Dara Treseder, Autodesks chief marketing officer, stands out in a crowd. Shes the one wearing a tailored, monochromatic outfit in a bold, bright color: a coral suit, a cobalt shift dress, a lime green gown, often with statement jewelry or shoes that provide a pop of contrast.
At her first job, she followed the standard advice of wearing an unremarkable black suit, so people would focus on her words rather than her attire. She showed up early to a big meeting, and when one of the other participants showed up, he mistook her for the janitor. It clicked that in this mans world, the only reason a person who looked like me would be in this room is because she was the cleaner, Treseder says.
[Photo: courtesy Autodesk]
Treseder vowed she would stop trying to blend in with her corporate attire, but rather show up as her authentic self. I had a beautiful structured red dress I would have loved to wear to that meeting, she recalls. I was worried that showing up as a Black woman in a red dress would be too much, too loud, too out there. But I quickly learned that when I wore what made me feel good, I had a more commanding presence.
Today, Treseder is something of a style icon. Shes found that the conventional wisdom is wrong: People tend to pay more attention to what shes saying when shes in an eye-catching mint suit at a Capitol Hill meeting or a mustard colored dress while on a panel.
She realizes that how she shows up at the office doesnt just shape how she is treated, but also how others are perceived. Today, shes among only 1.4% of C-suite executives who are Black women. I started thinking about my clothes as a way to not just express my power, but our power as Black women, she says. I want to show that we are capable, competent, and confident. We deserve to be here.
Describe your style in a sentence
Intentional. Every piece I wear is a choice that speaks before I ever say a word.
Whats the one piece in your closet youll never get rid of?
My black Louboutin six-inch block heels. Theyre power in motion: equal parts presence, polish, and endurance. From customer meetings in Tokyo to main stage moments in Vegas, they remind me that showing up with purpose starts from the ground up.
How long does it take you to get dressed in the morning?
Getting dressed is quick. Just a few minutes. But getting ready is sacred. Its my daily ritual, my runway to the day. I use that time to pour into myself through music, prayer, affirmations, meditation, and reflection, so I can pour into everything else with presence and power.
What do you wear to a big meeting?
A structured dress or a sharp monochrome suit. I keep it clean and intentional so there is no noise, only presence. Monochrome is timeless and powerful, and it gives me space to make the look my own through fit, texture, and accessories.
What’s the best piece of fashion advice you’ve ever gotten?
My mother told me, dress for you. That simple truth shaped everything. Fashion is comfort, not just physical but emotional. When you feel at ease in what you wear, you move differently. You lead differently. Confidence is the most powerful thing you can put on.
Hybridity has always been central to who I am, says Namrata Tripathi, the founder and publisher of Kokila, an imprint at Penguin Random House for children and young adults that highlights voices historically marginalized by publishing.
Being Odia and Punjabi Sikh, Ms. Tripathi grew up in an Indian home that blended two distinct aesthetics, cultures, religions, and languages. Because her parents were both diplomats for India, her family also moved frequently. She was born in Moscow, but she then lived in Afghanistan, India, Canada, Pakistan, Germany, and Poland before moving to New York to attend university.
I think of myself very much as a professional alien, she says. And I think the power in that is in adapting to my environment, but never erasing myself.
When she first entered the American corporate world, she observed what clothing was deemed appropriate, but she always questioned what power and leadership look like. For her, the answer involves the sari, which she saw her mother wear to work every day when she was growing up. I thought: One day I’m going to do that. And then I thought: Well, what day am I waiting for?
[Photo: Christopher Myers (portrait)]
Around 10 years ago, she felt confident enough to start wearing power saris, as her colleagues now refer to them, to the office for big meetings, and then more regularly. Previously, shed only worn saris to formal work events, such as the National Book Awards and galas, because they are beautiful, and I was excited to wear them.
Sometimes, shed wear saris her mother passed down to her, and she was often the only person in the room wearing non-Western clothing. One time, when she wore a churidar kurta, which consists of a tunic and trousers that bunch at the bottom, a well-intentioned colleague pulled her aside to tell her that her pants were too long.
At first, I did it to connect with my mother and her mother, whose saris I also sometimes wear, but over time, I saw how it influenced other people, too, she says. I had young people from various cultural backgrounds in the company comment on the pieces I’d worn, and I realized how impactful it had been to them, and how it reinforced the idea that the body is political. I’m interested in a different kind of leadership, and this is a way to show it. I like that it sends a message to people who aren’t often in the room that I’m trying to bring them into it.
Describe your style in a sentence.
