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Workweek Newsletter {beacon}

Hebba Youssef

Sep 14th, 2026

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In partnership with

HII!!

I have some fun news to celebrate: over the weekend ✨ I Hate it Here turned FOUR. ✨

Can you believe I’ve been writing this newsletter for the last four years?!

From the girl who wrote 20+ page essays in college the night before they were due to creating a standing habit of sending this newsletter. LOOK AT HOW FAR I’VE COME!!!

Truly, it’s been an honor to send this newsletter. With that an Emmy’s inspired acceptance speech for the award of making it this long (idk??):

[AHEM MY SPEECH]

To the manager who told me my writing "needs to be more professional" four years later, the unprofessional version has its own audience.

To the exec who told me to "just handle it" at 6pm on a Friday: you are in at least 25 editions. Anonymously. Mostly. Thank you for inspiring me.

[orchestra swells]

To the girl writing 20+ page essays the night before they were due, convinced she had zero discipline: BABE. FOUR YEARS. YOU CREATED A HABIT, LOOK AT THAT!

[they are cutting my mic but I refuse to stop]

AND TO EVERY SINGLE PERSON WHO HAS EVER HIT REPLY WITH "WAIT, THIS IS HAPPENING AT MY COMPANY TOO" THAT'S IT, THAT'S THE WHOLE POINT, FOUR YEARS OF PROVING NONE OF US WERE WILD, WE WERE JUST ALL STUCK IN THE SAME BROKEN SYSTEM WITH NOBODY SAYING IT OUT LOUD!!!!!!

[cut to commercial]

Four years of the burn book for HR. I hate it here! No wait, actually… I love it here <333

[end scene]

Thank you for letting me live out my dreams of an Emmy speech, manifesting a real one someday.

Until then you can catch my original writing + performances in the following places:

🎧 The pod is a solo ep this week… about what Buffy taught me about working in HR. I hope you enjoy it!! If you didn’t pls let me know. Always happy to get your feedback.

📺 Dr. Ken and I are getting real about AI data and what it ACTUALLY means. Join us on the next HR Therapy as we dig into the data and what it means for HR. I’m pumped to get into the deets.

✍🏽 Writer’s Room: ever had a desire to write a newsletter, but don’t know where to get started? The content coach who taught me everything about newsletters is joining me for an informal session about how to get started. I mean I made it 4 years because of all the foundational things she taught me!

Now, onto today… an anniversary we MUST celebrate

4 years of I Hate it Here:

I cannot believe I've been hitting send on this newsletter for the last four years. If you told me four years ago that this would be my life, I would probably think you were lying!!

Four years. Roughly 200ish editions, a blinking cursor, and a low-grade panic that this is the week I finally run out of things to say. Turns out I have A LOT to say.

❤️ And none of it happened alone, shoutout to Adam & Becca, who believed in this before there was anything to believe in, and to my team, who quietly makes every single one of these things happen while I'm off being loud somewhere.

✍🏽 But here's the actual reason I keep going, and it's not the stages or the stats. It's the replies.

Every single week, somebody writes back with some version of "wait, this is happening at my company too." And that's it. That's the whole thing. Four years ago I thought I was starting a newsletter, but it's become so much more than that!! It became an outlet to talk about all the things that are wrong with work AND how to make them better.

Because we (and our employees) deserve to work somewhere great.

Okay. Enough feelings. (For now. I make no promises.)

In the last four years there have been so many milestone moments so thought I’d take a min today and share some! 👇

4 milestones:

Milestone 1: I started speaking on stages

Me. On a stage. Talking about HR. To people who came on purpose to hear my thoughts!!! Four years ago I was a person with a Google Doc and a loooong rant, and now there are keynotes on diff topics and backstages with someone clipping a mic to my collar like I'm a professional.

BTW: I still get nervous every single time. (The trick is that nobody can tell. Please don't tell them.) I cannot believe people want to hear me talk and more importantly, they’re laughing at my jokes. Because we all know I got ‘em!

Milestone 2: We built a community for HR leaders

15,000+ of you. An actual room full of people who get it, where you don't have to translate what your week was like or pretend it was fine. HR spends all day holding space for everyone else and almost never gets any back, so we built the place, Safe Space, that gives it back!!! Still one of the things I'm proudest of!

ANDDD In the last few weeks we also launched the ability to create your own newsletter in Safe Space. One of my biggest dreams is that more practitioners create content and we can spread new and better practices across our industry. I want more HR leaders on stages talking about what this job really requires!

Soo, whatcha waiting for? Come join us!

Milestone 3: We hosted some genuinely sick events

The kind where people show up braced for another webinar and instead end up in a room where everyone's actually teaching each other and making BFFs in the chat. Turns out the smartest person in HR isn't always on a stage. It's the 40 of you in the chat going "okay here's what worked for us." HR Therapy is my fave event of the month!!!

And my fave event of the year? It’s Safe Space Summit. If you’re a VP or above at a company 250+ employees we’re covering your hotel & travel to come hang with us IRL! Last year’s incredible speakers featured above.

Milestone 4: We won an award

An actual award!!!

From Transform, I was deemed the Industry Mobilizer: Inspiring Resource of the Year. Given to the newsletter literally named "I Hate It Here” this remains the funniest possible outcome??

But also: mobilizer. This is not a solo award!! You cannot mobilize an industry by yourself in a Google Doc on a Sunday night. That one belongs to all of us. <33333

What’s next:

What’s next for I Hate it Here?

Hopefully many more editions, cool pop ups, incredible podcast guests, stellar live events and a chance to meet each and every one of you someday!!! A girl can dream right??

I’m wrapping up my Builder mode quarter in the next two weeks and for Q4 I have a bit of a wild idea… What if I let YOU pick the content?

A choose your own adventure reader style? What do you think, good or bad idea???

I’m listening… reply here and tell me!