A Manifesto For The Workplace Evolution Of 2022

Dear friends & followers,

Right now, I feel like Katniss Everdeen stepping in as tribute in the movie, The Hunger Games. Or, Jerry when he gave his impassioned manifesto speech in the movie, Jerry Maguire.?

Why??

Today, I’m taking a big, bold, scary step in my career, and I’m offering you a ringside seat.

I can guarantee a full wave of panic is going to go through me when I finally hit “publish” on this post and watch it go out to 148,000+ newsletter subscribers on LinkedIn - a platform where I have worked hard to build the trust and respect of 2.6 million followers over the last 10 years. But, if you’re reading this, then we all know I did it and I won’t be able to turn back.

I'm risking my professional reputation on this.

Five months ago, I had an epiphany and realized I needed to lean into my beliefs and my work much harder. And, since studies show it can be more difficult for a woman to come back from a career mis-step , this decision was not taken lightly. I could easily try to execute my vision without telling the world. Thus, if I fail, nobody would really know. However, in this case, I feel strongly I need to be bold and put my quest out there for everyone to see. Candidly, in hopes many will take up with the cause. With that in mind, here’s the backstory leading up to this decision…

I’ve spent the last 20+ years advocating for the worker.?

I left Corporate America in 2001 and became a career coach, much to the dismay of my colleagues. I left a six-figure executive position in the staffing and recruiting industry with lots of perks and prestige to start from scratch and work from home in a field that, back then, was still taboo. In the early 2000’s, only people who were failing in their careers worked with a career coach. I wanted to change that. Having spent time on the hiring side of the process, I saw how many talented people were ill-prepared to effectively navigate getting hired and building satisfying careers. I saw an unmet need to serve a larger group of people who needed objective, outside counsel to help them grow professionally.

Fast forward to today…and I’m STILL not making the impact I hoped.

I will say the following to make my point…

In the last two decades, I’ve worked with thousands of people. I currently co-author a nationally syndicated column that reaches millions of households weekly. I’ve been featured in the news by INC, Fast Company, CNBC, Good Morning America, ABC News, Business Insider, The Daily Mail, The NY Times, The Wall St. Journal, and even been on the show, The Doctors, twice. I’ve built a top-ranked career advice site, Work It Daily , that gets over 1.5 million visitors each month. I’ve gained millions of followers by regularly sharing lots of free career advice on LinkedIn and TikTok .?

In spite of the above, I feel I’ve barely put a dent in educating the workforce on how to take ownership of their careers so they can get what they want from employers.?

The last two years have been especially hard to watch.?

Within the first year of the pandemic, I was predicting what is now called, “The Great Resignation”. And, with over 40 million people quitting their jobs in 2021 (the most ever in a single year in the history of tracking turnover), it should be clear to us all that we’ve hit a tipping point and things have changed forever.? More importantly, while we can call out executives and companies, and use the current labor shortage to squeeze them into increasing pay and improving benefits, this isn’t a one-sided correction. If we really want to see the employee-employer relationship evolve into something fair, productive, and most of all, positive, then we need to shift something on the side of the worker too. We need to initiate deep, massive, and collective action.

Thus, with the above in mind, I have attempted to write the Manifesto for the Workplace Evolution of 2022.

On April 4th, my book was published on Amazon. It’s called, “Awakening Your Inner Workplace Renegade: 7 New Rules For Transforming Your Career & Finding Your Professional Purpose.”

The book shares very recent stories of people I’ve helped during the pandemic who realized they had to figure out how to create career satisfaction on their own terms.?

For me, the Workplace Evolution is about educating a larger group of workers in order to level the playing field.?

It starts with arming workers with my “7 new rules” to career satisfaction. In my 20+ years as a career coach, I’ve learned most miserable workers are using a set of outdated beliefs to drive their career decisions. Once they learn the new rules, they can shift their mindset and take actions that get them the results they want and deserve. These new rules aren’t hard, but sadly, they aren’t taught in school or at home. So, the only way to learn them is to stumble across someone, like me, who is teaching them. But, imagine what can happen if I succeed at bringing a large group of eager workers together to learn these new rules? I strongly believe the impact will have a large ripple effect and drive massive, much-needed change in the workplace.

So, what’s my next move to get the Workplace Evolution of 2022 in higher gear?

Now that the manifesto is published, I want to offer a place for those that read it to come together and apply what they’ve learned. So, my team and I launched our new free online community for Workplace Renegades to transform their careers . It’s intentionally designed to give people that safe space where they can be reassured that their career problems aren’t unique and can be solved. It’s run by trained career specialists and filled with a supportive peer group. We also took our proprietary career courses catalog and made it available to members at a discount so they can get the right career coaching on-demand. Which leads to the next step, and one where we could use your help…

I’m inviting you to become a Workplace Renegade and join our Workplace Evolution community for FREE.

It’s free to join Work It Daily and only takes a minute to set up your profile. Once inside, you’ll see how current members are using the platform to drive conversations around their career challenges. You’ll also be able to see all the useful resources and timely events we’ve made available. So, why not be one of them? And, if you really want to show your support for the Workplace Evolution, you could share the link to this article in your LinkedIn feed to help spread the word to your connections.?

PS - This is your chance to be seen by your peers as ahead of your time!

I’m going to do everything in my professional power to make the Work It Daily community one of the biggest and most successful career growth platforms on the Internet. If you join us now, you’ll be able to state later on that you were one of its early-adopters. Think of it this way: first, there was Twitter and Facebook, then LinkedIn and Instagram, and most recently, TikTok. Someday, they’re going to be talking about Work It Daily as the next generation of social media - think useful social media designed for good. Who wouldn’t want to be one of the first on a platform like that??

Our ultimate mission is to awaken the inner Workplace Renegades of 1,000,000 people in this platform by the end of 2022. And we want YOU to be one of them!

Lastly, if you made it this far, THANK YOU.?

It’s scary for me to make such big claims about what I am going to do in the future. But, there’s no turning back for me now. So, I’d welcome your thoughts and words of wisdom in the comments below. You are my followers, and I feel so grateful for your support.

Thank you for taking the time to learn about my mission.?

I hope you take the first step and grab my book from Amazon . Then, I hope it inspires you to want to become a Workplace Renegade and join our free Work It Daily community .?

The Workplace Evolution awaits you!

Sincerely,

J.T.