Positive News to End the Year on a High Note (Part 1)

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-country four-day workweek trials to date showed something many leaders still doubt. Employees reported lower #burnout, better #wellbeing, and higher #job satisfaction, while organizations largely maintained or even improved #performance.

This was not a feel-good experiment. It was studied, measured, and reviewed by outlets like Scientific American and the American Psychological Association.

The takeaway is not that every company should switch tomorrow, but that productivity and humanity are not opposites. The way we design work still has room to evolve.

Wellbeing Is Finally Being Treated as a Performance Factor, Not a Perk

The APA's reporting on recent #workplace research reinforced a shift many of us have been pushing for years. Psychological health is not a "nice to have." It directly affects #engagement, retention, and sustainable output.

Finally, more and more organizations are starting to take this insight seriously and act on it. I, personally, can't wait to see the positive #change that will result from this movement.

Pay Transparency Is Finally Becoming Real

Progress on implementing the EU Pay Transparency Directive is moving discussions about fairness from intention to action. Transparency does not fix inequality overnight, but it creates the conditions for accountability, trust, and fairness.

None of this means work is suddenly easy or pressure free. But it does suggest something important: we are seeing signs that organizations, institutions, and governments can learn, adapt, and course-correct when evidence is taken seriously.

Next week, in Part 2, I'll look forward instead of back: what the data says about how AI is actually showing up at work, what kinds of roles are expected to grow, and where the real opportunities lie as we head into 2026.

For now, this felt like a good place to pause and acknowledge some genuine progress.

More to come.