistically named quit-or-well-start-laying-people-off process, there are four questions you can ask yourself to help determine whether or not you should opt in. First, think about whats going on in your industry as a whole. If there are larger technological, political, or economic forces that are causing structural changes in your organization or in your industry, then it may make sense to take thebuyout, since there may be bigger shakeups on the horizon. From there, think about your employment prospects. Since buyouts typically have a window of several weeks for you to decide whether or not to opt-in, you have some time to determine if you can quickly find another position. Then consider whats in the severance package your company is offering, including the full payment amount and any additional perks that are included. Whats offered and how much is it worth to you? Finally, think about what you want. What would the company have to offer you to make walking away worthwhileand ask for it. Because a voluntary layoff is a negotiation, and you should treat it like one.
Category:
E-Commerce
Dole invented a new fruit. The Dole Colada Royale Pineapple is sweet and tangy with notes of coconut and, as the name suggests, pia colada. Unlike its golden yellow counterpart, the Colada Royale has a cream-colored pulp with a green-to-golden shell. It also took more than 15 years to get it just right. The suggested recipes the company released with the new fruit include snacks like a pineapple and coconut carpaccio and a basil-wrapped pineapple with pine zest. Clearly this is meant to be a luxury pineapple experience. The fruit, which is now available in select grocery stores in the U.S. and Canada, is 100% non-GMO and naturally bred. The company didn’t share its suggested retail price, but the Colada Royale comes amid a wider trend toward “designer” pineapples. Just last year, Fresh Del Monte released a pink pineapple it called the Pinkglow, which it followed up with a $400 Rubyglow. [Photo: Dole] A new growing process Developing new pineapples requires patience since the natural process can stretch out for nine years or more. “You have to go through thousands of pollinations and develop thousands of seeds and then have the capacity to pinpoint that particular plant that combines what you are looking for,” says Roberto Young, director of pineapple breeding at Doles farm in La Ceiba, Honduras. He led the team that developed the Colada Royale variety. The new pineapple also had be grown in different seasons, since temperature can affect the taste of the finished product. All in all, that means it takes thousands of attempts that go wrong in hopes of getting one that goes right. Dole pineapple breeder Roberto Young [Photo: Dole] “Usually, you have to discard most of the fruit because it could taste very good during the summer, but in the winter you cannot really taste it because it’s too tangy, it’s very acidic,” Young tells Fast Company. Plant breeders consider factors like size, productivity, and color as they’re developing a new product, but taste, of course, is the most important. “It doesn’t help if the fruit is a good size, good productivity, but doesn’t taste like pineapple,” Young says. Dole’s new pineapple had the right taste, but its cream-colored pulp was at first a concern since consumers today are used to yellow pulp in pineapples. At the produce and floral trade show in Anaheim, California, where Dole unveiled the Colada Royale in October, Young says people were hesitant about the fruituntil they tasted it. Then, he says, their reaction was Wow, this is something different. [Photo: Dole] Developing a new market The goal from the beginning was to develop a unique flavor and bring something new to the market. Pineapple is genetically very variable, Young says, and the biggest challenge was consistency. Plant breeding doesn’t have a high success rateIf you are a plant breeder, you might be successful, or you might not,” he concedesand pineapple is especially tricky since it has a relatively long harvest cycle. The process requires first planting parents, which take about a year to produce flowers that can be pollinated. From there, it’s about five more months until the fruit can be harvested. The seeds from that harvest are then planted to get all new plants, repeating the cycle. [Photo: Dole] The results need to be repeatable to ensure the fruit can be mass-produced, so it takes at least three generationsroughly nin yearsto develop a new product. The Colada Royale took longer, and Young, a Honduran native who’s been with Dole for 28 years, has been on the project from the start. He considers it his legacy. “I feel really very, very grateful,” he says. Dole is also looking at the new fruit as a legacy play of its own. The company plans to reinvest a portion of the proceeds of every box of the pineapple sold to create a community center in La Ceiba that will provide healthcare services, language classes, and vocational training. In its most recent earnings report, Dole said its second-quarter 2025 revenue was $2.4 billion, an increase of 14.3% over the same period in 2024. The company is expected to report third-quarter financials on November 10. Designer pineapples may sound like a novelty, but since they can be upsold, fruit growers and grocers alike may find they’re a sweet addition to the produce section.
