Inflation And The Great Resignation | The Globalization Of Governance | Pfizer’s CEO Reveals Negotiations With Trump White House

Plus: The simple thing most leaders get wrong

Hello, and welcome to another edition of the CxO newsletter.

Wages are up, but so is inflation, and much has been said about the pay cut U.S. employees have taken as a result. If your organization has hesitated to dole out raises in response, know that you’re far from alone: According to a survey of more than 300 U.S. employers by human resources consulting firm Mercer, less than 25% of American companies are revising their salary budgets due to rising costs, though 42% say workers have asked them to do so.

“Organizations are being cautious about setting a practice of paying primarily based on cost of living, as opposed to cost of labor,” wrote Tauseef Rahman, a partner at Mercer, in an email to Forbes’ Jena McGregor. Even still, nearly 50% of respondents say they’re planning additional salary reviews for either some or all employees—a sign, writes Jena, that they may be worried about losing workers to the Great Resignation.

In an attempt to retain top talent, corporations have spent the past few months pulling out all the stops, presenting employees with improved pay, yes, plus opportunities and perks. But a recent survey conducted by McKinsey & Company suggests they’d do well to focus on workloads, too. Some 35% of respondents to the firm’s survey say unsustainable work performance expectations were the reason they left their job without another lined up—the same percentage who say they resigned due to callous leadership or lacking career development.

Laura Putnam, founder and CEO of Motion Infusion and the author of Workplace Wellness That Works, tells my colleague Emmy Lucas that organizations can’t simply remedy this issue with “superficial Band-Aids.” “Organizations and employers really need to take a hard look at whether or not they’re actually willing to do the work to make the structural changes to actually deal with things like work overload,” she says.

Ensuring employees stave off burnout isn’t just the responsibility of their direct managers—those at all levels of leadership have a role to play. Consider this your guide to not only preventing, but extinguishing, burnout from the top down.

Thank you for reading, and feel free to share your ideas with me at vvalet@forbes.com.

What's Next

When Two Halves Don’t Make A Whole: In a now viral tweet, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called on Microsoft, Oracle and SAP to “stop supporting” their Russian products. Though all three tech giants have announced action against Russia, Zelensky asserted that the steps they’ve taken are simply “‘half’ decisions.” He’s not the only one demanding more from corporations—customers and employees want to see them meet the moment, too. As Jeffery Sonnenfeld, a senior associate dean at Yale, who is compiling a list of companies’ responses to Russia’s war on Ukraine, tells my colleague Jena McGregor, “There isn’t a both-sides anymore.” This is what stakeholders have come to expect.

The Globalization Of Governance: Experts expect sanctions against Russia will affect the country’s economy for years to come, but they’re likely to influence American companies, too, especially in the boardroom. Beyond the immediate impact relating to decisions on conducting business in Russia, Michael Peregrine, a partner in McDermott Will & Emery’s Chicago office and a senior contributor to Forbes, suggests the long-term ramifications could be cause for boards to reorient their agendas around global economic, political and social trends. Here’s what you need to know.

Corporate Activism 101: In the age of corporate activism, companies cannot afford to keep quiet on controversial issues. Their silence, argues Forbes Senior Contributor Edward Segal, could create a crisis in and of itself. Just look at Disney. The company came under fire last week over its failure to take a stance on the “Don’t Say Gay” bill passed by Florida’s legislature, asserting instead that corporate statements “do very little to change outcomes or minds.” Days later, CEO Bob Chapek changed course, denouncing the legislation during Disney’s annual shareholder meeting and later announcing in a letter to employees that the business will pause political donations in Florida to “ensure our advocacy better reflects our values.” If you find yourself in a similar situation, heed this advice.

By The Numbers

> $8 billion

The amount of fraud that allegedly stemmed from the $2 trillion coronavirus relief bill passed by Congress in March 2020, according to the Department of Justice. Tens of billions of dollars’ worth of claims remain under review.

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