**Your Boss Wants You Back in the Office?
Of Course They Do.**
Whether they say it with their outside voice or not, it's true for me. And it's true for you.
Welcome to the Corporate Wild West
The economy has officially entered Uncertainonomy Mode: rates dipping, stocks ripping, and every “human-completed” job sitting in AI’s crosshairs like a raccoon that wandered into the wrong backyard.
Meanwhile your boss, fresh off a podcast they absolutely did not understand, now believes AI is the answer to:
- declining revenue
- ballooning costs
- “innovation” (undefined)
- “culture” (also undefined)
- and whatever fever dream kept them awake last night
Shoutout to Pace University Graduation Ceremony Planners - you unleashed a monster, respectfully.
**Most Bosses Don’t Know What’s Happening…
But They’re Pretty Sure You Being Home Is a Problem**
Every exec right now:
“If only Karen came in on Thursdays, our margins would skyrocket.”
Hybrid 2-3? Now you’re 3-2.
3-2? Surprise, you’re 4-1.
4-1? Congrats, you’ve graduated to 5-0; this is the work equivalent of police lights flashing in your rear-view mirror.
And a few companies aren’t even subtle with wanting you:
- 5-2 (in office 5 days, thinking about going in the other 2)
- plugged in like a Tesla
- grateful for the opportunity to grind harder
These are the same organizations running their version of the Pareto Productivity Prison:
- 20% of employees do 80% of the work
- then 20% of that 20% do 80% of the work
- then the last remaining intern becomes the COO
“What’s that? People are quitting?”
Bosses: “Clearly they weren’t committed to the mission.”
“What’s that? Mental-health claims are up?”
Bosses: “Data must be wrong. Weaklings.”
“Let’s reward high performers with… more work.”
Air high-five.
What This Means for You
The Vigilante translation:
You’ve got decisions to make.
And now you’ve collected more data points on how your boss, team, and company actually view:
- flexibility
- humanity
- burnout
- and, well.....you
Side note: working through all this may have some of you discover an important new data point called:
“My employer does not give a flying F about any of those things.”
scribbles that down in notebook, draws shocked emoji
Regardless of what leadership says on a town hall slide deck, you now fall into one of four Vigilante Quadrants:
If You’re Safe-ish
You’re either:
- crushing performance but not in the office “enough”or
- always in the office but not performing “enough”
Corporate Goldilocks logic. Nothing is ever juuust right.
Your mission:
a) Decide if you can (and want to) show up in the office more without sacrificing your performance, or
b) Decide if you can level up your performance without sacrificing your sanity
Because here’s the thing your boss will never say out loud:
Safe-ish has an expiration date.
And if you don’t choose a path with intention, you’ll slowly slide into that bottom-left quadrant know as:
The Chopping Block
Safe-ish gives you options.
Safe-ish gives you leverage.
Safe-ish gives you time.
But only if you use it.
Safe-ish feels comfortable ... right up until the moment it isn’t.
If you don’t choose your next move on purpose, someone else will choose it for you.
And you’re not going to like their version.
Act with intention. Adjust your strategy. Secure your future.
Spend 10 minutes today on this (not next week, literally today).
- Circle the quadrant you’re in. Draw an arrow to the quadrant you want. Start moving.
- Make a plan. Execute like your career depends on it ... because it does.
Need help with this? I'm only an email away.
