Employee Experience

6 unspoken rules for career success. (The ones you won’t hear during onboarding) I made these mistakes early in my career, especially: ↳ Not being visible enough. ↳ Messing up my first impression. ↳ Not knowing who was really in charge. It nearly cost me a job before I figured it out. Here are the 6 unspoken rules and how to play by them: 1/ Your first impression is your only impression. ↳ Don’t assume people will take the time to get to know “your skills”. ↳ Nail your first 90 days. That defines your reputation. 2/ Visibility matters as much as performance. ↳ Great work doesn’t automatically get noticed. ↳ Be vocal in meetings and calls—share your ideas, thoughts, opinions. 3/ Voluntary discomfort is your weapon. ↳ Don’t turn down a high-visibility project because it is inconvenient. ↳ If you do, say goodbye to your career progression at that company. 4/ The real boss isn't your boss. ↳ Your boss's approval isn't enough. ↳ Find the real decision-makers and make their lives easier. 5/ Your job description is the bare minimum. ↳ Don’t wait until you’re asked to do something. ↳ Spot a problem, solve the problem. Proactive > reactive. 6/ Your peers don't promote you. ↳ Having friends at work is nice. Having advocates above you is necessary. ↳ Find ways to add value to senior leaders. Grab coffee, stop by their office with a thoughtful question. Your career won't get better by chance. It gets better by change. P.S. What’s one unspoken rule you’ve learned about work? — ♻ Repost to help your network start winning at work! ➕ Follow me (Will McTighe) for more like this.

By the time one of our members enrolled in Maven Clinic, she felt like she’d been living in the crossfires of healthcare. She had an endometriosis diagnosis, multiple failed egg retrievals, and countless doctors under her belt. She was told surgery was her only option to become a mom. She felt totally alone - like she was the problem. In fact, she spent the first 10 minutes of her Maven appointment just letting out the tears. It’s a story we know well. With one of our Care Coaches, this member broke down her family building goals into achievable steps. She sought second opinions from multiple providers, who could take the time to truly explain her diagnosis. With the time and space to be listened to, ultimately, she discovered she had more options than she thought - in fact, she didn’t even need surgery. When we say “holistic,” this is what we mean: easy, digital-first, whole-person care that cuts costs across the entire lifecycle. In journeys that can so often feel impossible, during a year that has not made them feel any easier, employers have the chance to be the true white knights of healthcare. Today, our fourth (!) annual State of Women’s and Family Health Benefits report affirms this, finding that: - 48% of employers plan to expand fertility coverage to ensure broader access in face of the shifting reproductive health landscape - 66% of employees who underwent fertility care took or considered taking a new job because of better reproductive and family health benefits  - 85% of employers saying that reproductive and family benefits are important for retaining employees—a 13% increase from 2024 You can read the full report in the comments below!

He's going to quit... For the sake of privacy let's call this employee Joe. Joe was a top performer—engaged, positive, and someone his peers confided in. Management labeled him a "complainer". He’d point out how overrun meetings were unproductive, how the CEO’s morning rants were dragging down morale, and how management needed to step in because he didn’t want to be the team’s emotional sounding board. His feedback was always constructive, not complaining. He wanted things to improve. But over time, something changed... The feedback slowed. He stopped volunteering for projects. He wasn’t in my office anymore, sharing ideas. When I finally asked, “Hey, are you okay? I haven’t seen you around,” he replied: “Oh, yeah. Just been busy trying to keep my nose clean.” I flagged it to his manager, but nothing changed. Two weeks later, he resigned. Our COO asked him, “Please, tell us how we can make this work. We’ll do whatever it takes.” His answer was devastatingly clear: “I already did. You weren’t willing.” This was years ago and I still think about what I learned that day: 1️⃣ Feedback needs action. When someone takes the time to point out what’s wrong, you owe them a response—action, or at least acknowledgment. 2️⃣ Disengagement is a warning sign. When an engaged employee starts pulling back, it’s not just busyness. It’s a signal, and ignoring it is a mistake.

