Jobs that consist entirely of routine tasks are most at risk of AI disruption, Huang said.
We’ve all got an inner critic in our heads. You know its voice: it’s the one who berates you when you make a mistake, who peers over your shoulder and critiques your work unfavorably, or who tells you you’re useless and worthless when things don’t go …
Once upon a time, there were two guarantees when getting a new job: a 401(k) and a work wife/hubby or bestie.
No one assigns you. There’s no official moment. One day, they are just there. The person who can help you translate your boss’s cryptic email, exchange eyerolls after annoying comments at the staff meeting, or share your emergency stash of M&M’s at 3 p.m.
But then 2026 happened and many of us work with colleagues we’ve only seen from the shoulders up on Zoom. So, I must ask, are work besties even a thing anymore? Or are they an outdated artifact of the pre-video conference culture?
Why You Need a Work BFF
Science backs up the value of office besties. Research shows that employees with at least one close friend at work are happier, more engaged, and stay longer than employees who go it alone, according to the Gallup Employment Engagement Survey. That means, if you like who you work with, you’re more likely to show up fully present and keep showing up.
A work bestie can:
1. Help you survive tough days. When sh*t hits the fan with a meeting, presentation, or project, you have someone to commiserate with and vent to.
2. Provide psychological safety. It feels safer to take risks when you have someone cheering you on. You are more likely to propose the out-of-the-box idea, say what you really think, and bounce back from feedback.
3. Give you a reason to go into the office. If you’re like me, working from home means yoga pants and a decent blouse for video calls. Knowing that you will see friends at the office is sometimes the only reason to put on real clothes and appear in public.
And at time when there is an epidemic of loneliness around the world, workplace friendships can provide something many adults struggle to find elsewhere: everyday connection.
Why Work Buddies Are Tougher to Find These Days
1. Office culture. Employees come into the office three days one week, fully remote the next. Some teams operate in multiple time zones. Others hire contractors who work seasonal gigs of six months or less. Those lazy mid-afternoon conversations over Starbucks have been swapped out for biweekly Zoom catchups.
2. You can’t run into someone in the kitchenette on Microsoft Teams.
3. We’ve become too cautious. The Great Layoffs took their toll. Companies eliminated entire departments via Zoom. After years of instability, people no longer think of the office like a family. These days it’s “just a job.” And suddenly, investing in another person at work feels like a waste of time.
That said, workplace friendships that do exist have never been more complicated.
The Drawbacks No One Puts on LinkedIn
1. Power imbalances. Your glowing review feels pointless when your boss loves your buddy’s work more. Someone you considered a friend rejects your idea in a meeting and suddenly you question of they respect you at all. If one of you gets a raise or promotion, that may change the power dynamic.
2. Blurred boundaries. When you are close to a coworker, professional disagreements or tough feedback can feel personal.
3. Layoff trauma. Losing a job is hard but losing your person and your job is just brutal. And when a bestie leaves, it can destabilize the other’s life at work.
4. And then there are office cliques. Every workplace has them. It’s the group that lunches together every day, are always huddled up in one of their officers. Cliques aren’t necessarily malicious, but they can shape opportunity and the flow of information. If you are on the outside, you feel it.
What If You Can’t Find a Work Bestie?
Perhaps you work remotely every day. You’re the only parent in your office. You’re the newest member of the team. You work in customer service. Or maybe you just really like keeping your professional and personal lives separate. Perhaps the real question isn’t whether we need them. It’s whether we need to redefine them. Instead of one best friend, build a team:
- One person who gives candid career advice.
- One person who shares memes mid-meeting.
- One person who challenges the way you think.
- One person who understands our life outside of work.
- This ecosystem can be just as powerful and much less fragile.
So, Are they Still a Thing?
Yes. But they look different. They might live in your DMs instead of the cubicle next to you. They might work in another state. They might be someone you’ve only met in person twice but text during every staff Zoom. All are valid. The deeper issue isn’t whether you have a work bestie. It’s whether you feel seen where you spend most of your waking hours. And in a culture that asks us to fluctuate between hustle and detachment, maybe the real luxury isn’t flexibility or perks. It’s having someone who understands exactly what that long meeting was really about.
Building off his experience as an athlete, talent manager, and brand builder, Samyr Lainé has backed brands founded by Issa Rae, Kaley Cuoco, and Emma Watson.
As Gen Z and millennials watch their “worthless” degrees lose value thanks to AI, one student has wrapped up more than $420,000 in student debt.
“I learned early on in Sunday school, from Mr. and Mrs. Levin, to know when enough is enough,” Craig Newmark said.
Happiness has been a bit thin on the ground these days. The headlines are grim, loneliness and disconnection are rising, and work pressures seem to multiply by the day as new technologies, global unrest, and social upheaval collide.
In the midst of…
The last cupcake brand standing from the 2010s boom is now open to a sale.
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I’m obsessive about my to-do lists. Everything I need to get done goes on my list so I don’t lose sight of it.
But as a solo business owner, I ran into a problem: when do I have the time to actually work through my list? Anything urgent, I’d work on. Anything non-urgent, well…
Stuff that keeps a business running gets perpetually pushed to “later.” However, “later” can eventually cause problems – like your website is out of date, your files are a mess, or your inbox is chaos. You can’t ignore the small, boring, non-billable tasks, or they’ll compound.
Why you need a dedicated admin hour
The default solopreneur mode is often reactive. You deal with admin tasks only when they start causing you or your business some pain.
If you set aside a recurring block of time on your calendar, it turns admin tasks into routine maintenance instead of a crisis response. I use Friday mornings. Some weeks it’s 30 minutes; other weeks it’s longer. The point is that I protect that time and stick to it every week.
An admin hour also creates a psychological boundary. Client work has its time, and your business should also get some attention. When you know admin time has a designated slot, you won’t feel the constant pressure of an unfinished to-do list.
What to do during your admin hour
The specifics will depend on your business, but here are the tasks I cycle through most often during my admin hour.
Review your pipeline. Look at what’s coming in, what’s wrapping up, and if you have an upcoming gap in your income. If a prospect went quiet, send a short check-in. Scope out potential clients if you need to drum up new business.
Update your portfolio or website. Add recent projects and remove anything outdated. Refresh your service descriptions since your website is often the first thing a potential client sees.
Review and organize files and folders. Archive completed projects, save any invoices to your Google Drive, and make sure nothing has been overlooked in your Downloads folder. This is the kind of task that feels pointless until you’re scrambling to find something three months from now.
Check in on your finances. Categorize recent expenses, review what you’ve earned this month, and send invoices. If a client’s payment is overdue, send a follow-up.
Tame your inbox. Reply to the emails that have been waiting for a response from you. Archive what you no longer need. Move anything that requires deeper work to your to-do list.
Update your internal processes. Tweak your proposal language based on recent experiences. Audit the tools and subscriptions you’re paying for. Record a quick video of yourself walking through a process so you remember how to do it later.
The admin hour that runs itself?
Over time, I’ve learned not to think of my admin hour as a chore. I put on some music and power through my list.
And some of these tasks — organizing files, triaging your inbox — are increasingly things that AI tools can handle in the background. Quite a few tasks that used to be on my weekly list have now been “outsourced” because they don’t require any human judgment. Just detailed instructions.
Over time, you might find that AI can handle the boring stuff and you can focus your admin hour on higher-value work, like refining your positioning or deciding where your business goes next.
