Workplace Intelligence Forecast 2026: 10 Trends Shaping the Future of Work

Uh, I wanna thank our sponsors, IOL and Judy Health at Capital rx. Uh, they've been enormous support over the past year and to help me break down these trends. And there's a, there's of 'em. We do every year. So we, we really covered everything and everyone who joins us today, this at least one or more of these trends that are gonna be extremely relevant to, uh, all of you. Um, I'm here with my friend Claude Silver, who is the Chief Art Officer for Vayner X and she also is the author of the new book that you should definitely pick up at some point today or before the holidays. It's a really good time to have a book out to recommend, uh, for Christmas and Hanukkah and any other holiday you might celebrate, um, because it's, it's an amazing book. It's called Be Yourself At Work. You know, in a time when, you know, technology has kind of automated so much, so many of the tasks and processes that we do on a daily basis, the, the human in HR has only become more and more relevant and, and, uh, important. And so this book really helps you shine your inner human in the workplace, which I think is really important. So, Claude, welcome to today's webinar. Thank you, Dan. Great to be here. It's great to see you. So we have a lot of trends to go over today, and if anyone has any questions, uh, please add them to the webinar chat throughout, because, you know, we're going through a lot of material here, so you wanna get your question out during the trend that we're discussing, just so we can make sure that we're getting those, uh, response for you. Um, the first trend, oh, and by the way, thank you to, to achieve engagement for hosting today. I think that's really important. They've been a, an amazing partner throughout this year and previous years, um, supporting us, uh, and making this happen today, which is really exciting. And happy holidays to everyone who's joining us as well. So the first trend is, I think it's, it's a really fascinating one. Blue collar job surge while white collar roles shrink. Uh, I mean, where do I even begin? I mean, I think there's been an enormous economic and labor shift over the past year, really that's gonna carry into the future where you're seeing a shift away from, you know, entry level roles, those being automated more so than more senior roles, even though I think those are, will continue to be disrupted as we move forward. So a lot of, you know, gen Zs are graduating and they're like, where's, where's my job? And it's not even that it's a tough economy and, and which we'll get to in a bit. It's also that, you know, a lot of managers are managing, you know, AI rather than, uh, the entry level workers now. And so you're seeing a big shift of Gen Zs or many of them saying, maybe I just go to trade school, or I have someone, uh, a kid, uh, down the street here who started his own landscaping company because he couldn't get an office job. Oh my God. And he seems even happier, to be honest with you. I mean, you know, he got help from his parents to get the equipment, but you're seeing a lot of shifts to the traits. Um, and so it's been fa fascinating, Claude, because, you know, we always thought these programming jobs, you know, were safe and stem was pounded into students and in colleges for so many years. And now this, it's not a safe bets. What, what's your take? Well, I feel like there are more jobs that I would say blue, if you want, call them blue collar, I would call them, um, uh, almost experiential in a way. But I don't mean, uh, experimenting, I mean with your hands. So whether or not you are, you know, going to trade school, becoming a plumber, buying for different plumbing companies, something like that is really, really important. Also, with this change, we have seen such a tremendous, tremendous rise in influencers, and influencers as, you know, do anything. They just influence. They happen to have a camera that's on them, but they too could be the plumber. They too could be the landscaper. They too are, uh, showing you new fitness routines. So it's really fascinating as you see the blue collar jobs and, and, and, and more of these trades going this way, stem and entry level in terms of corporations and organizations going that way. But then we have this rise of the creator of the influencer, which is just, uh, it's such a juxtaposition, I think, in this world of, um, in this world of change. I mean, there are influencers that are out there making so much money by just sharing themselves and what they're doing on screen. So it's, it's just a really fascinating time, um, that I, that I see for sure, not only within Vayner X but also as we do a lot of recruiting for our resident program and our residency program really is our entryway in. So I love That. It's Really fascinating. Yeah, there was actually an article I have, I've been sharing with my friends who are brand storytellers in their organizations in the Wall Street Journal about how there's a huge demand for storytelling now. Not that there wasn't in the past many years, of course. Yeah. I mean, you know, VaynerMedia and Vayner X and Gary and what you've done Yeah. With social media. Like, that's been a thing for a bit now. Right. But I think companies are starting to say, Hey, we need to get our head around, you know, our story, you know. Exactly. 'cause it's, it's very competitive out there. I mean, it's, it's extremely saturated, everyone, like, you know, obviously we've done like AI studies or something like that over the past several years. Everyone wants a voice in the, in these new mediums and this technological shift right now. That's what I'm seeing. Oh my gosh, yes. And the vo the voices could be very practical or very random. I, uh, I was just talking to a fitness influencer the other day that could be like you and me, except this person literally is just in their, in their gear, in their garage, showing you different ways to do deadlifts. And this person has a massive following of million people are looking at how to do deadlifts from this guy in shorts. It's, it's remarkable. It really is remarkable. Can you imagine what our great grandparents would say right now? I'm definitely not signed up for that. Maybe I should, but I don't have time with two kids. now. No, Exactly. No, yeah. To the choir. So, yeah, I think the big question here, though, going back to, you know, this, this idea of, you know, the shift from kind of blue to white and from, you know, like you're saying, kind of white to kind of more of expansive view of white, of new positions being added and, and there being, um, you know, less demand for others, like, you know, obviously programming. It's, I