Mera joota hai Japani, yeh patloon Englistani, sar pe lal topi Russi, phir bhi dil hai Hindustani.
Whats the one piece in your closet youll never get rid of?
An oversized white button-down because Ive always loved menswear.
How long does it take you to get dressed in the morning?
Tying a sari takes me about two minutes. Managing my hair can be . . . a process.
What do you wear to a big meeting?
Always a sari. (A power sari if you ask my team.)
What’s the best piece of fashion advice you’ve ever gotten?
Dont ever try to hide yourself.
When Julie Schott first launched Starface, a skincare brand known for its fun, star-shaped pimple patches, in 2019, she and her cofounder, Brian Bordainick, needed to take some headshots. I remember there was this idea that I should put on a blazer to seem professional, but I put on this blazer, and I felt like an idiot wearing a costume, says Schott, who splits her time between Los Angeles and Ojai, California. There’s nothing that I do at my job that requires a suit. I work from home most of the time. I think it looks ridiculous on me, and its just not my personality.
Schott ditched the blazer, and put on a Martine Rose track jacket, vintage sweats, and Gucci flats. Now, she feels that her headshot more accurately reflects her style, which she describes as sporty and nostalgic, consisting primarily of secondhand or vintage pieces.
[Photo: courtesy Julie Schott]
A former beauty editor at Elle magazine, Schott channels much of her personality through her nailswhich she gets done every two weeksher makeup, and her hair, which is currently cherry red.
I do feel most like myself with it, and it seems to make other people happy, she says of her hair color. It makes them smile, and makes them feel comfortable, like a cartoon. Its definitely an icebreaker.
Since launching Starface, Schott has built a constellation of Gen Z focused brands, including the contraception company Juile. She says her work allows for a level of personal expression, and that her style often reflects the free-spirited nature of her companies. Would she wear a Starface pimple patch in a meeting, though?
If I have a pimple, 100 percent.
Describe your style in a sentence.Both David and Victoria Beckham, 2005.
Whats the one piece in your closet youll never get rid of?An old Mickey Mouse shirt. Its fitted, soft, and perfectly worn in.
How long does it take you to get dressed in the morning?Minutes. Four if theres a mirror. Im an outfit repeater and uniform wearer, so getting dressed is the quickest part of getting ready.
What do you wear to a big meeting?Never something new that could cause an unexpected wardrobe malfunction.
What’s the best piece of fashion advice you’ve ever gotten?Dont overthink it.
At Emma Gredes first job as a fashion show producer, she was told to wear black so she wouldnt stand out. But even back then, she refused to fade into the background. I bought whatever I could afford from Balenciaga or Celine, she says. I have always used my clothes as a tool (of self-expression).
Grede is one of the best-known entrepreneurs of our time. Shes the business mastermind behind Skims, Good American and the newly launched sports fashion startup Off Season. But even in the glitzy world of fashion, shes become notable for her style. Grede believes that our clothes should be a way to channel our creativity and personality, particularly in the world of business.
On a recent trip to London, her hometown, her team captured her outfits of the day, which included a white Jacquemus jacket and matching cargo pants set paired with pointed Balenciaga heels, and a blue striped Proenza Schouler top and skirt paired with strappy YSL heels. I dress entirely to please myself, she says. Depending on the day, that could be for comfort, or convenience, or because I want to feel bad ass.
[Photo: Jamie Girdler]
While Grede has always been stylish, shes spent much of her career behind the scenes. In 2008, she launched the talent management firm ITB Worldwide which was acquired a decade later. She then partnered with members of the Kardashian family to co-found Good American, Skims and Safely, letting her more famous co-founders be the face of the brand.
But these days, shes becoming a personality in her own right, as a judge on Shark Tank and Dragon’s Den. Shes recently launched a podcast called Aspire with Emma Grede where shes interviewed everyone from Michelle Obama to Gwyneth Paltrow.
As a mother of four with a demanding schedule, Grede doesnt have a lot of time to strategize about her outfits. And even though her looks vary, she developed a kind of formula to what she wears. She wears a lot of denim, including Vintage Levis and Frame. She has a collection of white and striped Oxford shirts from Celine, YSY, and Comme Des Garcons, and she also loves a good heel.
There is literally nothing in my closet that only gets worn once, she says. Theres something about the simplicity of not really choosing something new every day thats really freeing.
Describe your style in a sentence.
Thats so hard, I dress how I feel and I feel different all the time!
Whats the one piece in your closet youll never get rid of?
