Trust at work is falling, and this week Jenni brings the reports to prove it. Jenni and Chuck look at Edelman’s latest Trust at Work data, companies quietly pulling back on AI, a new study of 7,100 business leaders and professionals, and a provocative question about whether PR is damaging society. Before all that, Chuck shares the Madison Square Garden phishing test that offered staff a fake championship ring, and asks why anyone is surprised that trust inside companies is so low.

Edelman’s Trust at Work report shows the first statistically significant year-on-year drop in trust in employers since August 2024. Trust in CEOs, co-workers and direct managers has each fallen to a record low in Edelman’s data, with the biggest drop among co-workers. Three in four people have been through at least one transformation in the past year, most often AI implementation, and how that change is handled makes a huge difference: trust in the CEO is 33 points lower among those who had a poor experience. Jenni asks what internal communicators can do to win trust back, and Chuck asks whether we can get it back at all, arguing that every organisation needs to find out what these numbers look like for its own people.

Next, a Guardian article on employers dealing with the fallout from adopting AI too fast. Meta has scaled back plans to replace staff with AI agents, is hiring managers again, and has dropped AI usage from performance reviews. Elsewhere, Walmart staff describe AI scheduling tools setting impossible standards, and several large firms are now restricting employee use over cost and data security. Jenni asks what an organisation should tell employees when it reverses course, and Chuck’s answer is simple: admit you got it wrong. Jenni adds that the bigger question is whether leadership teams are taking time out to rethink their strategy, not just their narrative.

The World at Work report surveyed 7,100 people across the US, UK, Australia, France, Germany and Singapore. Confidence is high, with 91% believing their organisation can handle tech innovation over the next year, yet 64% of organisations expect to rely more on freelancers, contractors and fractional workers. Jenni asks who internal comms is actually for if the workforce looks like that. Chuck talks about the long-running problem of contractors not getting the same access as employees, and Jenni questions how such high confidence sits alongside so much fear about job security.

Finally, Amanda Coleman’s article in Influence magazine asks whether PR is damaging society by putting reputation ahead of reality. Jenni asks where comms people’s responsibility sits when they are handed partial information to share. Chuck says partial is not the same as dishonest, as long as you are clear there is more to come. Jenni argues that internal communicators have a responsibility to ask more questions and dig into what is really going on before they share it.

In the Freq Outs, Chuck thinks he brought a ghost home from London, and Jenni is gearing up for the festive season.

To grab the links from this episode and find out more about how you can work with Chuck and Jenni check out the Frequency Podcast: https://thefrequencypodcast.com/