mean, you, what's fascinating is you saw the CEO of Nvidia, I think it was like a year or two ago now, saying, Hey, you know, these programming jobs are gonna be completely automated. And yet, like five years before that, you had the top programmers having Hollywood agents because they could broker in million dollar salaries. Like it's suit, it's, yet now, I mean, look at, you know, meta hiring people like with like a million dollar or more s So that's, that's a big shift. That's a big shift, huge Pendulum shift. And it's, it's like there's something that, that is very bittersweet about it to me in many ways, that we have for so many years told these kids study this, study, this study, this stem, stem stem study, this programming, whatnot. And now the world has shifted on them. And it's, so, it's, um, it know, gen z, gen alpha, they've been through a lot. They've been through a lot of, uh, of things that they have just been born into in terms of political administration, de and I, all of these, all of these things. I, I don't want to go down the school shooting stuff, but, and now they're like, wait a second, I just spent four years, six years doing this, and now I should just go figure out how to change tires on a car. You Know, the big, big shift. Big shift, I mean, big shift. And the thing is, is, I mean, four or five years ago when you were deciding on your major or what school you wanted to get into, this was, you weren't worried about this shift. You didn't know it was gonna happen. You weren't prepared for it. You know, you can blame, you can blame your parents, you can blame teachers, you can blame all these people. But like, nobody knew, obviously. No, nobody knew. And so it'll be interesting, you know, I always think about Andy Warhol's, you know, minutes of fame and how we've seen that on steroids now for the past many years in terms of everyone having a, a platform. I, I can remember actually way before I even met Gary, uh, it was probably , I don't know, , maybe . And there was a tweet he had that said, in many years, everyone will be their own media platform. And here we are. Absolutely. So the second trend is more, again, on the economic front. I mean, we've gone from, and you see this as an employer, you know, boarding of talent Yeah. In post COVID world. So during COVID, you had, you had, uh, you know, obviously a lot of layoffs, a lot of businesses, you know, just furloughing employees. That was the trend. And then a lot of employers kind of going to post COVID, they were hoarding workers, you know, because they spent so much to try and rehire them, and salaries were up. And now where the pendulum has swung the other way, uh, you know, now the employers have the leverage in the job marketplace, and you're seeing hiring freezes, workforce consolidation. You're seeing companies saying, Hey, you know, we we're laying off X percentage of our workforce. And there's like, you know, there's a ton of companies. We don't have to, we don't have to go through, you know, singling out companies because it's, it's a lot. It's a lot. Yeah. And these companies, some of these companies employ like hundreds of thousands of workers. So it's a significant economic impact. . million layoffs so far this year. Um, and now, you know, we, we went from furloughing layoffs to job hoarding, hoarding talent, and now we're into job hugging. So employees who have jobs are thankful and are not going anywhere. It's a total stalemate right now. And, and, um, and I think that's, that's been a big deal, right? Because now, as you know, kind of connected to what we were talking about with ai, it's, you know, you gotta learn these tools, otherwise the person who works next to you in in your cubicle or, or, or, or, uh, in a different building or wherever is gonna take your job, potentially. So there's a lot more pressure on, on the current workers, which has led to burnout, wellbeing issues, people actually, I mean, one of the challenges of being yourself at work, it's risk taking. You know, risk taking is probably at a, an all time low right now all time because, you know, you're less, you're less likely to take a risk if there's a lot to lose, if you could lose your job. What, what do you think? Yeah. Well, I, I also wanna just combine that with the fact that higher performers, at least I'm seeing higher performers taking on more weight while in terms of the consolidation, which only will lead to, I, I think it'll lead to exhaustion, whether or not it leads to burnout, I'm, you know, that's subjective. But as we consolidate the roles and, and do our best to flatten the teams, I mean, we do, we do that trying to flatten the teams. More people are going to take on more work that wasn't on their plate a day ago. And while they're taking on more work that wasn't their day ago, there's an empty seat next to them. And so what I see and have seen and heard about too is there's, there's a lot of survivor's guilt also, which is a whole thing that we don't really talk about. You know, when Amazon or Omnicom just went through what they went through, and it's in opinion only, my opinion, I think the way it's done is, is not, uh, humane. But that's, that's, you know, that's their prerogative. I think it's, it's really, you know, we're leaving these people without a job and basically their, their laptop is just shut off so they can't get on. And then over here, Bob's like, whoa, okay, great. I have another job on top of the job I have. Am I gonna get promoted? Am I gonna get a merit increase? Am I gonna get seen for that? Or is it just like, um, expected? So where's the clarity? Where's the transparency there? You know, trans, it's easy to say hiring freeze. Uh, that's, I think that really speaks for itself. But if you are an employee and you're the one that's taking this on, you're like, I, wow. I have no time to commute home, make dinner, and watch anything. I am literally going home and eating the bag of chips on the train. Yeah. So it's just an interesting world. And I think when, when I think about it as much as I'm, I'm, I'm sitting here saying, we need more humanity in the workplace. There is, there is an oxymoron here. Like, what is that makes me think then, what is humanity then? What am I saying? While all of these, you know, these, these, uh, these things are happening within the workforce and they're not necessarily spoken about. Great point. Yeah. And what you're also seeing over the past year is people being blamed. They're, you know, we laid them off because they're poor performers, which may or may not be true. And then it being harder for those individuals to get jobs because they're already labeled poor performers. Oh my gosh, that's like the worst