The Productive Pessimist

  Here at The Productive Pessimist, we've decided to start a weekly email newsletter - and, to make the choice of whether or not you sign up to receive it every Monday in your inbox as easy as possible, we'll be posting an excerpt from it here every Sunday - a sneak preview, if you like. Week One's excerpt brings The Productive Pessimist approach to challenges as diverse as Gen-AI, civil unrest, and welfare reform: Productive Pessimism in the Denial of Human Interest From Generative AI, through welfare reform, to the cost of living, governments around the world are ignoring what their citizens need and want: That’s the problem that’s perceived ; what’s the problem behind the problem, and what are three possible solutions? Riots in France. Militaristic units being used against ordinary citizens in the USA. Dismissal of the rights of disabled and unemployed people to be able to afford to remain engaged with society, and rising ableist rhetoric from government and media, in t...

  In my run down coastal UK town, the past few weeks have been hell for local retailers, with teenagers treating major shoplifting sprees - taking electrical items, clothes, alcohol, not "just a few sweets or a bit of makeup" (assuming you're the kind of person who thinks it's 'fine' to steal 'small' things in the first place... I'm very much not  of that mindset...) - as something that's just...a normal part of them not having to be in school, and their parents aren't able to afford to be at home to supervise them. (If they're not actually at a legitimate job or course...lock them in the house. Take every set of keys, including those for the windows, with you...or teach your kids basic morals...) Parents aren't able to even take three  consecutive weeks off from most jobs, let alone six - so, even if you believe parents "should share the school holidays equally if they both work", it's not possible. In offices and oth...

  (Image shows a white woman's hand reaching over a paper notebook to a laptop, holding a pen.) This piece will be discussing the UK Local Authority Elections which took place on May 7th 2026; in that sense, it is "political." However, political positions and political judgements will not  form part of this post.  In the course of my work identifying the overall problem (it usually only is one  problem, just with many presentations) facing organisations, teams, and individuals, and working through the worst-case-scenarios to effective solutions, I've worked directly with serving Conservative councillors whose views very much aligned with the most right-wing positions in that party, and active members of Extinction Rebellion; my personal politics are irrelevant, the politics of the people I'm working with are irrelevant; there's a problem. My job is to solve it. Sometimes, political attitudes add to  the problem, but they have never actually been  the proble...

  The current trend of advice and focus, particularly financial advice and focus, is "sacrifice, go all in on work, work, work, save and invest through your 20s and 30s, which is the best decades of your life  for compound growth! so you can have an absolutely amazing retirement, with enough money to do everything you want, and not worry  about money, because there won't be social security!" This feeds into a wider toxic focus of positioning work as "the thing that exists in opposition to the life we deserve  to live."  In reality, work is part of  life.  Retirement  is actually the thing that exists in opposition to life. The vision that's being sold is "if you sacrifice all fun and socialising, and just grind through your 20s and 30s, you'll get to have this wonderful, rewarding retirement" - but the reality is, many of us will not be in good enough health by the time we reach our 60s or 70s to actually do  much of anything.  Many of u...

  Today, I attended a webinar on "Capability and Ill-health in the Workplace".  It was hosted by a corporate insurer who provides HR consultancy services. Those attending were business leaders and HR representatives, and the Q&A at the end made it clear they believed they were only in a "room" with other  leaders and HR reps. Their attitudes around long-term ill health and disability were immediately presented as: . This is an intolerable and ridiculous burden to us as employers . This is too expensive . These people are taking the piss . It's not going to be fair to able-bodied people who have to pick up their slack. This is also the attitude I've personally, directly  encountered as someone trying to work whilst also being disabled.  It's the attitude that lost me my last job - a job I mostly enjoyed, and a role I'd hoped to build a career from. Employers. HATE. Disabled. And. Chronically. Ill.  Employees. They do not  want to employ disabled p...

There's a lot of talk these days about "boundaries".  Every other social media post tells you that "boundaries are important."  Half of the rest of the social media posts mock the entire idea of boundaries, and insist it's all part of the "woke agenda". But what are  boundaries, and how do you hold them whilst still enabling people, including the strangers who may become your collaborators, your team members, or your customers/clients, to approach you freely? What are boundaries? A boundary, in human psycho-social terms, is a requirement you have around the way people behave and interact with you.  It needs  to be expressed, because expected people to "just know" what your boundaries are is unreasonable; people aren't psychic. Many open-access spaces include signage about zero tolerance of verbally or physically abusive behaviour towards their staff - that's a poorly stated  boundary, because everyone's idea, particularly of v...

  The Supreme Court's recent ruling that "woman" refers to "someone who was biologically female at birth" only directly connects to roles specifically reserved for women , which have to follow a specific process to authorise gender exclusion against men.  It does not  mean "I want my organisation to be female-dominant, so I don't have to employ trans women anymore!"  Nor does it mean that you "aren't allowed" to continue respecting the gender - and names and pronouns - of trans people who currently work for you, and those you "don't think look like women" - who probably actually aren't  trans. For Boards, who are being legally obliged towards demonstrating equity, the real diversity is diversity of approach.   Here at The Productive Pessimist , we work very much in alignment with Leandro Herrero 's style of management - and very much agree with his statement: "If you have two people who think exactly the sam...