Work culture in the U.S. is broken. It’s on employers to fix it. | Tiffani Bova for Big Think+
Quiet quitting, The Great Resignation, burnout: there are a ton of buzzwords to describe how modern work culture is broken. Now that we know what the problems are, how do we fix them? Tiffani Bova shares how companies can repair their relationship with their employees.
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Modern American working culture is broken — and has been for a long time. The coronavirus pandemic only magnified festering wounds that have adversely impacted employers and employees for far too long. Tiffani Bova, named among the Top 50 Business Thinkers in the world by Thinkers50 for six years running, explores what needs to happen to repair it.
Read the video transcript ► https://bigthink.com/series/the-big-think-interview/fixing-work-culture/
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About Tiffani Bova:
Ranked for the last 6 years in the Top 50 Business Thinkers in the world by Thinkers50, Tiffani Bova is a leading thinker who Forbes says “reshapes our perception of growth.”
As both a practitioner and academic, she offers a unique perspective and has helped lead the tech industry through several evolutions over her nearly 30-year career as Salesforce’s former Growth and Innovation Evangelist and previously as a Research Fellow at Gartner and a sales, marketing, and customer service executive for start-ups and Fortune 500 companies. She is the author of two Wall Street Journal bestsellers: GrowthIQ and The Experience Mindset.
While at Gartner, her forward-looking insights and guidance helped some of the largest technology companies in the world, including Microsoft, Cisco, Salesforce, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Oracle, SAP, AT&T, Dell, Amazon-AWS, expand their market share and grow their revenues. She was a trusted advisor to multiple senior executives who were responsible for shifting from on-premise to as-a-service business models, resulting in new billion-dollar divisions.
In the late 90s and early 2000s, she was a pioneer of cloud computing; she previously led direct and indirect sales, marketing, and customer service for two of the largest web-based start-ups in the US and spearheaded a newly formed division of a Fortune 500 company to $300 million in revenue over two and a half years.
Tiffani has been featured in Harvard Business Review, Fortune, Fast Company, Bloomberg, MSNBC-TV, Yahoo Finance, INC, and Forbes. She is also the host of the podcast What’s Next! with Tiffani Bova. More info here: https://www.tiffanibova.com/
@willow6049
October 6, 2025 at 2:36 pm
Why is this still all about the company and the customers
@robkelly8398
October 6, 2025 at 2:36 pm
She must not have bought anything that required speaking with a salesperson or customer service rep in the past 4 years. Customers are often treated like crap…
@ConanDuke
October 6, 2025 at 2:36 pm
It's been 50 years since the US had a raise.
That's my entire crap life.
Deport me to Cuba.
@enerxiazelementa
October 6, 2025 at 2:36 pm
but employees, especially the mid bottom of the ladders are replaceable. and outside, many people are lining up to fill in their positions anyway. so why bother concerning about them?
@Mytechfence
October 6, 2025 at 2:36 pm
Agreed! At one employer, there was so much wrong with just about every phase of my experience. I had previously worked for this particular employer so I had some trust in them. I learned it was not the same company quick. Appearances aside the company has gone downhill culture wise. The on boarding process was a mess, training was not experience based, and right out of training you could tell management’s primary talent was control, gaslighting, groupthink, and manipulation. No skill in professionalism, management, technology, organizational behavior, security, and certainly not ethics. I reported management to HR, Corporate Security, and Ethics and the reports were referred right back to the group of managers I reported. I was subjected to what I see as performance sabotage but I was so skilled even with constant “software issues” they had to blatantly lie to drag down my performance 😂 and they were only able to do it a few times over the course of years😂.
@malcolmthebear
October 6, 2025 at 2:36 pm
It's money. It's the PAYCHECK!! It's SO simple, but none of the Haves want to admit that they are hoarding from the Have-Nots. We workers don't care about anything our employers say or do if we're still punching out every day worrying how we're gonna afford to survive with such little pay.
GIVE. US. YOUR FUCKING. MONEY!!!! Fuck your corporate bonuses. Fuck your shareholders. Just PAY US MORE!!!
@akashinotenshi
October 6, 2025 at 2:36 pm
Employees: Underpaid & Overworked
You wonder why we hate corporations
Of course we do, you hate employees
Then you get French Revolutioned
@LastRebel1978
October 6, 2025 at 2:36 pm
24/7 no work life balance. Money doesn’t overcome organized chaos. Participation trophy’s and equality ruined it. We are not all equal. Some of us applied ourselves and some don’t and you treat and pay both the same. Asked for a raise for years after giving more and earning it and all I got was a taller ladder………now hands tied behind back while being held quiet and responsible. No teamwork. Managers are but men for corporate and corporate running from lawsuits. All side to blame but blame doesn’t get us out of this shit show……..
@m.t.carson1292
October 6, 2025 at 2:36 pm
The guy at the gas station has more insight into modern society than this person.
@sarawilliam696
October 6, 2025 at 2:36 pm
Most Americans find it hard to retire comfortably amid economy downtrend. Some have close to nothing going into retirement, my question is, will you pay off mortgage as a near-retiree, or spread money for cashflow, to afford lifestyle after retirement?
@thomasangelo4629
October 6, 2025 at 2:36 pm
TRUMP 2024❤
@leonardojimenez2415
October 6, 2025 at 2:36 pm
She’s right the work follows the right employee’s
@robbiesmoonmusic
October 6, 2025 at 2:36 pm
They’re not customer centric. They’re profit centric. They pay employees as little as possible and market and manipulate the customer as much as possible to increase their gross profit margin.
@SteveJobbs69
October 6, 2025 at 2:36 pm
This began during the Reagan years. All about the profit factor. Ship job overseas, increase profits and stock price at the expense of the employee. American corporations are beyond unethical.
