In the dotcom era, the influx of banker bro types into tech was followed by the bubble bursting. B2B became "Back to Banking," B2C was "Back to Consulting" Will the modern tech bros usher in AGI and the last-ever gold rush, or will we get B2B 2.0? @sfstandard.com sfstandard.com/2025/09/29/t...?

Giving someone a meditation app to help with burnout is like treating a third-degree burn with a bandaid. What works? Learn to recognize the signs, clear priorities, and opportunities to grow -- not just taking breaks. 👉 sloanreview.mit.edu/article/the-... Image credit @omarwhatworks.bsky.social

Just a reminder of how hard Trump had to work to mess up this economy.

It’s not AI-driven automation that’s killing the job market, it’s tariffs and uncertainty. The big hope of Big Tech is to compound it by cranking up AI-driven losses. Otherwise, an economy propped up by AI investment collapses. We are so screwed. open.substack.com/pub/theworkf...

Why do women have a far greater preference for remote and hybrid work than men? It’s not just that they’re far more often the primary caregiver. It’s that bias and discrimination are twice as likely to happen to a woman on-site than working remotely. theworkforward.substack.com/p/return-to-...

Stack ranking and removing the bottom XX% is back in vogue, esp in Big Tech. As a reminder, here's the org chart that resulted in at Microsoft in the 2000's: internal competition. Research on why it backfires long term, and alternative paths: theworkforward.substack.com/p/stop-ranki...

The best leaders embrace being uncomfortable. They know that challenges that test us today become our biggest accomplishments tomorrow -- that's how we learn and grow. My interview with Izabella Lorenz: theworkforward.substack.com/p/learning-w...

Five major studies on AI adoption recently dropped. The findings are insightful & alarming. The employees getting the biggest productivity gains are also 2X more likely to quit, with 88% higher burnout rates. Even scarier? Heavy AI users say they'd rather chat with ChatGPT than their colleagues.

If we invested half the energy spent debating office attendance into fixing how we spend our time, we'd have higher productivity – and lower burnout. We keep stumbling into packed calendars and ending weeks frustrated. Want to do something about it? theworkforward.substack.com/p/the-meetin...

The CEOs who are AI arms merchants aren't the only ones telling employees to adopt or else, but they're certainly the loudest. Thanks @emilypeck.bsky.social for talking to me about your latest: www.axios.com/2025/06/20/a...

“He thought he was the King of America… Now he’s a brilliant mistake.” Elvis Costello & the Imposters

The "tough talk" CEO is back, in part thanks to Elon emulation. It's also a recipe for lost engagement. Strong leaders build trust through reliability, not intimidation. They're demanding AND supportive, setting clear goals while coaching people through change. sloanreview.mit.edu/article/five...

The Senate Majority leader is lying

Poulsbo WA, pop 12k, organizers expected a few hundred and had several thousand folks show up.

That’s one heck of a map. Over 2,000 locations. Hope you will join me out there Saturday. www.nokings.org

I've been texting LA folks this: stay away from the Marines. This is an extremely bad and dangerous move by Trump. The Marines being sent in are infantry, not peacekeepers. They are folks who look for a fight, and win that fight. If you are in LA, have friends or family in LA, please be safe.

Every org I work with these days has a big "director slump", especially in tech. Overloaded, no time to put hands on craft, all the responsibility & no authority. Bosses make decisions, send the memo so you can pass it to your already burned-out team. theworkforward.substack.com/p/techs-lead...

“In the past seven weeks, at least five high-profile targeted attacks have unfolded across the U.S., including a car bombing in California and the gunning down of two Israeli Embassy aides in Washington.” That’s bad. Guess what expert is in charge of overseeing DHS domestic terrorism resources?

“There are only so many ‘sticks’ leaders can wield before something breaks, usually in the form of disengagement, quiet quitting, or outright departures of valuable talent.” time.com/charter/7289...

Return-to-office won't improve performance of teams spread out across cities and time zones, and today in any organization past startup phase, that's most teams. We need to give people the training and tools to lead distributed teams, not remote teams. theworkforward.substack.com/p/the-traini...

Good way to remember your mortality: set up a Google alert on your name.

Fortune 500 CEOs might be cranking up return-to-office demands, but employees aren't obeying. Policies aren't reality, commands don't breed compliance. New data from the Flex Index by Work Forward digs into workplace flexibility policies in over 8,500 US-based companies: www.flexindex.com/stats

Having watched 3 SNL skits last night about Newark, I’ll take a delay to relieve congestion over something worse. Still a pain getting this when I’m in the car 5 minutes from the airport.

Eileen O’Shaughnessy was George Orwell's wife, and had more to do with creating Animal Farm than he did, but I didn't know that -- and bet you didn't either. George did his best to erase her from history. Must-read by Anna Funder: time.com/7284644/trum...

Think you can't be remote-first and innovate? Airbnb disagrees. Their massive update and expansion is they have “compelling evidence that …collaboration and innovation don’t only happen when we’re working in person” says senior exec Iain Roberts. theworkforward.substack.com/p/think-you-...

