July 23, 2026

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Hey there, readers. What have you accomplished thus far this quarter? If you need some inspiration amid a summer slump, look no further than Jimothy, the beloved Seattle racoon with a short spine who looks a bit like a cat. Since a video of Jimothy went viral last week, the raccoon has inspired a local mural, prompted the city to declare this season “Jimothy summer,” and appeared on one of NASA’s social media accounts.

Q3 isn’t even halfway over, but it’s been quite productive for Jimothy.

In today’s edition:

👀 One year later

⚖️ Legislative lowdown

🤖 What seems to be the problem?

—Paige McGlauflin, Courtney Vinopal, Whizy Kim

HR STRATEGY

The kiss cam, revisited

Morning Brew Design, Photo: TikTok

When we say HR deserves more news coverage, we don’t mean HR should be the news. Regardless, that’s exactly what happened last summer.

In case you missed it (good on you for being offline!), here’s some context: Andy Byron, the CEO of tech startup Astronomer, was caught embracing a subordinate—Kristin Cabot, his company’s head of HR—on the “kiss cam” at a Coldplay concert outside Boston. A recording of the faux pas went viral on social media. Byron resigned within days, followed by Cabot a week later. Cabot subsequently revealed in media interviews and speaking engagements that she received dozens of death threats in the wake of the incident and has struggled to find work in her profession. (Byron, she alleged, had offers lined up.)

This wasn’t the first time an executive had been caught in an inappropriate work relationship. (Just two months prior, Kohl’s CEO, Ashley Buchanan, was fired for directing the company to do business with someone with whom he was in an undisclosed relationship.) However, the revelation that one of the two executives was an HR chief may have fueled the incident’s notoriety, HR pros told HR Brew.

“I think it was the specific combination of both the CEO and CHRO that really struck a chord. People often view HR as the ‘rule enforcers’ or even the workplace ‘police,’” Marci LaRouech, CEO and owner of HR management consulting firm Seay HR, told HR Brew.

For more reflections on the “kiss cam” scandal, and its effect on HR, keep reading here.—PM

Sponsored By BambooHR

Everything in its place

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COMPLIANCE

Legislative lowdown

Francis Scialabba

An estimated 400,000 additional New Jersey workers will be eligible to take job-protected family leave under amendments to state law that took effect on July 17.

The amendments apply to a set of laws guaranteeing New Jersey workers job-protected family leave, as well as wage replacement under certain circumstances.

Employees at businesses with 15 or more workers are now eligible for job protections under the New Jersey Family Leave Act (NJFLA), which grants up to 12 weeks of leave to bond with a child or take care of a family member with a serious medical condition, among other reasons. Previously, the law applied to employers with 30 or more workers.

Additionally, workers are eligible to take job-protected leave sooner, after three months with their employer, and 250 hours of working, down from 12 months, and 1,000 hours.

For more on how these changes may affect HR professionals, keep reading here.—CV

TECH

AI’s bias problem

Resumes on a digital node constellation background, with one marked

Morning Brew Inc.

Unfortunately, the AI that (probably) looked over your job application is biased—maybe even more than humans are. New research shows that LLMs don’t just parrot human prejudices, but can invent new ones all by themselves—a worrying finding as some 90% of companies already use AI in their hiring process.

What happened? As part of a hiring simulation, researchers at Princeton and the University of Chicago set AI models loose on filling 40 positions, each time choosing one of four candidates from four fake ethnic groups.

The result. The AI pigeonholed the groups more aggressively than humans did. (This study is modeled after a similar one that explored bias in humans.) LLMs scored 65% higher than humans did on job segregation—basically, how strongly each ethnic group got funneled into a single job type, whether that’s a doctor, politician, waiter, or garbage collector. For example, after an AI model was told that someone it hired didn’t make a good doctor (a random outcome), it avoided hiring people from that group overall as doctors, instead giving them jobs as janitors.

For more on the bias AI can bring to the workplace, keep reading on Tech Brew.—WK

Sponsored By EasyLlama

Safeguarding AI. HR teams are driving AI adoption while governing how it’s used and keeping up with an ever-changing regulatory landscape, all at once. Tune in July 28 to EasyLlama’s HR AI Playbook webinar to learn how an HR director + two legal experts are protecting their businesses while uncomplicating AI. RSVP here.

work perks

A desktop computer plugged into a green couch.

Francis Scialabba

Today’s top HR reads.

Stat: The number of people using ChatGPT’s agent products nearly doubled, to 10 million, after it released an agent designed specifically for work. (Bloomberg)

Quote: “Our workforce is being drastically disrupted, relationships are being severed and lives are being upended right now.”—Rhonda Bekkedahl, the CEO of a senior living community in Palo Alto, spoke about how the Trump administration’s approach to immigration enforcement has affected its employees and residents (the New York Times)

Read: Even after members of the Financial Independence, Retire Early movement save enough money to stop working, some hold onto their jobs. The 30- and 40-something workers feel emboldened, though, by the security that comes with a major financial cushion. (Business Insider)

Tip-top shape: Employee records can pile up fast. Get your employee files in order with BambooHR’s new Employee Records Inventory Template. Audit files, keep track of all your people’s paperwork, and build a better recordkeeping system.*

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Written by Paige McGlauflin, Courtney Vinopal, and Whizy Kim

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