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A bummer for benefits

It's no secret that the era of generous employee perks is fading. Free food, on-site laundry, and gym subsidies are all becoming less common. Even full-time remote work is becoming increasingly rare.

Amid all the cutting, I really thought certain benefits like paid time off and parental leave would be untouchable.

I was wrong.

Earlier this month, my colleague Polly Thompson reported a bombshell scoop that Deloitte plans to pare back or cut several core benefits for some of its employees. Internal documents and a meeting recording revealed the consulting firm is planning cuts to parental leave, PTO, pensions, and IVF funding for workers in internal support roles such as admin, IT support, and finance.

And it's not just Deloitte.

Zoom is also scaling back its parental leave. Birthing parents now get 18 weeks of paid parental leave, down from 22—24. Non-birthing parents get 10 weeks, down from 16.

Here's the thing: Once a few big companies put the most prized benefits on the chopping block, others may follow suit.

These moves aren't happening in a vacuum. Companies are prioritizing measurable output over loyalty. They are raising performance expectations and tracking AI usage, all with eyes on improving the bottom line.

To be sure, some employees might prefer having their benefits cut rather than losing their jobs altogether.

Just this past week, Meta said it plans to cut 10% of its staff next month and eliminate 6,000 open roles in an effort to "run the company more efficiently."

Employees didn't hold back in their reactions. "Welcome to 28 days of hell," one Meta employee posted on an internal forum, referring to May 20 (the date the cuts are expected to happen).

Also on Thursday, Microsoft said it was offering one-time buyouts to long-serving US employees. The package is aimed at workers who want to retire.

With companies squarely in efficiency mode, they are sending a clear message: Job cuts are en vogue, loyalty is dead, and no benefit is off-limits anymore.

• This post originally appeared in the BI Today newsletter.
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What I learned from Take Your Kids to Work Day

The fourth Thursday of April means two things: You'll see a lot more kids during your work commute, and the office may be a bit more chaotic with the sound of young laughter, and yes, even some cries.

Take Your Kid to Work Day was an eventful one at Business Insider. Dozens of our colleagues' children descended into our newsroom's auditorium for bingo, a scavenger hunt, an animation demonstration to see how cartoons are made — courtesy of our amazing video team — and of course, pizza.

As a first-time mom of two boys (smile), it also taught me three lessons:

1. My workday is optimized for efficiency, but on TYKTWD, it was replaced with a slower pace that children naturally bring. It allowed me to be more present and engaged with my coworkers.
2. It also reminded me of the value of flexibility. My daily caramel macchiato run turned into grabbing hot chocolate for my boys. After one promptly spilled (a small tragedy indeed), the day was still amazing. It's proof that drinks can spill, meetings can get canceled, but nothing broke.
3. The day also made me grateful, again, for the work I get to do — telling meaningful stories for our readers. My boys marveled at FiDi's skyscrapers, a dinosaur-shaped building, and even my office's elevators that I typically ignore.

In the end, presence did what productivity couldn't.

• This post originally appeared in the BI Today newsletter.
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Unlocking a new vibe

At Business Insider, we like to keep you on the cutting edge of innovation and work.

Vibe coding marries the two.

This new tech — which enables even non-techies to code — is upending assumptions in almost every direction.

That's why we've created a new weekly newsletter on the topic: Vibe Mode. You can sign up here!

And there's an awful lot to cover. The prospect that vibe coding (or now "vibe designing") will make software companies more replaceable is denting their stocks. It's also stressing private credit, which we're learning has financed some of these businesses. (Not everyone loves the name "vibe coding," btw.)

Vibe coding is exciting many software engineers who are bingeing on the new tech and obsessing about all it can help them do.

At the same time, it's exhausting engineers who preferred, or at least were used to, earlier ways of working and are mentally fatigued from how these tools are changing coding.

It's creating a whole new class of companies, including Lovable, Replit, and Cursor, which are reaching valuations in the multiple billions of dollars.

It's concerning C-suite execs who are eager to save money with vibe coding but also are worried about its costs.

And it has the Business Insider team hustling to deliver for you on all of these fronts.

We've got Shuby Goel covering the pure-play vibe-coding companies and Ben Bergman on the financials from the West Coast. Our tech columnist Alistair Barr has been chronicling the changing software business for months. Meanwhile, Chong Ming Lee has been interviewing users and trying it himself, and Brent Griffiths has been writing about software engineers' highs and lows. Alex Nicoll is on private credit players, and our markets team is deep into the investing angles.

You can reach out to any of them with ideas or tips.

What are we missing? As always, please reach out at eic@businessinsider.com.

