When staying feels safer than moving | AI, careers & the changing workforce | Micki Persky

In this episode of the Bee Formless™ Flow Driven CEO Podcast, I connected with Micki Persky, CEO of Talent.Realised, at a strange moment for work: talented people are sitting in the market while others are staying in jobs they are ready to leave because moving feels too risky.Micki calls part of this “The Great Stay”, and it made me think about what happens inside businesses when people stay through fear rather than genuine engagement. What happens to energy, creativity and innovation when someone has one foot out the door, yet feels safer remaining exactly where they are?After almost 19 years running Talent.Realised, Micki has navigated the GFC, COVID and enormous shifts in recruitment, yet she believes this period is harder. I was particularly interested in her concern around AI: if we keep removing the junior work technology can now perform, where do tomorrow’s experienced leaders come from? We become senior through experience, and that experience has to begin somewhere.At the other end of the workforce, Micki is seeing ageism affecting experienced people who may have mortgages, families and years of capability behind them, yet can be dismissed through assumptions about adaptability or technology. We also explored the rise of fractional work and why more fluid teams may become part of what emerges next.Through all of this change, Micki said matching skills is the science; understanding the human being, the business and what both could become is the art.And for anyone looking for work right now, her advice was reconnect with people, use your network, have a point of view and build your personal brand. Because as Micki put it, “humans will always help humans first.”THE SHAPE SHIFT IN MOTIONAs work becomes more fluid, our human relationships may become even more important to how careers and businesses evolve.LEARN (LETTING GO)✨ Staying in a role does not necessarily mean someone is engaged.✨ Removing junior work can also remove experiences future leaders need.✨ Recruitment is as much about understanding people as matching skills.UNLEARN (CREATE, REIMAGINE & RESHAPE)✨ Stop assuming AI automatically removes the need for human capability.✨ Challenge age-based assumptions about adaptability and technology.✨ Move beyond rigid organisational structures as work itself changes.RELEARN (TEST & IMPLEMENT)✨ Explore more fluid combinations of permanent and fractional talent.✨ Build relationships before you need something from them.✨ Develop a visible point of view and personal brand, not simply a CV.ACTIVE RECOVERY (REFLECT & RESET)✨ Are you staying somewhere because it is right, or because leaving feels risky?✨ What capabilities could disappear if we remove the pathways people once used to learn them?✨ Who in your network could you reconnect with today?🔗 https://www.linkedin.com/in/micki-persky-%F0%9F%8C%9F-8748b412/🌐 https://talentrealised.com.au💭 As AI reshapes work, what human capabilities do we need to protect rather than automate away?Book a Strategic Shape Shift Diagnostic to illuminate what needs to shift across leadership, business and brand, from the inside out.🔗 https://calendly.com/beeformless/strategicshapeshiftdiagnostic#beeformless #flowdrivenceo #talentrealised #thegreatstay #futureofwork #recruitment #connection