October 14, 2026

Presented By

Happy hump day! The Trump administration is giving us a masterclass in spotting signs of a toxic workplace, as the president invites yet another official to return to the private sector after reports of unethical behavior, this time at the US Embassy in the birthplace of democracy itself: Greece.

In today’s edition:

🍼 Leave at Lush

🪜 Tips from the top

🤖 Agentic employees

—Courtney Vinopal, Paige McGlauflin, Tricia Crimmins

TOTAL REWARDS

A lush benefit

Overhead view of newborn baby in mother's arms while she sits at a table with an open laptop

Unsplash

While two-thirds of US retail workers had access to paid leave between 2024 and 2025, few used it to take time off after the birth or adoption of a child, according to recent data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

That data, which draws on the American Time Use Survey, shows that 66% of retail workers were entitled to paid leave as of last year, but just 1% took parental leave, specifically.

Lush Cosmetics recently rolled out expanded parental leave that may boost uptake in a sector where the benefit is still rare. As of July 1, full-time employees working 30 hours or more in North America, who’ve been with the company for at least a year, can take up to 26 weeks of parental leave with full pay. The six-month leave benefit now applies to employees in functions who previously didn’t have access, including retail, manufacturing, and support and administration.

Lush North America’s head of people and culture, Jag Bhachu, told HR Brew her team hopes the expanded leave will improve internal mobility and retention in an industry where high turnover is common.

For more on why and how Lush Cosmetics expanded its parental leave, keep reading here.—CV

Sponsored By LHH

Data that captures the whole picture

HR leaders, strap in and sign up for first access to the 10th edition of LHH’s Severance & Separation Benefits Benchmarks Study. It includes all the relevant data for 2027, plus severance formulas by level + tenure, industry benchmarks across 15+ sectors, and a decade of trend data. Basically, it’s everything you need today to make smart decisions for tomorrow.

Here’s a sneak peek at the findings:

69% of organizations expect layoffs or RIFs in the next 12 months, up from 36% in 2024.
38% of organizations have made severance less generous, up from 9% in 2024, and only 12% now continue medical benefits for the full severance period, down from 52%.
HR leads outplacement decisions at just 30% of organizations, down from 58%. CFOs now lead at 18% (up from 6%) and procurement at 13% (up from 2%).

HR STRATEGY

Tips from the top

Illustration: Morning Brew Inc., Photo: Paulo Pisano

Welcome to the first installment of Tips from the Top, a series featuring HR leaders’ career advice for people professionals with big aspirations. Have insights you want to share? Get in touch here.

If you ask Paulo Pisano, the best way for HR professionals to develop themselves as leaders is by getting to know their organization beyond their HR remit.

“Learning the business and understanding the agenda of your business stakeholders is a critical way to get people out of the HR shell into being a business person first, HR second,” the CHRO of Booking Holdings told HR Brew.

Pisano said that people pros often get caught up in the day-to-day, preventing them from looking outside the HR bubble. Many also become attached to their tools and processes, he said, hindering their leadership development. He recalled a recent conversation with a fellow HR executive, who said they were struggling to engage their company’s leadership team in succession planning discussions.

“I couldn’t help but ask, ‘First help me understand what is the problem you’re trying to solve for that company, and in the CEO’s mind?’ And they couldn’t respond,” Pisano said. While HR leaders understand succession planning’s importance, other executives may not consider it a top priority, he explained. “You gain the trust and the credibility and the understanding by first going to, What is it that’s true for them in the business?”

TECH

New hires

Photo collage showing two hands pulling on opposite ends of a piece of string, which is tangled and knotted in the middle.

Illustration: Shannon May, Photos: Adobe Stock

Valerie Chapman, a B2B content creator and founder of Ruth AI, says she couldn’t run her business without her chief of staff, Hazel, who has access to all four of Chapman’s email accounts, analyzes Chapman’s correspondence, and tells her which messages are most important.

“[Hazel is] able to tell me where I’m leaving money on the table, what opportunities I could take and leverage to something bigger,” Chapman told Morning Brew.

Hazel is an agentic team member Chapman built via Hyperagent, a platform for users to build agents that can do “powerful work,” per the company’s website. And for Chapman and other Hyperagent users we talked with, the platform helps them boost revenue because the agents they create replace potential human hires and save them the costs of (human) salaries—rather than compensating a human, they can pay compute costs.

This allows content creators and small businesses to build their own agentic “employees,” which many larger businesses have already done. The platform takes its niche seriously, too: Since it launched in February, Hyperagent has partnered with numerous content creators, taught creators and small business owners how to use the technology, and given influencers compute credits to share with followers.

For more on how content creators are using AI agents to replace human hires, keep reading here.—TC

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work perks

A desktop computer plugged into a green couch.

Francis Scialabba

Today’s top HR reads.

Stat: Ninety percent of business execs say AI has made no impact on either employment or productivity, despite 69% of companies actively using the technology. (the New York Times)

Quote: “Hire me to unlock my full potential.”—the call to action on one applicant’s partially-printed “résumé” that’s been circling Reddit and social media this week. The résumé doesn’t include any of the typical relevant content, such as work history, skills, or education, instead showcasing the lengths applicants will go to get attention in today’s hiring landscape. (the New York Post)

Read: The rise in autonomous vehicles and gas prices is making gig work so challenging that workers are turning to a familiar strategy to address work-related grievances: a union. (the Wall Street Journal)

Trends shaping tomorrow’s decisions: Get first access to the 10th edition of LHH's Severance & Separation Benefits Benchmarks Study. It reveals insights on layoffs, outplacement decision-making, and career transition support. Sign up to receive the full report.*

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AI in Hiring

Robot hands holding out a lime green resume

Amelia Kinsinger

Q4 hiring season is here, and AI is reshaping talent acquisition. This e-book weighs where it helps recruiters and where it gets in the way.

Check it out

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Written by Courtney Vinopal, Paige McGlauflin, Tricia Crimmins, and Adam DeRose

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