Gen-Z loves WFH but the risk is that younger workers fail to develop the connections and networks they’ll need later in their career. Getty Images
- In today’s CEO Daily: Diane Brady talks to Cloudera CEO Charles Sansbury about remote work and Gen-Z.
- The big story: Trump wants Gaza.
- The markets: The S&P 500 is back above 6,000.
- Analyst notes from Goldman Sachs, Convera, and Wedbush.
- Plus: All the news and watercooler chat from Fortune.
Good morning. Now that Mexico and Canada have a temporary reprieve on tariffs—Sorry, China!—let’s talk about jobs. U.S. job openings hit a three-month low in December. Fewer layoffs means that those who have jobs may feel more secure. The challenge is creating jobs for young people, whose unemployment rate is more than double the national average. With the pressure on businesses to deploy AI for significant productivity gains, the people likely to suffer most are those in entry-level jobs where one develops the soft skills that are relatively immune to AI.
I’m a better journalist today than I was when I started in my early twenties. I still remember the pause after asking an analyst to define ‘P/E ratio’ when reporting on the Hong Kong stock market. But that’s how we learn and grow. We gain mentors and experiences that enable us to become leaders ourselves. But among leaders I talk to there’s a nagging fear. Are employers creating on-ramps for the next generation of leaders in this era of AI? Are they designing career paths to develop skills and experiences that won’t be displaced by technology?
I spoke earlier this week with Charles Sansbury, CEO of Cloudera, a Santa Clara, California-based enterprise software company that went private in a $5.3 billion deal four years ago. He’s worried about Gen Z. In addition to coming of age in a time of seismic technology shifts, many started their careers during the pandemic when the workplace was redesigned around workers, allowing for flexibility that shaped expectations in a way that can sabotage early careers. One danger with remote work, in his view, is that “you effectively become a faceless factor of production” and risk “not building a sense of community or long-term skill sets.” The more invisible the worker, the weaker the connection and the easier it is to sever that connection when there are jobs to cut.
Sansbury encourages all of his 3,000-plus employees to get into the office as often as possible to establish those connections and community. He also believes it’s important to create a learning culture in this time of rapid change as the path to promotion and success is less clear.
“There’s kind of an air pocket right now for this current generation, where they’re coming to what should be a formative phase of their careers without the kind of certainty that ‘if I do this now, it will pay me benefits in three or six years.’”
The same could be said for employers, as internships and entry-level employees help create a mentoring culture that no digital agent is likely to match.
More news below.
Contact CEO Daily via Diane Brady, diane.brady@fortune.com, LinkedIn.
Top news
Trump wants to take over Gaza. “The US will take over the Gaza Strip, and we will do a job with it, too. We’ll own it and be responsible for dismantling all of the dangerous unexploded bombs and other weapons on the site,” the president said yesterday in an astonishing press conference with Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu.
He’s willing to send troops. Trump said: “We’ll do what is necessary . . . we’re going to take over that place, we’re going to develop it, we’re going to create thousands of thousands of jobs and it’ll be something that the entire Middle East can be very proud of.”
Palestinians will be against this. The Arab world will be outraged. This is one of the wildest things Trump has ever said and the international community is still trying to figure out how to respond.
Reality check: The logistics of a long-term U.S. takeover of Gaza would be almost insurmountable, likely plunging America into a decades-long conflict with the Muslim world. Also, Trump likes to negotiate by starting from an extreme position and then quickly making a deal when the other side offers him a “win.” Believe it when you see it.
Trump says he has ordered the obliteration of Iran if he is assassinated. “If they did that, they would be obliterated. That would be the end,” Trump said. “I’ve left instructions. If they do it, they get obliterated. There won’t be anything left, and they shouldn’t be able to do it.”
20,000 federal workers have taken Elon Musk’s buyout offer. That’s about 1% of the workforce.
Nissan will reject Honda merger plan. The combination would have created the world’s No.3 automaker.
From Fortune
Fortune 500 Power Move
Baxter International (No. 270) announced that José Almeida retired as CEO, president, and chair, effective immediately. Brent Shafer has been appointed interim CEO as the company searches for a permanent successor. Every Friday morning, the weekly Fortune 500 Power Moves column tracks Fortune 500 company C-suite shifts—see the most recent edition.
Cloudflare CEO’s mission to hold AI accountable
Matthew Prince, the CEO of cybersecurity giant Cloudflare, told Fortune’s editor-in-chief Alyson Shontell last month that he wants to properly charge AI companies that scrape online content for free without sufficiently referencing the original source. By doing so, media sites could replace paywalls and subscriptions with this revenue stream. Fortune
Tesla and Apple see worst of tariff concerns
Tesla and Apple were the Magnificent 7 stocks that fell the hardest early this week after President Donald Trump unveiled a new round of tariffs. Apple stock rebounded and saw growth after Trump announced that tariffs on Mexico and Canada would be postponed, but Tesla stock remained flat. Fortune
Citigroup lets remote work stay
Citigroup CEO Jane Fraser is allowing employees to work remotely two days a week in an effort to draw in talent from competitors, per a call to bank executives heard by the Financial Times. Big firms like JPMorgan Chase have recently announced five-day return to office plans. Fortune
The markets
- U.S. markets closed broadly up yesterday with the S&P 500 at 6,037.88. … US futures were down 0.5% this morning … Japan was up this morning but Europe was mixed. … Shares in China declined this morning. … Alphabet stock went down 7% after reporting a slowdown in cloud sales. It bounced back a few points this morning.
From the analysts
- Goldman Sachs on tariffs vs equities: “We estimate that every 5pp increase in the US tariff rate would reduce S&P 500 EPS by roughly 1-2%. As a result, if sustained, the tariffs announced this weekend would reduce our S&P 500 EPS forecasts by roughly 2-3%,” per David Kostin et al.
- Convera on Trump risk: “Trump 1.0 closely monitored the stock market as a live gauge of his popularity … Today, market hopes hinge on the expectation that Trump is keeping an eye on the global wave of risk aversion, triggered by his trade war with major trading partners. Movements across every asset class indicate that the tariff risk wasn’t fully priced in,” per Kevin Ford.
- Wedbush on Palantir: “Palantir posted earnings that absolutely blew away Street expectations … Karp & Co. are playing chess in the AI Arms Race while others play checkers and the bears continue to miss this generational tech story as they cannot find AI in their spreadsheets,” per Daniel Ives and team.
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