In our current volatile era, every word now travels instantly, sticks forever, and implicates employers. Instead of adding to the outrage cycle, leaders can adopt a new playbook.
By Caroline Stokes, Author of AfterShock to 2030: A CEO’s Guide to Reinvention in the Age of AI, Climate, and Societal Collapse
In just a matter of days, we’ve seen the assassination of Charlie Kirk, a far-right rally in London amplified by Elon Musk, the resignation of Ben & Jerry’s co-founder Jerry Greenfield, and a media firestorm over the suspension of late-night host Jimmy Kimmel. How did we get here? Where do we go from here?
Let’s start from the beginning.
We used to think free speech was simple — and, in many ways, it was.
Before social media, what you said at Sunday lunch, in the pub, in church, or at a protest, rarely reached your employer.
Work and personal life were more clearly separated. Companies largely took a hands-off stance: What you do outside work is your business.
In Europe, some courts even treated political beliefs as legally protected; in the US, while the First Amendment never applied in private workplaces, the lack of amplification meant employers rarely intervened. Unions and cultural norms offered another layer of insulation.
Then came the pandemic — what I call the AfterShock moment. Lockdowns collapsed the divide between work and home, forcing life, politics, and identity into the same digital spaces where work happened.
Social media became the town square, the pub, the Sunday dinner table all at once.
Companies felt compelled to take public stances on racial justice, safety, and equity. Covid itself became an ideological flashpoint: masks, vaccines, mandates. From that point on, the old protections were gone — and speech at work became permanently fraught.
The Cascade and Today’s Chaos
In 2020, activism was legitimized inside companies. Leaders made statements on racial justice and equity; employees were encouraged to “speak up”. Once the door was open, it couldn’t be closed — every new crisis, from Ukraine to Israel-Gaza to political division and violence in the US, sparked demands for a response.
By 2022, the backlash had set in. Companies looked inconsistent: outspoken on some issues, silent on others. Accusations of hypocrisy or virtue signaling mounted, while investors worried activism was a distraction. Leaders pulled back, but silence in a polarized world was read as complicity. Without clear policies, organizations lurched into improvisation — firing one employee for a tweet, ignoring another, disciplining a third under media pressure.
Now, inconsistency has hardened into chaos. Jerry Greenfield’s resignation from Ben & Jerry’s shows the endgame when activist identity collides with corporate ownership: founders cash out, lose control, and eventually walk away in protest. Elon Musk’s video address to the far-right rally in London shows the opposite extreme: public figures using their platforms to fuel volatility. In the US, comedians and commentators alike are facing outrage for saying the “wrong” thing about politically sensitive events.
All of this in a matter of days. The common thread: speech — whether by employees, founders, or CEOs — no longer feels private, protected, or separate from organizational identity. Every word carries organizational consequences.
Not Just America
While US headlines dominate, the same tensions are playing out globally. In the UK, courts have ruled that some political or gender-critical beliefs qualify as protected under the Equality Act.In Germany, employers must balance free expression with workplace civility.Elsewhere in Europe, restrictions must pass a proportionality test.
Globally, the principle of free speech hasn’t changed. What has changed is the context: hyper-connected, hyper-political, hyper-volatile.
The Paradoxes of Speech in 2025
- Free speech ≠ workplace speech. The First Amendment protects citizens from government censorship. It does not guarantee employees the right to say whatever they want at work. Employers have always had boundaries — but social media collapses personal and professional.
- “Bring your whole self to work” blurred the lines. What once encouraged authenticity also normalized politics as part of workplace identity.
- A volatile world intrudes. Wars, political violence, and climate shocks don’t stay outside. Leaders feel pressured to “say something”, but every stance risks alienating as many as it reassures.
This is the paradox of 2025: the principle of free speech hasn’t changed, but every word now travels instantly, sticks forever, and can implicate your employer.
What Leaders Must Do
The age of improvisation is exhausting and damaging to mental health and organizational stability. Leaders need a new playbook:
- Clarity: Spell out, in plain language, what is and isn’t acceptable speech. Don’t bury it in a 90-page handbook.
- Consistency: Apply the rules evenly. Don’t shift depending on politics or media cycles.
- Support: Recognize that external crises affect wellbeing. Offer coaching, therapy, or AI-enabled support so that people can process without turning work into a battlefield.
- Tabula Rasa: Even with these guardrails, leaders can’t carry the burden alone. In AfterShock to 2030, I argue that we start with a blank page and build anew. I propose that CEOs create an integrated coaching infrastructure anchored by a new role: the Chief Coaching Officer (CCO). Pairing CCOs with AI-enabled coaching platforms ensures employees have safe, confidential outlets for stress, while leaders preserve focus and consistency across the organization.
The result:
- Employees feel supported and process their thoughts without turning the workplace into a political arena.
- Companies reduce reputational risk by channeling expression into safe, private spaces.
- Leaders can model consistency, knowing the human impact of external crises is being constructively absorbed.
- In other words, the “free speech confusion” doesn’t go away by silencing or soapboxing — it goes away when organizations give people the scaffolding to metabolize volatility.
What Guidance Do We Need Right Now?
Instead of adding to the outrage cycle, this is a moment for reflection.
For CEOs and leaders:
- Have we clearly defined boundaries?
- Are our policies visible and applied consistently?
- Do we provide real support for employees under stress?
- Are we modeling restraint, or adding to volatility?
- If activism is core to our identity, are we prepared to own it fully throughout all systems?
For employees:
- Before posting, will this serve my long-term goals — or just blow things up?
- Do I understand my words may be linked back to my employer?
- Am I processing outrage with healthy outlets — coaching, therapy, AI tools — instead of expecting my workplace to carry it?
- Do I know where my company draws the line, and if not, have I asked?
The Real Work Ahead
It’s easy to get lost in the outrage cycle — to fire, to cancel, to retreat. But the real work is elsewhere:
- Climate survival and adaptation. Transitioning to Net Zero, redesigning supply chains, building resilience.
- Mission-driven collaboration. Adopting a “mission is boss” mindset that aligns people across silos, organizations, and even competitors.
- Human capacity building. Scaling resilience and adaptability through CCOs and AI-enabled coaching.
- Tech governance. Ensuring AI augments human judgment rather than undermining trust.
- Civic and organizational trust. Restoring credibility through consistency and transparency.
As Dr. Parag Khanna argued in Noema, entropy — the breakdown of order — is the condition of our time. Outrage, polarization, and inconsistency accelerate entropy. My solution — integrating Chief Coaching Officers with AI-enabled support systems — is designed to restore order and channel human energy productively.
The Bottom Line
Employees: Don’t let today’s outrage cycles hijack your sanity or the workplace. Channel your energy into constructive action that relates to business outcomes with your colleagues, customers and stakeholders.
Companies: Provide support that enables your people and customers to adapt, stay resilient, and thrive in a volatile world.
Activist founders and leaders: Turn your passion into something scalable — a model, a product, a movement — that endures beyond the moment and shapes the future.
Free speech in 2025 isn’t gone. But it is more complicated, more public, and more consequential than ever before. Protect yourself because everything else is noise — and risk.
Caroline Stokes is a leadership strategist, executive coach, and author of AfterShock to 2030: A CEO’s Guide to Reinvention in the Age of AI, Climate, and Societal Collapse (Broad Book Press, 2025.) She works with people in governance, Fortune 500 companies, and critical infrastructure leaders to close generational, cultural, and systemic divides and move individuals, teams, companies, and industries forward.
