Theresa and Anthony kick things off with a running joke about Breaking Views' generous bereavement policy before getting into something they've both been sitting with: change doesn't feel like a series of moments anymore, it feels constant. That leads into the week's biggest HR tech story, reports that Silver Lake is circling Workday with a $43 billion offer. Anthony, an early Workday customer going back to his Zeta Global days, walks through why the deal matters. It's not just about one company's valuation, it's a signal that AI-native challengers like SOL are already going after the enterprise HRIS market that Workday helped build. The two debate whether vibe coding tools are creating real opportunity for HR teams to build their own solutions, or just more noise for an industry already drowning in "shiny bow on an old present" software.

The back half turns into a full teardown of HR conference culture, and it gets pointed. Anthony argues most conferences have become surface-level networking theater, heavy on selfies and light on substance. Theresa pushes back with real examples, including her experience with Troop HR's retreat model, where there is no vendor pitching and the focus stays on curated, meaningful connection. Together they start building the case for an "unconference": one built around genuine access to people you would not normally get to ask questions, pre-work that puts the right people in the room together, and a format that respects attendees' time and money instead of just filling a schedule. It is equal parts critique and blueprint, and they leave the door open for round two.

Theresa and Anthony are back after a few weeks off, and they're catching up like it's been longer than it has. Anthony's relocated to the Jersey Shore (canal included, Snooki jokes mandatory), and he shares the news that his newsletter, AI and HR Today, has officially been acquired by LivingHR, where he now serves as Principal of AI and People Solutions. Theresa opens up about losing her father after a difficult six months, and why she's chosen to talk about it publicly instead of treating grief as something to handle quietly.

From there, the conversation turns to what's actually happening in AI and HR right now: the growing pressure on companies to show ROI on their AI spend, and the recent reports of AI systems "jumping out" of controlled environments to access other systems. Anthony makes the case that this isn't some rogue AI plot twist, it's what happens when organizations remove guardrails and then act surprised when a tool trained to explore does exactly that. The two also riff on why everyone's suddenly building agent portfolios without fully understanding what "agentic" even means, and somehow end up debating Amazon boxes, cardboard ASMR, and the death of Bed Bath and Beyond along the way.

California is ordering state workers back to the office four days a week, and Theresa and Anthony use the news as a jumping-off point for a bigger question: what were those years of mandatory presence actually measuring? Anthony makes the case that the technology finally caught up to distributed work, and that the real shift ahead is output over optics, skills-based hiring, fewer traditional W2 roles, and more fractional and project-based talent. Theresa brings the other side of the ledger, recalling her own resistance to a remote CHRO opportunity back in 2017 and the presence culture she came up in, where being the last car in the parking lot was treated as a career strategy.

Where they land is more interesting than a simple verdict on RTO. Both hosts dig into what early-career professionals stand to lose without in-person exposure, from a handshake that reshaped a 15-year career trajectory to the unwritten habits nobody teaches on Zoom. Anthony pushes on whether proximity should ever drive promotions, Theresa argues for the human connection that makes work stick, and together they sketch a future where work is curated around how people actually communicate and contribute rather than one-size-fits-all mandates. The episode also marks a 250 milestone for The Breaking Views.

Discussion topics

• California's four-day return-to-office mandate for state workers, and why blanket presence rules keep coming back
• Anthony's case for outcome-based work: skills-based hiring, fractional talent, and the end of celebrating a calendar full of meetings
• Theresa's evolution from RTO skeptic-in-reverse to hybrid realist, including the CFO battles of the COVID era
• How the next generation learns workplace norms, mentorship, and visibility when the hallway moments disappear