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Issue 53
54,000 Added, 85,979 Cut: What Leaders Should Do Next
Chris Hagood
September 04, 2025 • Estimated Reading Time: 9 minutes
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Table of Contents
Opening Salvo
Every workplace runs on tasks no one talks about. Updating reports. Coordinating schedules. Coaching peers on how to use systems. Answering endless “quick questions.”
This is invisible work. It keeps teams afloat, but it rarely shows up in performance reviews or promotion decisions. Over time, the people who shoulder the most of it are overextended, under-recognized, and often first to disengage.
Invisible work is not harmless. It drains productivity, skews career trajectories, and creates resentment. Leaders must make the unseen visible before it erodes both culture and output.
Practical Personas (with a tinge of hyperbole)
The Silent Carrier: Takes on hidden responsibilities to keep the team running. They feel indispensable, but also exhausted and overlooked.
The Opportunistic Delegator: Passes off low-visibility tasks to peers or juniors. Their record looks clean while others shoulder the extra burden.
The Workload Balancer: Identifies invisible work, redistributes it fairly, and builds recognition into reviews and development conversations.
Ask Yourself:
Who is always asked to take notes, organize, or mentor?
Are these responsibilities documented anywhere?
How are you rewarding the employees who keep systems running quietly?
Invisible work exists in every team. Pretending it doesn’t only makes it more corrosive.
Did You See This?
54,000 Added, 85,979 Cut: What Leaders Should Do Next
August delivered a slower private-sector hiring print and a jump in announced layoffs. The mix points to tighter workforce planning, clearer prioritization of roles, and faster decision cycles on spend.
ADP reports private employers added 54,000 jobs in August, with 4.4% year-over-year pay growth for job-stayers and 7.1% for job-changers. Leisure and hospitality led gains, while several service categories cooled. Economists expected a higher number, with outside estimates clustered near 65,000 to 75,000.
Challenger, Gray & Christmas tallied 85,979 job cuts in August, up 39% from July and the highest August total since 2020. Sector detail shows pharmaceuticals at 19,112 cuts and finance at 18,092, with retail and government also elevated. Year to date, employers have announced 892,362 cuts.
Anchor decisions to these two signals with a simple operating plan:
Triage roles by business criticality. Approve backfills and hires tied to revenue, delivery, safety, or regulatory obligations, and queue the rest for monthly review.
Run a near-term exposure scan. Map teams connected to sectors showing higher cuts, then model coverage if hiring slows.
Strengthen internal mobility. Post roles internally first, simplify transfer rules, and pair moves with short, targeted upskilling.
Tighten vendor and contractor usage. Convert only where business continuity or cost predictability improves measurably.
Increase update frequency. Pair finance and people data in a biweekly checkpoint so forecasts and staffing actions stay synchronized.
Read a soft hiring print beside a hard layoff count, then decide which capabilities you protect now and which you can pause without breaking delivery.
Short Bursts, Real Data, Better Skills
Your career will thank you.
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Talent Management 101 (TM101)
Invisible Work: The Unseen Tasks That Derail Productivity and Promotions
Invisible work refers to the activities that support organizational function but are rarely documented, measured, or rewarded. These tasks disproportionately affect women, people of color, and junior employees, though they can burden anyone.
Examples of Invisible Work:
Maintaining team documentation and processes
Serving as the go-to technical or cultural advisor
Handling administrative coordination in meetings
Providing informal emotional support to colleagues
Risks of Ignoring It:
Burnout among those carrying extra load
Talent flight when contributions are not recognized
Inequities in promotion pipelines when invisible work is undervalued
Lower productivity when critical but hidden tasks collapse under neglect
What to Change and How:
Name it: Call out invisible work explicitly in team discussions.
Track it: Incorporate these tasks into workload and performance systems.
Share it: Rotate administrative and low-visibility tasks fairly across the team.
Reward it: Acknowledge and compensate employees whose invisible work drives organizational success.
Invisible work shapes outcomes whether leaders track it or not. Making it visible is the first step to making it fair.
The Plug
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