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Colon cancer just got younger

Do you know the subtle signs and symptoms to look out for if you have colon cancer? Would you want to know, based on the research?

Even before March, which is Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month by the way, Business Insider has been laser-focused on covering how colon cancer not only affects our bodies, but our wallets. Our reporters and editors have spoken with over 100 patients, clinicians, researchers, and economists to analyze and document how this disease affects families, careers, and financial stability in younger patients.

This effort comes as colon cancer has officially been named the deadliest cancer in the US, replacing breast cancer and lung cancer, and shocking cancer researchers. And while the absolute number of colon cancer deaths in people under 50 is still small, the trend for young people with colon cancer is "going in the wrong direction," health correspondent Hilary Brueck writes.

Researchers believe that an unidentified change is driving the rise in colon cancer diagnoses. "It's some either environmental or behavioral exposure that was introduced in the last half of the 20th century," cancer epidemiologist Rebecca Siegel told Business Insider. "Whatever this change in exposure was, it's having a much larger influence on cancer development in the rectum."

To lower your risk, here are a few resources to read and bookmark:

• Take these steps to lower your risk of colon cancer at any age
• The early taboo symptoms millennials are afraid to tell their doctors about
• Colonoscopies are no fun. These at-home colon cancer screenings offer a shortcut.
• What colon cancer really costs in your 30s
• 5 young colon cancer patients share their lessons from living with the disease

• This post originally appeared in the Business Insider Today newsletter.
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Scott Galloway wants to save the world … sort of.

The entrepreneur-turned-professor-turned-media-juggernaut is leading a movement against Big Tech on two fronts.

One is over the harmful impact he believes it has on young men. The other is a form of protest against President Donald Trump's immigration policies, calling on people to "Resist and Unsubscribe" from Big Tech's products and services.

Just don't call him an activist. By his own description, Galloway is "too lazy, selfish, and socially minded" to be one, he told BI's Henry Chandonnet.

The irony is that Galloway is taking aim at an industry that helped make him a multimillionaire. He previously wrote a book about Big Tech and founded and sold a business intelligence firm for hundreds of millions of dollars. He's also frequently referenced the massive returns he earned from investing in Apple, Amazon, and Netflix in the wake of the financial crisis.

Galloway's message won't land with everyone.

It's easy to call on people to make sacrifices when you're at the front of the pack. And when you can afford to spend $34,000 a year on Uber, as Galloway says he does, then boycotting it feels more like an inconvenience than anything else.

On the other hand, Galloway's privilege and position within the tech community make his pushback against Big Tech all the more impressive. After all, it would be a lot easier for him to remain silent.

Maybe that's the beauty of Galloway. His comments can be equally enlightening and eye-roll-inducing, interesting and infuriating.

Regardless of how you feel about what Galloway says, you can't deny his willingness to say it.

• This post originally appeared in the BI Today newsletter.
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Pump problems

Surging gas prices are already wreaking havoc on the economy.

The Iran war has sent oil prices skyrocketing, with the impact being acutely felt at the pump. The average price of gasoline jumped to $3.63 a gallon on Friday, according to AAA, up from $2.93 last month before Middle East tensions escalated.

Gas is now above $3 a gallon in every US state for the first time since 2023. (BI's Dan DeFrancesco and Joe Ciolli broke down what happens next for oil prices in a recent live Q&A).

What started as oil-market jitters is now hampering household budgets and impacting everything from gig work to office attendance.

Uber and Lyft drivers told us they're getting more selective about which rides they accept as gas prices rise. That's because Uber and Lyft control fares, meaning drivers can't raise prices when their operating costs go up. Some gig drivers are rejecting shorter, lower-paying trips that burn fuel and instead are chasing longer fares that make the math work.

Meanwhile, EV drivers are having a moment. As gas-powered drivers wince at the pump, electric vehicle owners are taking what some have called a "victory lap." Charging costs haven't surged in step with oil prices. This is giving EV drivers, including those on rideshare platforms, a meaningful cost advantage.

Higher gas prices are also playing a role in the return-to-office debate. For people who drive to work, pricier fill-ups mean less money in their pockets for everything else.

"When gas prices spike, commuting effectively becomes a pay cut," one chief operating officer told us.

While a few employers say they're softening their RTO stances amid rising gas prices, the vast majority are unlikely to change their in-office requirements, particularly in a cooling job market where many workers lack the leverage to push back.

Still, average gas prices are a far cry from their record high above $5 a gallon in June 2022, months after the Russia-Ukraine war began.

But the latest increase is a reminder of how quickly surging gas prices can ripple through the economy.