Category:
E-Commerce
When corporate crises hit, the public looks to the CEO. From product recalls to workplace discrimination to customer mistreatment scandals, CEOs are often thrust into the spotlight and forced to apologize. But do the exact words they choose really matter? Im a professor of marketing, and my preliminary research suggests the answer is yes. In fact, they can even move stock prices. A tale of 2 apologies Consider two examples from the not-too-distant past. When Samsung Electronics had to recall 2.5 million smartphones in 2016 due to battery fires, the company ran full-page ads in major American newspapers that said, We are truly sorry. Despite the apology, Samsungs stock continued falling, wiping out billions of dollars in market value. Contrast that with a famous case: the 1982 Tylenol crisis, in which seven people died after taking capsules that a still-unidentified criminal had laced with cyanide, circumventing the companys safety protocols. The then-CEO of Tylenols parent company, Johnson & Johnson, said I apologize to consumers and immediately ordered a nationwide recall, costing the company over US$100 million. His direct acknowledgment of responsibility and swift action helped restore public trust and became a case study in effective crisis leadership. The companys stock price didnt take much of a hit, either. While the two cases are different in many ways, together they illustrate a pattern my colleagues and I observed in our study: Markets respond differently to I apologize versus We apologize. Investors reward personal accountability I collaborated with marketing professors Jennifer H. Tatara and Courtney B. Peters to analyze 224 corporate apologies between 1996 and 2023. Using event-study methods common in finance, we tracked unusual stock returns around apology announcements and linked them to how CEOs framed their statements. Our results, which we are preparing for publication, were striking. CEOs who said I apologize often saw short-term stock returns rise by a statistically significant amount. CEOs who said We apologize saw no such effect. Saying I apologize lessens the market penalty by roughly 86%, we found. We think this is because markets reward leaders who take individual responsibility. I signals personal accountability and decisiveness. We, by comparison, dilutes ownership of the problem. But context matters, we found. When we zeroed in on diversity-related casesthose involving mistreatment based on race, gender, disability, or LGBTQ+ status, for examplethe positive effect of I apologize weakened or disappeared. Thats because investors often interpret diversity crises as signs of systemic failure, rather than isolated mistakes. In those cases, investors, employees, and the public may expect accountability that goes beyond the CEO. A lone I apologize can seem hollow, while We apologize may resonate more by acknowledging shared institutional responsibility. Beyond CEOs: Why stakeholders should care Apologies are among the most scrutinized executive communications. Their effects ripple across different audiences. For investors, apology language provides a real-time signal of leadership quality and future governance. Our research shows these signals are strong enough to move stock prices. For corporate boards, an apology can be as important as a balance sheet in shaping market perceptions. Our research suggests that boards should insist leaders prepare for crisis communications as a standard part of risk management. For employees and customers, apology language sends a message about corporate culture. I can demonstrate accountability; we can affirm inclusion and shared responsibility. Both matter, depending on the situation. Leading in a skeptical era Corporate apologies are nothing new. But in todays environmentwhere social media amplifies every word and trust in institutions is fragilethe stakes are higher. A single poorly framed statement can trigger outrage, stock sell-offs, or viral boycotts. The good news is that sorry doesnt have to be the hardest word. In fact, this research suggests that a good apology can pay off, literally. The key is to remember that apologies arent one-size-fits-all. The right words depend on the nature of the wrongdoing. Prachi Gala is an associate professor of marketing at Kennesaw State University. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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E-Commerce
Get laid off with me. So read the closed captions of a recent TikTok post. My boss just put a 15 minute sink on my calendar, creator @mbraindump said in the now-viral post. I cant believe this is really happening. Getting laid off, okay, here we go. It is a sinking feeling that’s sadly familiar to myriad workers. In just the past week, thousands have fallen victim to mass layoffs at Amazon, Target, Paramount, CBS, and other large companies. After Amazon laid off 14,000 corporate employees last week, or 4% of its white-collar workforce, a number of workers started cropping up on social media to document their experiences. The trend of documenting being laid off first emerged post-pandemic and gained traction as mass layoffs hit in 2023 and 2024. Now it is back, as a fresh wave of workers joins the ranks of the unemployed. Pretty sure Im about to get laid off from my 9-to-5 right now, so come with me to my meeting, one TikTok user posted in late October. The video has over 670,000 views. Day in my life as a software engineer, except I got laid off before I could finish it, another posted around the same time, which has almost 250,000 views. Rather than posting a LinkedIn update, being laid off is now lucrative content. On TikTok, the hashtag #layoffs has almost 60,000 videos. Many of these riff off the ubiquitous “Get Ready With Me (GRWM)” genre of content, in which creators showcase their hair, makeup, or outfit while chatting about their inner lives or zeitgeist-y topics. Some, like @mbraindump, go on to turn unemployment into a content series post-layoff. In an era of mass unemployment, layoffs are no longer seen as an individual failing. Instead, they are an unfortunate fact of life. For many, its not their first rodeo. Some are on their secondor even thirdlayoff in just one year. Amid the job losses, a new culture around layoffs has emerged. As more layoffs have hit in the past year, the stigma has lifted. Studies have shown that employees are more disengaged than ever, making them more inclined to hold their employers accountable, even on the way out. @mbraindumps video has received hundreds of comments of support and solidarity since it was posted. “Im so sorry. This sucks. These companies really dont view us as humans. Something has got to change. Sending you a hug!” one person wrote. “Living in this constant state of anxiety at your job is AWFUL. My God, they couldn’t have made this any less humane,” another commented. “Ive dealt with 2 layoffs within 12 months. I am really sorry youre in the club now,” a third commiserated. Of course, filming and posting workplace meetings to social mediafor former and future employers to seedoes come with some risk. It could give hiring managers pause, or even put severance packages at risk. And while watching others get laid off online might help destigmatize the process, it certainly doesnt make it any easier when a call with HR gets added to your calendar.
