Who would ever care what “HR leaders” think about the future of work?

I’ve written about similar themes before — used to work with this dude Jonathan Goodman, generally nice guy actually, who once told me in a bar that my “beat” in my life was “shitting on HR” (it’s not, but can feel that way) — and I’ll just say again, louder for the people in the back: In general, HR leaders are not active in the full holistic ecosystem of the business. They are not necessarily talking to front-line managers, learning about silos’ needs and concerns, and engaging with front-line employees. Instead, they are usually making pointless decks, doing engagement score surveys, firing people, and rolling over and playing dead for the executives. They are the ultimate pearl-clutching, compliance, “We only exist because legal’s hourly fees are too high” department. Almost no one has healthy respect for them, including some people internal to the department.

And yet, every day, digital bytes and actual trees fall down so we can write articles like this one, from some guy at Citrix, about “what your future employees want.” A noble topic, without question, especially right now! But you constantly get paragraphs like this:

86% of employees said they would prefer to work for a company that prioritizes outcomes over output. What does this mean? New employees want to work for a company that cares less…