thing Ever. Awful. One of the things I will say that we do, and I'm proud of it, I'm proud of the way we do it, because A, we're independent company. Um, but b, we have many companies within the holding company of Vayner X. If we know we are going to dismantle this department, we always will look to see who can I take to put into one of our other companies, which is health, the healthy way to, I think the more humane way to do things, the healthier way to do things. And that way we are not letting go of the person that actually this smaller company could use, because then, oh my God, we gotta go find that person. But I had that person. So it's, it's, so all of this is nestled in, uh, I think the need for more communication, more real communication. Absolutely. And, and moving talent within internal mobility will continue to be important, because hiring externally, it's very difficult. It's very difficult. And, and it takes a long time. The hiring process is not, AI hasn't really shortened the higher pro hiring process. It's made aspects easier, but also harder. And we, we can get, we're gonna get to some of that too. Yeah. I want to get to the third trend, which focuses on ai, of course. Uh, but this is about how AI is widening the skills gap and reshaping learning, you know, what is learning in this new world of ai. And, um, you know, early adopters of, of, you know, AI seem to be able to experiment and, and quickly apply what they're doing, but you're seeing a lot of companies that are not investing in learning and development. That's been a common thread this year. I think that hopefully that those gaps will be a little bit, you know, somewhat closed or starting to close next year as organizations say, Hey, why are, why are our workers not really adopting or using it the right way while they lack the training? They don't know when to use it, when not to use it. So it, we're still, as much as there's a lot of buzz still around AI and a lot of organiz, most organizations are at least trying to push it. Um, there's a lack of training that's really gonna enable workers to best use it for various purposes that would enhance their role, job experience, and obviously support in, in relation to supporting the company. Exactly. Um, what do you think, but there's also resistance to AI because of this fear, going back to, to the prior trend of, Right. Is, is what I'm using going to replace me anyways? Yeah. I mean, I think, uh, and you and I don't have the crystal ball necessarily. I think we, we have a good pulse on what's happening. But, you know, AI, in, in my, the way I look at it is, I don't think AI necessarily, I don't look at it as AI re replaces people as much as I think it replaces the skills that are either outdated, take us too long, there's no need for anymore. And so that's just one person's opinion, but that doesn't remove the fear that's in the system over there and there. And there's a ton of fear, especially I think if you are even for HR people, right? Like, I have friends that use chat GPT as their therapist, that's their, It's pretty common now. Confusing. Yeah. But like, so we are, there's so many different areas in which we are, we are upending with technology. I do think it's still the wild, wild west, just like it was in, you know, , . Um, but I don't, I don't think when we say reshapes learning, I don't think of that as reshaping intelligence. I think it is reshaping the way in which we use these, use the technology, I should say. And so, uh, my hope is that pretty much everyone that is in the working world is dabbling with the technology and dabbling with AI and trying out different things and trying out different programs, um, even though their work might not be bringing it in, but it is, I think this is really a responsibility of the company to educate you and to give you training on what's going on today, tomorrow, and the next day. I just think that that's something we should, we should do. And so, um, yeah, I think we're gonna continue seeing those other skills be automated and automated quick, Very quickly. And I think that that's the big difference between this technology and what we've seen in the past, is the speed in which there's adoption and usage and the implications to the job market, people's personal professional lives is extreme. Like even the, the, the therapy application, there's, we've seen, you know, risks to people using it and getting responses that cause bad things to happen. So there's, there's gotta be some guardrails around it as well. So let's go to the ne let's go to the next trend. I mean, let is, uh, everything is connected. That's what I've, I see across, you know, all the research, all the article, everything that comes out, everything that HR is experiencing. Everything is interrelated. And trend four is the rising healthcare costs. I mean, this, this is gonna be a really big one for next year. Very, very big. Because a lot of people's premiums are gonna double. I mean, it's gonna really impact it. There's going to definitely move more pressure on companies. Yes. But there's also gonna be a lot more pressure on people. And then that's, there's implications there too. You know, like if you're, you know, if you're, you know, in the job market or, you know, you might, you know, despite the hiring freezes, you might look for a job. Like healthcare is gonna be probably at the top, you know? Mm-hmm. After compensation, I mean, healthcare typically is at the top for older workers, but not as much younger workers. You typically see learning, uh, learning and development career, you know, development, you know, for people early in their early on. And then that shifts as they get older, more retirement, more employee benefits like healthcare. But I think that's, I think that's gonna change so much because the, because of the sheer immense cost of healthcare going into next year. Um, yeah. Are are you seeing, are you seeing like, yes. I don't know if people complain about it or people being like, you know, what is my healthcare coverage? Like, more people being curious about kind of coverage and access? It's the coverage and access. So we're kicking off in January doing a massive assessment about all of the benefits that we offer globally. So we'll look at the Americas, we'll look at the uk, emea, whatnot. And then my hope is that we are going to see a gaps that we're not taking care of, but then also knowing what our landscape, our people are looking for, which is a lot around wellbeing, a lot around wellbeing. Are there things that we can implement? But this is coupled with an EAP for me, in many ways. We happen to have a great EAP that is very much, I would say, concierge. Um, it's global. It's