Have Employers Missed The Vibe Shift? (Ft. Brendan O'Neill)

Can you feel it? Change is happening — culturally, politically, and inside the workplace. Orthodoxies that shaped the last decade of daily life are being questioned and dumped. Which employers have noticed the 'vibe shift' and which have missed it? 

In this episode of This Isn’t Working, host Tanya de Grunwald is joined by journalist Brendan O’Neill - chief political writer at Spiked, and author of the new book 'Vibe Shift' - to examine why workplaces are both vibe shift battlegrounds, and some of the last places to formally recognise what's happening.

Together, they explore how years of values-driven management, DEI orthodoxy, and risk-averse corporate decision-making have reshaped professional life — and why dismantling or reforming these systems may prove far more painful than building them. 

If a cultural correction is underway, employers could soon find themselves caught between competing expectations from employees, leadership, and the wider public.

This conversation goes beyond headlines and culture war slogans to ask deeper questions about power, conformity, class, and institutional inertia. 

Why do organisations struggle to reverse course once a moral consensus has taken hold? And what happens when employees begin to sense that the rules are changing — but leadership hasn’t caught up yet?

Brendan argues that entire industries and professional identities have grown around enforcing particular cultural norms, meaning any shift away from them is unlikely to be smooth or quiet. Instead, employers may face resistance, confusion, and fierce internal pushback as expectations collide with a rapidly evolving social mood.

We ask:

- Why are so many people talking about a “vibe shift” — and what concrete changes are actually driving the feeling that the cultural pendulum is swinging back?

- Have employers become trapped by policies and workplace ideologies they adopted too quickly, without fully understanding their long-term consequences?

- Why do large organisations struggle to adapt when social attitudes change — even when employees themselves can sense the mood shifting?

- What role have HR departments and corporate leaders played in embedding cultural norms that may now be losing public support?

- Will workplace conflict intensify before things stabilise, and how should leaders prepare for backlash from staff who feel invested in the old consensus?

Provocative, timely, and often darkly funny, this episode explores the growing gap between cultural reality and workplace practice — and asks whether employers are ready for what comes next...

Enjoy the episode!

Buy Brendan's new book Vibe Shift: The Revolt Against Wokeness, Greenism And Technocracy https://www.amazon.co.uk/Vibe-Shift-Wokeness-Greenism-Technocracy-ebook/dp/B0G72K3PH8

This Is Working (new business network)
https://thisisntworkingpodcast.co.uk/contact-2/

Photo gallery from last This Is Working event
https://bit.ly/4qOtwrP0

The Brendan O'Neill Show https://www.spiked-online.com/podcast/the-brendan-oneill-show/

Freedom In The Arts
https://www.freedominthearts.com/