What’s out and what’s in? Workplace culture in 2025.
“Rise and grind” Bleugh.
“We’re like a family here” Sigh.
“Work hard, play hard” Burnout alert.
These phrases might make you cringe – toe-curling, aren’t they? – but most of us have been guilty of saying something similar in the past.
And I’ll let us off the hook by saying, it’s really not our fault. We’re all trying our best to respond and engage with an everchanging society that has evolving expectations, technologies, wants, needs and norms. It can be difficult to keep up (no judgements here) and sometimes you just need a bit of a hand knowing what’s in and what’s out.
Now, this is not a replacement for regular CPD or training your leaders BUT… I’ve created a bit of a 2025 cheat sheet for workplace culture. Here we go:
Hustle Culture: Out.
Remember when everyone kept going on about being part of the 5am club. They’d worked out, read a self-help book, listened to a business podcast and posted about it on social media well before I, and maybe you, had got out of bed. The problem here is that while this routine may work for some, it glorifies overworking, and feeds into an idea that we’re not enough. Tony Schwartz and Eric Severson have written on this topic for the Harvard Business Review, they say that “immersion in work helps hold off feelings of inadequacy, anxiety, loneliness, sadness, and emptiness”. In effect, being busy, even to the point of being overwhelmed, helps us to stave off that crippling little voice telling us we aren’t good enough. And here’s the kicker, say the pair, “the corporate world… continues to overwhelmingly reward those who push themselves the hardest” despite the fact we know that overworking leads to burnout, poor judgement, a reduced ability to think critically, poor decision making, the list goes on. This is not to say we should discourage enthusiasm and hard work, but as employers we need to build sustainable and positive working environments demonstrated by our leaders. Does this mean you don’t press send on that email/text/WhatsApp for your team until the morning? So be it.
Quality over Quantity: In
One way to ensure your team don’t overwork, focus on outputs rather than activity. Success shouldn’t be defined in terms of presenteeism or workaholism but in efficient, quality and meaningful impact and results. Want an even bigger (and more sobering) reason as to why this must be the case in 2025? A recent World Health Organisation study found that working 55+ hours per week – compared to 35-40 hours – correlates with a 35% higher risk of stroke and a 17% higher risk of dying from heart disease.
Asking employees to bring their whole selves to work: Out
This one’s a tough one. We all meant this with the best of intentions. Post covid, we actively encouraged employees to bring all of themselves to work. We wanted to let them know that they could be authentic, true to themselves, and that they didn’t have to hide or shelter parts of their personality. And this is still true but…we can’t expect this unless we’ve fully invested in providing a psychologically safe environment, that celebrates diversity, where our workforce has received suitable, meaningful and continued learning and development that allows everyone to show up as 100% themselves. Otherwise, we shouldn’t expect too much vulnerability. Let’s not ask people to drop their guard in ways they aren’t comfortable but instead create frameworks where people feel supported in a variety of different ways. Not all of us want to let everyone in, and that’s ok.
Flexibility: In
I’m not going to say too much on this here – a lot has been said before. Only to say flexibility doesn’t necessarily mean remote working, or even hybrid. Flexibility can be just that, having the flexibility to go and do what you need to do, when you need to do it. Pick up the kids, go to a doctor’s appointment, get the boiler serviced. Life isn’t always 9-5 and we should try our best to accommodate this whenever we can.