Need a mood booster? Go see @theymightbegiants.bsky.social Two days later and I’m still walking around singing “Birdhouse in your soul”

"Once you replace trust with rules, people’s attitudes to their work change." Want to see "quiet quitting" in action? Forcing people to follow policy drives down engagement through a loss of trust. Anne-Laure Fayard and John Weeks: why one-size-fits-all policies fail hbr.org/2025/05/the-...?

Congrats to all my friends and family in Chicago

"When people are anxious about job security, layoffs, and the constant push for productivity, they're not in a mindset to learn. We first need to address those anxieties directly -- only then can people feel curious and open to exploring AI." - Helen Kupp theworkforward.substack.com/p/startups-v...

"I want you to be at Udemy, but no matter where you go, you're going to need these skills. Knowing how to use AI, feeling comfortable with it, and adopting it will help you no matter where you are in your career." Karen Fascenda at Udemy, leading the way: theworkforward.substack.com/p/reskilling...

Me, still wanting smart, insightful, and diverse leaders on event panels.

SCOOP: A young man with no government experience who hasn’t even finished his undergrad degree is working for Elon Musk’s DOGE at the Department of Housing and Urban Development and has been tasked with using AI to rewrite the agency’s rules and regulations.

A big driver behind CEOs pushing return-to-office these days is the belief that other CEOs are doing the same and that people are falling in line. Neither are true. There are better ways. My latest, incl. ~60 pages of data, research and best practices: theworkforward.substack.com/p/the-rto-mi...

"This isn't just about hitting numbers. It's about creating shared understanding, fostering collaboration across teams, and helping people see how their work connects to the bigger picture." @atlassian.bsky.social 's Molly Sands on goals and culture: theworkforward.substack.com/p/goals-that...

The Dow headed back to “Liberation Day” low point. “No way to run a country…” still applies: open.substack.com/pub/theworkf...

“There are some fundamental truths...We welcome all to our hotels and we create opportunities for all—and fundamentally those will never change. The words might change, but that’s who we are as a company.” Marriott's CEO, whose email got 40k "thank you" responses fortune.com/article/marr...

Is that the sound of gleeful joy out of Intuit HQ that I hear? fyi @reckless.bsky.social federalnewsnetwork.com/management/2...

How massive will the disruption of jobs by generative AI be? I don't know. There will be displacement. Pretending that there will be no impact or that we can map it all is misleading. The bigger question? Will firms re-skill workers or "rip and replace", losing know-how, engagement & trust.

Senior IRS execs resigning (3rd Commissioner now out), lawyers and privacy out, senior tech staff removed, all in order to enable a likely illegal data sharing agreement with ICE. Happy tax day, America. www.cnn.com/2025/04/15/p...

Happy, motivated employees create great customer experiences, driving shareholder value Today, leaders are falling back on short term thinking: cut heads, command-and-control. Debbie Lovich has the alternative: radical employee-centricity. Full chat: theworkforward.substack.com/p/joy-in-thi...

It's 2001, and I've laid off more people than I ever hired. It's 2013, I'm being laid off. It's 1990, I'm afraid I'll be laid off. It's 2008, I'm making sure we avoid layoffs. It's 2023, my friends in tech are being laid off. It's 2025, I'm financially stable, and still worried...

CEO of Micro, China-based electric scooters: “As a company, you wouldn’t invest in producing in the U.S. now. I don’t know if the tariffs are going to hold up for three months. It’s impossible to plan. So these products will become more expensive.” Me: theworkforward.substack.com/p/no-way-to-...

Focus on creating joy at work? In this market? In the chaos of 2025, employee-centric leadership is the only way to build teams capable of the resilience and drive needed for long-term success. My latest, based on an interview with Debbie Lovich: theworkforward.substack.com/p/joy-in-thi...

"This one size fits all RTO mandate makes no sense." That's HBS Professor Raj Choudhury talking about the importance of teams coming together -- but that the solution has to fit your talent strategy and the needs of the team. Not just a CEO's preference. Interview: www.youtube.com/watch?v=-MPj...

Columbia has a $15 billion endowment. Apparently this is not the time to spend it?

Nobody "likes" the IRS. But slashing $20b in spend and half the workforce will result in a $45b net loss. 7 former IRS commissioners: this "shifts the burden from tax evaders to honest taxpayers." The current tax gap from underpayment? $700B annually. theworkforward.substack.com/p/no-way-to-...

"The Next President Inherits a Remarkable Economy" ...which is now being driven off a cliff. WSJ Oct 31st last year: www.wsj.com/economy/the-...

"Flexibility for office workers is unfair to frontline workers." Stop pitting classes of employees against each other. There are the bottom-line benefits of investing in all types of employees, and all kinds of roles, as human beings not widgets. theworkforward.substack.com/p/the-human-...

About to go on stage and spill half a cup of coffee down my shirt. Good morning all….

In a day of madness, @annemariechaker.bsky.social just subscribed to my newsletter and made my day!