I have so many things but probably a pair of Gucci loafers Ive had since I was 15. I bought them for myself, and it was such a big deal at the time.
How long does it take you to get dressed in the morning?
Five minutes. I pull outfits ahead of time.
What do you wear to a big meeting?
Something that has bought me luck in the past Im very superstitious.
What’s the best piece of fashion advice you’ve ever gotten?
To embrace my individuality and do what makes you feel good.
As a senior design director at Apple, Wyatt Mitchell spends a lot of time thinking about the way the technology company’s products and services show up in our everyday lives. This design consciousness doesnt stop with work; it extends to his distinctive personal style.
Over the years, Mitchells taste has evolved in a way that has given his style some serious rangefrom traditional denim workwear to precisely tailored clothing to a bow tie, depending on what hes trying to convey to the world.
Style is a tool you can use for yourself mentally, and externally for other people, he says. I like the ability to use a tool like that to telegraph certain things about me.
[Photo: Ashley Bloom/Apple]
Though Mitchell is hesitant to pigeonhole his personal style, he has become known for his signature look of traditional workwear coveralls and jumpsuits, which he sources from automotive workwear websites or RRL. In 2019, Mitchell went viral when he walked on stage at Apples annual developer conference in a white coverall from RRL and Off-White sneakers.
Mitchells look was celebrated across fashion blogs for its obvious contrast to the typical jeans-and-a-shirt tech world uniform at the time. What you wear is an extension of your visual acuity, he says. I don’t try to take on entirely new styles. I’m not that sort of free, but I do like the evolution.
[Photo: Lilly Red (portrait)]
In a world of sameness, Mitchell is doing the exact thing that all good style leaders do: they unabashedly wear what inspires them, and do it repeatedly. Its a little scarymy closet is predominantly suits, overalls, and coveralls, he says. I should probably pare that down.
Describe your style in a sentence.
I honestly dont think I can put that in to words. And if I could, I would be a writer. Sorry.
Whats the one piece in your closet youll never get rid of?
Nothing is sacred, but Ill probably always have a pair of Chucks.
How long does it take you to get dressed in the morning?Varies. Some days I can get dressed in one motion. Other days can be full of trial and error.
What do you wear to a big meeting?
As a designer, I think its important to look like you understand aesthetics.
What’s the best piece of fashion advice you’ve ever gotten?
That shirt is too small for you.
It took me 35 years before I learned how to dress well. And it took about that long to learn who I was. That timing is not a coincidence, as anyone on our inaugural Best Dressed in Business list will tell you.
For the first time in our three-decade history, Fast Company is celebrating fashion across the world of work: eight remarkable individuals ranging from athletes on the court of the WNBA to designers in the C-suite of Seoul to innovators at Apple.
This editorial initiative is not about whether quiet luxury or that cut of jeans is still in. Its not about labels or influencers, either. Its about celebrating those who are comfortable enough in their skin to stunt across the professional world. Because most of all, dressing well requires knowing oneself.
In some ways, the timing of this package couldnt be more fraught. Both high fashion and fast fashion are encountering new challenges in the face of shifting consumer tastes. But never before has culture afforded us the license to dress in so many different ways for any given circumstance.
We live in an era of unbridled self-expression, fueled by social feeds and global retailers moving too fast to keep track of. This is an advantageous moment for individualism: There is no wrong way to dress anymore, and there are countless right ones.
For a lucky few, work offers a path toward self-actualization. And the way we dress for that occasion is something we are here to celebrate.
Mark Wilson
[Photo: Samsung]
Mauro Porcini, chief design officer, Samsung
Mauro Porcini became the worlds first chief design officer at 3M, before taking the role at PepsiCo and, now, at Samsung. But as a designer seated in the boardroom, he admits to being constantly pulled between two worlds. His style captures this duality, and has served as a tool to be taken seriously as a creative in businesswhile helping him find peace within himself.
Read more
[Photo: Jamie Girdler (portrait)]
Emma Grede, fashion entrepreneur
Emma Grede is a mother of four who has spent most of her career building a fashion empire behind the scenesand behind the Kardashians. As the cofounder of Good American, Skims, and Off Season, she’s created a constellation of brands that reach into the closets of people around the world. But shes still managed to become a style icon in her own right by creating a rotation of classic pieces that she mixes and matches.Read more
[Photo: Walik Goshorn (portrait)]
Angel Reese, forward, Chicago Sky
As an all-star forward for the Chicago Sky, Angel Reese is one of the most dominant players in the WNBA. But her draft class did more than add fresh competition to the league when it arrived with a splash in 2024. It awakened the spectacle of the sport, celebrating the uniqueness of players who broke free from their uniforms with expressive pregame tunnel walks.