all different languages. And, uh, it's offered to you and the fam and your family. So we push a lot of people to that, which I will, I'm, I'm happy about. It's the only first time I've had an EAP that I believe in. So I think there is some kind of, um, I don't know if you call it, uh, two sides of the same coin here, where we've got the benefits and the rising health healthcare, and we've got people with more emotional health issues coming up. Not, not just the youngers. You know, there's ma there's so much more A DHD being di diagnosed in people that are in, uh, late thirties, forties, women especially. And so I think that coupled with what what you offer your folks with an EAP or any kind of adjunct is going to be where, where we really need to put some time and energy in focusing on like, are we, are we taking care of the people that we have today? Or are we taking care of the people we want tomorrow? That's also like a little bit of a, a seesaw. And people have memories too, like where obviously the pendulum has swung to the employers right now, and they have leverage control and power in the, uh, employment landscape. But that's gonna eventually shift. We don't know when, but when that shifts, people are gonna remember, oh, my employer didn't take care of me. Or the way in which they, they laid off my coworkers was unethical, let's say. Like, people will remember that, you know? And so I feel like now is the time where companies and HR can really shine and say, we're gonna do the right thing, and then it'll be, it'll be easier to hold onto that talent in a better job market, you know? Yes. And especially with healthcare too. I think right now healthcare is just like one of the really, really big topics. Obviously trend number four. But like people, like, I'm glad you brought that up. People don't really know what their benefits are. They don't like my wife, like my wife's like, did you know, like, you know, we have this better, you get like five, three therapy sessions, or you get this for maternal leave. Like, there's so many crazy, like, you get like five hours of legal advice, like, like crazy. Like we had no idea. You know what I mean? And you slowly find out. Yeah. So I think it's sometimes, especially with employers that have a lot of benefits, maybe it's harder to communicate 'em all. But I think it's really important because especially right now, because those benefits in a bad economy are maybe even more important when people are trying to save money and they're like, you know, you know, what can I, what can I, you know, use, you know, I'm already employed. What, how, what can I take advantage of? Is what they're thinking about. Yeah. Real quick, Dan, I remember, um, this was only about months ago when I was speaking to, uh, someone, one of our, our hybrid employees. And, um, she had funny, I mean, she had glasses on. I normally see her without glasses. I said, oh, yeah, I wear contact lenses too. She said, you know, I haven't been able to afford new contacts. So I was wearing the same pair for a year until they scratched my eye. I went to urgent care, doesn't have an eye doctor. And they said, I, I cannot wear contact lenses for the next two months. She couldn't buy the contact lenses. I mean, that just like, that's a, a necessity for her. Yeah. She has glasses, but it's a necessity. So these are the things, you know, you can look at everything at scale, and then there, then you have to look at things specifically or bespoke to some type of population also. Absolutely. That's really important because there's different populations within a company, and you have to be thoughtful in terms of how to cater to all of them. Yeah. We, we've got women that would like some menopause help. You've got people that like, that need grief counseling today. Exactly. If something happened. And if you've got people that, you know, maybe haven't had a dental cleaning or have been on their parents' benefit, now they're, they're, they're , they're no longer on the parents' benefit. And they're like, I think I have a toothache. What do I do? So one of the things that we have done, at least for now, and we'll re redo it as we go through this assessment, is there's a, we use AI bots now to get back to people and what their benefits are. 'cause it is too time consuming to answer different emails. Right. Uh, yeah. It's, everything seems time consuming right now. And, you know, it's, I think that's part of the value of the technology too. It's, if there's more pressure on workers, going back to what we were saying in an earlier trend about, uh, upskilling in ai, it's, there's more pressure to be able to become more efficient yourself for your benefit and your, and to keep your job, really. So there's, it's a double benefit if you think about it. The next trend is, Oh my goodness. I mean, unquestionably a trend, the one that people don't really want to talk about, right? Because is, you know, everything's politicized. Especially this year. It's the amounts of, you know, just by doing media stuff for so long. And, you know, you know, it's been like research studies since . Like, I've seen everything. And the sensitivities this year versus the past are very extreme, right? Mm-hmm. And, you know, for a good reason, because you say the wrong thing, there could be a huge backlash. So I do understand that. But then the other perspective that you, you see, and obviously at your company, you know, you're all very vocal as you gotta stand for something. At the end of the day, what do you, what does your brand mean? Right? And, you know, is it even possible to have corporate neutrality, you know, going into next year it's like very hard because you could be punished for doing so. Right? Or for, for taking a stance. Mm-hmm. Or not the right stance, I guess. Um, but then again, the expectations, especially for younger employees are pretty high on what co companies do. And it's tough because you don't want to alienate stakeholders, customers, employees, you know, all these different individuals. So what do you do when it gets, it's gonna even get, especially, you know, midterms next year, it's gonna get very heated. So how do you handle it within a company when this is inevitably going to become a bigger and bigger deal as we move forward Bigger and bigger? And I would probably put, um, uh, religious in this list. Yeah, definitely def the sensitivities. Great point. In the office right now, in any office about, you know, do you wear a hijab? Do you who are, do do Hanukkah? Do you, do you know, do you have, um, where the, uh, the typical Palestinian scarf that, uh, that can really trigger someone? There's so much here, and especially as we well know around the d