In 2025, here’s what we learned about work.
One thing became impossible to ignore:
People aren’t struggling because they lack ambition or resilience.
They’re struggling because work is poorly designed.
Across our consulting work, speaking engagements and roundtables with leaders, managers and individual contributors, the same pattern kept showing up:
We are asking people to transform how they work — without giving them the time to do it.
So before we sign off for this year we want to share the seven most important Work Time Revolution learnings from 2025.
7 Work Time Revolution Lessons from 2025
Lesson 1: Time is the missing infrastructure
We expect people to upskill, adopt AI, innovate, and perform — all at once.
But time is treated as infinite.
Without enough time, no system works: learning stalls, wellbeing and motivation declines, and change efforts fail.
Time isn’t a perk. It’s core infrastructure.
Lesson 2: Leaders overestimate enthusiasm for change
Many executives believe people are excited about AI.
Workers tell a different story: cautious, overwhelmed, and stretched thin.
According to new data from BCG recently published in Harvard Business Review, 76% of executives believe their employees are enthusiastic about AI adoption, but only 31% of individual contributors agree. That’s a perception gap of 145%!
When leaders mistake silence for buy-in, they design change on false assumptions.
Lesson 3: Learning is being pushed outside working time
People want to learn. They want to adapt.
What they don’t have is protected time.
When learning happens at night or on weekends, only the privileged can keep up — and skills gaps widen.
That’s why most AI adoption is stuck in individual experimentation without progressing to collective redesign.
Lesson 4: Shorter workweeks are a strategic advantage — when work is redesigned
The companies seeing real gains from shorter working weeks aren’t “doing less.”
They are doing less low-value work.
They used a shorter workweek to:
force clarity on priorities
eliminate unnecessary meeting
shift focus from activites to outcomes
bring decision-making closer to the work
expose inefficiencies that had previously been buried in overwork
For these organisations, reduced hours is a competitive advantage — improving retention, focus, wellbeing, and execution at the same time.
Long hours often mask bad systems.
When time is reduced, organisations are forced to confront how work actually flows — and those that do emerge stronger.
Shorter workweeks don’t magically fix work.
They reveal what needs to change, and provide a compelling collective incentive to do so.
Lesson 5: People skills are the real productivity advantage
As AI accelerates work, the most valuable capabilities are human ones:
Judgment, critical thinking, creativity, adaptability, and connection.
These don’t grow under constant pressure.
They grow with space and support.
Lesson 6: Burnout is a systems failure, not a personal one
Burnout isn’t about weakness or a lack of resilence
It’s the predictable outcome of environments built on chronic overload — with women and caregivers paying the highest price.
Lesson 7: The goal isn’t fewer hours — it’s better lives
Work Time Revolution isn’t about doing less for the sake of it.
It’s about:
better work
balanced lives
smarter habits, healthier people, and more effective teams
stronger families
sustainable performance
Time well spent — at work and beyond.
Final thought
2025 showed us that the future of work won’t be won by squeezing more out of people.
True competitive advantage lies in optimizing the combination of digital efficiency and human effectiveness.
This requires a redesign of work models, structures and mindsets to align with the realities of today and the opportunities of tomorrow.
That’s the work ahead.