HR Brew // Morning Brew // Update

March 31, 2026

Welcome back! TSA agents are getting paid again after President Trump signed an executive order demanding the Department of Homeland Security pay them amid the agency’s government shutdown. But don’t expect airport woes to evaporate anytime soon. Agents were still calling out sick over the weekend, security wait times are not likely to improve for days (or weeks), and ICE agents may continue to be present at airports. Best of luck with your upcoming business travel…

In today’s edition:

I call BS

It’s not working

Change of plans

—Mikaela Cohen, Kristen Parisi

HR STRATEGY

To bs or not to bs

Image of a magnifying glass over the words fact/fake.

Microstockhub/Getty Images

Raise your hand if you hate corporate jargon…

If you raised your hand, you’re likely better at your job than your coworkers who enjoy buzzwords, according to new research from Cornell University.

The research, titled “The Corporate Bullshit Receptivity Scale: Development, validation, and associations with workplace outcomes,” was authored by Shane Littrell, a cognitive psychologist who found a link between people who can spot meaningless “corporate bullshit,” as he puts it, and higher analytic thinking and decision-making skills, he told HR Brew.

“When they hear this meaningless corporate bullshit, they tend to get inspired, and they tend to think it’s really meaningful, and unfortunately, they also tend to make worse decisions than people that don’t find these things meaningful,” Littrell said.

For more on how corporate jargon can negatively affect HR, keep reading here.—MC

Presented By Paradox, a Workday Company

On the front line of hiring

When a front-line candidate applies to your job, they’re probably applying to at least 10 others at the same time. (Hey, you gotta cast a wide net.) If you’re not first to respond, you’ll likely lose that candidate.

In their conversation, Joshua Secrest, head of marketing at Paradox, a Workday Company, explains to leading HR tech analyst Josh Bersin that AI automation can be key to winning front-line talent and helping businesses reduce their time-to-hire to just three days.

They also discuss the development path of front-line managers and how retail organizations create strong leadership. According to Paradox, the front-line workforce accounts for over 70% of US jobs.

Josh and Joshua chat about the impact AI is having on these roles (and filling them), how to think about speed and quality of hire, and what Workday’s recent acquisition of Paradox means for the future of front-line hiring (a lot).

Read on.

HR STRATEGY

Is hybrid work working?

Morning Brew

After the pandemic, hybrid work seemed to be the perfect solution to the remote vs. in-office debate…but does that still ring true today?

The majority (72%) of employees feel positively about hybrid work, according to 2025 data from commercial real estate firm JLL, and 35% view hybrid schedules as “the fairest” option. But only 7% of job listings offer a hybrid work option, according to January data from career platform JobLeads, compared to the 87% for in-person and 6% for remote roles.

Since employers currently have the upper hand in the labor market, they may choose to advertise roles as in-person when “the reality might be a bit more flexible,” Peter Miscovich, executive managing director and global future of work leader at JLL, told HR Brew. “A lot of companies may not hire with the specific categorization of ‘hybrid,’ because it’s sometimes difficult to define,” he added.

For more on why hybrid work isn’t working, and how HR can help, keep reading here.—MC

COMPLIANCE

Rules change

Gulbenk, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service, CC BY-SA 3.0

The Trump administration has changed multiple rules around employing immigrants since January 2025, and HR and legal leaders say it’s already impacting their businesses, according to a new Littler survey.

Nearly two-thirds (65%) of respondents said that immigration decisions have impacted their business, with roughly one-quarter (24%) experiencing at least moderate staffing challenges as a result. The changes have especially impacted businesses in the technology and hospitality sectors.

Preliminary data from the Census Bureau found that the US workforce shrunk by roughly 1.2 million immigrants in the first half of 2025. Some companies have reduced hiring, shut down operations or let workers go over the last year as the Trump administration has stepped up immigration enforcement. Companies are, “not able to find the talent to replace that talent that [they] had to let go,” according to Jorge Lopez, chair of the immigration and global mobility practice at Littler.

For more on how the Trump administration’s immigration policies have affected businesses, keep reading here.—KP

Together With Medefy

Smart AI meets human care guides. Two employees. Same plan. Totally different costs. The variable isn’t the plan; it’s the decisions made along the way. Medefy combines AI with human care guides to proactively engage employees at every decision point that matters. See how.

WORK PERKS

A desktop computer plugged into a green couch.

Francis Scialabba

Today’s top HR reads.

Stat: Total compensation, including equities, for software engineers has increased 18% since 2022, and median initial salary offers have risen from $160,000 to $200,000 in that same period. (the Wall Street Journal)

Quote: “We’ve got to make sure the economic incentives drive work for humans.”—Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, SAG-AFTRA’s executive director, on the union pushing to add fees to its next contract that would force studios to pay the same amount for AI-generated “actors” as they would human actors (Bloomberg)

Read: We’re not having fun anymore, are we? Layoffs, AI dread, and a cutback on small perks have sucked the joy out of office work. (the Wall Street Journal)

Focus on the front line: Show your front line some love by keeping it well-staffed. Paradox can show you how in their article on using invisible software and automation to speed up your front-line hiring.*

^{*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.

EVENTS

Hire intelligence

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AI can screen resumes at lightning speed. It cannot build trust, read nuance, or recover from a slightly awkward interview moment. On April 8, join HR Brew to learn where AI actually fits in hiring and where it should politely step aside, so your team can focus on the human parts that matter.

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Written by Mikaela Cohen, Kristen Parisi, and Paige McGlauflin

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☕️ Corporate jargon can hurt HR strategy