Planet Money A pro-worker experiment in private equity
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Apr 8, 2026 
Cindy Cordes, a manufacturing lead in Minnesota, recounts the shock of a buyout and a surprise payday years later. Pete Stavros, a KKR executive testing worker ownership, explains his long-running private equity experiment. They get into layoffs fears, why early attempts flopped, how better communication changed the rollout, and whether giving workers a stake can reshape the usual private equity story.
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Private Equity Usually Boosts Profits By Cutting Jobs
- Private equity often raises productivity by improving management or cutting costs, but it commonly does so while eliminating jobs.
- This episode centers on Pete Stavros testing whether worker ownership can improve company performance without the usual layoffs-first playbook.
Pete Stavros Learned Incentives From His Dad
- Pete Stavros traces his worker-ownership idea to watching his father battle management over lunch-hour pay at a road construction company.
- To protest unpaid lunch, workers had asphalt delivered at noon, sent trucks away, ran out of material, and shut the site down.
Worker Ownership Was Designed As A Business Experiment
- Pete Stavros saw private equity as a laboratory where he could test whether giving workers equity would make them act more like owners.
- He expected ownership to raise engagement, training, and retention enough to improve business results, not just employee morale.