Workquake Weekly

In this special, more personal episode, Steve looks past the headlines and into his own home to explore why early career paths feel so discouraging for today’s students. Using Lindsay Ellis’s Wall Street Journal article, “Companies Predict 2026 Will Be the Worst College Grad Job Market in Five Years,” as a springboard, Steve shares the real conversations he’s hearing from his college-senior son and from campuses around the country: ghosting, silence, fewer internships, and shrinking campus recruiting. Yet there’s real hope. This cohort was forged in Covid, and many aren’t waiting for permission. They’re building side hustles, micro-startups, creator businesses, and portfolios that prove capability. Steve challenges leaders to fix the early experience and invites families to support zigzags over straight lines. It’s a clear, human reset for anyone navigating or hiring into the messy first step of work.

• The early-career “handshake deal” is dissolving: students do the work, the system returns silence.

• Push factors (ghosting, black-hole processes) are beating corporate pull factors.

• Covid-shaped grads are unusually adaptive and entrepreneurial.

• Leaders must redesign the first mile of work: responsive communication, real projects, faster feedback.

• Families can champion experimentation, portfolios, and non-linear paths.

• Wall Street Journal article by Lindsay Ellis, “Companies Predict 2026 Will Be the Worst College Grad Job Market in Five Years.”https://www.wsj.com/lifestyle/careers/2026-graduates-job-market-7928bcd7?st=Lbd1QE&reflink=article_copyURL_share

Are our AI shields down? In this short, reflective episode, Steve explores how quickly skepticism around AI has faded and why that matters for leaders, teams, and culture. He unpacks the subtle forces behind the rush to adopt, from fear of being left behind to groupthink inside organizations, and offers a simple mindset: trust, but verify. Expect practical questions you can use with your team this week, plus a nudge to teach people how to think with AI, not for it.

You’ll hear about:

• Why growing confidence in AI can mask complacency and confusion

• How leadership pressure for speed can crowd out reflection

• Simple prompts to bring curiosity, context, and healthy skepticism back into your workflow

Mentioned:

The New Yorker, “The Case That A.I. Is Thinking,” by James Somers.

This week on Workquake Weekly, Steve Cadigan dives into one of the biggest myths in today’s workplace — that AI is killing entry-level jobs.

Spoiler alert: it’s not.

Drawing on Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky’s recent comments that “AI can do the interns’ work, but leaders should still hire Gen Z,” Steve explores why cutting early-career roles is one of the most dangerous mistakes companies can make — and how it’s quietly dismantling the leadership ladder from the bottom up.

He shares lessons from his time building LinkedIn’s early-career hiring programs, explains the real culture cost of removing young talent, and makes the case for why Gen Z might be the generation best equipped to help organizations use AI more intelligently.

You’ll learn:

• Why the “AI took my job” narrative misses the real issue.

• How skipping entry-level hiring sabotages your future leadership pipeline.

• How to redesign early-career roles so humans and AI actually work better together.

• Why Gen Z could be your company’s best AI accelerators.

And as always, Steve leaves you with a Workquake Challenge to turn insight into action — by reimagining one role on your team for the age of AI.

Tone: Conversational, optimistic, and deeply human — this episode is a wake-up call for leaders who want to future-proof their culture and their talent.

🎙️ Workquake Weekly — helping you make sense of the chaos we call modern work… one short episode at a time.

https://fortune.com/2025/10/30/airbnb-ceo-brian-chesky-ai-can-do-intern-work-bosses-should-hire-gen-z-lose-management-automation-employment-hiring-advice/

This week on Workquake Weekly, Steve Cadigan unpacks a powerful truth Brené Brown shared at the Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit: “If you’re leading people, you probably know people are not okay.”

In an age of nonstop change, AI disruption, and emotional overload, leaders aren’t just managing projects — they’re managing nervous systems. Steve explores why burnout today is less about weakness and more about biology, how disconnection shows up before disengagement, and what great leaders are doing differently to restore trust, calm, and meaning at work.

If you’re leading anyone — or just trying to stay grounded yourself — this episode is your reminder that being human isn’t a liability. It’s the advantage.

🎧 Listen in under 10 minutes — and start leading like it’s 2025, not 1999.

AI has officially moved from curiosity to urgency. But before we race ahead, Steve Cadigan asks a better question: Fast enough… toward what?

In this episode of Workquake Weekly, Steve explores how AI could finally repair our broken relationship with technology — if we let it. From burnout to trust, from productivity to potential, this is a call to leaders everywhere to rethink what “progress” really means.

Because the defining question of this era isn’t “How fast can we deploy AI?”

