October 29, 2026

Presented By

Hey there, HR pros. If you received a slew of last-minute PTO requests this week, you may have Flavor Flav to thank. The rapper on Tuesday encouraged bosses to give their employees the day off today to watch Game 6 of the WNBA Finals, as the Atlanta Dream squares off against the Golden State Valkyries. In a controversial move, the start time for the game was moved from the evening to the middle of the work day.

In a sample absence note shared on social media, the booster of women’s sports encouraged managers to “go ahead and approve that day off,” adding, “consider it your contribution to gender equality.” Atlanta’s mayor chimed in for good measure, asking employers and educators to “extend a little grace to your students and employees who may be cheering on the Atlanta Dream.”

(The game is set to tip off at 12:30pm ET today, just in case those PTO requests are still pending approval…)

In today’s edition:

👤 Don’t trust, verify

🥎 Play ball

⚖️ Legislative lowdown

—Jordyn Grzelewski, Kristen Parisi, Courtney Vinopal

RECRUITMENT & RETENTION

The fight against deepfakes

Photo collage showing 4 overlapping browser windows showing different parts of a man's face when combined. One half of the face has a mustache, and the other doesn't.

Illustration: Shannon May, Photos: Unsplash

A missing mustache was the tipoff that something was amiss.

A job candidate had sailed through the hiring process at people search engine and data broker Spokeo. They seemed so well-suited to the role that COO Harrison Tang recalls telling his team, “I hope this is not too good to be true.”

Spoiler alert: It was. Even worse, the candidate ended up being what Tang calls a “real fake,” or someone misrepresenting their identity. Hours after the new hire started the job, Spokeo fired them—in part, because it became clear that the person who interviewed for the role wasn’t the one who logged in to work.

“The person who onboarded, who got hired, during the orientation did not have a mustache,” Tang told Morning Brew. “But the person I interviewed looked like Mario.”

For more on how to fight back against fraudulent hires and deepfake applicants, keep reading here.—JG

Sponsored By SurveyMonkey

Are you remembering to listen?

The most valuable feedback in your workforce comes straight from it. Your people have ideas, concerns, and comments, and there’s a goldmine of insight buried in all of these.

That’s why SurveyMonkey brings actual employee voices into AI workflows—because AI synthesis needs real insights, not just generated content.

You’ll be presented with programs curated to your role, your industry, and your goals. Pick one and launch a continuous feedback initiative with structure, cadence, and direction already built in.

Now, you can link SurveyMonkey to Workday, bring in data—like employee department, region, and tenure—and it stays in sync with your organization as it evolves. That connection becomes the foundation for richer analysis, smarter targeting, and a feedback practice that stays in tune with your HR source of truth.

Hear them out.

TOTAL REWARDS

Swing and a hit

Illustration: Francis Scialabba, Photos: Getty Images

The Athletes Unlimited Softball League (AUSL) is one of the youngest women’s professional sports leagues, having launched in 2025 with six teams. Despite that, it stands to teach more established employers a thing or two about leadership and benefits.

“We are, I guess, what they would call an ‘emerging league,’ a startup,” the league’s commissioner, Kim Ng, told HR Brew. “Every day is different, and every day you’re building something. The something could be one of 10 different disciplines. It could be marketing, sponsorship, broadcasting.”

Regardless of what the league is building, its players are key to making the operation a success, including when it comes to being seen as an attractive employer.

“We definitely want them (players) to feel like they are partners in this, and that they are founders of this league,” Ng said.

For more on how the AUSL seeks to support its employees, keep reading here.—KP

COMPLIANCE

Legislative lowdown

Francis Scialabba

Pennsylvania’s Allegheny County, which includes Pittsburgh, recently passed a paid parental leave program. It’s the first such program to be passed at the county level in the US.

The law, which was passed by the county council, grants 12 weeks of paid leave to parents to bond with a new child. It applies to both birthing and non-birthing partners, and also extends to employees who have experienced a stillbirth, or had a child through adoption or foster care.

“Paid leave is not a luxury. Paid leave is NOT radical. It should be a floor,” Sara Innamorato, the Allegheny county executive, said in a statement. “And it’s good for all of us: stronger families, healthier babies, workers who stay in the workforce, and employers who keep their people.”

Employers with 15 or more employees will be required to give eligible workers paid leave under the new program, which will take effect over the next 6–12 months. Unlike other paid leave programs in the country—which are often funded by the employees themselves, or a combination of the employer and the employee—this program will be entirely funded by employers.

For more on what HR needs to know about this and other statutes affecting paid family leave programs, keep reading here.—CV

Sponsored By Deel

The true cost of global hiring. Global hiring takes more than a simple “guten tag”; it requires numbers leadership can act on. Deel’s Strategic Planning Guide for Global Recruitment and Hiring outlines how you can calculate the true cost of hiring locally vs. hiring across borders, beyond salary alone. Check it out.

work perks

A desktop computer plugged into a green couch.

Francis Scialabba

Today’s top HR reads.

Stat: Just 15% of retirement plan sponsors currently offer alternative investment options, such as cryptocurrency or real estate, in their 401(k)s. Nearly one-quarter are planning to add alternatives to their lineup, though. (Morgan Stanley)

Quote: “The last three years have been pretty lean…I have had to really do things that I never thought I would do before just to keep that SAG insurance.”—Cheyenne Jackson, an actor, on why he and others in Hollywood are struggling to book enough work to maintain health insurance through the Screen Actors Guild union (the New York Times)

Read: Those Microsoft buyouts we mentioned yesterday? It appears they’re not one size fits all. Employees working in data centers, sales, marketing, cybersecurity, and quantum computing are among those not eligible for buyouts offered by the tech firm. (Bloomberg)

Hear ye, hear ye: Employee feedback’s worth hearing out. SurveyMonkey brings employee voices into AI workflows—because AI synthesis needs real insights, not just generated content. Launch a continuous feedback initiative with structure, cadence, and direction already built in.*

^{*A message from our sponsor.}

Jobs

More focus, less fluff. CollabWORK filters out the noise and delivers jobs that actually match what HR Brew readers are looking for. Click here to see the full board of curated roles.

Share the Brew

Share the Brew, watch your referral count climb, and unlock brag-worthy swag.

Your friends get smarter. You get rewarded. Win-win.

Your referral count: 0

Click to Share

Or copy & paste your referral link to others:
hr-brew.com/r/?kid=9196cb13

Written by Jordyn Grzelewski, Kristen Parisi, and Courtney Vinopal

Was this email forwarded to you? Sign up here.

Get smarter in just 5 minutes

Business News: Morning Brew
Tech & AI News: Tech Brew
Markets News: Brew Markets
Real Estate News: The Playbook
Money & Career: Bossy

Take The Brew to work

Interested in podcasts?

Check out People Person on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts.

ADVERTISE//CAREERS//SHOP//FAQ

Update your email preferences or unsubscribe here.
View our privacy policy here.

Copyright © 2026 Morning Brew Inc. All rights reserved.
22 W 19th St, 4th Floor, New York, NY 10011

☕ So you hired a deepfake?