Jobs unravel, LinkedIn execs panic, and McDonald’s makes a comeback.

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.

If you’ve been forwarded this email, hello!  Subscribe here.

Happy Monday, folks!

I'm back in your inbox with something a little different this week.

Monday Mornings is a publication about the "Post 9-5" world and how work is becoming more entrepreneurial. Twice a month, I unpack this shift to mass entrepreneurialism through Briefings that explore the big themes shaping our future (think: portfolio careers, gender, workers’ rights, the creator economy) and Interviews with expert future of work thinkers, activists, and founders with fresh insights on our themes.

But something has been missing: a space to spotlight how others are writing, thinking, and talking about this shift too. So today, I’m introducing a new format: The Feed.

Not tied to a single theme or interview, The Feed will curate essays, newsletters, and ideas from the web with their own take on the shift to mass entrepreneurialism.

I hope it becomes a valuable part of the mix.

So let me know what you think—and while you’re here, I’d still love your input via this quick six-month reader survey. It’ll help me ensure I continue offering value worth your time. Thank you in advance! If you already inputted, your thank you is coming your way soon.

The Feed, June 2025

1/ You are not your job. And soon, you won’t have one.
(Source: By Carmen Van Kerckhove | Substack, May 2025)

Read it here →

At 2,500 likes and counting, this one went viral for good reason. Carmen starts with the story of a once-successful software engineer now living in a trailer, following 800 unsuccessful job applications. A signal to a larger, quieter reckoning: knowledge work is no longer a safe bet. And many of us have built our self-worth around being useful, impressive, or secure at work.

Carmen’s piece isn’t just about AI or layoffs but about what happens when the scaffolding of identity you’ve built around work starts to collapse. The comments section is worth a scroll in itself. Filled with stories of grief, reinvention, and how disorienting it feels to lose a career path you did everything “right” to secure.

Why it’s in The Feed: This is the emotional underside of the shift to mass entrepreneurialism, an untangling who we are from what we do when the old formulas no longer apply.

More from the archive: The White Collar Unravelling; how and why professionals are losing footing on the career ladder I uncovered the reasons why, and implications of, the white collar professional career paths are fast unravelling

2/ I’m a LinkedIn Executive. I See the Bottom Rung of the Career Ladder Breaking.
(Source: Aneesh Raman, NY Times, May 2025)

Read it here →

When the chief economic opportunity officer at LinkedIn says the career ladder is cracking, we should probably listen. Aneesh Raman pulls from platform-wide data and executive surveys to show how AI and global instability are hitting young workers the hardest not with mass layoffs, but with a more insidious and quiet disappearance of entry-level opportunity in general.

This is a loss of the apprenticeship-style model that once gave people a chance to prove themselves, build skills, and climb, and without a bottom rung, we’re looking at a generation stalled before they even start and future talent shortages.

Why it’s in The Feed: This is the structural companion to our first essay. More than just an identity collapse, Raman points to the other side, the infrastructure collapse. A system no longer offering a stable way in. It’s yet another sign that we’re heading for a world where entrepreneurship may be the only path that still promises progress.

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/ Secrets for building a thriving business
(Source: Chris Williamson interviews Daniel Priestley on Modern Wisdom Podcast, June 2025)

Watch it here (mins 22.35-31.40) →

You’d imagine entrepreneur influences would glamorise the reasons for going solo, but Daniel Priestley makes the case for a missing step: go work for a founder first. He argues that joining a 2–12 person entrepreneurial team is one of the best ways to gain exposure to real business building, and the fastest way to understand ‘how the sausage gets made’. From revenue models to marketing scrambles, you’ll see everything (and often be responsible for a lot of it).

Chris and Daniel explore why startup experience, club promotion, and even McDonald’s night shifts may offer more foundational entrepreneurial training than most MBAs — and how “high-agency people” today might be better off skipping the corporate ladder entirely for startup building, of all kinds.

This is a 2 hour episode but I pulled from a 9 minute section for this aspect, but the whole video was excellent.

Why it’s in The Feed: This conversation puts language to what many early-career professionals are figuring out: traditional paths are slow, gated, and often irrelevant. Meanwhile, entrepreneurial teams are where the real growth (and chaos) is and might make more sense as traditional career ladders are declining.

More from the archive: “Everyone gets to participate in building the future" – AI Founder, Mahdi Shariff. Mahdi told me about the opportunities that exist for everyone when it comes to entrepreneurship, thanks to the wave of new AI tools at our disposal.

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.