Read more
[Photo: Chaymin Jay Barut (portrait)]
Salehe Bembury, shoe designer
One of the most in-demand designers in sneakers, Bembury has collaborated with New Balance, Crocs, Versace, Moncler, Vans, and other brands. With an aesthetic rooted in a combination of outdoor lifestyle and funky, organic shapes, Bembury has reimagined streetwear as something as biological as it is mechanical. His personal style is equally interesting.
Read more
[Photo: courtesy Autodesk]
Dara Treseder, CMO, Autodesk
Dara Treseder doesn’t have any interest in blending in. The marketing exec learned early in her career that stifling your perspective only has drawbacks. Now as the CMO of design software maker Autodesk, she embraces tailored, monochromatic outfits, often in bold, bright colors. It’s a way to stand outand to make your voice heard.
Read more
[Photo: Christopher Myers (portrait)]
Namrata Tripathi, founder and publisher, Kokila
With her Penguin Random House imprint Kokila, Namrata Tripathi celebrates marginalized voices in books for young people. But her quest for representation doesnt end on the page. At work, she has become known for her power saris, and for the influential message her style sends to younger colleagues. Read more
[Photo: Apple]
Wyatt Mitchell, senior design director, Apple
As a senior design leader at Apple, Wyatt Mitchell spends a lot of time thinking about how aesthetics and design choices show up in our everyday lives. This obsession doesnt end at work; it extends to his distinctive personal style, which ranges from tailored suits to denim coveralls.
Read more
[Photo: Maggie Shannon (portrait)]
Julie Schott, founder, Starface
Julie Schott is known for selling Gen Z on her star-shaped pimple patches. But as she stepped into entrepreneurship, she ditched blazers and other wardrobe tropes for eye-catching track jackets and cherry red hair as a way to signal that her businesses are doing things differently.Read more
Additional Image Credits
Abdul Rauf/Getty Images, Akbar Nemati/Unsplash, Alex Kalinin/Unsplash, Annie Spratt/Unsplash, boonchai wedmakawand/Getty Images, Cami/Unsplash, Chris Henry/Unsplash, Chris Taljaard/Unsplash, Craig Manners/Unsplash, Dasha Summery/Unsplash, Divazus Fabric Store/Unsplash, Flavio Coelho/Getty Images, George Webster/Unsplash, Greg Rosenke/Unsplash, H&CO/Pexels, Jayanth Muppaneni/Unsplash, Kasia Sikorska/Unsplash, kastanka/iStock/Getty Images, Kelly/Pexels, Kirill Pershn/Unsplash, ksushsh/iStock/Getty Images Plus, Magdha Elhers/Pexels, malerapaso/iStock/Getty Images Plus, Maria Kovalets/Unsplash, MirageC/Getty Images, Nate Bell/Unsplash, Nimble Made/Unsplash, Olga Thelavart/Unsplash, Omar Al-Ghosson/Unsplash, Pawel Czerwinski/Unsplash, Rick Rothenberg/Unsplash, Shoaib Sheikh/Unsplash, Shubham Mittal/Unsplash, Steve Johnson/Pexels, studiocasper/Getty Images, Susan Wilkinson/Unsplash, Tanja Ivanova/Getty Images, Thomas Lipke/Unsplash, Tony Chen/Unsplash, Trail/Unsplash, Witthaya Prasongsin/Getty Images
Nearly everyone in America recognizes the brand name La-Z-Boy, and most will remember it fondly as part of their childhoods. Far fewer see it as a brand they would actually buy today, but La-Z-Boy is on a mission to change that.
The company is unveiling its first rebrand in 20-plus years to position itself as more than just your grandmas recliner. The brand has traded its minimalist, sans-serif logo for a retro script wordmark. It revamped its color palette and adopted a whole new brand voice that emphasizes coziness and comfort rather than just function. La-Z-Boy requested that Fast Company refer to these changes as a “brand refresh” (a term typically used as a safer, less extreme alternative to “rebrand”), but the sum of these swaps equals a full visual overhaul.
The new look is part of La-Z-Boys Century Vision strategy: a business plan intended to prepare the brand for growth after its 2027 centennial anniversary.
Christina Hoskins, the companys chief marketing officer, says the key to jump-starting that upward trajectory is to make sure that La-Z-Boy is not a brand that exists only in peoples memories. We started to suspect that we are a brand that’s on the verge of fading into history, and we didn’t want that to be the case, Hoskins says.
