Please enjoy this guest blog by Arielle Cardona. With 12+ years in change management, marketing content, and employee engagement—from big B2B enterprises to small but mighty teams—Arielle is endlessly curious about why work breaks people… and how managers can fix it.
— Bonfire Editorial Team
Across both large enterprises and small B2B teams, I keep seeing the same patterns show up: polished processes, well-intentioned leadership, and smart, capable employees. And yet burnout, growing disengagement, and distrust can sit just below the surface.
Leaders usually feel confused by this. From their perspective, they’re doing everything “by the book.”
In my experience, these issues rarely stem from a lack of effort or ambition on either side. More often, they’re the result of operating models and cultural habits that haven’t evolved alongside the workforce itself. Today’s teams are younger, media-literate, and fluent in irony. They’ve grown up watching corporate culture be critiqued, meme’d, and satirized in real time. And they can spot performance from a mile away.
During this season of resolution and change, B2B leaders have an opportunity to reset—not only their business goals, but the way work actually functions.
Below are four ways (and plenty of memes!) I believe leaders can rethink their work and break habits that are quietly holding teams back.
1. Stop forcing everyone into decision-making
In many B2B organizations, collaboration has slowly morphed into constant decision-making.
Team members are expected to weigh in on nearly everything: strategy, execution, prioritization, AND timelines. Meetings multiply. Email threads never end. Accountability? Never heard of her.
What’s meant to feel inclusive often feels exhausting. Frustration creeps in and timelines extend.
When every decision is collective, no decision feels owned. But not every decision needs a committee. Not every opinion needs to be surfaced. People burn mental energy navigating ambiguity instead of doing meaningful work.
The resolution
Clarify ownership and create defaults. This means that leaders should:
- Clearly define who owns which decisions
- Reduce unnecessary consensus-building
- Establish standard processes instead of reinventing workflows
Less ambiguity = less cognitive load and significantly less burnout.
2. Stop expecting jacks-of-all-trades
In both large and small B2B organizations, there’s often an unspoken expectation that strong performers will stretch endlessly and “figure it out.” They’re expected to handle everything from strategy and execution, creativity and analysis, to client work and internal operations.
Managers call it “growth.” In reality, it’s a fast-track to burnout.
The resolution
As the saying goes, a jack-of-all-trades makes a master of none. Instead of rewarding heroics, design roles for depth.
- Define what success looks like for each role
- Staff projects realistically
- Allow specialization without penalizing people for not doing everything
Sustainable performance comes from clarity, not constant flexibility.
(Sidenote: Yes, the full quote ends, “…master of none, though oftentimes better than master of one.” People should definitely be challenged, but within a range that’s manageable. Pay attention to over-achievers who never say “No.”).
3. Stop treating everything like an emergency
Many B2B environments operate in a permanent state of urgency. Everything is “ASAP.” Every request is framed as critical, and every fire drill becomes the norm.
Over time, this trains people to panic, not prioritize. And we all know that’s not a healthy state to remain in. There’s plenty of research linking work and stress to anxiety disorders and prescription medication for mental health reasons.
You can’t build trust in a constant fight-or-flight culture. Younger employees are far less willing to accept chaos as a cost of employment. They commiserate at happy hour. They’ve shared the memes. They know the joke.
The resolution
Be intentional about urgency.
- Differentiate between what’s important and what’s truly urgent
- Plan earlier instead of praising last-minute saves
- Model boundaries instead of glorifying burnout
Sustainable teams need rhythm, not adrenaline. Conduct “temperature checks” with your people to sense where they’re at and how they’re handling workloads. And maybe rethink if that project reminder ping on Teams is really necessary at 6am on Monday morning.
4. Retire consulting jargon and performative business culture (or, practice more self-awareness)
@saraisthreads Comment your least favorite corporate jargon. 😂 #fyp #work #working #corporate #corporatelife #corporatetiktok #corporateamerica #corporatehumor #office #officelife #manager #managersbelike #career #quietquit #actyourwage #skit #funny #sketch #quietquitting #veronica #morale #companymorale #company #companies #corporatejargon ♬ original sound - Sarai Marie
Corporate language has lost all meaning. It’s been meme’d beyond compare.
“Circle back.” “Level set.” “High-level alignment.” “Strategic north star.”
Entire Instagram and TikTok accounts exist solely to parody this way of speaking. Creators like fentifriedchicken and champagnecruz have built massive followings by satirizing the exact tone, cadence, and aesthetic of legacy consulting culture.
@fentifriedchicken Consultants speak in their own language #Corporate #Working #Consulting ♬ original sound - Joe Fenti
Your employees are watching those videos, then logging into meetings where the same phrases are used unironically. When leadership language feels overly polished, abstract, or vague, it creates emotional distance and distrust.
People don’t want to decode what leadership means. They want to know what to do
The resolution
Choose clarity over cosplay. Leaders should practice:
- Saying what you actually mean
- Giving direct feedback instead of “high-level guidance”
- Letting go of consultant-speak that obscures accountability
- Not being afraid to poke fun at the self-awareness of it all!
Legacy companies that can evolve toward more human, grounded, and authentic language will see a more developed and connected internal culture.
The bigger shift
This isn’t about trends or generational stereotypes. The oldest millennials have been in leadership positions for over two decades now, and I too am guilty of “aligning on a strategic workflow” now and again.
No, this is about acknowledging that work no longer exists in a cultural vacuum. Employees don’t check in and check out of their workday at a precise time. We’re highly aware of power dynamics, irony, and performative norms, and we’re far less willing to participate in them.
The B2B leaders who succeed this year will be the ones who:
- Reduce unnecessary friction
- Respect cognitive and emotional limits
- Speak plainly
- Design work that people can realistically sustain
This approach isn’t soft. It’s strategic.
And it leads with empathy, something we can always use more of.