If #diversity, #equity, and #inclusion practitioners want to get ahead of anti-DEI backlash, we have to address an elephant in the room: no two people in the same workplace perceive their workplace the same way. I see this every time I work with client organizations. When asked to describe their own experience with the workplace and its DEI strengths and challenges, I hear things like: 😊 "I've never experienced any discrimination or mistreatment; our leaders' commitment is strong." 🤨 "I had a good time in one department, but after transferring departments I started experiencing explicit ableist comments under my new manager." 🙁 "I've never had anything egregious happen, but I've always felt less respected by my team members because of my race." Who's right? Turns out, all of them. It starts to get messy because everyone inevitably generalizes their own personal experiences into their perception of the workplace as a whole; three people might accordingly describe their workplace as a "meritocracy without discrimination," an "inconsistently inclusive workplace dependent on manager," or "a subtly racist environment." And when people are confronted with other experiences of the workplace that DIFFER from their own, they often take it personally. I've seen leaders bristle at the implication that their own experience was "wrong," or get defensive in expectation they will be accused of lacking awareness. It's exactly this defensiveness that lays the foundation for misunderstanding, polarization, and yes—anti-DEI misinformation—to spread in an organization. How do we mitigate it? In my own work, I've found that these simple steps go a long way. 1. Validate everyone's experience. Saying outright that everyone's personal experience is "correct" for themselves might seem too obvious, but it plays a powerful role in helping everyone feel respected and taken seriously. Reality is not a question of "who is right"—it's the messy summation of everyone's lived experience, good or bad. 2. Use data to create a shared baseline. Gathering data by organizational and social demographics allows us to make statements like, "the average perception of team respect is 70% in Engineering, but only 30% in Sales," or "perception of fair decision making processes is 90% for white men, but only 40% for Black women." This establishes a shared reality, a baseline for any effective DEI work. 3. Make it clear that problem-solving involves—and requires—everyone. The goal of DEI work is to achieve positive outcomes for everyone. Those with already positive experiences? Their insights help us know what we're aiming for. Those with the most negative? Their insights help us learn what's broken. The more we communicate that collective effort benefits the collective, rather than shaming or dismissing those at the margins, the more we can unite people around DEI and beat the backlash.

“Inclusion” without disability is still exclusion. (You don’t have to hate disabled people to be ableist) You just have to: - ignore disability in your policies & DEI strategy - treat ADA compliance as your only finish line - forget to budget for needed accommodations - hire for “culture fit” but avoid disabled talent Ableism doesn’t always sound like hate. In fact, ableism is usually just silence. Silence around underrepresentatuon Silence around reasonable accommodations Silence around stigma & bias toward disability That’s what this iceberg shows. Above the surface: good intentions. Below the surface: harmful inaction. As a person with a visible & invisible disability, I get frustrated for a few reasons but the main issue? Disability inclusion isn’t charity. There’s a clear business case for disability inclusion. Companies that lean into disability inclusion earn: 28% higher revenue 30% higher profit margins Still, 90% of companies claim to prioritize diversity but only 4% include disability in their DEI efforts. The human case is there. The business case is there. So what’s missing? Change. But what does real change look like? It’s not just a wheelchair icon or checking a box. It’s: - listening to disabled voices - auditing ableist hiring practices - measuring equity, not just optics - hiring/promoting disabled leaders - funding reasonable accommodations Ableism is the iceberg. Don’t let your culture sink with it. ♻️ Share so we can end ableism #DisabilityInclusion #EndAbleism #InclusiveLeadership #AccessibilityMatters #EquityInAction [image description: A graphic on a tan background that shows an iceberg in the middle. The title says the ableism iceberg and above the water is six statements: everyone is included, we don’t discriminate, disability imagery, ADA compliant, disability ERG, inclusion matters. Below the water it says what’s missing: no disabled bleeders, systemic in accessibility, ableist policies, ablest hiring process, invisible disability bias, neurodivergent erasure, no accommodations budget.]

