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Gabriela Flax spent the first part of her career working in tech as a product manager. And while every day was different and varied, there were aspects of it that were causing her burnout. “I’ve always really enjoyed the product marketing aspect of my work,” she says. “I really like talking to end-users about ‘Hey, this is how this thing helps you’ and how to articulate that.” However, she wasn’t able to work on it as much as she would have liked. At the same time, Flax was in her 20s, living in London, and had stopped drinking alcohol. She began posting her journey in social media, talking about bars and places that were non-alcohol related. Flax recalls, “The more and more I did that, I started having brands reaching out to me saying, Hey, we’d love to partner with you. We have this event coming upwould you come and speak about what it’s like living in London in your 20s and not drinking?” By weekends and nights, Flax was organizing events and creating a lot of user-generated content for brands. She was able to exercise her creative muscle and passion for marketing, all while getting paid for it. Eventually, she left her tech job to pursue what is now commonly known as a portfolio career: where individuals make a living from multiple projects and streams of income. Today, she continues to do events and marketing for non-alcoholic beverage brands, alongside her career-coaching business, Pivot School. Making money through multiple means is not a new thing. But in a landscape where side-hustles, gig work, and freelance contracts have become the norm and at times necessary, Flax’s career trajectory is becoming more and more common. A solution to burnout Flax pursued a portfolio career because she felt burned out in her full-time tech job. The same can be said for Anna MacKenzie, who had the same feeling about being a founder. After spending a career in beauty and tech, MacKenzie cofounded a successful, award-winning podcast and events business. But as a “multi-passionate generalist,” MacKenzie eventually felt burned out. “When you’re a founder, you have to pour absolutely everything into a brand and business,” she says. “I really felt this desire to do multiple things. The reason that I pivoted into a portfolio career, which I didn’t have the language for at the time, was that I was looking for something that was halfway between being an employee and being a founder.” A portfolio career, MacKenzie explains, allows her to maintain the freedom and flexibility and control of her earning potential. However, unlike being a founder, it didn’t require “the responsibility of building a brand, building a business, and having contractors or a team.” Today, MacKenzie’s work setup spans advising early-stage beauty startups on how to get into major retailers like Sephora, mentoring, and selling digital products that guide people in building these types of careers. She also does fractional work for tech companies, which is when a high-level professional provides their expertise to a company and joins a team on a temporary, contract, or project basis. This is slightly different than a consultant, who typically plays more of an advisory role and isn’t often embedded in a team. But as Fast Company covered in a previous story about this trend, pursuing it can have the trappings of hustle culture. Rice University management professor Scott Sonenshein said that self-employed portfolio careerists can have trouble setting boundaries when it comes to workload. He explained, “You might feel like you always need to be working because theres more incremental money to be earned for taking on additional gigs, as opposed to what you might be doing if you were working full-time for a traditional employer.” Being able to maintain a sense of control For Tracie Sponenberg, preventing burnout is about being intentional with her schedule and work environment. The former HR executive coach, keynote speaker, and consultant is having what she calls “one of the busiest months of her life.” Yet she feels nowhere close to burning out. For a few days, she can take a trip to South Carolina and work while overlooking the ocean. Things like that, she explains, “really help.” Like Flax, Sponenberg experienced burnout during her corporate career (in Sponenberg’s case, in the aftermath of the pandemic). But since she’s been on her own, she’s been able to stay away from it. The decision to do this work, she explains, “and whether I succeed or fail is on me.” That sense of control, Sponenberg says, is what makes that feel like “huge relief” rather than a heavy burden. For Flax, that sense of control has been extremely crucial to sustaining a portfolio career. She is aware that what hers looks like right now can change and evolve in the future. “I think that’s the fun part,” she says. “If one piece works today, because you’re the one who is in charge of it, you also have the capacity to turn that part of the engine off.” If there are certain activities that no longer resonate, she explains, “I don’t have to ask permission for someone to stop doing that.” Engineering a form of stability Like any entrepreneurial