Last week gave me a rare, concentrated view into the same conversation happening across very different rooms.

Across a female founder event, an alumni conference, and a reunion with former Wayfair colleagues from the early build years, I kept hearing the same thing in different ways.

People are proud of what they’re building and grateful for meaningful work. At the same time, I heard over and over that people are feeling stretched, overwhelmed with the pace of change and uncertainty, and trying to keep up in a way that just feels different over the past couple of years, than it used to.

I had a few conversations where people pushed back a bit, saying "Is this really that different? Haven’t we been through big periods of transformation before? What about the dot-com era? Or the 2009 financial crisis?

Sure.

But I don't think it's just about change. These last few years have hit differently.

It's the compounding effect of faster change than we can humanly absorb, layered on top of the pressure to keep up and adapt, (with very little time to upskill unless it happens after hours), a job market that makes it feel risky to take your foot off the gas..

... all against a backdrop of barely recovering from a global global pandemic.

Phew.

Here's the thing: I’m building unBurnt from inside this reality, not from the outside looking in.

I’m not studying burnout, capacity, and wellbeing as an abstract workplace problem. I’m building, while also living in the same pace of work, family, ambition, change, and responsibility that so many other people are trying to navigate.

That is part of what keeps sharpening the work for me.

I see it and I'm living it.

People are working hard. Parenting hard. Leading through change. Rebuilding routines. Taking care of aging parents. Managing teams, businesses, careers, and households. Trying to stay healthy. Trying to stay relevant.

Trying to have enough energy left at the end of the day to still feel like themselves.

The signals are everywhere.

And I don’t think we can afford to keep saying this is “just another crazy week.”

Whatever you’re carrying this week, I hope you’re able to find a little space to pause, reset, and hear yourself think. It’s one of the first steps in making sense of everything else you’re being asked to carry

With appreciation,

Alison

If this connects with what you're seeing and experiencing, feel free to reply. I read and respond to every email.

In the News

Microsoft 2026 Work Trend Index just dropped with some interesting new data about the role of AI and the growing opportunity for human potential, yet there's a gap most companies are finding themselves in. They found "most organizations are not yet built to capture the value of expanded human agency" and yet the #1 driver of AI impact was found to be organizationally driven, with culture, manager support, and talent practice accounting for more than 2x the AI impact vs. individual factors like mindset and behavior (67% vs. 32%).

​GeekWire reported on the "transformation paradox", one of the centralfindings in this year's Microsoft report, indicating employee readiness to reshape their roles and the work is not matching up with incentives and norms for using AI.

According to data from Monster's 2026 State of Workplace Mental Health report, burnout has risen to become a baseline experience with nearly half reporting burnout, yet 70% of respondents reported pressure to "appear OK".

The Afternoon Shift

I sat down with Brady Sadler, of The Afternoon Shift, and we talked about why burnout can be so hard to name when you’re still performing, why recovery is not just about taking a break and returning to the same pace, and why I now see burnout prevention as both deeply personal and deeply organizational.

We recorded before the research with Bentley's Center for Health and Business came out, so I also gave an early preview along with reflections on other work trends. This was a great conversation, and I'm so excited to share it.