By Francesca Bordas
There is a story from this week that has stayed with me, and it helps us understand how workplaces can change in ways people do not expect.
It is the story of a man named Lee Givens Jr, a product manager who spent many years working inside some of the biggest and most admired technology companies in the world.
His work took him through Microsoft, Meta, Apple, Unity, and several startups that shaped early ideas in augmented reality.
He guided teams, built products used by people across the globe, and stayed committed to doing good work wherever he went.
In 2025, his journey took a turn he had not planned for.
His contract ended after he chose not to relocate to California, leaving him in Seattle without a job, upcoming interviews, or a clear plan for the months ahead.
For six long months, he sent out many job applications, talked to companies that slowly stopped responding, and watched a career he had built turn into days filled with waiting and worry.
He described this season of life as humiliating, and that single word held a weight many workers today can understand.
His story appeared in Business Insider and helped reveal a bigger challenge within the technology industry.
It showed that something deeper is going wrong, something connected to how managers make decisions, how teams hire new staff, and how leaders pay attention to the early signs of trouble.
It showed that an industry known for creativity and speed can lose its direction when the people guiding it stop seeing what is happening around them.
Lee found a way forward by deciding to learn again.
He spent hours studying artificial intelligence tools, practiced new software skills, and matched his experience to where the industry was heading.
His effort led him to a new role at Woven by Toyota, a company with a strong engineering culture and a steady view of the future.
His story found hope again, though it left us with an important question.
If a person with his background struggled to secure a job, what does that say about the systems that decide who gets hired and who gets left behind?
The challenge lives in the rooms where decisions are made, especially in the middle layers of management, where hiring choices take shape, where early signals are overlooked, and where leaders fail to notice that pressure is slowly rising.
Many managers still choose people based on trendy skills.
Across many teams, a pattern is forming that helps explain the growing problem:
- Layoffs increase each year, and workers are asked to do more with fewer resources.
- Teams slow down when unexpected changes appear, and no one steps forward to warn others about what is coming.
- Recruiters search for long lists of technical skills while overlooking experience in leadership, foresight, and communication.
- Product plans fill up with tasks that keep teams busy while long-term direction becomes harder to see.
These signs rise little by little until everyone begins to see that something important is being missed. I have noticed this pattern many times in my own work with leaders, and it always shows how easy it is for teams to lose sight of what truly matters.
Companies hire quickly without clear plans. Teams grow without understanding what the market truly needs. Strategy becomes something written on paper instead of something practiced every day.
People feel pressure to deliver results without knowing what problem they are trying to solve. When things begin to fall apart, everyone looks around and asks the same question: How did we miss this?
There is always someone who notices the early signs, someone who senses when a team is struggling, and someone who speaks up because they believe the company can grow stronger.
Organizations grow stronger when these voices are heard with respect, and they lose direction when these voices fade into the background.
The heart of Lee’s story centers on leadership and the kind of guidance workplaces need when change arrives.
Companies need people who know how to read the world around them and understand when a change is coming.
They need people who have walked through challenges, learned from them, and know how to guide a team toward safety. They need people who understand human behavior as much as they know code or machines.
There are simple ways leaders can begin to strengthen this part of their culture:
- Encourage teams to discuss risks early through pre-mortem sessions.
- Choose people who know how to build, repair, and lead with empathy.
- Create a culture where speaking up is seen as courage, not troublemaking.
- Ask interview questions that reveal judgment and foresight, not just technical skill.
- Look for candidates who have lived through pressure and grown from the experience.
Lee’s story leaves us with a strong reminder about reinvention. He took time to learn new skills, adjusted to new expectations, and stepped into a role that valued the experience he carried. His journey shows how people rise again when they meet new challenges.
This story also encourages leaders to look closely at the way they support their teams. It enables workers to stay aware of the habits shaping their workplaces. It reminds organizations to create space for employees who can guide them through difficult seasons.
Every industry reaches a point where it must decide the kind of leadership that will support its future. This feels like one of those moments, inviting all of us to think clearly about the leaders we want to become and the workplaces we hope to build.
The writer is a Business Development and Analytics Specialist at Jtek Dynamics Worldwide LLC in the United States.