Roast the Post Podcast

Jennifer Houle & Paul Austin-Menear
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Roast the Post helps job seekers dodge bad roles and employers stop posting them, one brutally honest episode at time. roastthepost.show

  1. 1d ago ·  Bonus

    Firing Adequate Performers: Inside Bending Spoons | Grounds for Discussion

    This week on Grounds for Discussion, we dissect Fortune's headline on Bending Spoons... the Italian tech conglomerate behind Vimeo, AOL, and Evernote that received 800,000 applications, hired 286 people, and openly parts ways with employees who are merely "good enough." We dig into their radical organizational design: no performance bonuses, minimal hierarchy, peer-based pay reviews, self-managed well-being, and leaders in their 20s running nine-figure businesses. The numbers tell a two-sided story: 0.6% voluntary turnover among core staff against a 16.2% overall turnover rate in 2025... and the gap between them is where the real conversation lives. For organizational leaders, this is a valuable discussion on the trade-offs of talent management: whether compensation philosophy can replace incentives, whether psychological safety survives a "we'll upgrade you" termination policy, what Glassdoor's 4.6 rating hides about workload and imposter syndrome, and how AI-era hiring pressures are eroding the accumulation of lived experience that builds seasoned professionals. -- Roast the Post: Grounds for Discussion is available for free on Substack, YouTube, and wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe at https://roastthepost.show. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit roastthepost.show

    Firing Adequate Performers: Inside Bending Spoons | Grounds for Discussion

  2. 3d ago ·  Bonus

    Rolling Layoffs: Tech's New Normal | Grounds for Discussion

    This week, Paul and Jen dissect the Reuters headline (via GeekWire): "Amazon cuts hundreds of retail roles during its own Prime Big Deal Days"... a fresh round of corporate job cuts in Amazon's stores unit, hitting about 1,000 employees across the US, India, and the UK, and following roughly 30,000 corporate cuts since October 2025. The angle: this isn't restructuring anymore, it's routine. Jen and Paul dig into whether rolling layoffs have become a permanent feature of workforce strategy at large tech companies... Amazon, Meta, and Alphabet alike... and what it means that highly profitable firms keep cutting with no end state in sight. -- Roast the Post: Grounds for Discussion is available for free on Substack, YouTube, and wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe at https://roastthepost.show. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit roastthepost.show

    Rolling Layoffs: Tech's New Normal | Grounds for Discussion

  3. 5d ago ·  Bonus

    Layoff Limbo: When Job-Cut Warnings Become a Trap | Grounds for Discussion

    The headline under the microscope: "Corporate America is putting its staff in layoff limbo" (Business Insider, October 2026). Paul and Jen dissect the emerging layoff trend where companies announce future job cuts without saying who will be affected, where the cuts will land, or when. The angle: the hosts reject both of the article's framing options. Advance warning without specifics isn't humane, and it may be engineered to spook employees into quitting and shrink severance payouts. For HR and people-operations professionals, this is a thought-provoking discussion on how labour practices shaped like severance-avoidance corrode employee engagement and workplace culture. Treating people like human beings keeps coming up as an engagement factor for a reason. -- Roast the Post: Grounds for Discussion is available for free on Substack, YouTube, and wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe at https://roastthepost.show. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit roastthepost.show

    Layoff Limbo: When Job-Cut Warnings Become a Trap | Grounds for Discussion

  4. Oct 30 ·  Bonus

    Leadership Accountability Fails: When Systems Protect the Top

    Paul and Jen dissect the AP News headline "New Zealand PM survives leadership challenge months before election," unpacking Christopher Luxon's second confidence-vote survival in four months amid polling declines, coalition infighting, and public gaffes ahead of the November 7 election. The conversation moves fast from Wellington to the boardroom. Why do organizations (political parties, corporations, venture-backed startups) extend so much forgiveness to leadership while people lower on the org chart absorb the consequences? The hosts dig into connections-versus-competency in executive selection, why boards rarely oust leaders for patterns of failure (only for one spectacular incident), and what workplace culture looks like when accountability only flows downward. The centrepiece: an employee-owned cooperative Paul is advising that replaces a permanent CEO with fixed-term, rotating leadership drawn from senior ranks, a governance model inspired by Spain's Mondragon Corporation, with major implications for succession planning, organizational resilience, and leadership accountability. Why it matters for organizational design and HR professionals: if accountability is a design choice, not a personality trait, then leadership structures, board composition, and executive tenure are all levers you can actually pull. -- Roast the Post: Grounds for Discussion is available for free on Substack, YouTube, and wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe at https://roastthepost.show. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit roastthepost.show

