💼 Remote work wars

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Do you hear that? It's the sound of the world's tiniest violin playing for Tom and Gisele. Let's get into it.

By Allison Morrow

💸 WIPEOUT

Ah, Super Bowl 2022. It was ... the Rams vs the Bengals? Full disclosure: I had to Google that just now because all I remember about that game is the crypto ads.

There was Larry David ironically dismissing crypto as a fad. Matt Damon basically daring us all to put our money into crypto — "fortune favors the brave." And of course, there was Tom Brady and Gisele Bundchen, ever so coolly telling their friends about this new, simple way to get into crypto, FTX. "You in?" they asked. "I'm in," everyone replies.

The most remarkable thing about the ad, apart from the two of them being so disgustingly beautiful, is how they manage to seem like relative normies who would actually call their plumber to give him a good tip about a smart investment. It makes you feel like you could go on a double date with Tom and Gisele — they're just like us, really, if you look past their extreme wealth, superstardom and their personal chef whipping up gourmet vegan meals.

Anyway, cut to a year later, and we're beginning to learn more about just how in they were on FTX. Not only did they peddle the hype on TV, they were also putting their own money behind the enterprise.

Brady owns 1.1 million common shares of FTX, while Bundchen owns 686,000 shares, according to bankruptcy court documents filed Monday.

Whatever Brady and Bundchen paid for their stakes, they, along with hundreds of other investors, will almost certainly see their positions completely wiped out. (The court documents didn't disclose what investors paid for their shares or detail when they were acquired.)

At its peak, the privately held FTX was valued at around $32 billion.

When companies go bankrupt, stockholders are typically the last in line to recover any funds. US bankruptcy laws stipulate that creditors — in FTX's case, customers who'd deposited money on the platform — be repaid first.

A representative for the pair, who divorced in October, didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

Their role in boosting FTX has already come under legal scrutiny. Soon after FTX's collapse in Novemeber, a customer filed a proposed class-action lawsuit against FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried, along with Brady, Bundchen and several other celebrity backers.

A key question in that or any other case against FTX's backers will be whether cryptos can be treated as securities under the law. (The Securities and Exchange Commission has said they are; the industry widely disagrees.) One law professor told my colleague Jennifer Korn that plugging crypto has different implications than, say, endorsing a sports drink or athletic wear.

"Selling an asset that is a financial instrument … is not the same thing as selling sneakers," says Charles Whitehead, professor at Cornell Law School. "There are anti-fraud and consumer-protection rules for selling bad sneakers. There are more restrictive rules when you're talking about selling financial assets."

He added: "All these celebrities who are running around and doing these sorts of sponsorships should stop and ask a securities lawyer."

NUMBER OF THE DAY

The French government is planning to raise the official retirement age to 64 from 62, part of a long-delayed plan to overhaul the country's pension system. Labor unions have already vowed to fight the legislation, calling for "a first day of strikes and protest" next week.

🏰 REMOTE WORK WARS

Disney's going back to the Bob Iger way of doing things. And that means going back to the days of working — gasp! — in the office every day (or at least, most days).

Iger, the beloved CEO who recently stepped back into the role after a nearly three-year break, told employees they'll have to return to corporate offices four days a week, Monday-Thursday, beginning in March.

Iger pointed to the "tremendous value" of being in the same physical space with colleagues, my colleague Jordan Valinsky reports. "In a creative business like ours, nothing can replace the ability to connect, observe, and create with peers that comes from being physically together."

(Side rant: The old "better together" mantra favored by many executives is one of those overused corporate catchphrases that should come with a lot of caveats. Of course, a CEO is someone who's better off in a group – the people in the C-Suite are typically gregarious go-getters who know how to work a room. That's not true of all people, though, especially when it comes to the creative types Iger seems keen to appeal to. Plenty of great ideas have come out of sitting alone in a dark room, quietly chipping away at an idea, safe from the distractions of water-cooler gossip or overzealous air conditioning vents that make your hands ache as you type. That's not to discount the value of collaboration, but I'd argue there's a balance to be struck between the two extremes.)

Anyway, the memo was light on details, but the four-day mandate is stricter than a lot of other big companies (For the record, Warner Bros. Discovery, CNN's parent company, has a three-day-a-week in-office policy.) And it wasn't yet clear how Disney staffers were reacting to the news.

It's a risky move for an incoming CEO, even one who's an old hand at the job. Apple's Tim Cook tried it this fall, only to be met with an outcry from employees. Elon Musk, who detests remote work, put his foot down on Twitter but quickly softened his hard-line policy after many people answered his "hardcore" ultimatum by resigning.

BIG PICTURE

Disney's decision to resume an on-site-heavy workweek marks a shift in Corporate America's reimagining of office life in the pandemic era (an era that Iger, notably, didn't witness first-hand at Disney, as he handed the reins to his successor in February 2020.)

For millions of office workers, the past three years have been one long experiment in figuring out how to make our work and non-work lives co-exist. That experiment has coincided with a power shift that's given workers the upper hand to demand greater flexibility and better pay.

Does the Iger mandate mean the tables have turned again? Not quite. Even with the economy slowing and layoffs rising in certain sectors, the labor market remains historically tight, giving workers leverage.

"Many, many companies in recent months have insisted that people come back to the office five days a week, only to reverse that mandate within about a week after hearing that they'd lose their best and brightest," Julia Pollak, the chief economist ZipRecruiter, told the New York Times recently. She added: Remote work "is not just used as a sort of perk in a tight labor market that's going to go away in a slacker labor market."

WHAT ELSE IS GOING ON?

🏦 Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, in his first public appearance of the year, stressed his commitment to bringing inflation down while noting that doing so requires "measures that are not popular."

⚠️ A federal agency is considering a ban on gas stoves, a "hidden hazard" that's been linked to childhood asthma.

✂️ Coinbase, the publicly traded crypto platform, is laying off about 20% of its staff after being hit hard the recent plunge in crypto prices.

🚗 Despite broad concerns about tan impending recession, the ultra-wealthy seem to be doing just fine. Rolls-Royce, Bentley and Lamborghini all had record sales again last year.

POST OF THE DAY