My journey has been anything but ordinary. Warning: TLDR

I have a Bachelors degree in Psychology, worked 20+ years in technology and somehow for the last 7+ years have been consulting for profit and non profit companies on business transformation, staying relevant and how they are implement the latest technologies.

I also became acutely aware of the impact our current socio-economic climate toll, along with the current decisions leaders are making, has taken on the employee workforce. I started doing a lot of research on why as I saw some extreme behavior from my teams, even the most consistent ones. I also had to become a mental health coach in my day job to my tech teams on a daily basis, so I also got a Masters Degree in Mental Health Coaching and Trauma Informed Care.

So, as any good researcher should, when you create your theory, you gather as much data as you can. And I did, from as many of the leading (non-partisan) employee survey groups as I could find and also some of the foremost health science researchers. I gathered the questions I wanted to look for, the data points, and compiled all of the data together. I let the data either confirm or deny the result. I did not go out to find sources to try to give me the answer I wanted, I allowed the data to tell me what was happening with the questions I had, even if I did not like the answers.

What I found was haunting.

It also made me glad I was a leader in technology, so I could speak to the findings with some expertise and also have a window to the leaders with the company I was with (at the time).

The #1 reason (in 2025) that employees struggled was due to the political fighting at work and companies not doing anything to stop it or help those affected by it.

The #2 reason was irresponsible use / implementation of AI. Just like when implementing Agile was all the rage (shameless plug - I’m an Agile Nerd at heart), even the best Agile Implementation has great guardrails. If you are implementing AI, you must put in really firm guardrails, too.

2025 was when I created this talk. I started socializing this information immediately. I changed the talks I was giving at a conference then and there to include this information even though it was only tangentially related. It was too crucial to NOT provide it.

In 2026, the #1 reason employees struggle at work today will blow your mind. AI ethics has not only come to the forefront with Data Centers, Social Media, how it’s being implemented in companies, but also how employees interact with it on a daily basis. It is just now being discussed because it’s effecting companies bottom line and we don’t have a choice but to deal with it.