    Leadership Accountability Fails: When Systems Protect the Top

  5. Oct 28 ·  Bonus

    Youth Unemployment and AI: The Entry-Level Job Crisis | Grounds for Discussion

    Paul and Jen dissect an AFP headline, "Global youth unemployment rises as AI reshapes entry-level jobs," grounded in the International Labour Organization's Global Employment Trends for Youth 2026 report. The numbers are grim. Global youth unemployment hit 12.4% in 2025, roughly 67 million young people, while the NEET rate climbed to 20%. Over 257 million youth not in employment, education, or training. The hosts zero in on the core tension: as AI displaces clerical, administrative, and sales roles that traditionally served as career on-ramps, organizations have no financial incentive to redesign entry-level pathways. Training budgets keep shrinking because firms expect the labour market to deliver ready-made talent. For organizational design and HR professionals, this episode is a wake-up call on workforce planning, talent management, and the long-term cost of hollowing out entry-level hiring. Listen now. -- Roast the Post: Grounds for Discussion is available for free on Substack, YouTube, and wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe at  https://roastthepost.show. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit roastthepost.show

    Youth Unemployment and AI: The Entry-Level Job Crisis | Grounds for Discussion

  6. Oct 26 ·  Bonus

    Fair Pay Now Drives Engagement? A 30-Year First

    This week on Grounds for Discussion, Paul and Jen dissect an HR News Canada headline reporting that Workforce Science Associates found fair pay and basic respect have emerged as predictors of employee engagement for the first time in nearly three decades of workforce research. Key points in the conversation: * Why fair pay and respect only now register as engagement drivers, when they should be baseline conditions of employment * The cost of living crisis and why wages are falling behind even for top-quartile earners * Survey methodology and sample bias — who actually receives engagement surveys, and who never does * Generational shifts in workplace expectations, and the case for work being just work * The end of workplace loyalty: a company shuts down and takes years of devotion with it * When builders run out of things to build, and why job-hopping is a privilege in a garbage job market For HR professionals and people operations leaders, this episode questions what engagement research actually measures, and what it means when organizations have to be asked to provide the bare minimum. -- Roast the Post: Grounds for Discussion is available for free on Substack, YouTube, and wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe at https://roastthepost.show. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit roastthepost.show

  7. Oct 23

    Components Manufacturing Engineer: Frictionless Freedom Units with Dan Korus

    This week the post looks reasonable: a components manufacturing engineer in Los Angeles for a venture-backed aviation company. Then you read "hypersonic," then "Department of War," and then the part where one person owns an entire facility's manufacturing capability... mentoring technicians, running the sheet metal shop, fixing the laser welder at 9 p.m., and standing up quality processes for hardware that cannot be allowed to fail. All for a salary so low that you'd be living in a closet with a bunkmate. Guest roaster Dan Korus (Kestryl Edge, The Updraft) brings the manufacturing bona fides to break down why this ad reads like a defence prime's wishlist on a startup's budget, why the quality/production overlap is a compliance nightmare, and why the "three-plus years of experience" line is the funniest sentence in the whole document. Check out the episode page for the full job ad, notes, and put on your own judge's hat by adding your score for the job ad here : https://roastthepost.show/p/components-manufacturing-engineer-frictionless-freedom-units-guest-dan-korus — Jen and Paul roast weekly in front of a live studio audience at https://roastthepost.show. Subscribe to catch new roasts as they drop. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit roastthepost.show

    Components Manufacturing Engineer: Frictionless Freedom Units with Dan Korus

  8. Oct 19 ·  Bonus

    Australian Gig Workers Get a Minimum Wage - But Are They Employees?

    Australia's Fair Work Commission ruled that delivery drivers for platforms like Uber Eats and HungryPanda must earn a minimum of AUD $31.30 per hour, effective August 17, 2026, with mandatory workplace accident insurance regardless of employment status. The ruling raises a question that cuts to the heart of contractor classification: when gig workers get a minimum wage and company-paid insurance, are they still independent contractors? Jen walks through the Canadian tests that separate employees from contractors... control over hours, provision of equipment, exclusivity, benefits... and flags that this ruling blurs every one of them. Paul breaks down why platform businesses hire contractors in the first place: to outsource risk and liabilities off their books, and how this decision claws those obligations back. Both hosts ask what failed in the Australian gig economy to force a regulator's hand, and whether this is the template for a new hybrid model of work. For HR professionals, this episode is a preview of classification risk heading to every jurisdiction with platform work. If a regulator can impose wages and benefits on contractors without reclassifying them, employment-status audits, tax treatment, and contingent-workforce design all change. Equitable? Yes. Meaningful? We'll see. -- Roast the Post: Grounds for Discussion is available for free wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe at https://roastthepost.show. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit roastthepost.show

    Australian Gig Workers Get a Minimum Wage - But Are They Employees?
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About

Roast the Post helps job seekers dodge bad roles and employers stop posting them, one brutally honest episode at time. roastthepost.show

Information

  • Creator
    Jennifer Houle & Paul Austin-Menear
  • Years Active
    2026
  • Episodes
    52
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Paul Austin-Menear and Jennifer Houle
  • Show Website
    Roast the Post Podcast