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- WeAreHuman@Work | Issue 018
WeAreHuman@Work | Issue 018
WeAreHuman@Work is a newsletter dedicated to fostering a more sustainable world of work.
THIS WEEK'S CONTENT
Check out the brief descriptions and links below for a quick overview of the topics covered. Scroll down for a full analysis and actionable insights in the complete newsletter.
🎓 EMPLOYABILITY & LEARNING CULTURE 🎓 | How Gen AI Could Change the Value of Expertise | Harvard Business Review (2025) | The AI revolution isn't just changing job requirements—it's fundamentally reshaping learning curves. Discover how generative AI simultaneously creates barriers and bridges to expertise in ways that will transform recruitment, promotion paths, and entire organisational structures.
💼 FUTURE OF JOBS 💼 | Generative Artificial Intelligence and the Workforce | SHRM & The Burning Glass Institute (2025) | This landmark study reveals how GenAI will uniquely disrupt professional roles rather than blue-collar work. The finance, legal, and tech sectors will experience the most significant transformation. The report provides critical guidance for business leaders navigating this unprecedented shift in which high-skilled knowledge work faces automation.
✨ THRIVING @ WORK ✨ | World Happiness Report 2025 | University of Oxford & Gallup (2025) | “Caring, sharing, and supporting behaviours at work are now stronger predictors of happiness than income.” The World Happiness Report 2025 reveals how human connection fuels performance and resilience — and offers a blueprint for designing thriving workplaces. If you're shaping the future of work, this report provides data-backed strategies to humanise it.
🤝 TRUST @ WORK 🤝 | 2025 Edelman Trust Barometer: Trust and the Crisis of Grievance | Edelman Trust Institute (2025) | What happens when 6 in 10 people feel the system is rigged? The 2025 Edelman Trust Barometer reveals a global trust crisis, with 61% feeling left behind by institutions. Business remains the most trusted—and most accountable—actor. This article explores how leaders can rebuild trust at work through fairness, inclusion, and ethical performance. This article unpacks the roots of grievance, the implications for workforce sentiment, and the strategic levers businesses must pull to rebuild trust and drive societal progress.
EMPLOYABILITY & LEARNING CULTURE
How Gen AI Could Change the Value of Expertise | Harvard Business Review (2025) | The AI revolution isn't just changing job requirements—it's fundamentally reshaping learning curves. Discover how generative AI simultaneously creates barriers and bridges to expertise in ways that will transform recruitment, promotion paths, and entire organisational structures.
📊 DID YOU KNOW?
Did you know that gen AI will reshape the career paths of 50 million workers in the next few years, with the most dramatic impact already visible in software engineering, where Microsoft's Copilot has caused entry-level hiring to collapse effectively while senior developers become 40% more productive?
This real-world experiment shows our bifurcated future: fewer entry points in some fields and unprecedented access in others.
👀 DID YOU SEE?
The article's striking "Earning Curves by Occupation" visualisation reveals a stark divide in how expertise is valued across professions. Software developers, actuaries, and credit analysts show steep upward curves where top performers earn over $150,000 —more than double their entry-level counterparts. Meanwhile, cashiers and similar roles display nearly flat lines with minimal wage growth regardless of experience. This visual perfectly illustrates which careers face AI disruption at the entry level (the steep curves) versus those where AI might democratise access (the flat curves), allowing readers to instantly grasp where their profession might fall in this new paradigm.

Figure: Earning Curves by Occupation
✨ OVERVIEW
The Burning Glass Institute and Harvard Business School Project on Managing the Future of Work have uncovered a surprising bifurcation in how generative AI is reshaping expertise acquisition. Their research reveals that about 12% of U.S. workers are in roles where AI will likely automate away entry-level positions, whilst 19% are in fields where AI will make technical skills more accessible to newcomers. This dual impact will affect roughly 50 million jobs in the coming years, forcing a complete rethink of organisational structures and talent pipelines. The traditional pyramid-shaped organisation with many junior staff supporting fewer seniors is transforming into a diamond shape, fundamentally altering how expertise is developed, valued, and leveraged—creating crisis and opportunity for organisations that can adapt quickly.
