Rebuilding the company brand post-COVID lockdown: Insights from Cirque du Soleil’s CHRO

You need to be able to navigate ambiguity and be very creative. You need to be able to work in a fast-paced environment. And you need to be able to work in a very diverse environment, with people coming from all over the world. You need to have a lot of empathy for others because we have a lot of different cultures, a lot of different religions, and a lot of different beliefs. So you need to be able to understand and respect others, and be very inclusive. And you need to be very passionate about what you do because we are doing magical things every day. It’s really about bringing magic to life. So if you’re not passionate about what you do, it’s going to be very difficult to work at Cirque du Soleil.

When we were relaunching our shows, we were rethinking, “Okay, now what? What does the next 20 years of Cirque look like? What does the future of HR look like?” To me, ambiguity is kind of exciting in a sense of everything is possible. The world is your oyster. Let’s put some clarity around what is gray.

Emma Burleigh
[email protected]

Around the Table

A round-up of the most important HR headlines.

After a few dozen German businesses piloted a four-day workweek, many of the companies that participated say they don’t want to go back to traditional schedules. Bloomberg

Many powerful women working on Wall Street lean on their stay-at-home husbands to shoulder the child care and chores, but the arrangement isn’t always easy or well-received. WSJ

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Creator-economy startup Jellysmack will lay off nearly two dozen staffers, and the company partially blames Meta’s new monetization model for the cuts. Business Insider

After Donald Trump made a pit stop at a McDonald’s in Pennsylvania, the company sent an internal message to staffers clarifying they don’t endorse any presidential candidates. Bloomberg

Watercooler

Everything you need to know from Fortune.

Level playing field. This November voters in U.S. states like Arizona and Massachuettes will decide whether to change the policy that employees who earn tips earn a lower minimum wage. —Kavish Harjai, AP

Love ‘em or lose ‘em. HR leaders weigh in on how they’re putting their employees first to retain and engage them—from hybrid working models to the intentional ways they roll out AI. —John Kell

Mutiny. Amazon employees are criticizing the company’s culture, with one ex-staffer saying online that the RTO mandate had them “bogged down in pointless meetings and middling middle managers.” —Spencer Soper, Bloomberg