There's been a definite shift in the air when it comes to corporate America. While it's still infested to the gills with leftist activism and ridiculous virtue signaling, there seems to be a slowly developing understanding that this is an issue, not a social safety net.
A story recently went viral where a CEO named Ryan Breslow of Bolt made sweeping layoffs at his company, which controversially included his entire HR team.
What's very interesting about this decision is that he accused the Human Resources team of inventing problems that weren't even there.
"That HR team was creating problems that didn't exist, and those problems disappeared when I let them go," he said.
Breslow still made it clear that larger corporations may still need HR teams, but as he noted, they're in "start-up mode," and so it seemed the HR team was actually more trouble than it was worth.
"We got rid of our HR team.”
— FORTUNE (@FortuneMagazine) May 19, 2026
Bolt CEO Ryan Breslow defended sweeping workforce cuts at Bolt—including a recent layoff affecting roughly 30% of employees—as well as his decision to eliminate the company’s HR team.#FortuneWorkplaceSummit | https://t.co/8iLEhnNoWf pic.twitter.com/CSb2BtLqOv
Breslow didn't go into what the problems the HR team was creating were, but based on other horror stories, we can piece together what those likely were, because it seems many HR teams follow the same pattern.
City Journal recently reported on one such instance where a school's HR department in Springfield, Missouri, violated First Amendment rights by demanding teachers take "equity training" where they were effectively forced to say things that pleased the department or pay would be docked:
In 2020, the Springfield, Missouri, school district ordered employees to attend a “Fall District-Wide Equity Training.” Participants were told to “lean into your discomfort,” “acknowledge YOUR privileges,” and “speak YOUR truth.” But the most revealing “guiding principle” was a warning that made clear what kind of “conversation” this would be: “Be Professional—Or be Asked to Leave with No Credit.” That “credit” wasn’t symbolic; employees understood it as tied to pay.
The training featured a slideshow and a series of cartoon videos about “systemic racism” and “understanding white supremacy.” Attendees were told that “systems of oppression” were “woven” into the “very foundation of America,” and that white supremacy is a “highly descriptive term for the culture we live in.” Trainees were directed to break into small groups to discuss these concepts before returning to a larger group discussion, where they were told that, if they didn’t speak, they would get called upon.
This isn't an uncommon story, as you may well remember. RedState is full of stories of corporations ripping merit out of the equation to replace it with identity politics, from Disney to Lockheed Martin. Diversity quotes abounded, and people were being hired and fired based on identity rather than usefulness.
The key to many an HR department's existence is to create a grievance culture within the business that pits one identity against another. This creates an endless cycle of "improvements" that must be made, justifying the existence and even growth of HR departments.
What you get from there is what you've seen many times in news reports. Meritless advancement, bizarre marketing decisions that alienate customers, and an endless procession of virtue signals.
The issue is that this has been poison for much of corporate America, and many have been quietly walking away from DEI structures and departments. While the termination of HR departments hasn't been a major trend, I predict we've now entered an era where HR departments are on thin ice. I don't think Bolt will be the last company to do this. I imagine we're seeing a domino fall here.
But I imagine that once it starts, and businesses start to see upswings in productivity and quality, it will become a far more popular trend. However, I also see lawfare becoming a regular occurrence to try to keep HR departments alive.