[Photo: La-Z-Boy]
The new La-Z-Boy
La-Z-Boy is contending with a housing and furniture market battered by consumer concerns around inflation, the rising cost of living, and the economic whiplash of President Trumps tariffs. According to its fiscal year 2025 financial report, La-Z-Boy notched $2.1 billion in salesup 3% from the previous fiscal year but down from its 2022 high of $2.4 billion. As of this writing, the brands stock is also down nearly 10% compared to this time last year.
Hoskins says that to set itself up for the future, La-Z-Boy has been working on expanding its retail network. This year, it built 12 new locations and acquired seven independently owned storesone of the largest annual expansions in company history.
Originally, the goal of the refresh was to widen the companys consumer base alongside its retail presence by attracting a younger audience. However, as Hoskins and her team worked with partners at the branding agency Colle McVoy, they realized they needed to zoom out even further.
After analyzing their existing branding and consumer feedback, they found that La-Z-Boys marketing focus was specific to the functionality of its furniture, whereas target consumers across generations cared more about the feelings the brand could evoke.
There is a [target] consumer out there who wants comfort first, who wants a home they can live in, who wants peace over perfection in life, Hoskins says. The beauty of that is that we’re able to go in through this more emotional angle and tap into people’s values and beliefs, and then reach a broad consumer set. The outcome of that will be that we’re reaching younger consumers, but were not just chasing after the age alone.
Over the past couple of years, La-Z-Boy has already begun quietly rolling out a more consumer-focused, playful voice via new brand activations. In 2023, the company debuted a national advertising campaign called Long Live the Lazy, which called on fans to reclaim so-called laziness and embrace JOMO (the joy of missing out).
It also unveiled “The Decliner,” an AI-powered prototype chair that helped the reclinee draft text messages to cancel their plans. On opening weekend, the Decliner drove a 50% increase in sales and a 200% increase in web traffic.
In 2024, the company followed up with Decline to Recline, an ad campaign poking fun at people who recline their seats on airplanes (and nudging offending passengers to use a La-Z-Boy at home instead). An accompanying petition to end airplane recliners, which La-Z-Boy published on its website, received more than 400,000 signatures.
Through these campaigns, Hoskins says, La-Z-Boy showed up differently in the cultural zeitgeist than it ever had before, which opened peoples eyes to the new La-Z-Boy.
From corporate to cozy
Once the La-Z-Boy team identified this strategy, there was another issue: The new La-Z-Boyintended to encapsulate comfort, warmth, and a stress-free spacewas deeply detached from how the branding actually looked.
We did a fair amount of consumer research that showed it felt sterile, it felt cold, it felt corporate, and it did’t match the experience of sitting in a La-Z-Boy chair, Hoskins says.
La-Z-Boys then-logo, first introduced in 2003, featured a thin sans-serif wordmark with a small pop of icy blue. Diana Quenomoen, design director at Colle McVoy, says the wordmark felt like something you might find in a healthcare or tech field, not a piece of furniture youd want to sink into.
Quenomoens team turned to La-Z-Boys 1927 script logo for inspiration. They drew a new version of the mark, character by character, that takes some cues from the originallike the connective flourishes and the Z appearing to be cradled between the other characterswhile also putting a modern spin on the script concept.
Another core inspiration was the furniture itself, which shows in the plumpness of the letters and the wordmarks italicized setting, meant to mimic a chairs recline.
From the beginning, one of our team members pointed to this logo and said, I want to [lie] on that, Hoskins says. We were like, Oh, we’re hitting on something here.
The new identity also includes a warmer palette of burnt vermilion and soft celadon green, a custom monogram featuring the script letters LZB, and a wave-like color-blocked pattern. All of Colle McVoys work was collected in a new internal style guide thats meant to help La-Z-Boy maintain brand consistency as it works to expand its network of company-owned stores.
The rebrand will begin rolling out digitally and via advertising channels on July 29. Physical storefronts will be updated over the next few years.
It’s really exciting to see how we’ve captured what the brand is through the identity, and how that can inspire new thinking about shopper experiences, Hoskins says.
The heat index in some Southern states topped 113 degrees over the July 26 weekend, but some retailers are already knee-deep in spooky season.
Just as Christmas creep has kicked off the winter holiday shopping (and decorating) season as early as September in recent years, Halloween sales seem to be starting earlier and earlier these days. The Home Depot is looking to capitalize. The chain has unveiled its 2025 collection of animatronics and decorations to make your house the scariest on the block.