the E, the I absolutely. As we all went forward on that. And then it was just cut. It was just don't, men, there's so many companies that don't even wanna talk about it. Don't say the word DEI don't say diversity. Say inclusivity. Say inclusion, say belonging. Right? Say business inclusion. It's like, yeah, but what are we really talking about here? This is enormous. I think the political part of, of course, I mean, there's such a divide. We, as a, a fairly liberal company, I would say, have seen a massive swing that there, there are, there are people in my midst that I know don't vote the same way I do. Yeah. You know, even though we're New Yorkers, even though we this, even though we, uh, take Ubers, even though, you know, there are people that, um, so you just said something that is so important, which is the neutrality. And I, I don't know, I don't think it's possible. I don't, as a very optimistic person, I don't think it's possible because there are too many subject, uh, there are too many subject, there's too much subjectivity. It might have been possible like years ago, but now it's like so deep in the fabric of So triggering that Our way of life, and it's so divided that it's becoming harder and it actually leads into the next trend really, really perfectly. And you, you mentioned, you know, people being in the office, you know, the Yeah. Return to office push has continued, especially this year and roll into next year, which connects also to employers getting more leverage. Right. And also, you know, a lot of layoffs as well, because a lot of people can't just return to the office. Yeah. Everything, again, is very interrelated. And I think, I don't think after next year that this will continue. Like it's gonna continue, but it's not gonna be as big of a trend. I think I underestimated how big of a trend this was still for this year. I thought we had moved on, but I think what's also happening in, you see it in New York, like JP Morgan spent how much on that facility? Like billion or some ridiculous. And I, so there is definitely a huge push for return to office. Yeah. And I think, you know, you're seeing many more, even four or five days a week back, uh, up from, you know, two, three days a week. Oh, we're seeing, This speaks to the consolidation of work that's happening on the floor. This, if I look at this in a very macro way, I, I think about the campuses that Google and Facebook created back in the day, so that people could stay there. They could get all their meals, they could get their, their workout in, and then they could maybe even take a long nap from midnight until four in the morning when they wanna get up and code again. So there's, there's something here that is a little sketchy to me. And I, I like, when I think about it, and I think about the work, the consolidation, and I think about the penalization. We said to people in COVID, go, you wanna live in Omaha? That's fantastic. You wanna go to El Paso? Fantastic. We'll say that. We, we will get a, we'll get a business license there. And then immediately we said, you have three months to decide if you are coming back to one of these cities. Yeah. But I just bought a place. We have a dog and we have a child, and we can't afford it in New York City. It's really, it's hard. It's so, yes. Hard A hundred percent agree. I mean, COVID was an accelerant, right? It's, it was a catalyst to people who are thinking about getting married, having kids buying a house to do. I mean, that's why the housing market changed so significantly. And it was like a mini baby boom because people also didn't have anything else to do during COVID. Right. And so all of that happened. Yeah. And the same time companies were promoting remote work after necessity, social distancing, all those, you know, mask wearing, all those things. And, uh, and then now it's completely shifted, obviously, like we were talking about before. Like, you can't just, you, it's not a time where you can just like, sell your house. No. Or you're gonna take a huge loss, almost, not for everyone, but, you know, interest rates are higher now and all these different variables. And so it's a, it's very hard to uproot your family as much as someone might say, oh, why don't you just move here? Like, sounds great. But like, what if your friends are where you're located, your family's there, like your kids are going to school there. Like, there's so much to it, right? I Mean, we're doing Aropa dope here. Yeah. We're doing Aropa Dope. I think we need to admit that we're doing Aropa Dope. We've rewritten our, um, RTO policy maybe three times this year in , only to now jump into when we are going to require, you just said it. We are, we are two day a week, three day a week. We will require people to be there four days a week. And that's really tough for the person who used to live in London that now lives a two hour train right away each way. The person that can no longer afford to live in Toronto that lives three hours away, but really wants this job. It's, um, it's such a tough one for me to swallow sometimes, to be honest. Yeah. Yeah. And honestly, I'm gonna do this to you again. The next topic connects perfectly with, with the push to return to office. And if anyone has any questions on any of these topics or any comments, feel free to leave them in the webinar chat. I mean, this is good. This is a lot of content and a lot of topics. Obviously, I linked you to the full report. If you wanna go through all the research and examples, and you really go deep into it, this conversation's more to, to kind of humanize the data for both of you through, through conversation and experience. But yeah, working mothers lost a lot of ground because of the, the push to return to office, in fact, you know, full remote work. And that push during COID like really helped women's progression. And then they, they totally fell off a cliff. I mean, look at the latest lean in report, you know, is Yeah. Not positive concerning women in the workplace again. And so I think, I don't think women, I don't, I mean, I don't think companies are like, let's single women out, but those policies end up say, you know, hurting women's careers, they Absolutely. That's really what it comes down to. Yeah. They absolutely do. And then, and, and again, it's another ropeadope that I think there was some kind of serenity found in CID in those times when we could spend all of our time with our kid. You no longer had to go to daycare, whatever, whatever, save some money. And now it's like, well, sorry, you gotta be here. No, but no one can watch my kid. No. You know, it's a, we are ma, I, I think there are a lot of blanket things happening, which maybe is the way society works. You