 |
|
|
|||||
At the new ad agency Ability Machine in Nashville, creatives have access to a full suite of tools ranging from podcasting and photography studios to lighting equipment and design software. They also have quiet sensory rooms, dimmable lights, and a flexible seating system. Every part of the agency, from the way it tackles projects to the physical space it works from, is designed with its staff in mind, who are all adults with intellectual disabilities. The Ability Machine describes itself as a studio powered by neurodiverse minds that turns creativity into both purpose and a paycheck for adults with varying abilities. So far, Ability Machine has already worked with multiple local brands, as well as national names like Mercedes-Benz and Kind, on a range of creative assets from slogans to artwork for retail spaces and ad campaigns. [Photo: courtesy the Ability Machine] The agency is a newly formalized offshoot of the autism-focused nonprofit On the Avenue, which provides a studio space for adults with intellectual disabilities to pursue creative passions and, in some cases, find employment on a range of projects. On the Avenue founder Tom Woodard has run the nonprofit for the past 10 years. Before that, he had a long career in advertising and brand building, primarily helping brands create signature jingles (you might remember him as the voice of the iconic Budweiser Super Bowl frogs). He says the idea for Ability Machine grew slowly over time, as he began bringing some of his creative projects to the community members at On the Avenue and asking for their input. While there are other programs out there for adults with intellectual disabilities, Woodard says he doesnt know of any other spaces that encourage their members to pursue their own creative workand ultimately leverage those passions into paid opportunities in the ad industry. A space to build professional skills Ability Machine is located inside On the Avenues 6,000-square-foot warehouse space, which is already equipped with a podcast room, sound studio, multitrack recording software, and more. Its also a work environment thats been designed with accessibility as a key priority, meaning members have access to different types of seating depending on their needs, sensory rooms to mitigate overstimulation, and customizable light and sound settings. It’s really cool because if you’ve got somebody that says, Oh, quick, we need a storyboard written, we can turn to a citizen and employ them immediately, Woodard says. There’s a familiarity of the building, of the staff, of their surroundings that someone with an intellectual disability really needs and flourishes in. [Photo: courtesy the Ability Machine] Days at On the Avenue are organized like a typical work day. Members arrive at 8 a.m., open the day with a group conversation, take a walk around the neighborhood, and then engage in something called assignment-based learning, which Woodard says is comparable to an individualized education program (IEP). The goal is to offer members a structured, productive environment that, for many adults with intellectual disabilities, can be difficult to find after high school ends at the age of 18. Eighty-five percent of all folks with intellectual disabilities are underemployed or unemployed, Woodard says. That was just a bad number. It needed somebody to step up and do something. Assignment-based learning at On the Avenue consists of projects guided by the interests of members. For example, Woodard says, one member named Riley has turned his love of college sports into a podcast called Rowdy Rileys Sports Review, where hes interviewed more than 15 NFL players and coaches. The team at On the Avenue is now looking for partners to help monetize the podcast. [Photo: courtesy the Ability Machine] People always ask me, ‘What’s the outcome that you’re looking for?’ Woodard says. And I go, I don’t know. It’s like when you go to collegenobody says, Hey, this is where you’re going to go work afterwards. We simply try to build those job skills, those life skills, those roommate skills for these individuals through creativity, which makes it fun. Its through projects like Rileys podcast that the idea for Ability Machine slowly germinated. The concept took real shape, though, when Woodard brought a project he was working on through his own creative agency for a Nashville candy shop called Goo Goo to members at On the Avenue. I remember we were doing the remodel of the Goo Goos 3rd Avenue store, Woodard says. [The Goo Goo team] came in and we were sitting around our table, and I brought a bunch of folks that were at On the Avenue to sit at the table. One guy started drawing purple goo goos, and doing different things, and it brought something out in them. [Image: courtesy the Ability Machine] After that meeting, members at On the Avenue helped complete the physical design of the 3rd Avenue location, as well as developing the slogan, Never Chocolate Alone, as a reference to Goo Goos bars with multiple mix-ins. [Image: courtesy the Ability Machine] From there, Woodard began pitching the budding creative agency to other companies, leading to more projects like a collaboration with Kind (maker of breakfast and snack bars) to create art in its New York City offices; a series of custom thank you cards and coloring books for a local Mercedes dealership; and an ad campaign for the brewery Music City Beer Co. Within the last few months, Woodard formalized this work into the official Ability Machine brand, with help from the creative and strategic partner Lewis and web development partner Ally. [Image: courtesy the Ability Machine] A new kind of ad agency The Ability Machines work model is flexiblesome of its employees are full-time staffers, while others are community members at On the Avenue who can opt to contribute part-time for a project and receive an hourly wage. The system is built to ensure that members can work on schedules that make sense for them, while gaining hands-on professional experience. Currently, the Ability Machine has several new projects in the works, but Woodard is hoping to spread the word about the agencys model to a broader base. Until established ad agencies are able to adjust their own office spaces to accommodate workers with intellectual disabilities, Woodard says, hiring the Ability Machine on smaller projects is a great way to support the community. I didn’t want to build an agency just to build another agency, Woodard says. I wanted to build something with purpose.