venture, pursuing a this kind of employment does come with risks. For MacKenzie, this was familiar territory as a founder. But when she decided to pivot into a portfolio career, she landed a lucrative contract, thanks to her extensive network that she’d built during her corporate career and previous business. Because of that, she was able to take her time to experiment and explore with what she wanted to do next. Having that kind of financial security without the stability of a full-time job is something that MacKenzie continues to prioritize. “To this day, I’ve always had one reliable income stream. Whether that’s a client or a product, I know we’ll bring in enough revenue to cover my life,” she says. Having this structure in place can also help prevent individuals from putting themselves in a position where they’re constantly selling, which can be a recipe for burnout. While Flax asserts that no contract roles are perfectly safe, being a freelancer where you’re having to pitch your services every single day is quite different from being a contractor with two fractional jobs who do a little bit of writing on the side. What it takes to succeed For some, this can also be a temporary arrangement. It can also be a way to build a career around a lifestyle change. MacKenzie believes that it’s a structure that new parents can benefit from, especially for those who are highly skilled. “There’s an inherent flexibility in terms of how you design and structure your career,” she says. She also believes that it’s a strategic way for people to scale their careers outside of just client work. But it’s not an arrangement that is suitable for everyone, at least for the long term. Flax says that she has seen many different archetypes try out portfolio careers. And in that time, she’s seen those with similar personality types and motivations both thrive and struggle. The willingness to improve your risk tolerance One of the key things that she believes will be crucial is one’s appetite for risk. You need to be someone who “finds the process of instability as something that they can gamify [and] conquer,” Flax explains. When people tell her that they want to pursue this path, she encourages them go ahead only if “not doing so will eat away at you.” In many instances, this also requires you to put yourself out there, network, and build your personal brand. “If that’s not a line of activity that you’re willing to go down, it’s not impossible, but it’s going to make it harder,” she says. If you don’t have a high tolerance for risk but still want to go down this path, Flax says, “you’ve got to want to strengthen that muscle.” And that can start when you’re still in your corporate job. Maybe you volunteer for a project that has the potential to fail big. Or perhaps you look for micro examples in your personal life where you can get more exposure to risks. Alternatively, you can just take the jump and see how you react. Flax suggests, however, having a backup plan you can return to if you do decide that it isn’t for you. Self-awareness and sustainability Ultimately, maintaining a portfolio career for the long term requires a good sense of self-awareness. Sponenberg, for example, knows what she’s good at (and what’s she’s not). When she started her business, she knew that cold calling and traditional business development wasn’t her forte. “What I do know how to do is help people and be really useful and offer advice,” she explains. And due to her multi-decade HR career in manufacturing and distribution, companies came to her for help. So she worked hard to be the go-to person for them anytime they had a people issue. Flax also says that understanding your working style and tailoring your portfolio career around that is also important. This type of structure, she says is “great for people who are multi-hyphenates, who have so different interests and want to exercise those different parts. But be very conscious if context switching is going to cause you whiplash,” she says. Flax recommends that at the start, you should be very conscious about how many components you introduce. This way, “you don’t feel overwhelmed by the ecosystem that you’ve built yourself,” she explains. “It can have two pieces to it that scratch very different parts of your brain,” she says. “It doesn’t need to look like a web.” Accepting that it’s not for everyone And if it turns out that it’s not something you’re able (or want) to sustain, Flax asserts that there’s no shame in going back to a nine-to-five. “It is so okay to have a corporate job that pays your bills that you enjoy, ” she says. “I think there’s a bit of an anti-corporate or anti nine-to-five or anti-traditional work rhetoric that’s going on right now, largely driven by the freelance portfolio career self-employment world. It is not for everyone, and that is so okay.” “It is one of the many ways to think about work. It is not the only way. My personal opinion is that yes, we are moving more towards a decentralized type of work. Having a portfolio career may, in the long term or the medium term, serve you well in that way. But I don’t think in our lifetime, there’s a reality in which no one has a corporate job anymore.”