know, you look at the, the common denominator and you make rules for that, for that population, and don't think about people that aren't in the same situation that you and I are in every single day. Where, And it connects to the job market too, right? Uh, I mean, at our daycare, they're already saying, Hey, our community is getting hurt. You know, when people lose their jobs, they can't send their kids to daycare because they become daycare. They become daycare, and, but What if they, they wanted a career, they want a jober, you know, they can't do it. It's just, uh, it's kind of a mess because childcare, and when that happens, childcare costs go up higher because they have to make the difference up. So it's just a mess, huh? It is. Yeah. It is. And not everyone is in that position to do daycare, get a nanny, get a babysitter, all of those things. So it's, um, this one, this one hurts this one. I look at this and I say, and as a mom, as a working mom, and again, I'm in a very different situation. I, I get my privilege for sure. But this one just seems like we have gone back to the fifties, so leave it to Beaver time, right? We came so far with, with Gloria Steinem and Miss Magazine, and just trying to take up space, or just the space that we embody in a workplace, not to get overly sexualized, not to get harassed, not to, you know, all of these things. And, and we've gone backwards. And this one is just a real bummer. And it's the truth. And, um, one of the things, We're all about the truth here. Yeah. We're all about the truth. I mean, it Is, it's, the thing is, it is what it is. This is happening. It's just happening. You can't avoid it. And you'll see it when you look at the leadership ranks. Like it, you know, women aren't there. Women are not gonna get to that next level. Like, it just, you're gonna just see it more and more unless something's done about it. Yeah. % are in the C-suite, you know, finding women on boards is just so difficult. Well, and once you add in the layer of like, you know, black women, like if you, once you add in, you know, ethnicity and, and various other, um, you know, diversity aspects, the, the number just goes to like nothing almost. I know that's a, this is a real tough one to swallow. All right? We're, we're at trend number eight, just pushing through. And we go back to ai, of course. I mean, yeah. How can we not? And AI is forced being forced on employees, and it's created some division and inequality. We actually did a really cool study with a company called Writer, uh, and there are enterprise AI platform. Um, and the study found that AI is creating divisions in the workplace. You know, you have people in different departments not getting along. You have, you have people of different seniority not getting along, people not getting the same access as other people, which, you know, you can kind of make sense of. But that creating creates a lot of hostility. And how do you wrap, you know, goes back to what we were saying before about communication and kind of fairness and Yeah. And being inclusive. Um, but a lot of employers are also using AI for surveillance. You know, it's not like, it's not like employers weren't doing that, and they, you know, invested more in surveillance, you know, surveillance during COVID because people were working remote. Yes. Because they, they didn't trust that. Yep. I know. And so they were like, looking at your keys, strokes and everything, like your browser history, which is pretty crazy. But now with ai, I mean, they're doing it. It's, it's happening even more. And so I think, you know, during COVID, we did a whole study on trust, and I feel like during the tough times, that word just surfaces again. So, so I was just about to say, I'm like, I'm gonna say trust again. And I definitely said that during COVID, we did a study on it. Yeah. And ai, I mean, it becomes even more important because it's like, who gets access to these tools? Who gets, who gets, uh, the upskilling, the training on 'em? Yeah. Uh, who gets replaced by them or enhanced by them? Like what does that all look like? And, and, um, it's not, it's not being distributed fairly based on what we've seen. Mm-hmm. It's this, this is an interesting one being, uh, and, and I'll just speak for, for what I know, which is being at our company, whether or not it's independently owned or not, every, every single person has access to Google Gemini, every single person is required to do training once a week. So it's, it's a little bit different because I know the, I know that we are giving this out to everyone across the globe. However, if you are in a creative field, you are getting this type of, uh, of upskilling and learning how to create ads, or learning how to create content right over here. And if you are a project manager, you're using AI to find efficiencies. But what happens if you wanna learn how to do creative too? Like, I think that's where I can see some of the, you know, not everyone has access to the Adobe suite, right? That's expensive. So not everyone is, is learning how to, to be a creator, um, with ai. And so, so I see what I see what this is. It's, um, I don't wanna keep on saying it's a bummer. Everything in my bones, in my bones is like, we need to stop creating division and inequity in our workplaces, in our societies. I mean, you and I can't cure that, but I, my hope is that the workplace would be able to take care of people in a way that society sometimes doesn't. And that's not true. That's a utopic idea that I have. My, um, what I really hope doesn't happen is that this division and inequity falls more upon people that are in minorities. That would be, Yeah. Very upsetting. That'll be interesting to watch. Definitely. Yeah. And I mean, I, we haven't, we don't do as much on that per se, but it's definitely an area that I think is, is really important in terms of inequalities in the workplace and, and diversity, um, middle managers getting squeezed harder. I mean, middle managers, Aw, it's not like, it wasn't a, it wasn't like there, they weren't hard rules as like, you know, years ago. But I feel like now it's like you're managing people, you're managing these AI agents, you're, you know, you know, sometimes these employees might not be in the same office as you. Like, it's just been Yeah. A very complicated several years to be a manager. But the squeeze is on. And I think with more companies flattening, you know, their management levels, that's more pressure added. Mm-hmm. Managers are absorbing workloads. They have to also, another tough thing with being a manager right now, going back to what we were saying about like politics and everything in the workplace, is they have to enforce some