🧩 CONTEXT
Professional advancement has followed predictable learning curves for decades, from novice to expert shaping everything from salary structures to organisational hierarchies. In high-value fields like finance, consulting, and technology, significant expertise gaps between juniors and seniors created natural career ladders and wage premiums for experience. These time-worn progressions established the fundamental blueprint for how companies hire, train, and promote talent.
Now, generative AI is disrupting this model in both directions. In some fields, it's automating the foundational tasks that historically provided newcomers with on-the-job learning, creating a "missing rung" on career ladders. Simultaneously, in other fields, AI democratises access to technical expertise that previously required years of specialised training. This seismic shift is happening just as employers face talent shortages and demographic challenges, creating a perfect storm of workforce transformation.
🔍 WHY IT MATTERS
↳ The expertise divide is widening—Research identifies 100 occupations where gen AI will likely raise entry barriers, affecting 17.8 million workers (about 12% of the U.S. workforce). These roles—including project management specialists, training managers, and financial risk specialists—show steep learning curves where experienced workers command significantly higher salaries. As AI automates entry-level tasks in these fields, the traditional pathways for developing future talent are being dismantled before our eyes.
↳ Traditional organisational structures are becoming obsolete—Current pyramid models with 5:1 ratios of juniors to seniors will rapidly shift toward 2:1 or even flatter structures. This will not just change headcounts but fundamentally transform how work happens. With fewer management layers, decision-making will accelerate, but companies risk creating critical talent bottlenecks without the traditional pipeline of trained juniors advancing to senior roles.
↳ New doors are opening for previously excluded talent—For 28.6 million workers (nearly 20% of the workforce) in fields like data warehousing, construction management, and network administration, AI is lowering barriers by handling technical aspects that once required specialised training. This represents a historic opportunity to diversify talent pools and address chronic skills shortages by bringing in previously excluded workers despite having relevant capabilities in other areas.
💡 KEY INSIGHTS
↳ Learning curve steepness predicts AI's barrier effect—The researchers discovered that occupations where experienced workers out-earn juniors by the most significant margins (steep learning/earning curves) are precisely where AI will most likely automate entry-level positions. In these fields, such as software development, where top performers earn $150,000+ compared to entry-level salaries of $55,000, AI tools like Copilot are already eliminating traditional junior roles. This pattern appears consistently across industries from finance to creative fields.
↳ Explicit knowledge barriers fall whilst implicit knowledge becomes more valuable—Gen AI excels at making codified, explicit knowledge (learned from textbooks) more accessible. In contrast, tacit, implicit knowledge gained through experience remains AI-resistant. This shifts the expertise premium toward company-specific knowledge and less codifiable skills. For example, a construction manager no longer needs to memorise building codes (AI handles that) but still needs on-site experience managing complex projects and stakeholder relationships.
↳ Diamond-shaped organisations require completely new talent models—With fewer entry-level positions and a continued need for senior expertise; organisations must develop entirely new approaches to talent. The research shows companies will likely need to recruit laterally from adjacent fields, create accelerated learning programmes to rapidly develop expertise, and invest heavily in retaining experienced staff. This represents a shift from the traditional "churn-and-burn" talent management model toward long-term retention and continuous skill development.
🚀 ACTIONS FOR LEADERS
↳ Redesign your organisational structure for the AI era—Audit your current role ratios between junior and senior positions, especially in fields with steep learning curves. Create transition plans to shift from pyramid to diamond structures by identifying which entry-level tasks can be automated and how to preserve necessary learning experiences. Set clear 3-year targets for new organisational shapes with metrics to track progress.
↳ Build rapid expertise development programmes—Traditional on-the-job learning will no longer suffice. Develop simulation-based training that compresses years of experience into months, focusing on company-specific knowledge that AI can't easily replicate. Follow the example of firms creating "digital twins" of complex systems where newcomers can gain virtual experience without risk. Allocate 15-20% of your L&D budget to accelerated expertise programmes.
↳ Create new cross-functional career pathways—With fewer traditional promotion opportunities, design lateral career movements that build versatile expertise. Map skills that transfer between functions and create formal rotation programmes. PwC and leading firms require at least two to three cross-functional experiences before considering senior leadership. Document your new career paths explicitly and train managers to guide staff through non-traditional advancement opportunities.