Skelly, the company’s iconic 12-foot skeleton, will lead the charge once againand while inflation is on the rise and tariffs are looming, the Home Depot says its maintaining Skelly’s $299 price tag.
Skellys got plenty of friends joining him at retail this year. The 2025 collection of larger-than-life ghouls includes a pair of 15-foot-tall animated scarecrows (Worricrow and Gally-Crow, to be precise), each with a 12.5-foot arm span. (Both are priced at $399.) Skelly will also have a few new pets, including a 5.5-foot sitting skeleton dog with LCD eyes ($249) and a 5-foot-tall skeleton cat.
All the animatronics will go on sale on the Home Depot website (and app) on Monday, August 4. They’ll begin appearing in stores as Halloween draws closer.
If you don’t have room for a 12-foot Skelly, the retailer would like to introduce you to Ultra-Skelly, a version roughly half the size of the original that can interact with passers-by via an app. Itll be priced at $279.
“When trick-or-treaters approach the door, the 6.5-foot-tall skeleton can comment on each guests costume or greet them as they approach,” the company said in a press release.
The animatronic will have five preset recordings and up to 30 seconds of custom recording with voice modulation. You can also interact with trick-or-treaters live by speaking through Ultra-Skelly via the app. Like the 12-foot model, it can be adapted for other holidays, if you’d like to go to war with your homeowners association and keep it up year-round.
The Home Depot has collaborated with Universal Products and Experiences once again to introduce a new 3.5-foot animated Chucky doll, this time with his stitched-up look from Bride of Chucky. There will also be a 3.5-foot Tiffany Valentine (aka, the bride of Chucky from the same film) on offer. Both will cost $229.
Other horror characters arriving in animatronic form are a 7-foot Frankenstein ($279), a 6-foot bride of Frankenstein ($279), a 5.5-foot Evil Queen from Snow White and a 6.5-foot Maleficent ($279 each). Jack Skellington and Sally make a return as well.
All-new offerings include the Deadwater collection (featuring a 9.5-foot animated pirate ship for $399 and a 7-foot Megalodon zombie shark for $349) and the Gruesome Grounds collection, which, in addition to the 15-foot scarecrows, showcases an 8-foot dragon that’s about to take flight. Of course, you can always freak out the neighbors with a 9.5-foot LED spider.
While consumers tend to get grouchy about December holidays arriving earlier and earlier each year, they dont seem to mind getting a head start on All Hallows Eve festivities. A recent study by RetailMeNot found that “Summerween” is something many consumers get excited about; some 27% of people surveyed were already planning for Halloween.
Another harbinger of the seasonSpirit Halloween storeshas yet to appear, but the company said it expects to open more than 1,500 locations this year and is looking for 50,000 seasonal employees. Those stores are likely to open their doors in the coming weeks.
There is, of course, a financial incentive for all this. People spent an estimated $11.6 billion on the holiday last yearand that’s likely to rise in 2025. If you do grab some new lawn decorations when they go on sale, however, you might want to wait until the temperatures fall a bit lower before you put them out in the yard.
Sun-soaked beaches, cocktails by the pool, and a rare break from Zoom: Its what we all want from a summer break. Yet, for millions of parents, the reality doesnt live up to the dream.
With school out and schedules upended, working moms find themselves under increased pressure. They juggle deadlines, playdates, meetings, and household chores, all while trying to create core memories with their loved ones. For them, it isnt a vacationits another full-time job.
Unsurprisingly, a survey from the Headway app found that 36% of workers admitted that balancing work, social life, and downtime during the summer season leaves them drained; 9% say theyre already suffering from sun-induced burnout. For working moms, the toll is even steeper: 81% reported experiencing burnout as they attempt to do it all.
As someone who has balanced parenting with my role as a productivity coach at Headway, I know the exhaustion all too well. At times, theres the burning desire to quit. Theres also the guilt of putting work before family, and the misery of returning from vacation more tired than when you left.
The toll summer takes on working moms
For working moms, the pressure to manage everything often leads to chronic overworking, skipped breaks, and stress levels. Over time, this slowly chips away at their physical and mental well-being. Burnout isnt a buzzword. Its a precursor to anxiety, depression, insomnia, high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease, and more.
And, again, working parents are at greater risk. A 2022 Harris Poll data (commissioned by CVS) found that 42% of working parents admit they suffer from anxiety, depression, or both. Its not surprising that motherhood often coincides with women leaving the workforce. A journal article from Behavioral Sciences found that some 24% quit within the first year.
