For the last three years, the corporate world has been locked in a territorial dispute. The “Return to Office” (RTO) wars were defined by geography: the home versus the headquarters. But as 2025 unfolded, the frontline shifted. According to commercial real-estate giant JLL’s Workforce Preference Barometer 2025, the most critical conflict between employers and employees is no longer about location—it is about time.
While structured hybrid policies have become the norm, with 66% of global office workers reporting clear expectations on which days to attend, a new disconnect has emerged. Employees have largely accepted the “where,” but they are aggressively demanding autonomy over the “when.”
The report highlights a fundamental change in employee priorities. Work–life balance has overtaken salary as the leading priority for office workers globally, cited by 65% of respondents—up from 59% in 2022. This statistic underscores a profound shift in needs: Employees are looking for “management of time over place.”
While high salaries remain the top reason people switch jobs, the ability to control one’s schedule is the primary reason they stay. The report notes employees are seeking “agency over when and how they work,” and this desire for temporal autonomy is reshaping the talent market.
Although JLL didn’t dive into the phenomenon of “coffee badging,” its findings align with the practice of hybrid workers stretching the boundaries of office attendance. The phrase—meaning when a worker badges in just long enough to have the proverbial cup of coffee before commuting somewhere else to keep working remotely—vividly illustrates how the goalposts have shifted from where to when. Gartner reported 60% of employers were tracking employees as of 2022, twice as many as before the pandemic.
The ‘flexibility gap’
JLL’s data reveals a significant “flexibility gap”: 57% of employees believe flexible working hours would improve their quality of life, yet only 49% currently have access to this benefit.
The gap is particularly dangerous for employers, JLL said, arguing it believes the “psychological contract” between workers and employers is at risk. While salary and flexibility remain fundamental to retention, JLL said its survey of 8,700 workers across 31 countries reveals a deeper psychological contract: “Workers today want to be visible, valued and prepared for the future. Around one in three say they could leave for better career development or reskilling opportunities, while the same proportion is reevaluating the role of work in their lives.” JLL argued “recognition … emotional wellbeing and a clear sense of purpose” are now crucial for long-term retention.
The report warns that where this contract is broken, employees stop engaging and start seeking compensation through “increased commuting stipend and flexible hours.” The urgency for time flexibility is being driven by a crisis of exhaustion. Nearly 40% of global office workers report feeling overwhelmed, and burnout has become a “serious threat to employers’ operations.”
The link between rigid schedules and attrition is clear: Among employees considering quitting in the next 12 months, 57% report suffering from burnout. For caregivers and the “squeezed middle” of the workforce, standard hybrid policies are insufficient; 42% of caregivers require short-notice paid leave to manage their lives, yet they often feel their constraints are “poorly understood and supported at work.”
To survive this new battle, the report suggests companies must abandon “one-size-fits-all” approaches. Successful organizations are moving toward “tailored flexibility,” which emphasizes autonomy over working hours rather than just counting days at a desk. This shift even impacts the physical office building. To support a workforce that operates on asynchronous schedules, offices must adapt with “extended access hours,” smart lighting, and space-booking systems that support flexible work patterns rather than a rigid 9-to-5 routine.
Management guru Suzy Welch, however, warns it may be an uphill battle for employers to find a burnout cure. The New York University professor, who spent seven years as a management consultant at Bain & Co. before joining Harvard Business Review in 2001, later serving as editor-in-chief, told the Masters of Scale podcast in September burnout is existential and generational. The 66-year-old Welch argued burnout is linked to hope, and current generations have reason to lack this.
“We believed that if if you worked hard you were rewarded for it. And so this is the disconnect,” she said.
Expanding on the theme, she added: “Gen Z thinks, ‘Yeah, I watched what happened to my parents’ career and I watched what happened to my older sister’s career and they worked very hard and they still got laid off.’” JLL’s worldwide survey suggests this message has resonated for workers globally: They shouldn’t give up too much of their time, because it just may not be rewarded.
Good morning. The U.S. economy closed out 2025 with a puzzling mix: sluggish job growth alongside accelerating productivity.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported on Friday that nonfarm payrolls rose by a seasonally adjusted 50,000 in December 2025, missing the 73,000 Dow Jones estimate and slowing from November’s revised gain of 56,000. November payrolls were revised down by 8,000 jobs, while October’s loss deepened to 173,000 from 105,000. For 2025 as a whole, payrolls grew by an average of 49,000 jobs per month, down sharply from 168,000 in 2024.
Bank of America Global Research analysts wrote in a report on Friday that although payroll growth has slowed since June, the unemployment rate has risen by only about 11 basis points. The report noted, “We have been highlighting that tighter immigration restrictions are likely to play a bigger role in the slowdown in job growth this year.”
The unemployment rate is a key statistic for the Fed, and markets responded to Friday’s miss by pricing out a January rate cut, according to the analysts. Futures now imply less than half a cut priced in through April, which marks the end of Powell’s term.
