2025 was a year of AI disruptions, return-to-office debates, and burnout levels that made “Sunday scaries” feel like a standing meeting.
But here’s the thing. Every workplace challenge brought invaluable lessons.
And now that the dust is (kind of) settling, many organizations and employees are finding unexpected gratitude for the clarity those difficult moments created.
So, before closing the book on 2025, let’s reflect on what these hard moments revealed and why they’ve become sources of unexpected gratitude.
1. AI disruption: Grateful for the efficiency it unlocked
Not long ago, AI felt like a future problem. It was theoretical and distant. Someone else’s to solve.
Now it’s drafting your emails, summarizing your meetings, and suggesting how to run your 1:1s.
But as the initial shock wore off and people started embracing AI, a surprising realization emerged. AI isn’t here to replace humans. It’s here to help us do what we’ve always done best. And now we have more time to do it. Things like thinking, analyzing, creating, and building.
Engineers let AI surface probable sources of bugs, freeing them up to spend their time testing fixes instead of scanning code.
Instead of spending hours assembling data from multiple sources, analysts let AI generate the first draft of their reports so they could focus on adding the context, nuance, and real-world implications that only a human can see.
Teachers stopped building lesson plans from scratch and instead built AI drafts which freed them up to customize the plans to meet the specific needs of their students.
In every field, the shift was the same. AI helped reduce the amount of time spent on busy work, so more time and attention could go toward the work humans are uniquely equipped to do.
So yes, AI disrupted nearly everything and often caught people by surprise, but it’s also unlocked new levels of efficiency and scale that were nearly impossible to reach. And that’s worth being grateful for.
2. Burnout: Grateful that it’s getting boardroom attention
Burnout wasn’t new in 2025, but it reached a point where no one could pretend it wasn’t a major problem that businesses had to address.
According to a McKinsey study, 64% of employees reported feeling burnt out at least once a week. That’s a 48% jump from just two years ago. That kind of spike made it harder to dismiss burnout as a “rough patch.” It revealed a chronic, costly pattern. One that moved burnout from a personal issue to a business one:
- 23% higher absenteeism
- $322 billion in lost productivity
- Up to $190 billion in annual healthcare spend linked to stress
The result? Mental health moved from the margins to the center of business strategy.
It’s no longer just a slide in an HR deck; it’s on the agenda in executive meetings. This has led to real change in the workplace. We’re seeing new policies take shape. More flexibility in workloads. Better Manager training. And a meaningful push to reduce stigma.
No ones celebrating the numbers that got us here. But we can acknowledge what they have accomplished in making mental health impossible to ignore and given it the strategic weight it always deserved.
And that’s definitely something to be grateful for.
3. RTO policies: Grateful for the candid conversations they started
In 2025, return-to-office policies put a spotlight on something much bigger than office locations. They tested how much trust really existed between companies and their people.
When Amazon announced a five-day RTO mandate, the backlash was immediate. Petitions circulated. Advocacy forums swelled to over 30,000 employees. An internal poll found that 73% were considering quitting.
The pattern repeated across companies. At AT&T, 7,800 employees signed a petition against similar mandates. Slack channels filled with dissent. Resignation threats became real.
Leaders framed these policies as necessary for culture, collaboration, and productivity. But many employees heard something else: “We don’t trust you.”
And that disconnect showed up in the data:
- 57% of remote workers said they’d actively job-hunt if forced back full-time
- Only 44% said they’d comply with a five-day mandate
This wasn’t a rebellion. It was employees showing clearly, and collectively what matters most to them. Trust, flexibility, and work-life balance.
And while this kind of tension isn’t easy to deal with, the smartest companies listened to their people and made space for real conversations.
Instead of asking “How do we get people back?” they started asking, “How can we make the office a place worth coming back to?” They re-evaluated what in-person time should look like. They acknowledged trade-offs. And stopped pretending “back to normal” was the goal.
Not everyone made that shift. But the ones who did? They were able to turn that tension into trust and built workplaces people actually wanted to return to.
That shift — that trust — is a great thing to be grateful for.
Grateful for the growth the 2025 workplace challenges made possible
2025 has tested us. But it also taught us so much. Gratitude doesn’t mean ignoring the hard parts; it means honoring what they’ve helped us become and where they’ve helped us go.
Want to learn more about growth, resilience, and reinvention?
These resources can help you to navigate the top workplace challenges and support your people: