What people actually need (and it's not another job)

People miss the paycheck and community more than work. Let's give them that.

I asked for 15 conversations with people who’d lost their jobs.

I got 60 responses in 48 hours.

Twelve weeks out

Q1 2026 is twelve weeks away.

In August, I published research showing that’s when AI-driven displacement begins—not in three to five years. The data all converged on January.

It’s already starting.

Layoffs are up 3.5% this year. Tech companies are still cutting. Interview processes stretch to six months and end in ghosting. The government’s shut down, so official numbers stopped, but the proxy indicators all point the same direction.

The executives I’d been talking to kept saying they saw it coming but didn’t feel urgency. People don’t change until not changing hurts more.

That’s not the executives. It’s everyone else.

So I started talking to them.

Relief, not fear

“I was relieved.”

Everyone I talk to has said this about leaving their job.

That’s what a business development manager said about getting laid off. He’d been grinding for months under leadership that couldn’t communicate, holding together a team that needed him while the company made contradictory demands.

But underneath the anger was permission to stop.

A social media manager who’d just resigned: “I was giving more of myself than I should have. I had to get out before I lost myself completely.”

They’d been making themselves smaller to fit. Editing their personalities. Muting their strengths. Performing compliance.

Until they couldn’t anymore.

The things they don’t miss tell you everything

Nobody missed the work.

“I don’t miss the work. I miss belonging.”

What they were happy to leave: Poor communication. Leaders who made decisions about work they didn’t understand. Bureaucracy that treated complex problems like checkbox exercises. The performative aspects of employment—showing up to be seen, pretending the equity would be worth something someday.

“I outgrew the role, the people, and the mission,” one person said. “All three legs of the stool were gone.”

The trade used to be clear: give your time and talent, get security and belonging. Both sides are broken now.

Courses and coaches aren’t helping

The career transition industry—communities, courses, coaches—isn’t landing.

“The market is flooded with people selling courses. I’d only pay for something that would actually change how I see myself, not teach me to game a broken system.”

Another described a recruiter who turned out to be pitching an MLM. “He kept talking about ‘building an asset.’ I’m like, dude, can you just talk straight?”

The traditional advice assumes a market that no longer exists. Update your resume. Network strategically. Apply to X jobs per day.

When 3,000 people apply for one job, you’re not running a hiring process. You’re running a lottery.

“I’ve applied to over 150 roles with personal referrals. Quality applications where I’m a perfect fit. Nothing.”

Another had internal champions at a company, perfect qualifications, rejected at the application stage without even a phone screen.

A third reached final rounds at six different companies. In two of them, the CEO conducted the final interview with video off, driving through a different country.

Even fractional work—often held up as the future—is replicating the same dynamics. Multiple people told me the fractional market has collapsed. Even successful practitioners are struggling.

Every escape hatch leads back to the same cage.

What people actually want

“How do you get 10 minutes with a human instead of your resume going through AI?”

“I want to work with people I respect. Not compete for the privilege of being dependent on people I don’t.”

A third described the value of an exclusive network she’d joined: “It’s validation to hear it’s not me, it’s the market. But more than that—having conversations about each other, not just work. Seeing people in person.”

The pattern across every conversation: people want relationship, not hierarchy. They want to work with people, not for them.

“I like integrating into a team, leveraging what each person brings. Doing it alone doesn’t seem fun.”

But neither does employment anymore.

The kid who never learned to need a job

I wrote last week about 14-year-old in Brisbane who has what a lot of people are looking for.

He wakes up at 4:30 AM to work on his businesses before school. No one makes him. He’s not padding a resume. He’s up because he has customers waiting, products to ship, ideas to test before first period.

He’s been running businesses since he was 11. Taught himself copywriting, marketing, sales. Set up affiliate deals. Co-designed an electric motorcycle with a manufacturer. Learned to weld and solder.

His mom says he’s never doubted his ability.

This kid isn’t special. He’s just never learned that he needs permission.

We all knew this once. Then we spent 50 years training it out of ourselves.

But it’s still in there.

What’s replacing employment

Some people are already beginning to work differently. Not just with kids who never learned the old model, but with people actively unlearning it.

Three people from my network met for the first time on a Monday. By Saturday, they’d built a data visualization tool for a client. They each made $15K. Then they went back to their own projects.

It’s the Avengers model. Independent people with complementary skills who come together for work that matters, then return to their own lives.

I’m not talking about traditional freelancing, where you’re alone with a laptop. And it’s not old-school employment, where you’re (maybe) safe but small. Something else.

This is how we do it at Jumpsuit—over 200 vetted contractors who collaborate on projects. At a recent retreat, we had 16 people in the room. That’s 21.5 billion possible team combinations—far more than the number of people on Earth.

Every combination creates differently.

You choose who you work with. Accountability is to teammates, not bosses. Decisions get made by people closest to the work.

What replaces corporate structure? Shared values, clear intentions, trust.

Current projections say 90 million Americans will be doing independent work by 2028. More than half the labor force.

The future isn’t everyone working alone. People I’m talking to don’t want that either.

What I’m building

I spent the better part of a decade in big pharma. When I left, it was brutal. I had credentials, a network, savings. What I didn’t have was community—people who cared about me beyond “behave and perform.”

The first few months, I’d wake at 3 AM convinced I’d made a catastrophic mistake.

But that wasn’t about my skills. It was the question I was asking.

In pharma: “How do I make myself indispensable?”

As a coach: “What do people actually need?”

The first question makes you smaller. The second makes you useful.

I’m asking that question again.

We’re designing a space together where people can work together without hierarchy. Where you choose your collaborators. Where the work matters because you chose it.

The exact form? Still emerging. But the principles are clear:

Connection without compromise. A space to show up as your full self.

Collaboration without hierarchy. Working with people, not for them.

Revenue without dependence. Creating security through capability and relationship.

Support that’s mutual, not transactional. Giving and receiving help.

If you’re in this transition

I’m still having those conversations.

If you’ve been laid off, you’re considering leaving, or you’re questioning whether the ladder was ever worth climbing—let’s talk.

I want to understand what you’re experiencing and what would actually help.

If you have “Open to Work” on your LinkedIn profile, definitely reach out.

If you know someone who needs to read this, share it.

If you want to follow along as this unfolds, subscribe.

That 14-year-old in Brisbane knows something we forgot.

How to work without permission. How to collaborate without hierarchy. How to create value because it matters, not because someone’s paying you to care.

We knew this once. We’re learning it again.

If you’re ready to remember, let’s talk.