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Hiii,

It's hump day, and morale feels high this week so far!

Anybody else??

(Crossing my fingers and hoping it stays that way. 🤞)

At least, my horoscope seems to think I have lucky girl Pisces energy right now, so I’m gonna go ahead and hang onto that! 

This week, we're getting into the cognitive chaos that comes with using AI past your actual human capacity that nobody seems to be talking about yet, the silent exodus potentially happening inside your org right now, and a super honest convo about culture.

It’s a lot, but it’s necessary, and I promise I’ll try to make it a lil entertaining.

Let’s discuss!

✨ Don't forget: You can always vent, celebrate a win, or find support in Safe Space

✨ Don't forget: You can always vent, celebrate a win, or find support in Safe Space

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🧠 AI Use at Work Is Causing “Brain Fry,” Researchers Find, Especially Among High Performers

The TL;DR: Researchers are calling it "AI brain fry," which is a form of cognitive fatigue hitting workers who use AI to push past their natural capacity. The culprit isn't just AI itself necessarily, but also the constant oversight and task-switching it demands. It’s hitting high performers hardest, and correlating with higher intent to quit.

My POV: HR is one of the roles specifically called out in this research, which means we need to be the ones who need to address this…but we're also living it ourselves!

My nuanced take here is that there's a massive difference between using AI to replace cognitive load and using it in a way that actually adds a layer of mental labor on top of your existing work. 

If your people are spending more energy managing the tools than doing the actual thinking, that's just burnout with a productivity veneer on it. 

The question worth asking your teams right now is "how is using AI actually making you feel at the end of the day?"

On the mic this week: Latesha Byrd is the founder and CEO of Perfeqta, where she helps organizations design people-first cultures, strengthen leadership, and build systems that unlock team potential. As an executive coach and culture strategist, she partners with leaders navigating change and helps them translate values into real operational practices. Her work focuses on leadership alignment, culture clarity, and building workplaces where employees can actually show up as themselves.

Pin this: 

• Real culture = behavior, not branding. If the values on the website don’t show up in daily decisions, employees immediately feel the disconnect.
• Culture initiatives fail when companies focus on the “what” but ignore the “how.” Good ideas collapse without alignment and long-term thinking.
• Trust breaks QUICKLY, and spreads. Even employees who weren’t directly impacted by a mistake start questioning leadership when transparency disappears.
• Meaning matters more than perks. Employees stay engaged when they understand how their work contributes to the company’s mission and impact.

My H*ly Sh*t Moment: Latesha describing culture work as the difference between putting a bandaid on open-heart surgery versus actually fixing the system made it painfully clear to me just how many orgs out there confuse performative initiatives with real cultural change.

▶️ Press Play

Stat: Nearly half of US workers want to change jobs this year, but most are fearful of leaving current employer

My spiral: The market is badddd. The job report doesn't look good when we get them and it's clear that there are more people looking than jobs available. I just read something about how this current job market is worse than the job market was in '08 after the financial crisis. 

I have soo much empathy for people actively looking and those who are trapped in their current jobs and scared. <3 

What this means for HR: potentially, you will have disengaged folks at your organization. 

Address the disengagement and actively work to solve what is making your employees look for other jobs. Start with things like compensation, growth, workplace dynamics (are they forced to work with someone who is a terror?), leadership clarity, and of course, managers. 

If I had to sum up hiring in 2026, it would be great candidates ghosting you while timelines somehow stretch to eternity. Cool system! 🫠 

HR Therapy is back on March 31st, and we're throwing the whole broken playbook out and starting over. 

I'm breaking down why your "we move fast" culture is moving exactly nobody, and what it actually takes to interview and close with confidence.

If you're a People or Talent leader who is tired of running a full-court press with zero structure and maximum chaos, come hang! 

🗣️ UNMUTE YOURSELF

Every now and then, we go looking for the perfect advice or framework when, deep down, we already know exactly what needs to happen. 

So here's what I want you to think about this week:

“What conversation are you avoiding because you already know the answer?”

🛠️ TRY THIS TOMORROW:

Being the person who models feedback culture means you have to go first…every single time. 

And honestly, the best place to start is in the small, ordinary moments that people aren't expecting. So try this tomorrow:

End your next meeting with: "What's one thing we could've done better in this convo?"

👂 OVERHEARD IN SAFE SPACE

Oh, this one hurts because it's so much more complicated than just a communication problem. 

This is a PEOPLE problem at the top!!

Read what members had to say here.

See ya on Friday!

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