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/

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/

In this episode of Frequency, Jenni Field and Chuck Gose record live in front of an audience at Unily's Unite 26 conference in London. Instead of news articles, the stories come straight from two days of sessions, and the question hanging over all of them is whether anything in internal comms is new, or whether we're still having the same conversation we had 20 years ago.

They start with AI strategy. Charlene Li's keynote told the room to stop doing pilots, and Chuck agrees. Pilots without commitment just entertain us. Jenni points out Li's alternative was a "test," and Chuck adds the condition: define what success looks like up front, and if it works, the commitment follows.

Jenni then asks if communicators are shooting themselves in the foot by calling AI a team member. If AI is your extra headcount, how do you ever make the case for real headcount? Chuck polls the room on who has an AI "employee." Half a hand goes up. Jenni adds that plenty of senior leaders she works with barely touch AI, and Chuck reminds everyone that not using AI and not benefiting from it are two different things.

On skills, Jenni wrestles with "tastemaking," a phrase she heard for the first time at the conference. She buys the premise and not the word. Chuck ties judgment and curiosity back to AI, defends the "Make It Pretty Committee," shares a London Underground story about rolling out tech employees said they didn't want, and makes the case that UK communicators prize strategy while Americans love tactics. You need both. He also argues attitudes matter more than skills, pointing to the hungry communicator idea he built with Alan Oram of Alive With Ideas.

Chuck reopens an old fight: Jenni once said AI was just another change program. She still stands by it, citing an end-to-end AI playbook session as proof. Chuck calls AI a tidal wave, the biggest shift since the internet, back when you needed a business case to get an email address.

The last story asks whether "do less but better" (from Sharon O'Dea's session) is still good advice. Chuck pushes back with songwriter Jonathan Mann, who writes a song every day and says roughly 70% of it is garbage. You only find great by making more. Jenni counters that writing songs and reaching Tom the van driver are different jobs, and they meet in the middle: produce, learn, then cut.

The audience Q&A covers the one skill every communicator needs (Chuck says being a connector, Jenni says belief in yourself), the attitude that sustains you (optimism with realism, no toxic positivity) and return to office. Jenni sees real value in being in the room for relationships, but not by force. Chuck repeats his challenge: what if companies designed a workplace people wanted to come to?

Live, a little spicy and honest about the excuses our profession keeps making.

Timestamps 00:00 Welcome, live from Unite 26, and the new Frequency website

01:48 Ten years connected and Chuck's return to London

02:51 The AI strategy challenge: stop doing pilots

05:07 Are we shooting ourselves in the foot with AI teammates?

08:45 Skills for internal communicators: judgment, curiosity and "tastemaking"

15:04 Attitudes over skills: the hungry communicator

17:57 Is AI just another change program?

20:34 Is anything new? The case for and against doing less

24:51 Audience Q&A: the number one skill

26:36 Audience Q&A: the attitude that sustains you

28:17 Audience Q&A: return to office

Links Frequency website: thefrequencypodcast.com

Interested in Unite27? https://www.unily.com/unite