Grant Wyatt, Author at TalentCulture

Why Culture is a You Problem

The prevailing corporate narrative is clean, convenient…and incomplete: If culture is broken, leadership must fix it. If engagement is low, the business must invest more. If people are unhappy, HR must redesign the experience. It’s a seductive logic because it removes personal accountability. But culture is not what leaders declare; it is what every person reinforces and embodies every day. The Most Convenient Lie The modern workplace has become obsessed with experience design. More surveys, more perks, more listening sessions – yet engagement worldwide remains stubbornly low. This isn’t a failure of effort; it’s a failure of ownership. We’ve conditioned people

Your Job Isn’t Your Purpose

We’ve bought into a pervasive illusion: that our jobs must offer total fulfilment. Modern companies sell “mission” as a value proposition right alongside salary and benefits. We are told our work should feel deeply meaningful at all times. It’s a seductive promise, but it’s a setup. The more you expect a corporation to provide your life’s purpose, the more likely you are to feel let down by it. The problem isn’t that your job is broken. The expectation is. Jobs can provide meaning and direction, but they can’t be solely responsible for your sense of purpose. Purpose as a Corporate Product

The Collapse of the Managerial Empire

For half a century, middle management was the backbone of corporate life – the “human glue” translating strategy into tasks, coordinating departments, and enforcing consistency. Success was measured by “real estate”: the number of people in your empire and the layers of authority you controlled. Promotion meant climbing the ladder and management became the visible symbol of success. That model is fracturing. The collapse isn’t happening because of a sudden shift in management philosophy. It’s breaking because Artificial Intelligence has stripped away the structural need for those layers. The next phase of organisational design won’t just be flatter; it will be

Overworked and Underpaid: The Most Expensive Story You Tell Yourself

“Overworked and underpaid” has become the modern workplace anthem. The internet is full of advice on how to negotiate harder, “quiet quit”, or jump ship. It’s an easy narrative to embrace: If you feel undervalued, the system must have failed you. That story is comforting. It’s also costly. While genuine exploitation exists, most people stop short of asking the harder, and far more lucrative question: What is my contribution actually worth in the market? Effort Is Not Currency We have a tendency to measure our value by our level of exhaustion. We tally up the stress, the late nights, and the

When the Love Dies: Why Staying is Riskier than Quitting

When people fall out of love with their employer, or feel their employer has fallen out of love with them, what follows is rarely a clean exit. It’s a slow, emotional withdrawal. When the bond breaks but the person stays, disengagement fills the gap. Energy that once went into building gets redirected into surviving. People stop working the work and start working the system. This withdrawal is reframed as self-protection. It feels justified, even principled. In reality, it’s a self-betrayal that corrodes both the individual and the organisation. They despise the job but disguise their fear of leaving as pragmatism: Now

Your Boss Isn’t the Problem. Your Expectations Are

For decades, the corporate world has chased a seductive idea: that better leadership will fix everything. If managers just became more empathetic, agile, and inspiring, everything else would fall into place. It sounds reasonable. It is also flawed. We’ve turned leaders into workplace superheroes expected to be strategists, coaches, therapists, and performance drivers all at once. Then we act surprised when ordinary humans fail to meet an impossible brief. The truth is – your manager is probably not exceptional. They aren’t broken, either, just human, likely promoted for their technical skills and thrust into a role demanding emotional intelligence, people development,

7 Signs the Toxic Culture Might Be You: The Mirror Test

Workplace toxicity has become a fashionable diagnosis. Scroll LinkedIn for five minutes, and you’ll find countless posts about surviving broken systems and psychologically unsafe environments. Now, some workplaces are genuinely harmful. But most are not toxic; they are simply human. And humans, particularly under pressure to deliver, are imperfect. This raises an uncomfortable question many HR leaders avoid: what if the toxicity isn’t being handed down by the organisation but generated at the employee level? Culture is the sum of collective daily behaviours. While leaders shape it, framing employees as passive recipients erodes personal accountability. The Mirror Test If you repeatedly

The Death of People & Culture: Reclaiming HR in the Age of AI

When most people think of HR, they picture hiring, firing, policy enforcement, and a department tasked with making work feel better, while the rest of the organisation is under pressure to make it work better. Over the past decade, Human Resources underwent a widespread rebrand. It became People & Culture (P&C). The banner expanded to engagement platforms, wellbeing programs, diversity initiatives, and endless ‘pulse’ surveys. The intent was noble: improve how people experience work. The result, however, has been underwhelming. As dissatisfaction surfaced through these channels, the responses were rarely structural. Instead, more initiatives were layered onto systems that were already

The Engagement Trap: Becoming Irreplaceable in the Age of AI

You’re in your manager’s office, resignation letter in hand, heart racing. You say the line you’ve rehearsed for months: “I quit.” You grab your pot plant and stride out like a movie hero. Three months later, you’re at a new desk. Same emails. Same politics. Same frustrations. The only thing that changed was the Wi-Fi password. If that fantasy resonates, you’re not alone. Across the world, nearly eight in ten employees aren’t engaged at work. That’s a third of your life doing something you don’t like. And before you imagine your manager smugly loving their time in the office, know that

Stay up-to-date with HR, tech and the future of work. Get our weekly newsletter!

Grant Wyatt

Grant Wyatt

Why Culture is a You Problem

Your Job Isn’t Your Purpose

The Collapse of the Managerial Empire

Overworked and Underpaid: The Most Expensive Story You Tell Yourself

When the Love Dies: Why Staying is Riskier than Quitting

Your Boss Isn’t the Problem. Your Expectations Are

7 Signs the Toxic Culture Might Be You: The Mirror Test

The Death of People & Culture: Reclaiming HR in the Age of AI

The Engagement Trap: Becoming Irreplaceable in the Age of AI

Quick Links

Topics

Newsletter Signup

Grant Wyatt

Grant Wyatt

Subscribing to Ho-Hum Newsletters? We have the fix!