Category:
E-Commerce
You may have seen warnings that Google is telling all of its users to change their Gmail passwords due to a breach. Thats only partly true. Google is telling users to change their passwords, but not because of a breach that exposed them. In fact, Googles real advice is to stop using your password altogether. Heres what I mean. The breach traces back to Salesforce, whose systems were compromised by the hacker group known as ShinyHunters (also tracked as UNC6040). Attackers obtained business-related Gmail data, including contact lists, company associations, and email metadata. No actual Gmail account credentials were stolen, but the nature of the stolen data makes phishing and impersonation attacks far more dangerous. Google confirmed the link between the Salesforce breach and a rise in targeted phishing campaigns and said attackers are already impersonating Google, IT departments, or trusted vendors to trick people into handing over login information. Some campaigns even involve vishing, or fraudulent phone calls made from spoofed 650-area-code numbers that resemble Googles corporate lines. Phishing attacks increase For years, phishing has been one of the most effective tools hackers use to break into accounts. Googles own data shows that phishing and vishing now account for roughly 37% of successful account takeovers across its services. With the data from Salesforce in hand, hackers can customize attacks that look far more authentic than the usual spam message. Imagine receiving a message that references your actual employer, colleagues, or recent communications. That level of detail raises the likelihood that youll trust the email, click a malicious link, or provide sensitive information. Once credentials are stolen, hackers can bypass additional protections and take over accountssometimes without the victim realizing it until significant damage has been done. Protect your email password Look, the most important rule here is that you should literally never give anyone your Gmail password, especially not someone who calls you and purports to be tech support. No matter how convincing it may seem, Google is never ever going to call you and ask you for your login information. Seriously, even if your son calls you to help you with tech support, you should not give him your Gmail password. Why? Well, because your email is basically the key to everything. In an interview I did last year, Cloudflare CTO John Graham-Cumming explained the problem. If you do not have a good password on your email, the rest of your life is pretty much wide open, because every single service out there does reset password by sending you an email, says Graham-Cumming. So if I can compromise your email, I can compromise pretty much everything else you have. Of course, even better than not giving out your password or clicking on links in fake tech-support emails is to stop using passwords altogether on your Gmail account. Google has been encouraging users for years to adopt passkeys instead. Switch to a passkey I also spoke with Jeff Shiner last year about passkeys. As the CEO of 1Password, Shiner knows a few things about how people use passwords and why they should be switching to more secure ways of protecting their accounts. A passkey, from an end user point of view, looks like the biometrics on your device, says Shiner. The cool thing about a passkey is that to the end user, you never have a password for that service. You just use your biometrics, and then a passkey is created. But, from a security point of view, its actually stronger than a passwordeven a strong passwordbecause it cant be phished. In light of the breach, Google is encouraging Gmail users to change their password. In fact, you should change your password on a regular basis in the event it is ever compromised. But even better is to stop using passwords at all. Google is also pushing users toward stronger forms of authentication, including passkeys and app-based two-factor authentication (2FA). Unlike SMS codes, which can be intercepted or spoofed, authenticator apps and passkeys make it much harder for hackers to break into accounts even if they trick you into handing over a password. Googles warning for users Googles guidance can be summed up in five steps: Reset your Gmail password regularly. Choose something unique and complex. Do not reuse passwords across accounts. Turn on two-factor authentication. Preferably, use an authenticator app or a passkey. Be skeptical of unsolicited messages. If you receive an email or call about account security, go directly to your Google account dashboard instead of clicking links or giving information over the phone. Use Googles Security Checkup. The tool provides a quick overview of devices, apps, and settings tied to your account. Stay alert. If something feels offstrange login notifications, unexpected password reset requests, or unusual email activityact quickly by securing your account. This episode underscores a broader truth about modern cybersecurity: Your accounts are only as safe as the weakest link in the chain. In this case, a breach at Salesforce created risk for Gmail users who had no direct relationship with the company. Even if Googles ow infrastructure remains secure, attackers can exploit data leaked from partners to undermine trust. With more than 2.5 billion Gmail users, it isnt surprising that the worlds most popular email service would represent one of the most irresistible targets for hackers. Googles latest warning is a reminder that in a world of constant breaches, vigilance is the only reliable defense. Jason Aten This article originally appeared on Fast Companys sister publication, Inc. Inc. is the voice of the American entrepreneur. We inspire, inform, and document the most fascinating people in business: the risk-takers, the innovators, and the ultra-driven go-getters that represent the most dynamic force in the American economy.
Category:
E-Commerce
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