The productivity factor
Despite weak job growth, forecasts still point to solid overall economic expansion. I asked Gregory Daco, EY chief economist, how the U.S. economy can continue to grow strongly while hiring softens.
“We’re seeing a clear decoupling between growth and hiring,” Daco said. Output is still expanding, but companies are generating that growth with fewer incremental workers and fewer hours.
“Productivity has rebounded meaningfully as businesses continue to streamline operations, automate processes, and extract more output from existing teams in a high-cost, high-interest-rate environment,” Daco explained. “This isn’t AI-led in a narrow sense yet—it’s the payoff from multi-year efficiency drives, tighter cost discipline, and delayed hiring.”
According to the BLS, nonfarm business sector labor productivity increased 4.9% in the third quarter of 2025, as output rose 5.4% while hours worked increased just 0.5%.
Areas of job growth
Where job growth has occurred, employment in food services and drinking places continued to trend higher in December, adding 27,000 jobs. The sector added an average of 12,000 jobs per month in 2025, roughly in line with the 11,000 average monthly gain in 2024.
Health care employment also continued its upward trend in December, rising by 21,000 jobs, including a gain of 16,000 in hospitals. Health care added an average of 34,000 jobs per month in 2025, down from an average monthly increase of 56,000 in 2024.
Monster’s newly released 2026 Job Market Outlook also reflects these pockets of strength. Based on full-year 2025 job posting and job seeker data, the report shows employer demand remaining firm in health care, essential services, infrastructure-related roles, and skill-based jobs, even as other parts of the labor market slow.
‘Hiring hasn’t stopped’
As private payroll growth weakened throughout 2025 and hiring appetites diminished, I asked Daco whether he expects that trend to continue amid ongoing geopolitical uncertainty and tariff-related risks
“Yes—barring a material improvement in policy clarity, I expect hiring restraint to persist,” he said. Private payroll growth has already slowed sharply as firms shift into cost-control mode, with geopolitical risks, tariff uncertainty, and elevated financing costs reinforcing that bias, he explained.
“Hiring hasn’t stopped, but it has become more selective and more conditional on clear demand visibility,” Daco added. “In this environment, CFOs are likely to continue favoring efficiency, automation, and capex discipline over broad-based workforce expansion.”
*Quick note: “The Data Imperative: Reinventing Finance with AI,” is the next Emerging CFO webinar which will take place Tuesday, Jan. 27 at 11 a.m. ET. Join Fortune, in partnership with Workday, for a timely discussion featuring Adobe’s CFO Dan Durn, and additional speakers to be announced, that will offer firsthand insights and practical strategies from leaders shaping AI-driven finance transformation. You can register for the event here. Email us at CFOCollaborative@Fortune.com with any questions.
Leaderboard
Young Kim was appointed CFO and chief operating officer at Bitmine Immersion Technologies, Inc. (NYSE: BMNR) effective immediately. Kim has more than 20 years of experience. From 2021 to 2025, he served as partner and senior portfolio manager at Axiom Investors, following a decade as senior portfolio manager at Columbia Threadneedle Investments from 2011 to 2021. Earlier in his career, Kim held roles across investment research, venture capital, business development, and software engineering.
Jimmi Sue Smith is retiring from her position as CFO of Koppers Holdings Inc. (NYSE: KOP) effective Jan. 5. Smith will continue to serve as treasurer, as well as in an advisory role, to assist with a transition through Feb. 28. Bradley Pearce, chief accounting officer, will serve as interim CFO and still perform his current role while an external search is conducted to identify a permanent successor.
Big Deal
The latest S&P Global Market Intelligence data shows that large U.S. corporate bankruptcies rose to one of the highest monthly totals in five years in December 2025, with filings increasing to 72 from 63 in November. This uptick extended the 15-year high for annual filings first set in November, bringing the total to 785 for the year—the highest since 2010. Rising interest rates have been a significant factor, as many companies struggled to refinance their debt, according to the report.
The data covers companies with public debt and at least $2 million in assets or liabilities, as well as private companies with at least $10 million in assets or liabilities at the time of filing.
Courtesy of S&P Global Market Intelligence
Going deeper
“Powell blasts DOJ criminal probe as attack on Fed independence. ‘Public service sometimes requires standing firm in the face of threats’” is a Fortune article by Jason Ma.
He writes: “Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said in a statement on Sunday that the Justice Department served the Fed with grand jury subpoenas, threatening a criminal indictment over his testimony before the Senate last June related to renovations on the headquarters, which has seen cost overruns. Powell, who is typically cautious in his public remarks, was clear that the probe was political in nature and had nothing to do with the Fed renovations or his testimony, dismissing them as ‘pretexts.'” Read the complete article here.
Overheard
“After more than two decades of declining well-being for most middle- and low-income households, it is clear that structural reforms are needed to bring costs back in line with wages.”
