Jenni and Chuck are back in their home studios after three episodes recorded together. They open with a debrief on Comms Reboot and a debate about conference swag, then move into a week of research on who has to reinvent their job because of AI, why vague AI messaging holds back adoption, and why enablement may be a better measure than engagement. The episode closes with a workplace spy story from OpenAI.

The first story starts with a LinkedIn post by Stephanie Hills built around McKinsey Global Institute research. The research says more than 70% of workers may need to reinvent how they work by 2035, and 11 million US workers may need to change occupations. Most of the roles expected to change are frontline and support jobs: customer service, retail, office assistants, cashiers and warehouse workers. These are the people internal communication tends to reach last. The post tells professionals not to wait for their employer to tell them what to learn, and Chuck asks who is actually telling them that. Jenni says nobody is, and argues that without some structure from employers, people freeze rather than act. Chuck questions the claim that demand for AI fluency is up 11 times since 2022, and makes the case that people have to own their own development.

Next is BCG research, published in Harvard Business Review, on how leaders talk about AI. Employees told that AI use is now part of their job reported the most daily use. Messages about productivity or competitive threat did very little. Unclear communication was the biggest problem, linked to less use than saying nothing at all. Chuck points out the limits: the data is self-reported and measures use, not whether the work got better. Jenni explains how leaders can be clear without being certain, by saying what they don’t know, setting a direction and promising to come back with updates. The conversation moves on to jargon in layoff announcements, and George Carlin’s point about how softer language takes the meaning out of serious situations.

Korn Ferry’s listening data from nearly 1.4 million employees at more than 60 organisations found that enablement predicts retention and revenue per employee better than engagement does. Enablement means having the tools, resources, information, processes and support to do the job. A 10-point higher enablement score went with about 234 more people retained per 10,000 employees. The manager behaviours most closely linked to strong performance were fair performance reviews and valuing employees’ ideas. Jenni welcomes a measure that is more concrete than engagement. Chuck suggests communicators think about what enablement means for each audience: leaders, managers and frontline teams.

The final story covers former OpenAI engineer Abdulrahman Alfozan, held without bail on a Wiretap Act charge for allegedly hiding an audio recorder in an executive conference room. Court documents say he asked an internal AI tool which rooms held high-level meetings. Jenni asks why this is headline news when corporate espionage is nothing new, and whether employees really believe their work messages are private. Chuck says most people simply aren’t thinking about it, and suggests security might be the most honest argument yet for return to office.

In the Freq Outs, Jenni spots a facilities manager rebranded as a workplace experience specialist and decides she is mostly mocking it. Chuck defends the title. He then shares the story of The Gund Company in St. Louis, which has never laid off an employee, and wonders why the executives who visit to learn its approach keep deciding it is too hard to copy.

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/