25 Hours of Us: The Top 10 Workplace Themes of 2025 and Predictions for 2026

In this final episode of 2025, Jenni Field and Chuck Gose reflect on a year of conversations by pulling together the 10 themes that defined work, leadership and internal communication over the past 25 hours and 41 minutes of the podcast.

They revisit the middle management crisis, the ongoing disconnect between hybrid work reality and mandates, and the shift from performative authenticity to honest leadership transparency. The episode also explores AI adoption anxiety, the persistent challenge of proving the value of internal communication, and why change fatigue means productivity takes far longer to recover than leaders expect.

The conversation looks at purpose-driven work, communication overload, cultural intelligence in global teams, and the unresolved productivity paradox behind return-to-office decisions.

They close by sharing five AI-generated predictions for 2026, challenging leaders to build trust, rethink management, and stop trying to control their way through change.

• Slow Productivity - Cal Newport
• Tiny Experiments by Anne-Laure Le Cunff - Ness Labs
• The Productivity Diet - Mike Vardy