policies that they might think are not fair or not ethical, or are gonna be very unpopular. Yeah. And they also, yeah, like I was saying before, they have to manage this AI disruption at the same time. And like, what does that mean for their job? So actually, that's one of the topics we're gonna be focusing on for next year, is what does it mean to be a manager? What does that even mean anymore? You know? Yeah. You, you see me, this is, this is the topic du jour, the topic du jour. We have people that get promoted into management positions and just say, congratulations, you got promoted later. They don't know how to manage. They certainly don't know how to manage friends. They have no idea how to set up a one-on-one. And how when you're a manager, you're here to coach and guide. It's not, you know, you become, you, you do less of the skill and you manage the people that are doing this skill. But what about those people that don't want to be managers? And we put them into this role. So I think there's so many pieces to this pie that I look at all the time, which is like, how much more training can we give them? Are we not, are we, are we just missing it? Have we just, what else do we need to do? And, and at scale again, right? You cannot sit down with each and every man middle manager and say, what's your strength? Do you know, you know, how to conduct a conflict resolution, communicate, you know, but it is, all eyes are on them. All eyes are on the middle managers that messy middle right now. And what are we gonna do with it? How can we make it, how can we make it better for them? But really, how can we make it better for the people they manage too? My best friend just got a manager role with I think nine direct reports. And he is never managed anyone before. And he told me, he told me when we were living together, when we both graduated college, he's like, I never wanna be a manager. And so recently I'm like, John, you remember you said you never wanna be a manager, now you're managing, you went, you're going from zero to nine. Like individual contributor. You're like, he's like, just turned like , . And it's like, and I'm like, do you know what this means? And all this? And he's like, yeah, but like, we need more money, or I need a promotion, or I want, like, it's a good way to keep my job, whatever. So, yeah. You know, a lot of people, like in, I, I think it, a lot of people can resonate with what you just said. It's like maybe a manager for the, for not the right reasons. Like from the employer side is we need to retain this person, or we just need to fill this gap and this person has experience. But that doesn't mean you have the leadership skills. Not at all. And, and not only that, it's, it's, it's, can, can you, can you humble yourself to not have all the answers all the time. There's so many pieces to this for me that are, are things that I'm very curious about and getting my hands into. Um, but this, this is everywhere. Everyone I talk to is having this same kind, these same type of, uh, questions and issues around managers right now. And then last but not least, we have to end with ai. And honestly, it just reminds me, I'm like, we do so much around AI at this point that, you know, hopefully there'll be another topic in the future. I told this to you, it's like, I think it's like % of our content and research is focused on AI now. And even if it, even if a study is like focused on wellbeing, there's an AI aspect to it. Like you just, it is, it's all encompassing. It's connects to everything. And one of the things we haven't talked about yet, which is really I important and relevant, and you know, I've done a lot with Indeed and, and LinkedIn on this, is how AI is impacting the hiring process, right? I mean, a lot of these platforms now are, you know, from the employer side, it's a little bit more streamlined that you can, you know, have a conversation with AI to hopefully get the right pool of talent to then eventually interview. But there's also, like a lot of job seekers are using AI to do applications. So that creates some efficiencies, but it's also like more spray and prey, especially in a bad job market where now you're, you know, there's so many applications for every position, then it's like, can AI really sift through this? And there's always been a thing with AI, with like biases in the recruitment process. So it's like, it's a really, really important topic because of the economy we're in. But it's also like, you know, the hope, obviously from the recruiter standpoint and the job seeker standpoint is can this like make ev my life easier? Really? Yeah. Can we get better candidates or can I get a job faster? Mm-hmm. And in many cases, based on research we've done and what I've been reading, it's, it's not working that way. It's flooding the zone. Yeah. We're not, we're nowhere here. We are literally look re-looking at ATSs, uh, applicant tracking systems. We're looking at, you know, whether or not it's the greenhouse functionality or other functionalities that, uh, are working for us or not gonna take us into the new era. It's, um, but this is also a tricky one. I think you, you already landed on the biases. You know, it's, it's hard also to give up control to, for a human, to give up control and to trust a machine to sift through and find me out of to find me the top five Co I mean, I'm sure Vayner X gets a more than too, right? It's gotta be crazy. Yeah, it's, it's Thousands, probably thousand for some certain positions. Yeah. And so we're not there yet. It is extremely time consuming as we know. Um, and I, I don't even know the prompts that we would like. I, I can't even, um, find the right prompts even to, to suggest here of what you would ask for in a fully AI driven hiring process. Like what? And The prompts actually are a bias. I'm looking for somebody like me, almost. Right? Right. Yeah. Yeah. It is. Um, it's wild. Just wild. And everyone I've talked to, it's like, okay, so if we're gonna fully automate the recruiting process using ai, where does the human fit into this? Because at the end of the day, like if you're a recruiter and you're like, I'm just gonna have AI do it, or if you're even a worker Or a job seeker or whoever you are, if you just say, a, I'm gonna just let AI do this and just, you know, go take a nap or something, like, you're gonna be accountable as a job seeker, you didn't get the role. So you're accountable for not getting the role in a, in a sense, right? Like, you can't, who are you gonna blame? You can get mad at the company and everything, but you didn't get the role. And then from the, from the recruiter standpoint, it's, you know, I didn't get a good candidate and they ended up quitting