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Are We the Employees You’re Looking For?
I recently delivered a workshop at the TroopHR Annual Member Retreat called:
“Are We the Employees You’re Looking For?”
The title was intentionally provocative because I think we are entering a very uncomfortable phase in the world of work.
One where organisations are simultaneously:
accelerating AI adoption
flattening structures
removing middle management
increasing workloads
speeding up operational expectations
and still expecting humans to adapt endlessly to systems that were never designed for how people actually think, process, communicate, or function.
There was a lot of conversation at the retreat about AI, efficiency, productivity, optimisation, and the future of work.
All important conversations.
But I kept coming back to a much more uncomfortable question:
What if we are over-optimising ourselves into dysfunction?
Because as our systems become faster, the human side becomes more complex, not less.
And right now, I think many organisations are mistaking standardisation for effectiveness.
Same Company.
Completely Different Reality.
One of the strongest themes throughout the retreat was inconsistency. Not between companies. Within them.
One team is thriving, whilst another is collapsing quietly.
One manager is creating clarity, trust, flexibility, and momentum. Another is unintentionally creating confusion, fear, overload, and burnout.
Same company. Same values. Same policies... Completely different reality.
At some point we have to stop calling that a people problem. Because if performance only works under certain managers, then the system itself is not working consistently.
The data is starting to reflect this too.
The 2026 City & Guilds Foundation Neurodiversity Index found a widening 30–35 percentage point gap between employer confidence in neuroinclusion and the lived experiences of neurodivergent employees.
That is not a small disconnect.
That is organisations believing they are creating environments that large portions of their workforce are not actually experiencing.
The report also found that support remains heavily dependent on individual managers rather than consistent organisational design.
Again:
Same company. Completely different reality.
We Have Built Work Around A Very Narrow Definition Of “Normal”
The more work we do through Unlabelled & Limitless, the more obvious something becomes:
Many workplaces are not failing because employees are incapable.
They are failing because we have designed work around a very narrow definition of how humans should:
communicate
prioritise
emotionally regulate
process information
maintain attention
handle ambiguity
socially perform
and respond to constant interruption
Then we label the people who struggle inside those systems as:
difficult
emotional
resistant
unprofessional
poor communicators
underperforming
not culture fits
Instead of questioning whether the environment itself is functional.
That is the irony sitting underneath many workplace conversations right now. We claim to value innovation, difference, disruption, and adaptability… while operationally designing for sameness.
Flattening Organisations Might Be Making This Worse
There is currently a huge push toward flatter organisations and leaner structures.
On paper, it sounds efficient. In reality, many managers are already overloaded.
The Gallup 2026 workplace report found that manager engagement has declined significantly, particularly in environments where spans of control have increased and management layers have been removed.
At the exact same time, organisations are implementing AI systems that require:
communication
translation
coaching
behavioural change
workflow redesign
and ongoing human support
Ironically, Gallup also found that employees were almost 99 times more likely to believe AI improved work when their manager actively supported its adoption.
So we are:
removing managers
increasing complexity
accelerating change
and expecting better human outcomes
That equation does not balance. And I think a lot of organisations know it.
The Contradiction Nobody Wants To Talk About
Some of the strongest AI adopters, systems thinkers, change navigators, and rapid learners I know are neurodivergent.
Particularly people with ADHD.
Novelty, rapid pattern recognition, adaptability, systems thinking, and accelerated learning are often strengths in high-change environments.
Yet many of the same organisations aggressively pursuing AI transformation are still unintentionally filtering these individuals out through rigid communication expectations, overloaded processes, excessive social performance requirements, and outdated ideas of professionalism.
That contradiction should concern leaders.
Especially venture-backed companies moving quickly toward leaner and increasingly AI-driven structures.
Because eventually the organisations that optimise purely for sameness stop being adaptive altogether.
Delabelling Work
One of the reasons we named the company Unlabelled & Limitless is because I think workplaces have become overly dependent on labels to explain human behaviour.
We label people:
high potential
difficult
toxic
resilient
emotional
strategic
ADHD
autistic
culture fit
low performer
Sometimes those labels help. Sometimes they become shortcuts that stop us from asking better questions.
At what point do we stop asking: “What label does this person fit into?”
And start asking: “What conditions help this human operate at their best?”
That shift matters.
Because humans are contextual. People who struggle in one environment often thrive in another. The workplace itself plays a role in performance outcomes, whether organisations want to admit it or not.
This Is Not About Lowering Standards
This is where people often get defensive.
Neuroinclusion is not about lowering standards, removing accountability, or wrapping people in cotton wool. It is about understanding how work actually functions for the humans inside it. And asking better questions.
Not: “How do we fix this person?”
But: “What are we asking people to navigate every day to be successful here?”
That question changes almost everything.
Because suddenly:
communication becomes operational
burnout becomes data
friction becomes visible
and “problem employees” often become indicators of broken systems
Awareness Is No Longer Enough
The future of work is not just about AI. It is about whether humans can realistically operate inside the environments we are creating around them. And right now, I think many organisations are moving faster technologically than they are psychologically or operationally prepared for.
Awareness is no longer enough.
Policies are no longer enough.
The organisations that succeed over the next decade will not simply be the fastest, leanest, or most automated.
They will be the ones capable of designing environments where a wider range of humans can actually perform sustainably, communicate effectively, and adapt without burning themselves into the ground.
That is the work.
And I think we are only just beginning to understand how important it really is.
The challenge is not simply helping people adapt to work.
It is designing work that allows a wider range of people to contribute, perform, and succeed.
At Unlabelled & Limitless, this is the conversation we have every day with leaders, HR teams, and organisations navigating growth, change, neuroinclusion, and the future of work.
If these questions resonate with your organisation, explore our consulting, workshops, and strategic partnership services, or get in touch to continue the conversation.
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Image Disclosure: Some visual assets used in this article were created using generative AI tools and edited by Unlabelled & Limitless for illustrative purposes.
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