Summer of Fun? Or Cruel, Cruel Summer?

Last night's summer solstice ushered in epic worker disengagement, but also the promise for talent of agentic AI empowerment

Happy Summer 2025! Are you about to experience a Summer of Fun or a "Cruel, Cruel Summer?"

Last evening, at around 10PM local time here on the U.S.'s Eastern Seaboard, summer officially began. And with the summer solstice's arrival came a big shock.

According to Gallup, workplace disengagement is red-lining. The demands of higher ups placed on some career professionals--to take on more work, to ride shifts in management reporting structures, to stretch the day past normally accepted hours of work, and, to reckon with now radioactively toxic workplaces--are daunting.

Add to that fetid brew a week-long pattern of 100 degree-plus temperatures and high humidity that tomorrow will stretch from Boston south to DC.

It is sure to render the once happiest time of the year...cruel.

What's more, many in the workplace have taken on more out-of-pocket expense from food, and rent, and the commute. Some are seeing the "vig" from their student loans come due.

We call our workplace talent a company's most-important assets. And yet our best, brightest, and most promising knowledge workers are getting stretched beyond their tolerances.

And the melting popsicle puddled up on the pavement? That's a metaphor for career advancement lost to Agentic AI which some feel will claim their jobs and careers.

It seems a metaphysical certitude that the Summer of 2025 is going to be a terribly rough one for millions of career professionals in the U.S. and abroad.

On an oppressively hot and humid summer night to come, will millions of career professionals go full "Howard Beale," stick their heads through the open windows of their small, high cost, and sweltering apartments to yell, "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore?"

I think it is within the realm of probability.

So, to where might promising talent escape? To other companies? Not in high numbers.

In fact, we're already seeing--or expect to see--large workforce reductions beyond government in leading brands like Amazon, Microsoft, Intel Corporation, UPS, and Procter & Gamble.

Indeed, the jobs outlook appears as hazy as a summer sky for talent, especially newer-to-the-workplace talent, don't have a lot of options.

Perhaps some will escape the workplace cauldron to find self-determination as independent contractors (1099s) or in side-hustles? Time will tell.

This I know: while the workplace is likely to be a rough place to operate, being there might be what encourages our bright and talented up-and-comers to increase their own workplace value.

And that might happen with overcoming the very thing that worries them most: AI. What I think may result is a trend by younger, newer-to-the-workplace talent to learn how to incorporate agentic AI into their work lives so that it becomes a major career advantage.

And when that happens, our best days lie ahead. Remember to hydrate.

Note: image rendered on ChatGPT 4o based on our prompts.

I’m Dan Smolen. As host and executive producer of WHAT'S YOUR WORK FIT? I help you make your work and workplace decisions result in better and more satisfying professional experiences and outcomes. I am also a Founding Member of The Future of Work Alliance.