🔗 CONCLUSION
The gen AI revolution isn't just changing job requirements—it's fundamentally reshaping how expertise is developed, valued, and deployed. Organisations face a profound restructuring as traditional learning curves are redrawn and pyramid structures flatten into diamonds. This transformation creates threats and opportunities: whilst established talent pipelines are disrupted, new doors open for previously excluded workers in fields where AI can augment their capabilities.
Forward-thinking leaders will view learning curves as not fixed realities but strategic variables they can influence. By creating new expertise development models, redesigning organisational structures, and embracing AI-augmented learning, companies can build more flexible, diverse workforces capable of thriving amid constant technological change. Those who simply react to these shifts rather than proactively reshaping their talent approaches risk losing the expertise needed to remain competitive in an increasingly AI-powered world.
🎯 KEY TAKEAWAY
The true competitive advantage in the AI era isn't the technology but how organisations redesign their expertise development models. Those who master accelerated learning curves and diamond-shaped talent structures will outperform those who cling to traditional hierarchies and career paths.
FUTURE OF JOBS
Generative Artificial Intelligence and the Workforce | SHRM & The Burning Glass Institute (2025) | This landmark study reveals how GenAI will uniquely disrupt professional roles rather than blue-collar work, with finance, legal, and tech sectors facing the most significant transformation. The report provides critical guidance for business leaders navigating this unprecedented shift in which high-skilled knowledge work faces automation.
📊 DID YOU KNOW?
Did you know that generative AI will significantly impact high-paying professional work, driving $1.4 trillion in increased market capitalisation across the S&P 500 in early 2023 alone? Previous automation waves primarily affected low-wage occupations paying less than $50,000 annually.
👀 DID YOU SEE?

Figure: Ways GenAI May Impact Jobs
✨ OVERVIEW
The SHRM and Burning Glass Institute report examines how generative AI represents a fundamentally different automation wave that targets high-skilled knowledge work rather than physical labour. Unlike previous technological disruptions, GenAI will affect professional roles that are long considered immune to automation. The research identifies three primary GenAI impacts: automating repetitive professional tasks, augmenting workers with AI-enhanced capabilities, and ultimately transforming job descriptions through new unit economics. The authors use a rigorous methodology that measures occupational exposure to GenAI capabilities to map disruption across industries, organisations, and regions. The study shows that the finance, professional services, and information systems sectors face the most significant exposure, with specific companies like Morgan Stanley, McKinsey, and Bloomberg particularly vulnerable. For CHROs and business leaders, this comprehensive analysis provides critical guidance on workforce planning, talent development, and strategic positioning during this unprecedented technological shift.
🧩 CONTEXT
Automation has consistently reshaped economic history since the Industrial Revolution. Beginning in the early 1990s, manufacturing automation replaced factory workers with robots, while the rise of e-commerce later displaced retail workers. The current wave driven by GenAI is extending and accelerating the ongoing automation of administrative and office support roles. What distinguishes this automation wave is its unprecedented targeting of sophisticated tasks typically performed by professionals rather than support workers. GenAI excels at generating coherent text, answering questions, producing code, creating images and videos, enhancing content, summarising information, and retrieving vast amounts of knowledge—directly overlapping with core functions of high-skilled knowledge work. GenAI's capabilities (text generation, coding assistance, information retrieval) and its limitations (lack of originality, limited critical thinking, low emotional intelligence) are essential for grasping its potential workforce impact.
🔍 WHY IT MATTERS
↳ Early GenAI adopters will see substantial productivity gains followed by workforce adjustments—As AI automates, augments, or transforms roles, the output will surge beyond corresponding demand growth, creating overstaffing in many industries. In competitive markets with labour oversupply, companies will implement workforce reductions. As hiring slows, the average workforce age will increase—a relationship demonstrated in Figure 2 shows an inverse correlation between employment growth and median age shifts. The data reveals that shrinking occupations age faster, challenging organisations' skill flexibility and knowledge exchange capabilities.
