Peter Cappelli

3 weeks ago | hrexecutive.com | Peter Cappelli

Perhaps because we can see and sometimes touch technology, we seem to be obsessed with imagining how it will transform our lives. Sometimes it does, but it takes a long time to happen. The number of those cases is very small—and many more times, that transformation just does not happen. Remember driverless trucks, which were supposed to take over the highways by 2019?

1 month ago | hrexecutive.com | Peter Cappelli

You may have seen the story last week in the Wall Street Journal that described the horrific experience of junior bankers at the Baird investment bank working 110 hours or more per week. (In case you haven’t thought about it recently, there are only 168 hours in a week.) To work that much in a standard five-day work week would be 22 hours per day. Some of those junior bankers ended up being hospitalized, conjuring up the Japanese term “karoshi,” or death from overwork.

2 months ago | hrexecutive.com | Peter Cappelli

Let’s say you are a responsible executive leading—or helping lead—an organization whose mission and employees you care about. That mission might include shareholder value; at a minimum, it includes concern about the organization’s survival. The Trump administration has headed down a path that will upend much of what has been familiar in your world, especially for businesses. As an HR leader, what do you do? And what do you tell your employees?

Mar 5, 2025 | hrexecutive.com | Peter Cappelli

The U.S. government is a big stage, and it’s not too surprising if what happens there plays out in the rest of the country, including the workplace. When Ronald Reagan fired more than 11,000 striking air traffic controllers in 1981, the widespread belief was that the move empowered employers to get tough with their own unions. The Trump administration’s takedown of DEI in the federal government has had the same effect on the private sector.

Feb 14, 2025 | hrexecutive.com | Peter Cappelli

It is difficult to think about the practice of human resources today without talking about the astonishing collapse of DEI practice and influence. I cannot think of any equivalent change in modern times—with the possible exception of the rapid rise of industrial unions after the UAWs sit-down strike in Flint, Mich., in 1936, almost a century ago now.