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Recognition is now cited as a driver of #burnout at roughly twice the rate it was a year ago. The organisational response has been MORE: more structured Comp&Ben programs, more public shoutouts on Slack, more AI-generated appreciation messages. But more is NOT better, and it's definitely not addressing the deeper issue. Three forms of recognition, three kinds of protection Research identifies 3 distinct forms of #recognition, each protective against a different dimension of b

"My problem isn't just getting through the workday. It's that I've stopped believing that it's going to get any better." If that sounds like you, you may be struggling with more than just tiredness - and it's a surprisingly common pattern. The truth is we have been naming #work exhaustion for a long time. In 1869, neurologist George Miller Beard called it neurasthenia, a nervous exhaustion from the pace of modern industrial life. A century later, Herbert Freudenberger gave it

How can I be burning out and still keep going? Someone once described it to me as feeling like a car running on the reserve tank. You’re still moving but you’re ignoring the red light signaling low fuel on your dashboard. I’ve heard versions of this more times than I can count, in #coaching sessions, exit interviews and individual conversations with people who were DOING absolutely fine, and yet, not FEELING fine. So, what is actually going on here? A 2024 DHR Global survey o

There’s a moment in a Simone Stolzoff talk that gets me every time. He’s at a hostel. He asks a Chilean man, "What do you do?" The man responds, "You mean for work?", genuinely puzzled, as if the question could obviously be about dozens of other things. Across sectors, organizations have been shedding layers, and the middle management tier has taken some of the heaviest cuts. These are not people who lost a #job and will find the same one elsewhere next quarter. Many of them

ASML posted record sales of €32.7 billion last year. Then cut 1,700 management roles. ABN Amro announced 5,200 job cuts by 2028. Philips has been reducing layers for over a year. Globally, over 80,000 tech #jobs were cut in Q1 alone. Google removed 35% of its managers last year. None of these companies are in trouble. All of them are removing the middle. This pattern showed up in last week's Q1 2026 overview and it's shaping the current landscape so much that I wanted to do a

Q1 2026 didn't feel like a normal quarter. AI adoption accelerated. Org structures flattened. New terms entered the workplace like "workslop", "burn-on" and "coffee-badging". Underneath all of this sits the same pattern: organizations making big moves without a plan behind them. The Flattening of Middle Management Gartner's 2024 predictions report estimated that by the end of 2026, 20% of organizations will use #AI to flatten their structures and cut more than half of their m

Early in my career, in my very first role as in-house recruiter, my manager (HRD) gave me a piece of advice I did not question for a long time: always overstate your #hiring timelines when you open a new role. Give yourself more room than you think you need. She was right, in a sense, and it worked because hiring managers stopped chasing me so aggressively (and I saved myself from a #burnout). The problem I did not see at the time: I had just learned to negotiate, not collabo

The word "micromanager" has almost lost its meaning from overuse. Before it became the ultimate workplace insult, it described a hands-on management style, and in the right context, that style is not wrong. Situational Leadership by Hersey and Blanchard makes exactly this point: effective leadership adapts to who is in front of you. For instance, a junior employee often benefits from close guidance. The problem is when it becomes the default, regardless of experience or what

Over 45,000 tech roles have been cut globally this year. ASML and Ericsson alone account for nearly 3,600 in the #Netherlands and Sweden. Manager engagement has dropped sharply, particularly among leaders under 35. 55% of managers expect further reductions before the year is out. But what about the people that stay after the layoffs? Survivor syndrome Survivor syndrome is a well-documented phenomenon in organizational psychology, first framed by David Noer in the 1990s. When

A manager used the sandwich method. His direct report walked out of the review visibly upset. They were both operating from completely different assumptions about what feedback looks like. Here is how to make sure yours actually translates in international teams.

When leaders say “we need to hire fast,” what they usually mean is: we are under pressure, the team is stretched thin and we need to deliver asap. In those situations, it's easy to see #hiring as the go-to solution but, the truth is, it comes with considerable risk that needs to be managed carefully. Here's the Break Down of Hiring Risk Budget risk: staying competitive without breaking internal equity Legal risk: visas, probation terms, non-compete clauses, compliance gaps Pe

The future of #work is no longer a 9-to-5 job. The gig economy is taking over with almost half of working adults in EU and the UK earning money outside their main job. And, among Gen Z, 57% report having a side gig or actively planning one. From a leader's POV, this is a huge factor changing the reality of work, how people perceive it, as well as their motivation, engagement, productivity and the value they bring into your organization. So, How Should You Handle Side-Hustles

Here's something you don't read every day: in a recent BI article, a senior engineer at Meta talked about how he actively asked his organization to demote him. Not because of poor #performance but because the new role did not allow him to do the things he was really good at (and thus, add value). His request was denied and he eventually went back to his previous employer. His story got me thinking about something we almost never talk about at work: the shame of demotion. We t

I used to think that the largest career risk for leaders was their own performance. I now believe it's TIME. You may be performing well at #work, creating momentum, delivering results... And, on any given day, an announcement drops that your company is being acquired. The town hall meeting is filled with optimism and references to the "exciting new chapter" ahead of you. But, silently the org-chart begins to shrink... Not as a result of anyone's poor #performance, but because

I was scrolling past yet another "here is how to prepare for #job #interviews article" hoping it would say something new. Of course it did the usual: polish your story, practice your examples, and yes, manage your appearance. And that got me thinking, in 2026, with all the talk about #skills-based hiring and remote #work, how much does "looking the part" still run the show? So I fell into the rabbit hole of lookism. What the Duck Is Lookism? Lookism is bias or discrimination

I have always disliked the word "weaknesses" in interview questions, feedback forms, and performance reviews. In my coaching work, I encourage people to discover and play from their strengths. That said, there is an uncomfortable truth we often skip. Every strength can become a pitfall if it is overused or left unmanaged. And that pitfall usually forms quietly. Strengths keep you contently in your comfort zone. You are good at something, so you keep doing it. Again and again.

January did not arrive gently! The world is loud, heavy, and relentless, and most teams are walking into 2026 with a low-grade sense of doom. So here is a slightly rebellious leadership idea: why not try to make work more fun? Not childish and definitely not forced. Not "everyone smile, we have pizza." Fun as a deliberate design choice that makes #work lighter, clearer, and more enjoyable. When Was the Last Time You Had Fun at Work? I'm not talking about the occasional team o

If you scroll long enough, you'd think the world of #work is only getting worse. But that's not entirely true. In 2025, some things genuinely moved in the right direction, and beyond that, there are quietly uplifting shifts taking place and real opportunities starting to form. That's why, in this two-part post, I'm choosing to focus on hope. Here's my take as we head into the new year. AI Is No Longer a Concept. It's a Working Tool. Stanford's 2025 #AI Index confirmed somethi

As the year wraps up and feeds start filling with retrospectives and predictions, I wanted to focus on hope. This is the first of a two-part post focused on positive news from the world of #work and #leadership. It's about amazing things from 2025 that you may have missed but are worth ending the year with, and it's a great reminder that, despite the noise, some things did move in the right direction. Shorter Workweeks Are Proving They Can Work One of the largest multi-countr

Regardless of whether you're a fan of the holidays or not, December has a certain atmosphere. People are stretched thin, juggling deadlines, pressure, family chaos, and the countdown to "finally switching off." You can almost feel the collective fatigue in every meeting. The year may be ending, but the race is not. And as a leader, you know that your team is running a marathon, not a sprint. So how do you send off your team for a break and make sure they come back feeling re-