"It's over". As job growth slows, it's time to reset career expectations.

Welcome to Monday Mornings! A publication about the new world of work beyond the 9-5: exploring the rise of mass entrepreneurialism. Through sharp analysis and interviews with the builders, thinkers, and leaders driving this shift, Monday Mornings unpacks what a post 9-5 world means for individuals, businesses, and society.

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Happy Monday, folks!

Welcome back to another one of our new formats for Monday Mornings; The Feed.

For at least the summer season, in these posts I’ll be curating posts that resonated with me most in the month, as it pertains to the decline of the 9-5 and shift to mass entrepreneurialism theme.

Let’s get into it.

The Feed, July 2025

1/ Accepting it's over might be your best survival plan
(Source: Bruce Daisley | Substack, May 2025)

Read it here →

“I don’t think it’s hyperbole to state that for many of us we now feel like we’re in a fight for our jobs”, Bruce exclaims. A preeminent future of work thinker, he cites the latest research from Anthropic that has been showing us knowledge work could be over within a decade:

This is happening he proclaims, despite the lag time between companies admitting AI is the reason for job cuts.

An antidote for workers? Be committed to learning, improving and keeping pace with a dizzying pace of reinvention.

Why it’s in The Feed: Bruce Daisley is a futurist, and workplace culture expert in the know. If he’s using such a morbid title, I’m taking note.

More from the archive: The White Collar Unravelling; how and why professionals are losing footing on the career ladder to better understand the reasons that white collar professional career paths are fast unravelling.

2/ The Elite Overproduction Hypothesis
(Source: Noah Smith, Noahpinion,July 2025)

Read it here →

What happens when the promise of higher education begins to collapse under its own weight? Economist and writer Noah Smith revives the theory of “elite overproduction” to explain the growing disillusionment amongst today’s educated young professionals. Such professionals are chasing a small number of prestigious role and its leaving many overqualified, underemployed, and quietly furious.

The decline of certain professions for humanities graduates, Noah points out, coincided with a rise in university applications for studying humanities in the 2000s and early 2010s. These professionals (myself included) expected a double bounty aka to be able to earn a good income and find a personally fulfilling career. But that did not come to pass.

This is career crisis today also extends to STEM graduates who are also finding fewer open doors. Smith argues what’s needed isn’t just job creation or re-skilling but an ‘expectations reset’. Universities must stop overpromising. Families must temper their aspirations. And we, collectively, must grapple with a culture where credentialism no longer guarantees success indeed or security.

Why it’s in The Feed: This is the emotional root of so many themes covered in Monday Mornings. The narrative of “just work hard and get educated” is long gone and we need more data and evidence to prove it, as Noah has pulled together here.

More from the archive: "Millions are in jobs for which they are overqualified"– Economist Guy Standing. Guy told me all about the risk of underemployment amongst young people and the rise of the precariat class, if we don’t figure out a way to keep talented people occupied

3/ The Jobs Market Is Starting to Fall Apart
(Source: Justin Lahart, Wall Street Journal, July 2025)

Read it here →

‘There are enough jobs’. ‘There aren’t enough jobs’

Which is it?

Lahart from The Wall Street Journal has dug beneath the surface into America’s slightly baffling labour market, to confirm that yes: stop-start tariffs, government layoffs, and an immigration crackdown have negatively impacted job growth.

Labor Department has revised its job growth figures on the most part, amongst smaller firms who in 2025 have added around 5,300 jobs a month—far fewer than last year’s average gain of nearly 40,000 jobs. From a workers’ standpoint, this is mostly impacting those out of jobs and seeking work. The line between slow and no growth could be closer than it looks.

Why it’s in The Feed: This article puts raw numbers next to the rhetoric of job losses we keep hearing of, and, explains why it’s a nuanced conversation. If the official Labour Department struggles to get an accurate read on the jobs available, those of us doomscrolling have little chance of finding the accurate measure!

More from the archive: "This is the biggest labour story of our time, but no one talks about it" — Jeff told me about his research and entrepreneurial ventures in HR tech and how it’s shown him that the 9-5 is more persistent than the media would have us believe.

Thanks so much for reading as always, and I’ll be back in your inboxes again very soon!

Monday Mornings is written and hosted by Ellen Donnelly, a writer, speaker, and coach focused on the future of work. She specialises in the shift towards mass entrepreneurialism, and supports founders navigating pivots in her private coaching practice, The Ask.