↳ GenAI will trigger significant economic redistribution—Productivity increases will disproportionately benefit those whose jobs remain and who can leverage AI capabilities. Given the potential for human labour displacement, GenAI will generate outsized returns for investors and senior employees at tech companies, many already among America's wealthiest, further intensifying wealth concentration. This wealth effect is already visible in financial markets—in April 2023, J.P. Morgan analysts attributed a $1.4 trillion market capitalisation increase and 45% profit growth to AI optimism. By 2025, Goldman Sachs projects global AI investments will reach nearly $200 billion, accelerating research and development timelines.
↳ The economic impacts will vary dramatically across workforce segments—Figure 4 in the report clearly shows that while previous automation waves primarily affected low-wage occupations (blue bars), GenAI uniquely targets high-wage professional roles (yellow bars). Legal professionals earning $124,540, computer specialists earning $108,130, and financial specialists earning $92,290 face significant exposure, while blue-collar workers may benefit from increased demand for premium goods and services that wealthier AI beneficiaries will purchase. This represents a fundamental inversion of previous automation patterns and their distributional consequences.
💡 KEY INSIGHTS
↳ GenAI will drive broad transformations across white-collar work—The report identifies specific high-risk occupations spanning business/legal (purchasing agents, management analysts, lawyers), STEM (programmers, data scientists, medical scientists), finance (insurance underwriters, accountants, financial analysts), writing/editing (writers, reporters, editors), social sciences (economists, political scientists), sales (insurance agents, advertising agents), and office administration roles. For instance, financial analysts spend substantial time analysing market trends and creating predictive models—tasks GenAI can streamline. Similarly, regulatory compliance tasks performed by auditors and lawyers can be accelerated with fewer errors, while software developers can use GenAI to generate code and debug programs.
↳ Industry transformation will follow occupational exposure patterns—The most vulnerable industries have GenAI exposure scores above 3.8, with mortgage and non-mortgage loan brokers (3.909), law offices (3.906), and investment banking (3.885) facing the highest risk. Companies like Morgan Stanley (3.913), Bank of America (3.902), and Northwestern Mutual (3.884) in finance, McKinsey (3.862), KPMG (3.858), and Deloitte (3.798) in professional services, and Bloomberg (3.818), Salesforce (3.800), and Google (3.793) in information systems show the highest exposure scores, requiring immediate strategic planning for GenAI-driven disruptions.
↳ Technology hubs will see accelerated economic growth—The data reveals that Silicon Valley metropolitan areas have already experienced extraordinary growth, with San Jose, Sunnyvale, and Santa Clara seeing 110.0% per-capita income growth from 2011-2021, followed by San Francisco, Oakland, and Berkeley at 91.5%. The U.S. hosts 36 top 50 global technology companies and boasts cutting-edge academic institutions with substantial AI research investments. This positions the country to disproportionately benefit from GenAI adoption, further accelerating economic growth in tech-centred regions.
↳ The worker skills landscape will undergo a substantial shift—Skills increasing in importance include AI literacy, systems evaluation, data literacy, emotional intelligence, continuous learning, critical thinking, digital security, and creativity. Conversely, as GenAI excels at these tasks, basic capabilities like content creation, graphic design, research, web development, coding, and simple data analysis will decrease in value. Rather than wholesale job elimination, many roles will be augmented (like doctors using AI for improved diagnostics) or transformed (HR professionals shifting from administrative tasks to coaching and strategic functions).
🚀 ACTIONS FOR LEADERS
↳ Conduct a comprehensive GenAI exposure assessment—Evaluate your organisation's composition by analysing the prevalence of at-risk occupations within your workforce. Companies operating in industries with GenAI exposure scores above 3.8 (like financial or professional services) or with large concentrations of vulnerable roles should prepare for significant disruption. Use this assessment to identify specific departments and functions most likely to be transformed by GenAI and prioritise them for intervention.
↳ Map transformation pathways for each significant role—For each position in your organisation, determine whether it will be automated (tasks entirely replaced by GenAI), augmented (AI enhances human capabilities), or transformed (job description fundamentally reimagined). Create role-specific learning and development plans to build skills that complement rather than compete with AI capabilities. For instance, graphic designers could shift from basic creation to conceptual design and contextual adaptation, where human creativity remains superior to AI.
