Day: November 12, 2025

• NY AG Letitia James joined Condé Nast union staff in protesting recent firings and suspensions.
• The firings followed a staff confrontation with HR about Teen Vogue layoffs and site consolidation.
• Condé Nast and the union both filed National Labor Relations Board charges over the dispute.

New York Attorney General Letitia James joined a Condé Nast union rally on Wednesday, calling on the company to reinstate four fired staffers who had a confrontation with the company’s HR head.

“Let’s be clear: New York is a union town,” James said. “Let’s also be clear: the right to organize is enshrined in our laws. And as the attorney general of the state of New York, it’s my entire responsibility to ensure that the laws are enforced.”

“Condé Nast, I’ll see you in court,” she said.

The gathering took place outside Condé Nast’s headquarters in New York’s 1 World Trade Center on Wednesday to protest the firing of four unionized staffers and suspension of five of its other members.

These staffers had confronted Condé Nast’s HR chief, Stan Duncan, about the company’s decision earlier this month to fold Teen Vogue into the Vogue flagship site and lay off several of its staffers. The episode was partially captured in a widely viewed video published by TheWrap.

Condé Nast said in an internal memo that it “took disciplinary action against employees who were engaged in harassing and intimidating conduct that interfered with our business operations.” The company also said the actions violated its collective bargaining agreement with the union and that it had filed a charge with the National Labor Relations Board.

“Most people recognize that the misconduct exhibited by union members last week wouldn’t be acceptable in any workplace,” a company spokesperson said. “Their employment was terminated with cause, as they were in violation of our company policies.”

The Wednesday rally was organized by The NewsGuild of New York and Condé Nast Union, its unit representing around 500 people across about a dozen Condé Nast titles, including Vanity Fair, The New Yorker, and GQ, as well as Teen Vogue. The union also filed grievances with the company and charges with the National Labor Relations Board, demanding that the firings and disciplines be rescinded. (The NewsGuild also represents Business Insider employees.)

Teen Vogue, which launched in 2003 as a print glossy and was scaled back to online only in 2017, has a history of political activism, and the union called the layoffs an attempt by the company to silence its cultural and political journalism.

Condé Nast said the Teen Vogue consolidation was part of a broader push to “expand the Vogue ecosystem” and said Teen Vogue would remain a distinct editorial property with its own identity and mission.

Condé Nast employees joined a companywide union in 2022 after some of its individual magazines unionized. In 2024, around 500 staged a one-day walkout to protest planned layoffs.

• Eric Sim spent over two decades in banking, working at banks like Standard Chartered, Citi, and UBS.
• Sim says getting a job as a graduate or young professional is tougher these days because of AI.
• He shared four tips, or what he calls the “CATS” framework, that people can use to land jobs.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Eric Sim, 55, a former banker who became a published author, professional speaker, and career coach. The following has been edited for length and clarity. Business Insider has verified his education and employment history.

Finding a job is really difficult these days, and that’s largely because of AI.

The problem is magnified if you are a fresh graduate or a young working professional.

At the junior level, most jobs tend to involve grunt work. You don’t need to have a high level of expertise, but you need to put in a lot of hours. That work can be easily done by AI.

In investment banking, AI can easily edit and build financial models when we make pitch books. Senior analysts and associates can then review the AI’s output. This means that instead of hiring three junior analysts, banks can settle for just one hire.

That said, people shouldn’t be fazed by how tough the job market is. Looking for a job has and will always be difficult.

When I graduated from Lancaster University with a master’s degree in finance in 1997, I couldn’t find a job in London. I had to return home to Singapore after I ran out of money. To make things worse, I had to continue my job hunt amid the Asian financial crisis.

I wasn’t a standout candidate. I had no network and no special skills. The two years I spent doing foreign exchange sales at a local bank before going to graduate school didn’t help me land any front office roles.

In the end, I decided to pivot and was lucky to secure a middle office role doing risk management at Standard Chartered. From there, I began to work my way to the front office, and I eventually joined UBS as managing director in 2011.

Here are my four tips for landing jobs and navigating layoffs, or what I like to call the “CATS” framework.

1. Build up your competencies

The C in “CATS” stands for competencies. You need to pick up skills that go beyond your current role.

When I was at Standard Chartered, I wanted to build up my skills in sales. To do that, I asked my insurance agent to sign me up for a five-day sales boot camp that was popular among insurance agents.

Later, when I was working at Citi, I picked up photography. That allowed me to become a photographer for a client’s event, which helped me grow my network and build relationships.

When I worked at Citi and UBS, I offered to train my colleagues in other departments. This improved my public speaking skills and helped me secure a side gig as an adjunct associate professor of finance at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.

Looking back, it was these peripheral skills that pushed my career forward and allowed me to secure job transfers from Singapore to Shanghai, and then Hong Kong.

So don’t just be good at your job. Everyone is good at their jobs. It’s the additional competencies that you pick up that will give you the extra edge.

2. Make yourself appealing to others

The A in “CATS” stands for appeal. You need to make yourself more interesting because skills can become obsolete.

I decided to express my creativity by picking up art. My art pieces aren’t complicated. One of my pieces was a tribute to the luncheon meat I used to eat with my instant noodles while working in Hong Kong. I sawed the cans in half and moulded them together.

Making art makes me more appealing to others. For instance, I can post photos of my artwork on social media and engage in discussions with my peers.

3. Be a trustworthy person

The third letter, “T,” stands for trust. You need to be trustworthy because when people hire, they don’t just look for skills. They are looking for someone whom they can trust.

And in order to be trusted, you have to be consistent.

It’s not difficult to achieve. I stick to the same attire of blue jackets and white shirts. I arrive early to meetings.

It’s about doing the small things well. After all, if you can’t even get the small things right, why would anyone trust you with big things?

4. Grow your social capital

The last letter in “CATS” stands for social capital.

If you don’t have a network, you are essentially competing against thousands of people whenever you apply for jobs.

That’s why you need to start building and maintaining your network. Social capital means being generous in buying people coffee or treating them to lunch. Treat your colleagues with respect, including the junior ones, because they will climb up the ranks someday.