I scanned my to-do board first thing Monday, and at the top of the list was this reminder to text a friend:
She responded a few hours later, exasperated: They want a content person who is also a visual designer and can code. Also, they want the person to come in 5 days a week and won’t budge on salary.
Add it to the list of disappointing recruiting screeners, first interviews, and “we’re extending an offer to a different candidate” emails she’s been fielding for almost two years now.
My instinct is always to be comforting. Chin up. Their loss. This market is brutal—it’s not you. I’ll keep an eye out for opportunities. This isn’t forever.
But I’ve had too many of these conversations this year. And now, when they come up, my softness curdles into something else: anger.
I’m mad about this job market.
I’m mad at these companies that jerk candidates around.
I’m mad that so many smart, dedicated, caring people I know are feeling fucked over.
Monday was perfect timing to come across a post about 10 healthy ways to release rage.
It reminded me of when a friend’s marriage ended. After a few days of tears and silence, she dragged her overflowing recycling bin outside and smashed every glass bottle in there one by one. We stood at her side. It did something for her that our hugs and affirmations couldn’t.
We don’t give ourselves these moments enough. We tell ourselves to be stoic in the face of frustration, mature in the wake of disappointment, calm in the midst of chaos. But really: sometimes we just need to break something.
The flight-or-flight cycle is supposed to end with a discharge of energy—the tiger stops chasing you and you finally feel safe. But when you’re faced with the kinds of threats most of us experience in our everyday lives—threats that are systemic and unrelenting and lack a sense of closure—sometimes you have to create your own release.
Me? I’m partial to sing-shouting at the top of my lungs. I have playlists for different moods: triumph, melancholy, anger. I see those videos of people belting out ballads in their car and think: yes, that’s exactly what I need right now to keep going.
So this message is for Jane and anyone reading who is trying to stay posi and sagging from the effort: Flail your arms around. Scream into a pillow. Give your anger the dignity of a response. It won’t change the world—but it will heal you.
—Jen
What we’re reading
I’ve been thinking a lot this week about the impact of AI on the work we all do—and will continue to do, even as we adopt new tools. Each of these articles reminded me that our very human skills matter more than ever.
AI is forcing UX back to basics
I believe this moment is not just a technology shift. It is a professional refocus. UX now has an opportunity to reclaim its most strategic role: not just shaping what users see, but helping define what matters, what the system is meant to do, and what conditions must be true for humans and AI to work well together.
Software is a coordination problem. AI can't help you with that.
LLM-driven tools afford making outputs, so we make lots of outputs with them. But orienting towards outputs means orienting away from thinking about the problem. This works fine when you are a production designer and answering “what should we be doing?” is someone else’s job. But if it’s your job, outsourcing this question to AI is going to be a disaster.
Why women over 50 are the future of work in the age of AI
The future of work is arriving amid inflation, oil crises, wars, and all sorts of geopolitical tensions, economic anxiety, demographic aging, climate disruption, and the destabilizing effects of AI. In such a world, organizations need people who can handle ambiguity, navigate transitions, sustain relationships, and make sound judgments under pressure.
The machines are taking our jobs. Thank god.
The AI revolution has unbundled two things that were always fused inside the human brain: Computation, which answers “how,” and Consciousness, which answers “why.” AI will perfect the first. It can optimise a supply chain, design a protein, win any game. But it cannot decide what a meaningful life looks like. It cannot choose the communities we want to build, the identities we want to inhabit, or the purposes worth pursuing.
Don’t forget: Power Shift prices go up next week
It’s easy to feel like the world is happening to you—and you’re just reacting to whatever comes your way. But even in the most confusing, uncertain, and chaotic times, you have agency. You can choose how you want to show up, what goals are worth pursuing, and what battles you want to fight. You can deepen your self-understanding and self-trust so that you can face whatever comes your way clear-eyed and confident.
This is the work we do in Power Shift, our 9-week leadership program. We kick off on Wednesday, April 8. Get all the details on our website and be sure to register before March 28, when our last-chance pricing kicks in.