Episode 30: This is heavy, Doc -- What's Next for the Future of Work?
A season-end reflection on what 30 episodes taught us about fixing the way we work — for real this time.
Lessons learned and a challenge for listeners
Summary
After 30 episodes, Season 1 of Hard at Work wraps with this solo reflection from Ellen Whitlock Baker on what she's learned — and what we’re all still up against. From burnout and perfectionism to sneaky societal conditioning, Ellen names the quiet parts out loud: why work still isn’t working and what we can actually do about it. She shares the not-so-glamorous behind-the-scenes of launching a podcast, the lessons her guests taught her, and the truth about our broken workplace systems. If you’ve ever felt like it’s all too much and you’re still supposed to smile through it, this finale will hit home. You’re not imagining it — the expectations are too high, the system is outdated, and we’re overdue for change. Listen in and get fired up for what’s next.
Takeaways
Burnout isn’t personal failure — it’s systemic. If you're exhausted, it's not because you're not trying hard enough. It's because the expectations are unrealistic, and the support is superficial.
The workplace hasn’t evolved nearly enough. We’re still stuck in outdated systems, and it’s harming everyone — especially women and people of color.
Naming the problem is a radical act. Talking openly about burnout, inequity, and toxic norms creates room for change.
Small steps matter. You don’t have to overhaul the system alone — but a boundary held or a salary audit done? That’s how movements start.
Progress is real (but slow). From 0% to 10% of Fortune 500 CEOs being women — we’re moving, but the pace is glacial. It’s time to push harder.
Notable Quotes
“You can’t heal from burnout with a free yoga class at lunch on Wednesdays.”
“We are drowning under expectations like snowballs, and we didn’t wear our waterproof jackets.”
“If burnout were a drug with these side effects, would you still take it?”
“I started this podcast tired of reading books by white men for white men. So I made something different.”
“The only way to change the workplace is to stop blaming ourselves and start rewriting the system.”
Chapters
00:00 – Season one wrap-up begins
01:20 – Why starting a podcast was harder (and better) than expected
03:00 – What 30 episodes taught me about burnout and expectations
04:20 – The real cost of burnout (and why “self-care” isn’t cutting it)
05:45 – It’s not you, it’s the system
06:30 – Why corporate “solutions” don’t actually help
07:15 – The guests who are changing work from the inside out
09:00 – A workplace blueprint from 1980 (that still hasn’t happened)
10:15 – The slow progress for women and women of color at the top
11:20 – A challenge to take one small step during the hiatus
12:20 – Changing work is resistance
13:00 – See you in 2026 (maybe with flying DeLoreans)
Keywords: burnout, workplace burnout, toxic work culture, women at work, emotional labor, workplace equity, leadership coaching, people-pleasing, perfectionism at work, boundaries at work, DEI in the workplace, mental health at work, employee wellness, patriarchy at work, work-life balance, season finale podcast
Transcript
Ellen Whitlock Baker (00:01.454)
Well, my friends, it's here. This is the final episode of season one of the Hard at Work podcast. This is the 30th episode I've put out into the world, which is absolutely surreal to say. And I'm really proud of myself. It was way more work than I realized. And many F-bombs were uttered as I tried to figure out how to do everything, like use the recordings platform and...
Design the marketing material in Canva. If you ever wondered why my marketing material is mediocre at best, it's because I designed it and I am decidedly not a graphic designer. Gosh, learning how to post the MP3s themselves on Spotify, it's so much work. And when I look back to May when I launched it, we've come a long way. So I'm really proud. And I really want to thank all of you for listening. I really, really appreciate it. And from those of you I've heard from that this podcast is making a difference or you really liked certain episodes, thank you. And I'm glad because that's the point.
Ellen Whitlock Baker (01:24.268)
Anyone who's been with me from the beginning will remember I started off releasing two episodes a week, one solo and one interview, which was incredibly ambitious and went out the window after a couple of months because it was way too much. And I realized I'm in charge so I can make all the decisions. I moved my release day from Mondays and Fridays to Thursday and then Wednesday. I decided I'd release four interview episodes in a row in July because I had rotator cuff surgery and I could let it run on autopilot mostly. And what's been cool is that I've been working on my perfectionism a lot and people pleasing, honestly, because it's really scary to put your own content out there in the world, especially when you are a people pleaser. And I've been working hard on putting out what I believe is true and what I've learned and sharing that with all of you. And it's been really healing for me. So I appreciate you listening. I also really, really, really appreciate all of the amazing guests that we have had on the podcast.
I love that I say we because it's just me, but you I am so grateful to all of the incredible people who agreed to be on this brand new podcast and I have learned so much from them. It was something I didn't even really think about how much I would learn, but it's been such an eye opener. I hope you've learned a lot from them too. And the conversations have really shaped and crystallized my thinking about why work isn't working and giving us so many good tactics for how to start changing it. So here's what I know after 30 episodes. We're drowning under unrealistic expectations from our workplaces, from our families, from ourselves, from society. We're being hit.
Ellen Whitlock Baker (03:41.556)
from all directions with expectations like snowballs and we did not wear our waterproof jackets. If you don't believe me, try this. Write down all of the things you were expected to do today from all of the people and the forces in your life, including yourself. Is it actually a manageable list? My guess is it's not.
