Episodes

Jenni Field challenges LinkedIn’s culture of negativity and sets herself and Chuck Gose a positivity challenge, before the pair dig into Nestlé’s CEO dismissal, Korn Ferry’s data on thinning management layers, The Economist’s take on whether remote work kills culture, and new research on the mental health “benefits gap” at work.

Chuck Gose and Jenni Field each build their own top-five reading list for communicators, then turn to London’s Tube strike as a lens on employee relations and unions, what Opendoor’s CEO resignation reveals about leadership visibility, a LinkedIn debate on whether video actually works for internal comms, and fresh insights from Gallup’s Culture Shock.

Recording from a New York hotel room, Chuck Gose and Jenni Field triple down on AI this week — Duolingo’s “AI-first” messaging misstep, an MIT report on failing corporate AI pilots, and the rising risk of AI data poisoning — before turning to fresh evidence that remote work is holding up better than executive office mandates, and revisiting the evergreen question of where internal comms should report.

Marking their 20th episode, Chuck Gose and Jenni Field dig into why workplace communication feels so noisy, whether attention spans are really getting worse, what actually makes an all-employee meeting worth attending, and a sharper-edged theory about CEOs, Gen Z, and the end of “we matter at work” messaging.

Chuck Gose and Jenni Field debate whether a viral “potty sheet” is really the gold standard of frontline communication, dig into AT&T’s dismissive response to employee feedback on return-to-office, weigh a UK council’s decision to turn a retiring employee into an AI chatbot, and unpack research on how perceived effort shapes trust in B2B marketing — and what that means for internal comms.

Chuck Gose and Jenni Field announce Frequency’s first live episode, at Unite in Nashville this October, before digging into Gallup data on why managers globally are so disengaged, a Harvard Business Review piece questioning whether hybrid work is really working, a Japanese manufacturer’s unusual internal economy for meeting rooms, and a large new Staffbase study on internal communication, trust, and loneliness at work.

Chuck Gose and Jenni Field open with their take on the week’s most talked-about workplace story — the Astronomer CEO caught on a Coldplay concert’s camera with the company’s chief HR officer — before turning to whether communicators are too quick to judge, what Dell’s blunt employee-feedback results reveal about rebuilding trust, and why return-to-office mandates may have more to do with real estate than culture.

Chuck Gose and Jenni Field dig into “quiet cracking,” a new buzzword for burnout nobody notices until it’s too late, then take on a piece arguing that authentic corporate communication is a myth — and that credibility, not authenticity, is what leaders should actually chase. They close with encouraging data on the internal comms job market and a sobering Gallup statistic: only 20% of employees strongly trust their organization’s leadership.

Chuck Gose and Jenni Field mark Frequency’s first anniversary this week — and Jenni’s birthday — with a look at who’s actually cleaning up after AI, a Microsoft executive’s controversial advice to laid-off staff, Fast Company’s attempt to redefine “hybrid work,” and a LinkedIn debate over how far internal communications’ remit really extends. Jenni also flags this year’s Flyover Festival, coming to Sioux Falls on August 26.

Chuck lines up four stories that all circle the same question: what are we hiding, and at what cost? A HiBob report finds 97% of employees hide parts of who they are at work, new research links employee sentiment to stock performance (a claim Jenni takes real issue with), a Section report finds most companies are barely scratching the surface of real AI proficiency, and Amazon’s Andy Jassy declares AI fluency non-negotiable for 1.5 million employees. It closes on business-casual dress codes and, memorably, methane-powered sea spiders.