after a week, and now I have to go back to the drawing board. Yeah. Like, so this is another area, as you can tell, like, we're doing, we're gonna be doing work on, on this whole idea of accountability, which I think is a huge topic. Right? And you're seeing a lot of, I can't say where companies, they're passing off their work that's done by AI and they're getting caught. Right? And so that's coming back to, to hurt them as well. So I think it's, I think it's like, especially the recruiting process. Like you, you still have to be the one to hire. Yeah. You can't get away from that. You know? I don't know if you, I just don't know if you can get out, like If you were hiring some Claude, like I think the expectations is I gotta meet Claude. Yeah, you have to. Right? You'd want to, right? Yeah. You wanna meet someone that has been there for a while and you've read about or something. It's, um, it's, you know, it, you're damned if you do and damned if you don't, if you think about it, because we try so hard to take the subject subjectivity out of our hiring managers. They're human, but we do a lot of unconscious bias training with them. So you've got the subjectivity of a human, and then you've got, or giving it all up to a machine, which, which one should I do? And is there a middle? I, I don't know. It's a lot. It's a lot. Yeah. We don't have all the answers, as you can tell everyone. I mean, these, these are very complex topics. They all are connected and, and very important, especially as you head into , which is not far from, from now. Not at all. You don't have much time to prepare. Like you gotta be doing it right now today before you go on holiday break. Yeah. But, uh, uh, if anyone has any questions, uh, we have one. What, what bright spots exist? Are there any, this is what Sarah Harold say, are there any that we should focus on, given these challenges? Where should job seekers focus if they have any hope of finding a job in the next year? So you wanna take that first? I have my own answer to that, but I'd love to hear yours first. Yeah, I, I'm gonna say, um, I'm gonna actually say something that I didn't think I was gonna say, which is I think that we can focus on leadership. Hmm. That's a place that I think we can focus on, because as we know, no matter what culture does stem from the top and then it is cultivated and cold cultivated around that. But I think if we have the right leaders in place that are, um, wedded or a aligned with the, with whatever the citizenship is of, of said company, then I think we have a really good shot at creating cultures where people want to stay at cultures that are thriving, cultures that are collaborative. I do think more and more with, especially with Gen Z and, and Gen Alpha for sure, I think we are gonna see many, many, many more people, even though there is a, some flux in the job market, wanting to go to jobs where they know they're gonna get great benefits. Great purposeful work. Yeah. An, you know, an honest paycheck, but also be inspired. See someone that they, you know, people want to come here to Vayner, why Gary? And, and some, some others of us. But I think leadership is a great place that we can really focus on. And then I think from that, springing forward, healthy cultures mm-hmm. Cultures that have some guardrails in place so that you don't have to feel like you give up your soul to be successful. What is, I think what's happening now, I think what you just described is how you stand out and be remembered, especially in the future when the job market changes and employees slash job seekers have more kind of leverage. Because people are, right now cultures just doesn't seem like it's being prioritized, right? It's like all anyone cares about is productivity, bottom line growth, right? And culture is just kind of at the wayside. Um, but if you're a smart company, obviously what you do at Bainer X and other companies that have done the right things, um, that's how you're gonna stand out. And long term, you might not see kind of an immediate return in like a week or a month or not, but long term it's gonna be pretty obvious. And retention, I think, again, is at the wayside. But retention is gonna be very important because when things change, it's like you lose, you lose, you know, teams or, I mean, I don't even know, like even maybe departments, and you're gonna have to replace those people. Yeah. And that's gonna be difficult if you have a bad culture because as you know, it's very, it's a more transparent world, especially with social media now in Glassdoor and whatnot, that it's gonna be harder to, for you to recruit in the future unless you do the right things today. And I think that actually wraps this up pretty perfectly. I like it. It's, you see all these challenges, but if you're the employer, if you're the person, if you're the manager, if you're the job seeker that, um, you know, understands these challenges and, and kind of meets them in the best way that you can, understanding that things will always change, I think you'll be much more prepared to tackle and beyond. Um, obviously you can download the, the full report by going to the link I shared in the webinar chat or looking at it in this slide. And it really goes through every trend, the research on each trend and really is specific and with the citations and everything. And you can look at our, our previous reports if you want as well. I'd like to thank our sponsors again, I solved and Judy Health Capital Rx, and Claude for joining me today. She was amazing. Of course, that's why I picked her to join me and have this conversation. Uh, I suggest all of you buy her, be yourself at workbook on Amazon, Barnes and Nobles, you know, in physical stores. If you wanna get out, you know, right now. And, um, and pick one up, uh, in the physical world, not just click a few buttons. Uh, thanks for joining us today. Happy holidays. And we wish that you'll all be successful regardless of you're a job seeker or your manager or getting squeezed. Um, you know, there's definitely a, a light at the end of the tunnel and you just gotta work yourself through it. Any final words, Claude? Just have a happy and peaceful holiday. I think we have all earned it, and we, uh, need to, to just shut down for a bit. So enjoy your family, enjoy your friends, and, um, be proud of yourself for getting through a very challenging year. Excellent. And yeah, special thanks again to achieve engagement and our sponsors, Judy Health. Uh, I solved, you know, you really helped make this event possible. We appreciate it and our, our, our final webinar of the year. So we wanted to end with some great content for all of you. So be well, and thanks again for joining.