↳ Strategically realign your talent pipeline—Figure 8 in the report provides a framework for evaluating how GenAI will affect talent markets based on current shortages and AI impact levels. Positions in the "Continued Labor Shortages" quadrant (healthcare practitioners, skilled trades) require sustained recruiting focus, while those in "Labor Shortages Mitigated" (information security, actuaries) may become easier to staff. Prepare for surplus talent in business and financial roles while building pipelines for AI-fluent specialists who can manage and optimise GenAI systems.
↳ Implement gradual workforce transition strategies—Rather than relying solely on layoffs, deploy more subtle approaches like hiring freezes and natural attrition to minimise disruption. Develop comprehensive reskilling programs to reposition workers from automated roles to areas with stable demand. Create robust employee support systems, including mental health resources and transition assistance, to address the emotional toll of job insecurity. As the workforce ages due to decreased hiring, implement knowledge transfer initiatives to maintain organisational memory and learning capacity.
🔗 CONCLUSION
The SHRM and Burning Glass Institute report reveals that GenAI represents an unprecedented shift in automation—targeting high-skilled knowledge work rather than physical labour or routine tasks. While workforce disruptions will occur as productivity outpaces demand, the economic dislocation will likely be temporary, followed by price decreases, increased consumer spending, and eventual employment rebounding. Business leaders must prepare by evaluating their organisation's exposure, reassessing talent needs, and investing in worker development. The disruption will be particularly acute in financial services, professional services, and information technology while potentially benefiting blue-collar workers through increased demand for premium goods and services. By understanding the specific contours of GenAI's impact on their workforce and implementing strategic transitions, organisations can navigate this technological revolution successfully and position themselves for long-term advantage.
🎯 KEY TAKEAWAY
GenAI will transform high-skilled professional work like previous automation waves never did. Organisations that identify their exposure, prepare their workforce, and strategically adapt their talent strategy will convert what could be a disruptive threat into a sustainable competitive advantage.
THRIVING @ WORK
World Happiness Report 2025 | University of Oxford & Gallup (2025) | “Caring, sharing, and supporting behaviours at work are now stronger predictors of happiness than income.” The World Happiness Report 2025 reveals how human connection fuels performance and resilience — and offers a blueprint for designing thriving workplaces. If you're shaping the future of work, this report provides data-backed strategies to humanise it.
📊 DID YOU KNOW?
Did you know that a single act of kindness — like helping a stranger — can lift your happiness more than a promotion or a pay rise?
✨ OVERVIEW
The World Happiness Report 2025 shifts the spotlight from individual emotions to collective behaviours. Through eight chapters, it explores how interpersonal dynamics — from sharing meals to offering support — shape happiness. The findings are profound: social trust, perceived kindness, prosocial behaviour, and household connectedness are key predictors of well-being. A blueprint for thriving at work emerges: environments where care is mutual, connection is deliberate, and support is both institutional and personal. This year's report doesn't just describe a happier world; it outlines how to build one.
🧩 CONTEXT
Work is no longer just a place for tasks — it's where people seek meaning, belonging, and psychological safety. Yet trends show rising loneliness, especially among young adults, and a growing gap in social support. From 2006 to 2023, the proportion of young adults with no one to count on rose by 39%. Meanwhile, solitary dining increased by 53% in the United States alone. These aren’t just lifestyle shifts; they are wellbeing alarms. This year’s report investigates how micro-behaviours like meal sharing, volunteering, and emotional support shape broader well-being outcomes — with critical implications for workplace culture.
🔍 WHY IT MATTERS
↳ Kindness fuels well-being more than income or freedom—Expected kindness (e.g., the likelihood of a lost wallet being returned) has nearly twice the impact on happiness as actual benevolent acts. Where people believe in the goodness of others, well-being thrives.
↳ Loneliness is growing rapidly among young workers—In 2023, 19% of young adults reported having no one for social support. This isolation erodes resilience and increases susceptibility to stress and burnout.
↳ Prosocial behaviour reduces deaths of despair — A 10 percentage-point increase in volunteering, donating, or helping is linked to 1 fewer deaths per 100,000 people annually, underscoring the societal value of care.