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E-Commerce
On January 23rd, outside an elementary school in Santa Monica, California, a Waymo vehicle hit a child. Thats what we know for sure. It sounds shocking, horrifying even. And its already giving plenty of groups cover to demand that California revoke Waymos license to operate its cars. But the details matter. And once you start digging a bit, the scary headline about a kid struck down by a heartless robot clearly isnt the whole story. In fact, accidents like this provide a lens through which to improve both human and robot drivingand even save lives. Braking Hard The specifics of the incident in Santa Monica are still coming out. As it does with any potential safety incident involving a self-driving car, the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration is actively investigating. That investigationas well as a voluntary statement from Waymois already revealing quite a lot of nuance. It appears that the incident happened during drop off time at the SoCal school. A Waymo vehicle appears to have been driving among vehicles operated by parents delivering their kids. As often happens during stressful school dropoffs (I have three kids, so believe me, I know!), a large SUV had double-parked, blocking part of the roadway. As the Waymo approached the double-parked SUV, a child ran out from behind the SUV and into the roadway, directly in front of the Waymo. The next bit is crucial. Waymo says that its vehicle …braked hard, reducing speed from approximately 17 mph to under 6 mph before contact was made. Waymo doesnt specify the exact distances involved. But dropping 11mph in a split second represents a slamming-on of the brakes, not a gentle slowdown. Its an aggressive move. And it may very well have saved a life. Waymo says thatbecause its vehicle was traveling only 6mph when it made contact with the childthe pedestrian stood up immediately and walked to the sidewalk on their own. Waymo called 911 and reported the incident to authorities. The company initially said that the child sustained minor injuries, but its not clear what injuries, if any, actually happened. The Problem With People To be clear, any time a child gets hit by a car, its a horrible incident. Its good that the NHTSA is investigating. As a parent, I feel for the parents involved hereseeing your kid hit by any vehicle must be terrifying. But before drawing any broader conclusions about the safety of self-driving cars, its important to consider the question: Would a human driver have handled this situation any better? SafeKids, an advocacy organization, reports that between 2013 and 2022 almost 200 school-aged kids were killed in school zone accidents. And thats only kids. Just days before the Waymo incident, two parents were killed in a crosswalk after dropping their child off at a different California school. Why do so many people die on the way to school? Speed and distraction are the two biggest factors. SafeKids reports that as many as 10% of drivers are distracted while driving in school zonesmostly by phones and other devices. 3% of drivers observed by the group were even seen using two devices at the same timeperhaps fumbling with a Bluetooth headset while also trying to sign their kid into school on their cellphone. And most school zones, the group reports, have speed limits that are way too highunder 20mph is ideal, but most are 25mph+ Not that drivers follow those, anywayother data shows that when drivers hit kids in school zones, theyre traveling an average of 27 miles per hour. Human drivers, in other words, make tons of mistakes. Especially with the stress of traffic and the pressure to avoid the dreaded late pass, its all too easy for parents to speed and to take their eyes off the road during dropoff. Sadly, when kids are involvedwith their propensity to dart into the road, as happened in Santa Monicathat combo of speed and distraction means that people die. Worse With a Person? Again, that begs the question, in the context of Waymos incident, of whether a person would have done better than an AI-powered robot. Lets assume, for a moment, that a human was behind the wheel of the vehicle in Santa Monica. What might have gone down differently? The average human reaction time while driving is about of a second. When the child darted into the road, that means their cargoing 17mphwould have traveled about 19 feet before the driver would even perceive the presence of a pedestrian. Perhaps they would have immediately slammed on the brakes. But the NHTSA itself says that most people dont. Whether through surprise or simply a delay in processing, drivers consistently underbrake, even in potentially fatal accidents. With a person behind the wheel, its thus likely that the child in Santa Monica would have been hit at a much higher speed. Waymo says that its own independent models show a fully attentive human driver in this same situation would have made contact with the pedestrian at approximately 14 mph. And again, most drivers in school zones arent fully attentive. As SafeKids points out, theyre distracted, rushing, and speeding. Waymos arent perfect by any means. But they consistently follow speed limitssometimes to a fault. And because theyre constantly scanning the road, they react faster than peopleand hit the brakes hard when they see something even remotely concrning. They never check their phones or try to shave while ferrying passengers around. When a 5,000 robot kits a kid, theres a natural human tendency to vilify the robot. But in this specific case, the question of whether a person could have done better is far from clear. Optimize for Safety That doesnt mean we should crucify autonomous vehiclesnor does it mean we should let them off the hook. The NHTSAs investigation will probably come down to a question not of whether Waymo outperformed a human in this incident, but rather whether self-driving cars could do more to keep kids safe near schools. Indeed, NHTSA says its specifically investigating whether the Waymo AV exercised appropriate caution given, among other things, its proximity to the elementary school during drop off hours, and the presence of young pedestrians and other potential vulnerable road users. Given that Waymos can be programmed to behave a certain way in specific circumstanceand will do so consistently once the parameters are setthey provide a unique opportunity to set even higher safety standards than we apply to humans. Again, SafeKids says that most school zones have speed limits above the 20mph ideal. Theres no reason, though, that Waymo couldnt program their cars to consistently travel at a slower speed when in a school zone at pickup or dropoff times. Perhaps Waymos could always travel 15mph when traversing an active school zone. That might bug the hell out of parents navigating the pickup line, but it would keep kids safer in the event of an accident. Waymos near schools could even serve as moving traffic calming devices, forcing distracted, impatient human drivers behind them to slow down, too! Likewise, Waymo could set parameters that instruct their vehicles to slow to a crawl when approaching a double parked car near a school. SafeKids specifically calls out double parking as a big risk factor for accidents near schools. Thankfullywhether through Waymos ingenious driving (in the companys telling) or dumb luckthis incident ended with a kid walking away alive. But thats not a reason to dismiss what happened. Rather, incidents like this provide a unique opportunity to define societys rules for challenging circumstances like driving near kidsand then program them into a machine that (unlike people) will actually follow them. Asking the tough questions required to set those guidelinesand holding the reality that scary incidents are also learning experiencesis a lot harder than simply blaming the robots and reverting to the human-powered status quo. But with kids dying in school zones every year, learning the right lessons from accidents like this is absolutely crucialeven life-saving.
