What’s Happening: January 2026

Every month, we release an episode covering the top news in the world of work on HR Bandit. But as my co-host takes on an interesting new challenge, we’re embarking on another short break from podcasting. Not all is lost though. I’ll continue sharing the top three things that caught my attention right here on this blog.

January took a little while to land as I considered various alternatives. Should I try a solo episode? Bring on a temporary co-host? Finally launch that newsletter? I haven’t decided yet, so until then, it’s blog-bound. Don’t forget to hit the subscribe button on the right if you want the monthly round up straight to your inbox. Now let’s jump in.

I’m skipping the obvious: a wave of layoffs kicked off 2026, confirming our predictions of the continued lack of job security. The list of organizations and numbers is endless, so instead, here are three other January highlights.

The Great Flattening

For as long as managers have existed, organizations have sought ways to eliminate them. As Google noted, management at Google has not always gotten the credit it deserves. In 2002, they ran an “experiment” to see how successful the organization could be without managers. The experiment failed. In 2008, another research team set out to prove that managers do not matter. Spoiler: they matter.

In 2015, invented by software executive Brian Robertson and made famous by online retailer Zappos, Holacracy captured headlines as the future of management, with self-managed teams. Yet a decade later, self-managed teams remain rare exceptions rather than the norm.

Now AI agents are the new reason. Google slashed 35% of managers on small teams, aiming for fewer leaders overall. Managers always get a bad rap. They face blame for inefficiencies, bureaucracy, and poor morale – essentially everything that goes wrong in an organization. Yet even Reddit discussions acknowledge that eliminating managers might be misguided. 

Last month, Gallup released an article on span of control citing ‘the great flattening’ i.e. increasing team sizes and fewer managers. Unfortunately, the answer on what the optimal team size is ‘it depends’ Quick read here.

Fire 90% of HR?

I had no idea who Amanda Goodall was until her post on X went viral. Much like the role of managers, the great debate on whether the role of a HR professional is still relevant has been around since I began my career in HR. Every few months, someone comes along demanding that the HR department should be fired. So, when workforce strategist Amanda Goodall, better known online as @thejobchick, called for 90% of HR to be axed, I did not bat an eyelid.

Yet amid rising layoffs and the rise of the anxious workplace, her take gained traction, framing HR as expendable overhead rather than a strategic partner in workforce planning and culture. Maybe she has a point. If we were doing our job well, the anxious workplace would have never arrived.

Yet viral or not, these hot takes are not new nor are they going away anytime soon. They are a good reminder though that our job is not yet done. The critiques are a good prompt to evolve, not exit.

Google’s AI-or-Exit Memo

We cannot have a month go by without some mention of AI and how the tech industry is responding to it. In its latest move, Google offered voluntary exit packages to select employees in its US Global Business Organization (GBO) team, which oversees sales and related commercial functions. In a memo sent out by Google’s chief business officer, Philipp Schindler, told employees that everyone in GBO needs to be “all in” on the mission and “embracing AI to have even greater impact.”

What the memo did not make clear is if it would force redundancies or manage employees who do not embrace AI via the regular performance management route. With big tech going all in on AI, this move does not come as a surprise. Commitment to AI transformation is a baseline expectation, not a strategic choice for employees anymore.

Personally, I really need to up my AI game. I am still using AI the same way I did 12 months ago and that is just not good enough. One of my goals for February is to develop an efficient AI assistant for myself. Stay tuned to learn more about how that goes.

Three More That Caught My Eye

1. In a captivating video, speaking out against the rising trend of the notorious 996 schedule, Shark Tank’s investor Kevin O’Leary wrote “If you show up looking half-dead, I’m not investing. You’re not a hero, you’re a liability.” I wonder if more top leaders will agree with him. Watch here.
2. Any news regarding Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase is bound to catch my eye. When Dimon told a room full of powerful people at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, that Trump’s proposal to slash credit card interest rates roughly in half would be “an economic disaster,” it was no surprise that he promptly got sued by the POTUS. There’s something to be said about how CEOs should or should not speak up against the government. Collective CEO voices may be harder to retaliate against as we saw in the case of ICE in Minnesota. More here.
3. Lastly, this read from the Fast Company really hit home. I’ve written about change fatigue before, yet organizations and leaders continue to believe that human beings are infinitely adaptable and will eventually behave like machines. The author likens work today to the legend of Sisyphus. If you read nothing else today, do read this.