@PlatoCave
October 6, 2025 at 2:36 pm
Let's alternate the word "Corporate" with "Culprit".
@AnotherAnon735
October 6, 2025 at 2:36 pm
That's a pretty ridiculous idea that companies should treat their employees as well as customers. Customers are paying the company money and employees are getting paid.
@Catillia85
October 6, 2025 at 2:36 pm
Employees have been saying for decades that they need more from their employers. What we're seeing now is simply the natural result of their in action
I don't understand how all of these people pretend that employers don't know what the problem is . They know exactly what the problem is.
Remember Undercover Boss?
A TV show where a CEO or some other high-profile figure from a cooperation would go work with the lowly employees for a day. We would hear an employee tell of their hardships how they struggle to feed their kids and pay rent on the wages they earn and how much they've done for the company … the boss sits there and acts horrified.
Then they make a huge spectacle of giving one employee enough to pay for education or a car or all of the other things that that employee should be able to pay for on their wages. The boss never raises all of the employee wages just that one and yet if you look through the comments section of those videos all you see is people praising what a wonderful person that CEO must be and how kind and generous they are…
It's propaganda designed to distract people and the sad part is it worked
@exposingproxystalkingorgan4164
October 6, 2025 at 2:36 pm
Work slaving for life is very unsatisfying. Stop wasting your wages on buying crap products and services you do not need. Invest your savings on money earning assets, not buy debt incurring liabilities. Job for life alone is not enough to get wealthy. 😂
@vtange_eng
October 6, 2025 at 2:36 pm
If we compared salaries earned to cost of essentials such as housing, health and education, pay has gone down and down. Humans are smart. What's the point getting the paycheck if it doesn't get you any closer to getting out of the rat race?
@shallbee.
October 6, 2025 at 2:36 pm
Couldn't agree more!
@Me__Myself__and__I
October 6, 2025 at 2:36 pm
This is stupid. This is why employees are paid. You are there for the money. If you expect a wonderful time at work you are delusional.
@gabriel-gc4uf
October 6, 2025 at 2:36 pm
You know what they said, if we work only to survive, we would work way less.
@Ted11-l5r
October 6, 2025 at 2:36 pm
Like others said, the ideas here are not wrong. However, they skirted over the biggest items for employee satisfaction:
Living wages, safe working conditions, work-life balance.
@stackchn
October 6, 2025 at 2:36 pm
Worker bees 🐝 are treated like modern-day slaves and given a measly paycheck that doesn't cover the bills during this time of bidenflation, but hey at least the CEO makes 300x the average worker at the company.
@maxeuker2949
October 6, 2025 at 2:36 pm
It's not a bad point, but the almost 10 video is mainly one sentence repeated over and over.
@RealConspiracyFacts
October 6, 2025 at 2:36 pm
1. taxes taken from the employees pay is not spent in a way that benefits the taxpayer or our country.
2. the dollar is worth less
3. pay hasn't kept up with inflation
4. They need more pay that is exceeding inflation.
5. Too many hours and too many days with not enough time to take care of basic human needs.
THAT'S IT! ALL THIS OTHER CRAP DOESN'T MATTER.
@supreme192000
October 6, 2025 at 2:36 pm
Although it sounds like she is advocating for employees, she is still a corporate shill. She has to mind what she says and can't actually address the issue of salary. She is speaking nothing I haven't learned 20 years ago.
@shawnkoby6901
October 6, 2025 at 2:36 pm
The presenter states that employers must show they care so employees love their job. In my experience companies show they care about something by investing money in it, never once does she mention increasing employee compensation. She certainly presents from the corporate point of view by completely avoiding this!
@Rolling-Man-Cave
October 6, 2025 at 2:36 pm
Employees should own the damn companies!
@denniedollreborn8711
October 6, 2025 at 2:36 pm
These companies don’t care if they burn us out, they will just get rid of us and automate us anyway
@krisb9838
October 6, 2025 at 2:36 pm
One correction. Quiet quiting is just someone doing their job. That does not result in poor customer service. If they are doing their job that means they are providing good customer service based on the access of information and tools they are provided. If the info/communication/tools are bad then bad customer service is a result. Kinda basic.
@nicholasm.3919
October 6, 2025 at 2:36 pm
When a CEO is paid 400-500% more than the average employee and the company wallows in virtue signaling on inequality while telling the employees the company can’t afford to pay over “market value” the company has a problem.
@Ceizyk
October 6, 2025 at 2:36 pm
I know so many of my coworkers who have, "quiet quit" due to burn out, lack of pay and leadership that's made it clear that the less they pay us the happier the shareholders are.
@HighCRI
October 6, 2025 at 2:36 pm
Let’s stop beating around the bush: Pay your employees more. Give them 2 weeks paid vacation and 2 weeks paid sick time per year without punishing them for taking time off. Give them good health/dental/vision insurance at no cost to them. Staff enough people to cover time off and crunch times without feeling overwhelmed. That’s it, that’s the answer.
90% of businesses could solve their turnover problems instantly by doing these things. Can’t afford to do that? Of course you can’t! You’ve built your business only to benefit yourself and keep the lights on at the cost of your employees, then you wonder why no one wants to stay. Businesses all over the country have done this for decades and are starting to reap what they’ve sown. You can’t afford this because you had a false sense of what the cost of doing business was. Business owners said “If you don’t like it, quit”, then when people were actually able to quit those same owners want everyone to feel sorry for them. Your employees’ livelihoods, healthcare, mental health, and personal development are tied to how you treat them. Maybe show a little respect and reverence for that responsibility instead of sucking people dry.
@505Hockey
October 6, 2025 at 2:36 pm
Stop prioritizing shareholder value over the humans working for you
Comments are closed.