“We don’t want to put all of our safety eggs in one basket called work.”

In this episode of Business is Human, Rebecca Fleetwood Hession traces how workplace expectations ballooned from pay and safety to culture fit, values alignment, and even mental health, blurring identity and fueling burnout. She recounts the historical moments that nudged business into roles it was never designed to carry and explains why offloading our identity to work creates dependency and fear. Rebecca offers a reset: reclaim intrinsic motivation, diversify your sources of safety and belonging, and lead in ways that are deeply human without trying to be everything.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• How decades of “scope creep” (from the 1900s to the 2020s’ COVID) turned work into an identity stand-in, and why that drives burnout
• Ways to rebuild from the inside out: intrinsic motivation, self-respect, and non-work sources of safety, belonging, and meaning
• Practical language and boundary shifts for leaders and teams (e.g. “great team” vs. “family”)

Things to listen for:

(00:00) Intro

(00:43) How workplace expectations have changed

(03:32) Work’s influence on personal identity

(05:55) Consequences of relying too much on work

(08:21) Reclaiming our lives and identities

(11:47) Questions to ask yourself when expectations are too much

Connect with Rebecca:

https://www.rebeccafleetwoodhession.com/