It’s “Will we use AI to bring people back — to creativity, curiosity, and possibility?”

Listen for practical hope and grounded wisdom on how leaders can make AI a force for human good.

This week on Workquake Weekly, Steve Cadigan unpacks a quiet shift in tech compensation: companies are moving from the classic four-year, even vesting schedule to front-loaded equity. Think 40/30/20/10 or even three-year designs. Why the change, what it signals, and how it might reshape trust, loyalty, and performance at work. Steve explores potential drivers like offer competitiveness, accounting optics, and the rise of refresher grants tied to impact, along with the tradeoffs that could speed up churn or strengthen engagement. If you lead people, negotiate offers, or design rewards, this short episode will help you rethink equity as more than retention math, and more like a performance promise.

What you’ll learn:

• Why many firms are moving away from 25/25/25/25

• How front-loaded equity changes behavior and incentives

• The role of refresher grants in rewarding real impact

• Risks to watch, from shorter cycles to signaling effects

• Practical questions to ask when evaluating an offer

This week on Workquake Weekly, we’re peeling back the curtain on something rare: CEOs getting real about AI and talent.

Accenture’s Julie Sweet admits reskilling isn’t moving fast enough. Walmart’s Doug McMillon promises to guide employees “to the other side.” Both perspectives reveal a deeper tension: leaders are trying to look in control while racing to figure it out themselves.

Are companies really ready to upskill at scale? Or are they just cramming for the AI exam and hoping to pass?

In under 10 minutes, Steve unpacks what these CEO confessions mean for you, why fear-driven upskilling may backfire, and what to watch for in the next wave of earnings calls.

If your CEO sounds like they’re cramming… they are. And so are we.

This week on Workquake Weekly, we’re stirring things up with a story that hits close to home — especially if you’re a coffee lover. Inspired by Heather Haddon’s recent piece in The Wall Street Journal, “Inside the Starbucks Plan to Get 200,000 Baristas on the Same Script,” we dive into one of the most pressing questions in today’s workplace:

Can you engineer human connection… with a script?

Steve unpacks Starbucks’ surprising move to give baristas more time to connect with customers — while also standardizing exactly how those connections should happen. It’s a fascinating case study in the delicate balancing act every leader is facing:

Speed vs. Humanity. Efficiency vs. Experience. Cost vs. Culture.

We explore:

• Why burnout is bad business — for employees and customers

• How scripting authenticity might backfire

• What Starbucks’ decision says about the broader evolution of work

• And how you can rethink what you’re optimizing for in your own organization

Whether you’re leading a team, designing employee experience, or just ordering your next oat milk latte… this episode will get you thinking about what really drives connection — and why that matters more than ever.

Tune in, reflect, and maybe look a little closer at your barista next time.

☕

If you enjoy the show, be sure to follow, rate, and leave a review. And if you’ve read Workquake, a review on Amazon goes a long way in helping others join the conversation. See you next Friday! https://www.wsj.com/business/hospitality/starbucks-barista-training-sales-b1f11395?st=unzGPP&reflink=article_copyURL_share

In this episode of Workquake Weekly, Steve Cadigan dives into something that feels almost rebellious in today’s always-on world: boredom.

Inspired by Arthur Brooks’ recent article in Harvard Business Review, “You Need to Be Bored. Here’s Why,” Steve explores how boredom isn’t wasted time—it’s fertile ground for creativity, reflection, and even breakthrough ideas. From brain science to leadership strategy, Steve makes the case that embracing stillness might be the smartest move for anyone trying to innovate, lead, or simply think more clearly.

He also shares a personal story, practical tips, and one simple challenge to help you tap into your creative default mode.

If you’ve been feeling stuck, overstimulated, or just too busy to think—this episode might be the nudge you didn’t know you needed.

https://hbr.org/2025/08/you-need-to-be-bored-heres-why by Arthur C. Brooks

AI feels brand new, but the pattern we’re living through is not. In this week’s episode, Steve Cadigan explores why most AI investments are failing to deliver value — and what history can teach us about breaking that cycle. Inspired by Ibanga Umanah’s article “From Email to AI: The Hidden Pattern Behind Tech Adoption Failure,” Steve examines why it’s so hard to let go of old processes, why unlearning may be the hardest skill of all, and how leaders can shift the question from “How do I do what I already do better with AI?” to “How can AI help me solve problems differently?”

If you’ve ever felt overwhelmed by AI hype or unsure where to start, this episode offers clarity, encouragement, and a powerful mindset shift for navigating what’s next in work.

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/from-email-ai-hidden-pattern-behind-tech-adoption-failure-umanah-gfmec