The weekly conversation for people who shape how organizations work

Only 19% of employees say anyone at work has ever talked to them about the data their employer collects on them. Gallup also found that when organizations do have that conversation, trust goes up and so does concern. Jenni frames that as a dilemma for internal comms. Chuck doesn’t see one. Concern isn’t worry, he says. It’s people paying attention.

That idea, the cost of leaving people to guess, runs through all four stories this week. O.C. Tanner’s 2027 Global Culture Report argues that culture amplifies whatever is already there. Zoom found that the biggest theme in 17,000 employee comments was people not understanding why decisions were made. And The Times reports British workers adding ADHD and neurodiversity notes to their email signatures, which leaves Chuck and Jenni asking whether a note at the bottom of an email can do the work of a relationship.

People will shrug when AI summarizes a meeting. They will not shrug when it gets their pay wrong. A new PayrollOrg survey found 46% of employees are uncomfortable with AI in payroll, up from 39% two years ago, and the trend is moving away from trust, not toward it.

Recording in person after Unily’s Unite 26 conference in London, Chuck and Jenni work through five stories that keep circling the same idea: technology and structure only go as far as people trust them. Microsoft moves communications under its legal and policy group while asking employees to become its public voice. A “bait and switch” hiring survey leans on an inflated headline. Gen Z holds back on AI skills. And a study on training budgets sets up a $5,000 argument the hosts don’t quite settle.