The Gen Mess with Tess

Ep 77: Why Your Burnout Recovery Keeps Failing (Guest: Dr. Suzanne Bober)

The burnout conversation has been missing something. Not willpower, not better habits, not the right morning routine. What's actually missing is the body. In this episod

Ep 76: Why Authority Doesn't Work the Way It Used To

For most of modern work, being difficult was something leadership could get away with if they were brilliant enough. We didn't just tolerate the tortured genius, we roman

Ep 75: Are We Losing Empathy in Our Connected World? (Guest: Mimi Nicklin)

We've lost 48% of our empathy in the last 30 years. In a world that's more connected than ever, that's not a coincidence. It's a biology problem. In this episode, I sit

Ep 74: How to Rewire Your Brain and Break the Patterns Running Your Life (with Thais Gibson)

Most people think self-awareness is the goal. It's not. It's the starting line. In this episode, I sit down with Thais Gibson, founder of the Personal Development School

Ep 73: How to Stop Avoiding Conflict For Good

Someone corners you at your desk to vent about a coworker. You listen, you nod, you leave them feeling a little lighter. You didn't do anything wrong. But you just became

Ep 72: ADHD, Autism, and the Myth of Productivity with Genie Love

Most managers have at least one person on their team who is hard to read. They resist changes. They go quiet after a pivot. They seem disengaged, or they overdeliver one

Ep 71: Why Your Best Manager Is Burning Out

She is the manager first to respond to a message, even outside of normal business hours. She takes on every project nobody else wants. She quietly rewrites deliverables b

Ep 70: The Part of Your Brain That's Quietly Killing Motivation with Dr. Kyra Bobinet

Have you ever watched a talented employee just stop trying? They know what to do. They have the skills. And still, nothing. What you are witnessing is not a character fla

Ep 69: Why You're Scared to Give Gen Z Feedback

There is a fear spreading through management right now that nobody is naming out loud. Managers are scared to give feedback to their Gen Z employees. And because it stays

Ep 68: Why We Need More Black Therapists and What Institutions Are Actually Doing About It

Are our educational systems actually built for the people who need them most? For students who are also parents, caregivers, veterans, and full-time workers, the traditio

Ep 67: 3 Signs Your Gen Z Employee Is About to Quit That Most Managers Never See Coming

I had no idea anything was wrong. They seemed fine and then they just quit. This is the most common thing I hear from managers and HR leaders right now. And here is what

Ep 66: The Health and Financial Crisis of Fertility Care for the Next Generation

In this episode, I sit down with Laura McDonald, co-founder of Flora Fertility, the first individually owned insurance solution for fertility and women's health. Laura is

Ep 65: Why "I Don't Feel Safe" Is the Phrase Every HR Leader Needs to Decode Right Now

When a Gen Z employee says they don't feel safe at work, most leaders have one of two reactions. They either panic, thinking they have a legal problem on their hands, or

Ep 64 : How to Build a Team That Actually Follows Through with Jon Dario

How to Manage Without Relying on Authority Most managers walk into their first role thinking the job is to tell people what to do and hold them accountable when they don

Ep 63: Why Gen Z Feels Hopeless

Every generation has faced a broken world. Wars, poverty, injustice, economic collapse. None of that is new. So why does this generation feel more hopeless than any that

Ep 62: From Baby Boomers to Gen Z - The Workplace Pattern That Never Changes with Meagan Johnson

Never before have so many generations shared a workplace at the same time. And never before has the opportunity for both collaboration and conflict been this high. This

Ep 61: How to Build Self Trust to Break Toxic Patterns in the Workplace

Last episode, Tess told you why the toxic workplace pattern repeats, and identified each of the patterns: avoidance, disconnection, and measuring the environment instead

Ep 60: How to Stop Feeling Stuck in Toxic Workplace Patterns

You left. You reflected. You did the work. You asked better questions, watched for red flags, and turned down offers that didn't feel right. And then six months into the

Ep 59: What to Do When You've Done Everything Right But Still Feel Off with Malaika Smyth

You did everything right. The school, the job, the hustle. You followed the path, and you're good at it! So why does it still feel like something's missing? This week, T

Ep 58: How to Give Gen Z Employees Feedback That Actually Lands

You gave the feedback carefully. You were constructive. You even thought through every word. And they still shut down. If you're a manager or HR leader wondering why fee