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E-Commerce
Most of us assume bullying is something we age out of by middle school, high school at the latest. By the time youre a professionalespecially one with credentials, experience, and a résumé you worked hard foryou expect a baseline of mutual respect. And yet. If youve spent enough time in workplaces, on boards, or in other community organizations, youve probably had that moment where your stomach tightens in a meeting and youre not entirely sure why. A comment lands sideways. A tone shifts. Someone interrupts you for the third time. You walk away replaying the exchange, wondering whether you imagined it or whether something subtle but unmistakable just happened. That confusion is often the first sign youre dealing with a workplace bully. {"blockType":"mv-promo-block","data":{"imageDesktopUrl":"https:\/\/images.fastcompany.com\/image\/upload\/f_webp,q_auto,c_fit\/wp-cms-2\/2025\/11\/cupofambition.png","imageMobileUrl":"https:\/\/images.fastcompany.com\/image\/upload\/f_webp,q_auto,c_fit\/wp-cms-2\/2025\/11\/cupofambition-mobile.png","eyebrow":"","headline":"\u003Cstrong\u003ESubscribe to A Cup of Ambition\u003C\/strong\u003E","dek":"A biweekly newsletter for high-achieving moms who value having a meaningful career \u003Cem\u003Eand\u003C\/em\u003E being an involved parent, by Jessica Wilen. To learn more visit \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/acupofambition.substack.com\/\u0022\u003Eacupofambition.substack.com\u003C\/a\u003E.","subhed":"","description":"","ctaText":"SIGN UP","ctaUrl":"https:\/\/acupofambition.substack.com\/","theme":{"bg":"#f5f5f5","text":"#000000","eyebrow":"#9aa2aa","subhed":"#ffffff","buttonBg":"#000000","buttonHoverBg":"#3b3f46","buttonText":"#ffffff"},"imageDesktopId":91454061,"imageMobileId":91454062,"shareable":false,"slug":""}} Wait, whats going on? Explosive behavior at work is disorienting precisely because it violates the story were told about professionalism. Were taught that adult leadership comes with emotional control. So when someone yells, slams a table, or lashes out publicly, people scramble to explain it away. It gets framed as stress. Passion. A bad day. A one-off. Individually, each outburst can be rationalized. Collectively, they form a pattern. These incidents tend to look like sudden escalations in meetings, disproportionate reactions to small problems, or public reprimands that feel designed to humiliate rather than correct. The volume may drop later, but the message sticks: this person can explode, and you dont want to be the target. Over time, the workplace begins to organize itself around that volatility: People self-censor, meetings narrow, feedback travels sideways instead of up, and decisions get made to avoid triggering another episode rather than to serve the work itself. At that point, the outbursts are no longer just moments of poor regulation. Theyve become a mechanism of control. This isnt about communication style or personality. Its about power and the use of fear and unpredictability to enforce it. Power is the throughline Bullies rely on ambiguity and asymmetry. They say just enough to destabilize you, but not enough to get themselves in trouble. They benefit from your hesitationyour desire to be reasonable, professional, and not make a thing out of nothing. And often, theyre counting on the fact that you have more to lose than they do. This is where so much well-meaning advice falls flat. Telling someone to just address it directly ignores the very real calculations people are making about hierarchy, reputation, and risk. Before we talk about what to do, its worth naming how context shapes the experience. What helps in the moment When something inappropriate happens in real time, your nervous system often takes over before your language does. Thats normal. The goal isnt to deliver a perfect response, but rather have a few low-drama phrases available that interrupt the behavior without escalating it. A few examples: Can you clarify what you mean by that? I want to pause for a secondI wasnt finished. Im open to feedback, just not in this format. Lets keep this focused on the work. Id rather discuss that privately. These responses work not because theyre confrontational, but