↳ Meal-sharing is as impactful as income—People who regularly share meals report higher life satisfaction, with effects comparable to employment or income levels. Yet solo dining is on the rise, particularly in high-income countries.
↳ Family and living arrangements matter—Household size up to four correlates with higher well-being. Living alone or in huge households is associated with lower life satisfaction, pointing to the value of balance and emotional proximity.
💡 KEY INSIGHTS
↳ The Benevolence Bump is Real—Helping strangers remains 18% higher than in 2017–2019. This sustained increase from the pandemic shows how small acts of kindness ripple through society.
↳ Assumed Apathy is a Barrier—Many young adults avoid connection because they assume peers don't care. Interventions that reveal peer empathy significantly increase interaction and well-being.
↳ Trust Drives Systems Engagement—Unhappy, low-trust individuals lean right; unhappy, high-trust individuals lean left. Trust affects politics and influences how employees engage with workplace systems.
↳ Intentional Giving Fuels Happiness—Donations create well-being when voluntary, intentional, and impactful—a lesson for corporate giving and employee volunteering programmes.
↳ Support Works Best by Design—Prosocial behaviours yield more when they occur in environments that prioritise connection, autonomy, and visible outcomes — all of which can be embedded in workplace culture.
🚀 ACTIONS FOR LEADERS
Let’s reframe actions into a strategic, easy-to-remember framework: CARE. CONNECT. CONTRIBUTE.
🤝 CARE
↳ Embed Caring Behaviours into Your Culture—Recognise, reward, and role-model acts of kindness. From helping a colleague to championing mental health, these build trust and resilience.
🧩 CONNECT
↳ Create Rituals for Connection—Schedule regular team lunches, peer learning circles, or 10-minute check-ins. These simple touchpoints foster belonging and counteract isolation.
↳ Design for Inclusive Social Connection—Adapt social initiatives to suit diverse cultures, household types, and care responsibilities. Ensure everyone has access to belonging.
🎯 CONTRIBUTE
↳ Make Support Visible and Accessible—Highlight mental health services, peer support options, and internal mobility opportunities. Employees need to know where to turn.
↳ Reframe Giving as Strategy, Not Charity—Align volunteering and giving programmes with employee values and impact metrics. Purpose-driven contribution boosts morale and engagement.
🔗 CONCLUSION
Thriving at work requires more than perks and pay rises. As the World Happiness Report 2025 reveals, the foundation lies in relational infrastructure: genuine connection, social trust, and everyday acts of care. By reframing the workplace as a site of human flourishing—not just performance—leaders can unlock profound gains in well-being, loyalty, and resilience.
It’s time to stop designing workplaces for output and start designing them for well-being. The next competitive advantage isn’t tech or strategy—it’s humanity.
🎯 KEY TAKEAWAY
People don’t just work better where kindness and connection flourish—they thrive.
TRUST @ WORK
2025 Edelman Trust Barometer: Trust and the Crisis of Grievance | Edelman Trust Institute (2025) | What happens when 6 in 10 people feel the system is rigged? The 2025 Edelman Trust Barometer reveals a global trust crisis, with 61% feeling left behind by institutions. Business remains the most trusted—and most accountable—actor. This article explores how leaders can rebuild trust at work through fairness, inclusion, and ethical performance. This article unpacks the roots of grievance, the implications for workforce sentiment, and the strategic levers businesses must pull to rebuild trust and drive societal progress.
📊 DID YOU KNOW?
Did you know that 61% of people worldwide now feel betrayed by institutions they once trusted—believing that business, government, and the wealthy serve only themselves, not society?
👀 DID YOU SEE?

✨ OVERVIEW
The 2025 Edelman Trust Barometer reveals a world increasingly driven by distrust and disillusionment. Grievance—the belief that institutions harm ordinary people while favouring the elite—has become a dominant global sentiment. The survey, spanning 28 countries and over 33,000 respondents, shows that this sentiment reshapes how people perceive trust, legitimacy, and leadership. Particularly alarming is the growing approval of hostile activism among younger generations, driven by economic insecurities, perceived injustices, and eroding social contracts. While businesses still enjoy relatively high trust levels, this trust is conditional and fragile, especially among the most aggrieved populations. The report calls on business leaders to act decisively, ethically, and inclusively, using their platform to meet performance goals and rebuild societal cohesion. Trust is no longer earned through messaging—it must be restored through meaningful action.
