All posts filed under: Workplace

A tattooed person in a short dress balances with outstretched arms while walking along the edge of a rooftop, with city buildings and a clear sky in the background.

Free somebody

Published by Trotzendorff

You did everything right. You studied. You worked hard. You built the résumé people told you to build. Degree, internships, late nights, promotions. The quiet promise behind all of it was simple: if you put in the effort, you would eventually gain something that feels like freedom. More autonomy. More room to decide how to live. More control over your time. For a long time that story made sense. Work hard, move up, become free. But for many people today, that promise feels strangely hollow. The ladder is still there, but climbing it doesn’t necessarily lead to the place it once promised. Careers have become less predictable. Work has intensified. Security often feels temporary. You can follow the script perfectly and still end up wondering where exactly that promised freedom is supposed to appear. Which makes a sentence by Toni Morrison feel unexpectedly sharp: »I tell my students, ›When you get these jobs that you have been so brilliantly trained for, just remember that your real job is that if you are free, you need to free …

Person wearing a VR headset seated in a tilted motion-simulator cockpit inside a blue-lit arcade room.

Welcome to the Hiring Simulator — the Strategy Game Nobody Enjoys

Published by Trotzendorff

There’s this story we keep telling about the job market: it’s tough out there. Fine. I can live with that. And I’m saying this as someone currently in it — reorienting on the way to my next role. I’m having conversations, doing calls, sending applications, waiting, looking closely at what’s out there. And there’s this slightly surreal experience of trying to meet a system where it is, without letting it define me.

Person standing in front of a crashed, weathered airplane wreck on a desolate landscape.

When Failure Gets a Standing Ovation (And Why Knowing When to Quit Might Save You)

Published by Trotzendorff

The room in that unassuming, almost ugly office building smelled like spilled beer and sweat. Concrete walls, neon lights, cables running along the ceiling, a cheap PA system humming somewhere in the corner. People leaned against each other on folding chairs, scrolling through their phones, waiting for the next person who would walk on stage and say the one thing we are all trained not to admit: »I failed.«

A tree-lined path in autumn with vibrant orange leaves forming a canopy, a lone person walking in the distance through the mist.

Autumn Is a Masterclass in Transitions: How to Navigate Everyday Shifts at Work

Published by Trotzendorff

The light tilts, the colors deepen, pavements shine after quick showers. Autumn moves the city from one state to another without fuss or apology. That same current runs through our workdays: from tiny thresholds to bigger crossings it’s all about the art of leaving one thing cleanly and arriving well at the next. These transitions come in all sizes — from the eyelash-thin switch between two tasks that lasts a heartbeat to the long arcs that reshape teams, companies, and people over months, sometimes years.

Why We Crave Strong Leaders in Crisis — And Why That Might Be a Problem

Published by Trotzendorff

1. The Pattern: Crisis Hits, and We Look Up Take a moment and think back to the last time you felt truly uncertain — maybe during a global pandemic, a major reorganization at work, or a personal crisis. Chances are, you found yourself gravitating toward someone who seemed to have all the answers. A boss. A political figure. A loud voice in a crowded room.