because theyre steady. They shift the interaction back to neutral ground and signal that youre paying attention. If you dont say anything in the moment, that doesnt mean you missed your chance. The quieter work that matters more What happens after the interaction often matters more than what happens during it. Start by documenting patterns, not impressions. Include dates, contexts, exact language, who was present, and what the impact was. This isnt about building a case right away; its about anchoring yourself in facts when self-doubt starts creeping in. Then, reality-test with care. Choose people who are perceptive and discreetnot those who default to minimizing or catastrophizing. Ask specific questions. Did you notice X? tends to be more useful than Am I crazy? When the bully is your boss This is where advice needs to be especially honest. When the person mistreating you controls your evaluations, assignments, or future opportunities, the calculus shifts. Speaking up isnt just about courage; its about strategy. HR may feel unsafe. Direct confrontation may backfire. Silence may feel like the only viable optionfor now. If youre in this position and wondering why it feels so hard to just say something, thats not weakness, its being realistic. If your manager is the problem, direct confrontation may not be the safest or most effective option. In these cases, the most important question isnt how to change them, its how to protect yourself. That might mean keeping communication in writing. Looping others into key conversations. Reducing exposure where possible. Building alliances quietly. Exploring internal transfers. Updating your résumé before you think you need to. Leaving is not a failure. Staying and absorbing chronic disrespect is not resilience. Over time, it erodes your confidence in ways that can be surprisingly hard to undo. The myth of just be more professional People dealing with workplace bullying are often toldexplicitly or implicitlyto be more professional. What this usually translates to is being quieter, more accommodating, and less visibly affected. Professionalism does not require self-erasure. It requires judgment. It requires discernment. And sometimes, it requires deciding that an environment is incompatible with your values or your well-beingeven if you could technically survive it. What bullying really costs One of the most under-discussed aspects of workplace bullying is how much energy it consumes. The mental replaying. The strategizing. The vigilance. All of that cognitive load gets diverted away from creativity, leadership, and actual satisfaction in your work. Over time, people dont just lose confidence; they lose range, they speak less, take fewer risks and shrink their presence in rooms where they once belonged comfortably. Addressing bullying isnt about winning or proving toughness. Its about reclaiming agency. Sometimes that looks like speaking up. Sometimes it looks like documenting and planning. Sometimes it looks like choosing a different room altogether. What matters most is making those choices consciously, without self-blame, and with a clear-eyed understanding of what you deserve at work. {"blockType":"mv-promo-block","data":{"imageDesktopUrl":"https:\/\/images.fastcompany.com\/image\/upload\/f_webp,q_auto,c_fit\/wp-cms-2\/2025\/11\/cupofambition.png","imageMobileUrl":"https:\/\/images.fastcompany.com\/image\/upload\/f_webp,q_auto,c_fit\/wp-cms-2\/2025\/11\/cupofambition-mobile.png","eyebrow":"","headline":"\u003Cstrong\u003ESubscribe to A Cup of Ambition\u003C\/strong\u003E","dek":"A biweekly newsletter for high-achieving moms who value having a meaningful career \u003Cem\u003Eand\u003C\/em\u003E being an involved parent, by Jessica Wilen. To learn more visit \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/acupofambition.substack.com\/\u0022\u003Eacupofambition.substack.com\u003C\/a\u003E.","subhed":"","description":"","ctaText":"SIGN UP","ctaUrl":"https:\/\/acupofambition.substack.com\/","theme":{"bg":"#f5f5f5","text":"#000000","eyebrow":"#9aa2aa","subhed":"#ffffff","buttonBg":"#000000","buttonHoverBg":"#3b3f46","buttonText":"#ffffff"},"imageDesktopId":91454061,"imageMobileId":91454062,"shareable":false,"slug":""}}
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