Many workers resist returning to the office. They face long commutes and crowded traffic. Once there, they barely interact with anyone. Return-to-office (RTO) mandates are failing. They hurt employee retention. The workplace is changing fast. In 2025, companies want workers back in the office. Yet, many employees push back. Hybrid work is still the main setup, but fully remote jobs are fading. Here are the key trends shaping the future of work: 1. Mandate Reality  87% of companies now have RTO policies. 70% require workers to be in the office at set times. Only 33% demand full-time attendance, but this number is growing. 2. Hybrid Dominance A 3-day office week is now standard. 38% of companies have clear hybrid plans that show when employees need to be present. 3. Remote Work Decline  The fully remote option is disappearing. Only 7% of companies offer it, down from 21% last year. Flexible schedules have dropped from 39% to 28%. 4. Employee Resistance  Workers are unhappy with these changes. Less than half of Americans support more in-person work. 70% of remote and hybrid workers would look for other jobs if forced back full-time. Only 44% would comply with a 5-day mandate; 55% would rather job hunt or quit. 5. Financial Impacts Nearly half of hybrid and remote workers would accept an 8% pay cut to keep remote work. Those who commute spend over $51 daily when in the office. 6. Talent Consequences   Companies face real costs. 8 in 10 report losing talent because of their RTO policies. 7. Industry & Regional Variations Industries like finance and legal push RTO mandates the hardest. Office attendance varies by location. Miami and NYC are back to 90% of pre-pandemic levels, while San Francisco is at just 50%. Big companies like Amazon, JPMorgan, and Google have strict RTO policies. They tie office attendance to performance reviews and career growth. The federal government has also acted, ending most telework for federal employees. 2025 is a turning point in the work location debate. Even with more mandates, hybrid work remains the main model. Companies must balance the need for collaboration with the risk of losing talent to more flexible competitors. The future of work is still up for debate, with big differences across regions and industries. I've been a remote employee for 8 years. I personally prefer hybrid where I can get out some days, spend some time in an office environment and flex from home when needed. Which do you prefer?

"Our CEO wants us to follow Amazon back to five days a week." Your company isn't Amazon, so you might want to look at the data on the impact of mandates and the reality of #RTO trends. Amazon will survive. They'll lose talent, more as the economy continues to pick up, and have lots of disengaged employees. But they are a machine. Your company isn't Amazon; they don't have Amazon's management systems and processes, and mostly likely don't compensate people nearly as well. Changing one factor doesn't make you the same, and likely makes you worse. Here's the latest, my semi-regular roundup of data on #ReturnToOffice and #Hybrid data, sources are all linked in the slides: 🔸 Mandates don't improve performance: add the work of Sean F. (Cornell), Andra Ghent & Vasudha Nair (U. Utah) to Mark Ma's study showing no financial benefits, not even a Wall Street pop (p1) 🔸 CEOs who impose are are on average older, white men with a high power ratio -- their comp vs the rest of the C-suite indexes higher than average (p1) 🔸 The people who leave are longer tenured and higher performers, aka people who are marketable, and women who are put in a vice. Kudos Gartner, U of Chicago's Austin L. Wright et al & Upwork (p1) 🔸 New study in Nature by Nick Bloom et al showing +33% reduction in attrition from #hybrid, while Blind reports 73% of Amazon employees are considering leaving -- I know several firms recruiting people out (p2) 🔸 Not only are teams more #distributed post-pandemic, the most important work in companies is often cross-functional projects where teams are spread across time zones, not buildings on campus (p3) 🔸 Flex Index data showed 67% of US firms are flexible, down from 69% in Q2, corresponding with an uptick in unemployment -- which since reversed (p4) 🔸 Industries where #RTO is highest are those conducting layoffs (tech, media, prof services) or with big financial stakes in #CRE (real estate, financial services) (p5, 6) 🔸 Over 90% of firms founded after 2010 are #flexible and the average lifespan of S&P 500 companies dropped from 67 years in the '40s to 15 by 2023 (p 7, 8) 🔸 The "winner" these days is some form of #hybrid, usually 2-3 days a week which matches what most employees want (p 9, 10) 🔸 Office utilization has risen slightly this year. Kastle Systems shows flat results for 2 years, CBRE says the average in US is 32%, up from 29% last year (p 11, 12) The uptick in utilization comes from RTO and firms moving to smaller leases. CBRE reports the average renewal is 21% smaller, and new leases 32% smaller. On top of that, 40% of the office space tenanted at the start of the pandemic has yet to come up for renewal. “The winding down is not over" said CoStar's Phil Mobley in yesterday's #WSJ along with Rob Sadow. If your CEO is pushing for #RTO, ask what problem we're trying to solve and invest in fixing that. Play the long game. Invest in figuring out what works, for your company. #FutureOfWork #remote #ReturnToOffice