🧩 CONTEXT
The crisis of grievance did not emerge overnight. Institutional failures have left deep scars from the 2008 financial crisis to the COVID-19 pandemic and global political instability. Economic inequality has widened, and perceived fairness has deteriorated. The rich are increasingly seen as selfish and extractive—67% believe they don’t pay their fair share of taxes. Meanwhile, technological disruption and offshoring are intensifying job insecurity, with 63% of employees fearing job loss due to automation or foreign competitors. These compounding pressures have led to a widespread belief that the system is rigged, especially among low-income and young populations. As a result, grievance is fuelling distrust, reducing economic optimism, and increasing polarisation. It’s not just a social issue—it’s a strategic one.
🔍 WHY IT MATTERS
🧱 Institutional Fragility
↳ Grievance undermines trust across all institutions—Individuals with high grievance levels are far more likely to distrust business, media, NGOs, and government. Trust drops by up to 21 percentage points in business and 34 points in AI among these individuals.
↳ Trust inequality widens social division—High-income groups are significantly more trusting than low-income ones, with a 13-point gap in trust overall and 16-point gaps across institutions like business and government.
🔄 Societal and Workplace Consequences
↳ Grievance triggers a zero-sum mindset—People with high grievances are 2x more likely to believe that gains for others come at their loss, undermining collaboration, inclusion, and cohesion at work and in society.
↳ The crisis affects workforce dynamics—Fear of discrimination is at an all-time high, with 63% globally worrying about experiencing prejudice. Meanwhile, employer trust has declined across 22 markets, reversing years of progress.
💡 KEY INSIGHTS
↳ Grievance is not a fringe sentiment—it’s the new global baseline—The sense of grievance spans all regions and demographics, with majorities in 23 of 26 countries reporting moderate or high grievance.
↳ Trust and optimism rise—and fall—together—As institutional trust increases, economic optimism rises and grievance declines. Among high-trust individuals, 75% feel optimistic about their economic future, compared to just 8% among the low-trust group.
↳ The workplace remains the last bastion of societal civility—Despite declining trust, 80% of employees believe businesses must nurture civility to address polarisation. Businesses are also expected to provide good-paying jobs and invest in reskilling, regardless of grievance levels.
↳ CEOs still have the mandate to lead beyond profit—Across all grievance levels, around 76–79% believe CEOs are justified in addressing societal issues if it improves business performance or has a high impact.
🚀 ACTIONS FOR LEADERS
↳ Anchor stakeholder trust in equitable business outcomes—Leaders must demonstrate tangible benefits to all stakeholder groups, especially those left behind. Fair wages, equitable policies, and visible impact matter.
↳ Tackle systemic drivers, not just symptoms—Rather than respond reactively to grievances, leaders should address inequality, perceived injustice, and exclusion from opportunity.
↳ Build cultures of respectful dialogue—Create environments where employees can engage in civil, constructive conversations on complex topics. Doing so builds trust, connection, and resilience.
↳ Align ethics with business performance—CEOs must act where they can make a real difference—and show how these actions contribute to business value and societal good.
↳ Invest in skills, jobs, and community roots—From reskilling to community employment, business is mandated to enable a better future for all—even among those most distrustful.
🔗 CONCLUSION
The 2025 Edelman Trust Barometer clarifies one truth: the world is navigating a profound trust crisis rooted in grievance. This is not a communications issue—it's a systemic failure of perceived fairness and opportunity. This moment allows business leaders to rebuild trust through ethical leadership, inclusive growth, and human-centred strategies. Trust is no longer an abstract value but a measurable, strategic lever for resilience, reputation, and results. The cost of inaction is rising polarization, workforce disengagement, and eroded legitimacy. The opportunity? A more sustainable, inclusive, and trusted future is built through responsible leadership.
Trust will define the next decade of business as its most significant risk or its greatest asset.
🌟 KEY TAKEAWAY
To turn grievance into growth, leaders must rebuild trust not through promises but through performance anchored in fairness, empathy, and shared progress.