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What if the biggest obstacle to workplace success isn’t technology, talent, or productivity—but how employers treat their people?
On this episode of What’s Your Work Fit?, Boston Consulting Group’s Deborah Lovich, author of Make Work Work: The 5 Daily Practices of the Employee-Centric Leader, challenges some of the most deeply entrenched assumptions about modern work.
And she doesn’t pull punches.
“Nothing says I don’t trust an employee like a return-to-office mandate.”
From rigid RTO policies and employee surveillance to the rush toward Agentic AI, Deborah argues that too many organizations are managing people as costs rather than valuing them as essential stakeholders.
The consequences? Disengagement, distrust, and missed opportunities for innovation.
In this provocative conversation, we explore:
- Why AI initiatives focused solely on productivity may be dead on arrival.
- Why employee-centric organizations are seven times as likely to be AI-mature.
- How return-to-office mandates can undermine employee trust.
- Why managers were never adequately prepared to make hybrid work successful.
- Why measuring hours and badge swipes misses what really drives performance.
- Why workplace perks can’t compensate for bad leadership.
- How making work better for employees can deliver measurable business results.
Deborah shares research indicating that employees who enjoy their work can sell 25% more per hour—a compelling reminder that employee experience isn’t simply a feel-good initiative. It’s a business imperative.
Joining the discussion are What’s Your Work Fit? executive producer and host Dan Smolen and co-hosts Mark Gilbreath, CEO of LiquidSpace, and Fran Saele, Managing Principal of MorteVita.
The big takeaway: Making work work isn’t about getting more out of people. It’s about creating the conditions that allow people to do their best work.
Listen now and consider: Is your organization truly employee-centric—or does it just claim to be?
What’s Your Work Fit? explores how career professionals can make work a wonderful part of their day while doing other wonderful things.
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Our best days lie ahead.