—Gene Ludwig, former U.S. Comptroller of the Currency, and chairman of the Ludwig Institute for Shared Economic Prosperity, and Shannon Meyer, a research analyst at the Ludwig Institute, write in a Fortune opinion piece titled, “Millions of Americans are grappling with years of declining economic wellbeing and affordability needs a rethink.”
Mattel Inc. is introducing an autistic Barbie on Monday as the newest member of its line intended to celebrate diversity, joining a collection that already includes Barbies with Down syndrome, a blind Barbie, a Barbie and a Ken with vitiligo, and other models the toymaker added to make its fashion dolls more inclusive.
Mattel said it developed the autistic doll over more than 18 months in partnership with the Autistic Self Advocacy Network, a nonprofit organization that advocates for the rights and better media representation of people with autism. The goal: to create a Barbie that reflected some of the ways autistic people may experience and process the world around them, according to a Mattel news release.
That was a challenge because autism encompasses a broad range of behaviors and difficulties that vary widely in degree, and many of the traits associated with the disorder are not immediately visible, according to Noor Pervez, who is the Autistic Self Advocacy Network’s community engagement manager and worked closely with Mattel on the Barbie prototype.
Like many disabilities, “autism doesn’t look any one way,” Pervez said. “But we can try and show some of the ways that autism expresses itself.”
For example, the eyes of the new Barbie shift slightly to the side to represent how some people with autism sometimes avoid direct eye contact, he said. The doll also was given articulated elbows and wrists to acknowledge stimming, hand flapping and other gestures that some autistic people use to process sensory information or to express excitement, according to Mattel.
The development team debated whether to dress the doll in a tight or a loose-fitting outfit, Pervez said. Some autistic people wear loose clothes because they are sensitive to the feel of fabric seams, while others wear figure-hugging garments to give them a sense of where their bodies are, he said.
The team ended up choosing an A-line dress with short sleeves and a flowy skirt that provides less fabric-to-skin contact. The doll also wears flat shoes to promote stability and ease of movement, according to Mattel.
Each doll comes with a pink finger clip fidget spinner, noise-canceling headphones and a pink tablet modeled after the devices some autistic people who struggle to speak use to communicate.
The addition of the autistic doll to the Barbie Fashionistas line also became an occasion for Mattel to create a doll with facial features inspired by the company’s employees in India and mood boards reflecting a range of women with Indian backgrounds. Pervez said it was important to have the doll represent a segment of the autistic community that is generally underrepresented.
Mattel introduced its first doll with Down syndrome in 2023 and brought out a Barbie representing a person with Type 1 diabetes last summer. The Fashionistas also include a Barbie and a Ken with a prosthetic leg, and a Barbie with hearing aids, but the line also encompasses tall, petite and curvy body types and numerous hair types and skin colors.
“Barbie has always strived to reflect the world kids see and the possibilities they imagine, and we’re proud to introduce our first autistic Barbie as part of that ongoing work,” Jamie Cygielman, Mattel’s global head of dolls, said in a statement.
The doll was expected to be available at Mattel’s online shop and at Target stores starting Monday for a suggested retail price of $11.87. Walmart stores are expected to start carrying the new Barbie in March, Mattel said.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported last year that the estimated prevalence of autism among 8-year-old children in the U.S. was 1 in 31. The estimate from the CDC’s Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring Network said Black, Hispanic, Asian and Pacific Islander children in the U.S. were more likely than white children to have a diagnosis, and the prevalence more than three times higher among boys than girls.
As executives keep pushing to find the magic ROI of AI, a new Workday study suggests that employees aren’t being set up to succeed—thanks to archaic job structures.
Employees are using 2025 tools while stuck in 2015 job structures, as less than half of job roles have been updated to reflect AI capabilities, according to the study. Workday’s survey featured responses from 3,200 full-time employees at organizations with annual revenue of $100 million or more.
Workers are rapidly being asked to apply human judgment and insight to a huge load of content that AI is generating for them, and historically, those types of skillsets take 10 years to build, said Aashna Kircher, group general manager for the office of the CHRO at Workday.
“Those are super high level skillsets,” Kircher said. “Right now, all the training that I see is very focused on how to use AI and not how to develop and apply discernment and judgment around the output that AI is driving. And I think that’s the disconnect for senior leaders.”
Kircher said the first step to addressing this disconnect is analyzing each business function to figure out what the core skillsets associated with the job should be, and which parts of it should be automated.
The study found that HR leaders bear a disproportionate share (38%) of the burden of “reworking AI”—fact-checking, reviewing, and editing copy that AI has produced. Those in IT roles, meanwhile, only represent 32% of those doing this work.
That’s partly a function of the different work processes. “[IT roles] are using it as the starting point, as a thought partner, to accelerate the creativity and iteration process—but understanding that the outcome is imperfect and it doesn’t need the same level of scrutiny,” Kircher said. “Whereas in the context of something like HR, accuracy, tone, impact, how you frame things, matter so much.”
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