Aren't you exhausted yet, my dear Americans? Aren't you tired of waking up to your phone’s alarm clock, only to be sucked into the infinite scroll of digital doom — while today's leaders are flailing and failing? But there IS a solution! All you have to do is something totally new!!
If eventually your going to want a better job, why wait any longer to step into a more magical workplace reality?
By Mike Reid | May 2025
So....what happened?
Well, three big things happened in rapid succession:
First, in March 2020, the modern workplace shifted away from people mostly sitting in the same building as their teammates to collaborating through digital channels like Slack and Zoom. (And now nobody wants to go back to the 2019 workplace, but everyone's exhausted by constant digital communication.)
Then, Generation Z — born starting in 1997 — decided that 2021 would be the right time to announce publicly that they'll never act like Millennials in the workplace. (Or really anywhere. That's one of the key things to understand about Gen Z: They're not Millennials.)
And then, in March 2023, OpenAI released the first truly intelligent artificial intelligence, ChatGPT-4. (And everyone freaked out briefly, but then nothing very impressive has happened with AI....yet.)
And look, I'll be honest: Back in 2020 when the pandemic hit, I was extremely unprepared for what was to come next.
Before the pandemic, I was an imperfect but acceptable boss — but I quickly became a disqualifyingly bad boss when I tried to lead via Slack, and Zoom, and weekly Google Slide presentations over video.
And after years of welcoming my generational peers — increasingly younger Millennials — to the workplace, I did not anticipate just how different someone born in 1998 is from someone born in 1995.
Birthday in 2025:
For my entire life since I'd graduated college in 2007, an endless supply of Millennials had happily accepted unpaid internships and grueling jobs at the bottom of the workforce because that was how we got our foot in the door of our chosen industries.
We'd all been Anne Hathaway in The Devil Wears Prada.
And some of us were now finally achieving a bit of success, after all those years of working too hard for not enough pay.
But not Gen Z!
Gen Z was not about to get in line behind all of the Millennials!
Rule #1:
Be 100% in the game, or 100% out of the game.
Because from Gen Z's perspective, that would be incredibly stupid!
Because the cool thing about Generation Z is that they're uniquely talented at looking at a situation from a fresh perspective — from the perspective of someone born in 1997 and beyond — and calling bullshit on what's obviously no longer working.
And Generation Z thinks that the modern workplace is incredibly stupid. And to be 100% honest, I agree. Because even most people in "elite" positions are miserable in their jobs right now — aren't you?
Birthday in 2025:
Baby Boomers will turn 61 to 79 years old.
Generation X will turn 45 to 60 years old.
Millennials will turn 29 to 44 years old.
Generation Z will turn 13 to 28 years old.
And look, the reality is that are already more Gen Zs than Boomers in today's workforce — and Gen Z is just getting started while the Boomers mostly need to figure out how to retire very soon.
So, I think we need to embrace reality, and then deal with it:
The workplace is now full of Gen Zs (who are extremely talented with digital tools but uncomfortable without technology), Gen Xers (who are extremely grounded in physical reality but uncomfortable with how digital everything has become), and Millennials who are stuck in the middle (and really can't be bothered right now).
(Plus throw in a bunch of Boomers who don't want to retire yet.)
Seven Roles:
So, look, obviously things aren't working like they used to anymore because 2025 isn't 1999, or 2019, or even 2024 — and so step #1 is to reinvent "work" to meet the realities of today and to anticipate the rapidly evolving potential timelines of the future.
Because until we invent new and better ways of working together that make sense for the realities of 2025, we'll be stuck living inside our increasing miserable physical and digital realities.
We Build Brands.
(And empower others to lead them.)
Because over the last 30 years, starting in 1995 — when everyday Americans started getting dial-up internet — until today in the year 2025, our daily realities became increasingly digital.
But we've now realized that the internet is no fun anymore.
We've now realized we're spending WAY too much time online!
So now, we have to somehow become less digital — but what does a "less digital" future look like in the year 2025, or 2026, or 2032?
Because we can't just go backwards and recreate 1995 or 2005.
(Personally, I think we should use the internet to describe awesome new things we want to build, and then recruit people who want to manifest those ideas into both our digital and physical realities.)
Imagine a fundamentally different digital reality.
JoyDense.comI think today, here in the year 2025, is finally the right moment to build something better than has ever existed before.
2025 is the year to imagine the future — a version that is better than you've ever imagined before — and to realize that the future is going to be a heck of a lot different than you used to think, but also a LOT better than sticking around today's status quo any longer.
Because today (almost) everything isn't as good as it used to be.
And Generation Z has demanded that everything change.
And AI technology is already changing everything.
And therefore, a lot of things must change at a foundational level.
Principles:
Start with the goal to do it better than ever before.
Financial strength for all involved.
Take unusually good care of your people.
Collaborate in flow.
Empower others to lead.
Evolve to meet a rapidly changing world.
Change your perspective.
Because yes, AI technology will be an essential skill for many jobs in the future, and your current job is probably going to disappear, or at least become heavily influenced by AI.
And (surprise!), Gen Z will be extremely helpful in a future where AI skills are as foundational as reading and writing.
But also yes, Gen Xers who don't want to learn AI will be unusually helpful as we get back into physical reality and create experiences that delight each other in ways that were never possible before.
And yes, it's almost the time for the Boomers to pass the torch to the younger generations. And NOW is already the time for Millennials to realize we have to grow up and become the adults in the room.
Because right now — this very now! — is exactly the right moment for something completely and totally new.
We weren't quite ready in 2019, or 2021, or even in 2024....
But NOW is the year 2025, and we are (finally) ready!!
And to create new things that are better than ever before, first we'll need to reinvent how we collaborate together as humans in 2025.