And working mothers who choose to come back dont always receive support. Instead, they face skepticism. They face scrutiny from employers over their commitment and competencefurther stalling their career progression. Another journal article from Behavioral Sciences found that mothers were less likely to be interviewed, hired, promoted, or paid a fair wage.
How to ask your employer for more summer support
If youre struggling through summer with little support from your employer, here are some tips on how to make a compelling case that seasonal flexibility is a smart business decision that benefits all:
Use data to support your case
Unfortunately, the reality is that not all employers will care about your personal circumstances. Most, however, will care a great deal about your productivity. Headway research shows that 54% of workers have had their work routine disrupted by summer, while 46% are managing fewer than 30 productive hours each week.
By supporting your request with data, youre showing how a lack of flexibility impacts the wider workforcewhether through reduced productivity, more sick days, or higher turnover. That way, it becomes less of a personal plea and more of a strategic business decision that benefits all.
Ask for flexibility, not time off
Your employer is paying for your time, so its unrealistic to expect additional time off at their expense. Instead of requesting an absence, ask for flexibility. For instance, rather than saying you cant work Wednesday morning, explain why you need that time off and when youll make it up. In this case, it might be when school (and normality) resumes. When you bring this up, stress that you arent asking to do less. Youre simply proposing a schedule that allows you to maintain your productivity while keeping on top of your summer responsibilities as a parent.
Frame flexibility as a retention tool
Turnover is an expensive problem for employers. Based on data from the Social Security Agency, the cost of replacing an employee can range from $33,000 to $50,000. Given the high quit rates among working moms, especially during high-pressure periods such as summer, retaining this talent can be a strategic solution. Present flexibility as a retention tool, and show how with a few adjustments, your employer can support your teams well-being while retaining talent, preserving knowledge, and saving costs in the process.
Call on HR for support
Your manager might not be all ears initially, but HR should be. After all, with data showing that working mothers shoulder a disproportionate share of the stress that comes with balancing work and caregiving responsibilities, this is an equality issue. In my experience, most employees want to be inclusive and supportive, but simply havent addressed the specific need yet. But your advocacy could be the spark that prompts upper management to implement broader policies that ease the burden on all caregivers across the organization.
Highlight other companies’ successes
While many companies are hesitant to disrupt the status quo, others have committed to supporting working parents and seen strong results. Patagonia, for instance, offers on-site childcare to all its employees, providing peace of mind over childcare during working hours and plenty of quality time with their little ones throughout the day. Likewise, HubSpot offers flexible work schedules and unlimited time off, prioritizing results over the number of hours an employee logs.
These forward-thinking policies alleviate pressure on working parents while boosting loyalty, engagement, and retention. And its no coincidence that these companies are regularly voted among the best places to work. And thats something that should pique your employer’s interest, no matter what industry they come from.
On the morning of April 28, large parts of Spain, Portugal, and southern France went dark. A massive blackout left millions without power, halting trains mid-track, cutting mobile networks, and rattling the foundation of one of Europes most advanced energy grids.
In the days that followed, experts and media outlets scrambled to explain what had happened. Was it a cyberattack? Human error? A structural failure? More than two months later, official investigations are ongoing. Early statements by the Spanish government confirmed that although no single cause has emerged, it wasnt a cyberattack.
While the exact cause remains under review, one thing the energy industry agrees on is clear: This cant keep happening.
“A relentless cycle of evolution”
Power systems are not only extremely complex, they are also in a relentless cycle of evolutionwith new parts coming in and old ones going outall while remaining stable and dependable 24/7, says Richard Schomberg, special envoy for smart electrification at the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC).
The problem is that many of todays systems werent built for this era of energy evolution. As traditional power plants go offline and renewables come online, grid stability becomes harder to guarantee. What once worked isnt working anymore.
There are many causes for failure in an electric system, Schomberg notes, from design limitations to user error to cyberattack to a sudden uptick in use. The goal of a resilient grid, he says, should be to divide and conquerisolating failing parts of the network quickly to avoid destroying critical infrastructure. But in practice, this often results in brownouts or blackouts.
The April event wasnt just a wake-up call for Europe. It was a warning for the world. And it echoed similar large-scale disruptions in the U.S. (notably in Texas in 2021), Pakistan, and parts of Africa, where fragile infrastructure, outdated protocols, or extreme weather have repeatedly revealed how brittle many modern grids remain.