Here’s an irony: the less that’s on your calendar, the more successful you’re likely to be. It sounds counterintuitive, but if your schedule is back-to-back with meetings, three things happen: 👉 You don’t have time to follow up. Rushing from meeting to meeting means you might forget key action items or simply not have time to execute on them. 👉 You lose perspective. When you’re constantly in motion, you don’t have space to step back and ask, should I even be in this meeting? 👉 Your real work spills into nights and weekends. When your day is packed with meetings, the actual work still has to get done—leaving you exhausted and burned out. I know that in many corporate environments, packed schedules feel unavoidable. But we often have more control than we think. Start by asking smart questions: Why do I need to be in this meeting? How can I specifically contribute? Creating space allows us to be more intentional and ultimately, more effective. What’s your best strategy for managing meeting overload?

Please don’t call me a minority. When’s the last time we called someone a majority? I tackle the importance of language in my new book, Reimagine Inclusion: 👉🏿Remember that language is constantly evolving and changing. We must have the humility to keep learning and up-skilling ourselves. 👉🏿”That’s what I have was taught to say” or “No one told me I couldn’t say that” is no longer an excuse. Some terms are no longer appropriate to use. So let’s stop using them. 👉🏿 Do you research on terms you don’t understand. Don’t use acronyms and language you are unfamiliar with. 👉🏿 Always ask how colleagues and friends like to identify. Don’t give people labels they didn’t ask for. 👉🏿 Accept we will all make mistakes. We will say the wrong thing. So be ready to apologize authentically, to show up to do better and be better in our workplaces. What advice do you have when it comes to using more inclusive language? #inclusion #leadership #culture #MitaMallick

If you think sexuality has no place at work, this post is for you. It’s Pride Month, and I’ll be speaking with teams about LGBTQ inclusion. At almost every session, someone will ask some version of: “Why do we have to talk about this at work?” The simple answer is we already do. But let’s start with a few things that might’ve happened at work just yesterday: You’re waiting for a meeting to start. Someone asks, “How was your weekend?” You spent it with your partner’s family but not everyone on this call knows you’re gay, so you stay quiet. Your team is reviewing new benefits. The language only refers to heterosexual families, so you’re left unsure if fertility, bereavement, or parental leave policies even apply to you. Your team is heading to a conference. You’re the only one delayed at security because your legal ID doesn’t match your name or gender. These aren’t rare or extreme situations. They’re everyday experiences for LGBTQ people. And they’re exhausting. The constant calculation of what's safe to say, what's too much, what will be thought of as "unprofessional" takes up valuable energy. It limits our ability to connect and trust our teams. It impacts our well-being and our ability to perform. So, why do we have to talk about sexuality at work? Because we already are. Every time we talk about families, benefits, weekends, travel, we’re talking about it. During Pride Month, we’re not introducing something new. We’re just making visible the experiences of LGBTQ team members and the extra burdens we may carry. We’re highlighting the assumptions we make and who we leave out when we make them. This isn't about special treatment. This isn't about "politics." This is about how we care for our people. This is about building strong, innovative, high-performing teams where everyone, including LGBTQ people, can thrive. Caring about your people is caring about your business. We want to bring our best to work but we can't do that if we're asked to leave the best parts of ourselves behind. Use this pride month to have these conversations. Review your policies. Host the trainings. Reinforce that everyone on your team will be treated with dignity and respect. Make it explicit. This doesn't have to be complicated but it is intentional. Your teams will thank you. And if you need support, DM me. I've got just a few open slots for pride this month.