AT&T CEO laid out a new vision for the company's culture. Business Insider broke down the aftermath.

Business Insider

4 days ago

Welcome back to our Sunday edition, where we round up some of our top stories and take you inside our newsroom. Since getting laid off nearly two years ago, a former Accenture manager has struggled to land a job. He told Business Insider that recruiters say he's "expensive."
On the agenda today:
Chipotle's fortunes soared under a fast-food CEO. Employees say they paid the price.
A newsletter founder claimed she had over 1 million subscribers. Internal docs are more complicated.
America is on the verge of adopting the worst part of Europe's real estate market.
Microsoft is mulling a stricter RTO policy.
But first: It's a seismic culture shift.
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This week's dispatch
We got the memo
I was reading around on our site when I saw a scoop pop up. AT&T CEO John Stankey wrote a memo — a long memo — about management and culture and his expectations for employees at the telecom company. (Hats off to reporters Dominick Reuter and Katherine Li.)
It was riveting. If you are Musk-esque about working, it would have felt inspiring. If you aren't, it might have felt depressing. Either way, it was nothing if not provocative, and a must-read about the changing workplace — one of the most important topics we cover at Business Insider.
After we broke the news, we dug deep for you. We quickly wrote a piece summarizing the main takeaways. Then, we gave guidance on succeeding in a workplace more focused on performance than loyalty and tenure — as Stankey described the culture shift underway.
We next talked with Wall Street analysts about how investors were reacting to Stankey's leadership. (The numbers suggest quite well!) And so far, we received over 1,000 reactions from our readers, most of whom thought the CEO's memo wasn't an effective message. (Feel free to share your thoughts in the form at the end of this story.)
Finally, our chief correspondent Aki Ito chimed in. Last year, Ito wrote about the end of loyalty in the workplace — the demise of the unwritten contract that solid work would reliably be rewarded. When she saw Stankey's memo explicitly discarding that, she thought: He's saying it out loud. She offered her take in response to Stankey — and she didn't hold back.
This kind of varied, engaged, in-depth — and exclusive — coverage of workplace shifts and how to navigate them is why we are here for you at Business Insider. Let us know what you think at [e-mail].
Burrito bowl blues
Current and former Chipotle employees told BI the fast-food restaurant used to be a special place to work. It offered a stellar working experience where employees were well-trained and valued.
Those qualities, they say, have precipitously declined. In recent years, Chipotle has become a Wall Street darling, with its annual revenue surging to $11.3 billion in 2024. At the same time, it's also become a "Wall of Shame" employer.
Inside Chipotle's transformation.
A $200 million email empire's shaky subscriber math
Daniella Pierson's newsletter empire, The Newsette Media Group, landed her podcasts, speaking gigs, and a spot on Forbes 30 Under 30. She said she had over 1 million subscribers, but her own records tell a different story.
A spokesperson for Pierson confirmed the newsletter goes to about 500,000 subscribers each day — less than half the 1.3 million subscribers claimed in a 2025 pitch deck. A BI investigation uncovered questions about what Pierson has told the public and advertisers about her business when compared to what internal documents show.
Do her subscription numbers add up?
A nightmare scenario
Owning a home in Italy may sound like a dream, until the process of finding one turns into a nightmare. Europe's Zillow equivalents only offer partial views of the housing market, and brokers there are known to gatekeep their best listings.
In worst-case scenarios, the same house may be listed separately by several agents, each asking for a different price. Thanks to the current Compass-Zillow feud, the US housing market could be heading down a similar path.
Adieu, house hunting!
Another RTO order looms
Microsoft has had a flexible work policy since 2020, allowing employees to work remotely as much as 50% of the time without approval. That may soon change.
The software giant is considering a three-day return-to-office order, people with knowledge of the plans told BI's Ashley Stewart. The move would bring Microsoft in line with its Big Tech peers.
It could start as soon as January 2026.
This week's quote:
"It's potentially fatal. You absolutely cannot stay mum in situations like this."
— Kevin Donahue, a 30-year veteran of crisis comms, on how Intel should respond to President Donald Trump calling for its CEO to resign.
More of this week's top reads:
I'm 85 and can't find a job. I receive over $5,000 a month, but it's not enough — I feel like I'm on a sinking ship.
Samsung rolls out five‑day RTO tracking tool to curb "coffee badging" for some US semiconductor staff.
One popular dating app is actually " crushing it" right now.
Bank of America juniors will be reassigned — but not fired — if they accept PE jobs.
There's a spending split between Americans, and it's popping up from McDonald's to Uber.
I spent three days at KPMG's $450 million training facility to see if it could actually make corporate retreats cool.
OpenAI offered me a job. Meta reached out just hours after I posted about it.
HBO Max is setting a trap for password sharers.
The BI Today team: Jamie Heller, editor in chief, in New York. Lisa Ryan, executive editor, in New York. Akin Oyedele, deputy editor, in New York. Grace Lett, editor, in New York. Amanda Yen, associate editor, in New York.