“It’s not just about having more power”
According to energy experts, one of the biggest culprits in grid fragility isnt malicious intent; its poor planning. Anders Lindberg, president of Helsinki-based Wärtsilä Energy, points to the growing gap between ambition and infrastructure. As we bring more renewables online, were not replacing the stability that traditional power plants used to provide, he explains, noting that stability once served as a kind of shock absorber for the grid. When it disappears, even small disruptions can spiral into systemic failure.
Wärtsiläs approach focuses on fast-ramping engines and hybrid systems that can stabilize the grid when the wind dies down or clouds roll in. In Scotland, for example, we partnered with Zenobe to deliver grid-forming batteries that can restart the system if it goes down, Lindberg says. Wärtsiläs systems also have black start capabilities, meaning they dont depend on external power to turn on.
While large utilities play a role, startups are also part of the puzzle. Norway-based Heimdall Power uses sensor technology and AI to monitor grid infrastructure in real time. With our sensors, you get actual capacity data from the grid, not static limits based on weather or assumptions, CEO Jrgen Festervoll tells Fast Company. That kind of real-time visibility can mean the difference between targeted intervention and total system collapse.
Conventional grid monitoring typically relies on fixed thermal limits and weather-based estimates, which often underrate the actual capacity of power lines. Heimdalls sensors measure real-time line temperature, current, and sagallowing operators to safely optimize capacity without overloading.
Festervoll adds that events like the Iberian blackout are no longer rare anomalies; theyre signals of deeper grid instability. Its not just about having more power, he says. Its about knowing where that power is going and when things might go wrong.
“You need storage that can scale with demand”
For many experts, the grid of the future isnt centralized. Its flexible, distributed, and intelligent. This is where battery innovation comes in. While not part of the blackout investigation, companies like Morrow Batteries are positioning themselves to help solve the intermittency problem at scale.
Morrow Batteries, which aims to reduce battery costs by 50% while cutting emissions, is building a factory in Norway with a target capacity of 43 gigawatt-hours focused on high-efficiency lithium-ion cells. CEO Lars Christian Bacher says scale and proximity are what make local solutions like Morrow important: You cant just have generationyou need storage that can scale with demand.
According to the Net Zero Emissions by 2050 scenario of the International Energy Agency, grid-scale battery storage capacity needs to grow from around 16gigawatts in 2021 to 680gigawatts by 2030a roughly 44-fold increaseto align with net-zero targets agreed to at COP28, the 2023 U.N. climate summit in Dubai.
But technology alone wont solve everything. The rules of the grid also need to change. Without systemic reform, even the best batteries cant deliver the results theyre built for.
Many grid protocols were written for a world of centralized, fossil-fuel power, Wärtsiläs Lindberg says. They dont account for the unpredictability of wind or solar. You can have the best tech, but if the regulations dont allow it to respond fast enough, you still fail.
Wärtsilä, for example, is working with regulators to modernize system response and ensure decentralized assetslike batteries and flexible enginescan step in when needed. The companys recent hybrid system agreement in Curaçao and its support for Texas grid resilience during the 2021 winter blackout are proof points.
“We have the tools”
Globally, the cost of blackouts is rising. The U.S. Department of Energy projects that by 2030 the United States could experience more than 800 hours of blackouts per year, up from just a handful today.
If current infrastructure and resilience investments dont keep up, that reality could become grimmer. Add climate volatility to the equationwith more storms, heat waves, and energy demand surgesand the economic stakes grow even higher.
Building for resilience doesnt only mean faster restoration. It means designing systems that can avoid outages in the first place. A 2024 study by the USC Price School emphasized that investments in power grid resilience are more cost-effective than repeated recovery efforts. The researchers found that a dollar spent on resilience tactics could avoid several dollars in future outage costs, particularly in regions prone to extreme weather or infrastructure failure. These tactics range from undergrounding power lines and strengthening substations to integrating decentralized energy systems.
And resilience isnt only a matter of hardwareit includes coordination, visibility, and smarter protocols that can isolate, contain, and correct anomalies before they escalate.
Yet theres hope.
We have the tools. We have the technology, Lindberg says. What gives me hope is that countries are starting to take a more pragmatic view, focusing not just on cutting carbon but on building systems that can handle stress.
IECs Schomberg agrees, stressing that standardization will be key: Energy designs and local constraints will vary, but all systems need technical solutions to monitor, optimize, and stabilize. Thats where IEC standards come in.
The April blackout in the Iberian Peninsula was a flashpoint, but it shouldnt be the final word. If anything, it exposed just how fragile our energy systems are when ambition outruns readiness. The next question isnt whether there will be another blackout, but whether well be ready when it comes.
