Why Resilience Was Built for a Different Kind of Work

“Be resilient” has become a standard message at work.

Keep your head down. Stay flexible. Don’t get thrown. Figure it out.

Most people are already doing that.

The issue is that the kind of resilience we keep asking for was built for a different shape of work than what many people are living in now.

What resilience was meant to do

Resilience fit when hard periods were temporary.

You’d have a brutal quarter. A reorg. A system change. A big launch.
Everyone knew it was going to be intense.

Then, at some point, things settled. Not perfect—but steadier.

That’s where resilience made sense. It meant:

You take the hit.
You keep showing up.
You stay steady enough to get through it.
Then you catch your breath and rebuild your rhythm.

You could usually tell:

• what the hard thing was
• when it started
• when it was mostly over

Resilience was what helped you get back to your baseline.

Why that doesn’t match how work feels now

For a lot of people, there isn’t a baseline anymore.

The pace doesn’t come down. It just changes form.

One week it’s a new priority.
Next week it’s a new process.
Then a leadership shift.
Then a “quick restructure.”
Then tools change again.
Then goals get revised—without anyone closing the loop on the last set.

So instead of “push through and recover,” it’s “adjust again.”

People aren’t recovering. They’re constantly bracing.

You can feel it in small, everyday moments:

• You start Monday already behind
• You can’t finish a thought without being pulled into something else
• Decisions get made fast, then quietly revised later
• You’re told to move faster, but the inputs keep changing
• You’re working hard, but it’s harder to explain what you’re building toward

Resilience was never meant to be a permanent stance.

What resilience can’t fix by itself

Resilience helps you endure.

It doesn’t tell you what to do when the work is unclear.

A person can be resilient and still feel stuck because:

• the priorities keep shifting
• the “right answer” depends on who you ask
• tradeoffs are happening, but no one is naming them
• you’re expected to use judgment, but get corrected after the fact
• you’re working around problems everyone sees, but no one owns

That’s where the strain comes from.

Not the workload by itself.
The constant uncertainty inside the workload.

What actually helps

Those things can help, but they don’t touch the daily friction that drains people the fastest: ambiguity that turns into confusion.

People get energy back when a few practical things are true:

• someone makes the priorities clear
• tradeoffs are acknowledged
• decisions don’t stay half-decided for weeks
• “what good looks like” is clear enough to aim at
• attention isn’t constantly redirected by new urgency

If you lead people: pick one source of avoidable strain to remove this week.
A half-made decision. A priority that keeps shifting. A meeting that creates more work than it resolves. Make one thing clearer, close one loop, name one tradeoff out loud.

If you’re inside the work: pick one strain point you can surface or reduce this week. Ask for a clearer “what matters most.” Turn one recurring interruption into a boundary. Close one open loop that’s draining attention.

You don’t need a build more resilience.
You need less avoidable friction—so steady effort feels like progress again.