And these unrealistic expectations, this constant churning and trying and doing what we're supposed to do is burning us the hell out. When 44 % of the workforce reports that they're burned out, when the World Health Organization actually names burnout as a syndrome, we have a real problem. And burnout is bad, right? We know what happens. We know all of the bad health that comes from burnout, mental and physical. I bet you could even recite high cholesterol, depression, higher risk of heart attack and stroke, the list is really, really long of things that happen when you are burnt out. And I want you to think about, like, if you were given a new medication to take from your doctor and you were reading the warnings on the side of it and it says, you know, highly likely to cause high cholesterol, depression, higher risk of heart attack and stroke, et cetera, all of the symptoms of burnout, would you even take it? And yet we're not taking it as seriously as we should in the workplace. We're still burning out.
So why, why do we not do anything to stop burning out? If I've learned anything after 30 episodes, I've learned it's not us who needs to change. It's the system.
Ellen Whitlock Baker (05:46.486)
And that is a lot, a lot harder. And there are a lot of forces out there that don't want the system to change because they benefit from it disadvantaging us. And those forces have a ton of power, especially right now. So we've been blaming ourselves, telling ourselves we can't keep up and maybe we should have come in earlier and berating ourselves for taking that lunch break when we should have worked instead. And the help we've gotten from our workplaces is a bandaid at best.
You can't heal from burnout with a free yoga class at lunch on Wednesdays. Half of the time you can't even take a damn lunch break. So how is this helpful? This is all depressing, but it feels really good to be talking about it here on Hard at Work, saying the quiet part out loud. And I hope it's helped some of you to stop blaming yourself for burnout and to start questioning the norms in your workplace and maybe even trying some small steps to create a healthier workplace.
And there is so much hope from the people we've learned from this season. I've interviewed people who are overhauling manager training so it's consistent and human-centric, ensuring that we have savvy and empathetic people managing people. I've spoken with people forging their own paths and writing their own futures, refusing to bend the norms, refusing to bend to the norms that society wants to place on them. I've interviewed people who are actively bringing neuroscience into workplaces.
who are rewriting job descriptions so they are crystal clear, who go into workplaces that aren't working and get them to pause and build something better and more equitable.
I feel incredibly lucky to have had all these conversations and hope you've enjoyed hearing from these game changers. I've already started interviews for season two and let me tell you, you're gonna hear from even more people that are changing the work world one small or sometimes big step at a time. I wanna keep sharing the genius of the people I get to interview, their work, ideas, successes and failures because I hope it will encourage people to stop blaming themselves for unrealistic expectations.
Ellen Whitlock Baker (07:57.228)
and start right sizing those expectations for a healthier life at work and at home. If you have any ideas for guests that you'd love to hear on the podcast, please, please, please send me an email. It's ellen at ewbcoaching.com. I would love to hear your suggestions. I have really broadened my network and met so many amazing people. So let's keep it going.
So I watched the movie Nine to Five for the first time a few weeks ago. It's a great movie still. And of course, who doesn't love the song by Dolly. And I was left with this incredible sadness at the end of it that kind of stuck with me for a couple of days. And again, it's a comedy. So I had to really think about why I was feeling sad.
The work environment that the women made when they had the crappy misogynist boss held hostage for a few weeks was a beautiful work environment. There were positions split between two women so they could each work part time if they wanted to. People were working the hours that worked best for them. They even put a daycare in at the office. Productivity and sales numbers had increased substantially as they report in the movie. It's like the blueprint for a healthy workplace. And this movie came out in December of 1980.
And this is why I'm sad because still, still 45 years later, this kind of workplace, the kind that is flexible to employee needs and treats humans as their number one asset, not their number one liability, is still so rare. The crappy boss taking credit for all the changes happening is also still happening.
Ellen Whitlock Baker (10:01.422)
At this point in time, only 10 % of Fortune 500 CEOs are female, with women of color being only 2%. Men still get paid more than women. White women still get paid more than Black or Latina women. And I guess I'd hoped that by 2025, which is 10 years after the future we all thought might be possible in Back to the Future 2, we would be farther along. But we are moving.
45 years ago when 9to5 came out, 0 % of the CEOs of Fortune 500s were women. So we're moving in the right direction, but at a pace that feels slower than one of those dot matrix printers that we used to have in the old days. So I have a challenge for you to do during hard at work's hiatus, do something, anything to make a change for the good at work, whether it's setting and keeping a boundary for yourself,
doing an audit of how you're paying your team members to ensure you're breaking the pattern of paying women and women of color less than men, or taking one teeny tiny step in a new direction that honors you and not everybody else, you can do it. There are tons of ideas on the episodes of this very podcast from some incredibly smart people. Don't shut down because we're going into holiday season and you're overwhelmed, which is okay. But I want you to take a step.
Because collectively, if we all take a step, we start a movement. There are 30 episodes of this podcast to listen to, if you haven't yet. And you can find them all at hardatworkpodcast.com or your favorite streaming platform. And if you haven't yet followed or subscribed to the podcast, it would be incredible if you did or shared it with a friend or colleague.
In the meantime, you can follow me on LinkedIn, Instagram, or Substack for fresh content that will keep on going throughout the hiatus. And a special note to the time that we are in right now in America. It is really hard right now. And it is hard to know how to help. It is hard to know what to prioritize. It is hard not to want to hide under a blanket and just ignore all of the horrible things that are going on in our country. And I truly believe that changing the workplace, that making it more equitable, that taking down these patriarchal old systems that are not working and building them back in a much better way is a resistance, is a form of resistance. So I hope that that sticks with you and gives you some hope and something to do as we go forward into year two of a very hard time under a very hard leader in America.
So I'll see you in 2026, friends. Maybe it's finally the year where DeLoreans fly, who knows? Whatever it brings, let's make it a year of centering ourselves in a world that doesn't want us to and reclaiming our power to make positive change that benefits everyone. Take care of yourselves, and I'll see you on the flip side.