Category:
E-Commerce
The legend of Sisyphus goes like this: As punishment for cheating death and embarrassing the gods, he is banished to the underworld and sentenced to push a boulder up a hill. As Sisyphus nears the peak, the boulder rolls back down, and he must start over. And the episode repeats for eternity. I risk sounding melodramatic by comparing this story to the plight of the employed in 2026. Fair enough. But consider, if you will, the cycles in which a modern worker finds herself. She masters a new skill, and its deemed outdated. She learns a new software, and is told to use a different one. She gets a new boss, and the company is reorganized. She applies for a job, and gets no response. She lands a new job, and the job is dissolved. The dark core of the story of Sisyphus is not that his toil is repetitive or even that its eternal. Its that the work is erased as soon as its done. The punishmentapparently the worst that the Greek gods could think ofis to accomplish nothing. If our skills and our jobs and the fruits of our labor are simply meaningless, are we not also climbing that hill with our own boulders? The problem of change fatigue Change fatigue is just that: fatigue. This has been studied, quite extensively, by psychologists. A 2024 long-term study of more than 50,000 workers in Germany found that organizational changeslike reorgs, layoffs, outsourcing, and mergersare linked to things like sleep disturbance, nervousness, tiredness, and depression, and that the more changes an individual undergoes, the more likely they are to have these symptoms. Organizational change is often implemented at the cost of employees working conditions and health, the researchers conclude. Dutch academics studied the effects of repeated changes in a big European bank (they wouldnt say which one) and found that the more change that workers experienced, the more likely they were to feel change fatigue. And the more fatigued they felt, the more likely they were to resist the next change. The more resistant employees became, the less likely it was that the companys changes would succeed. But even those who supported the goals of the change were just as resistant as their unsupportive coworkers. The problem wasnt the change itself; it was the knowledge that another change would come along right after it, wiping out the last. The company couldnt be trusted. Says the employee to the employer: Its not me; its you. A 2026 report from McLean & Company called change fatigue an operational nightmare. The scholars who studied the relationship between repetitive changes and employee resistance likened executives tendency to reorganize to a gambling habit. When there is no achievementonly work Work is becoming less repetitive. Automation and reorgs and reskilling mean that what we did yesterday, or the way we did it, is not what well do tomorrow. Software engineers dont have to write every line of code, recruiters dont have to review every application, and customer service reps no longer have to review and tag every ticketan AI agent can do all of that. So the ennui felt in the modern workplace is not the result of tedium, but of constant change that wipes out the progress of the individual. Why climb yet another hill only to find yourself at the bottom again? There is no achievementonly work. In 1942’s The Myth of Sisyphus, philosopher Albert Camus describes two natural responses to the meaninglessness of toil: that the suffering will either redeem or defeat. But he prescribes something else: defiance. Camus believed that the most important part of the story is when Sisyphus descends the hill, fully aware of the useless task ahead. What is he thinking? One must imagine Sisyphus happy, he writes, not glibly. Happy, because he recognizes how absurd his situation is. Happy, because he is free from illusion. Thats Camus definition of defiance. Defiance for the 21st century worker may be rejecting the illusion that work must be meaningful to make the worker meaningful. The gods in the myth of Sisyphus demanded the climb. Todays gods demand the climb, but also the method, the enthusiasm, and the willingness to pretend it will last. They should not be surprised when workers stop pretending.
Category:
E-Commerce
When we minimize our suffering with statements like I shouldnt complainothers have it much harder than me, it can seem evolved, empathetic, even wise. In professional culture, this phrase often earns admiration. It signals gratitude, resilience, and perspective. However, beneath that polished humility lies a psychological defense mechanism that can quietly block emotional growth. That mindset reflects a subtle form of emotional bypassing, which is the tendency to sidestep uncomfortable emotions by rationalizing them away. This ends up muting, rather than healing. It may seem like a sign of maturity. However, empathy bypassing often prevents us from engaging honestly with our own reality, particularly in high-performance environments where vulnerability already feels risky. The psychology of bypassing The term bypassing comes from psychologist John Welwood, who described spiritual bypassing in the 1980s as the use of spiritual or moral reasoning to avoid painful emotions. In modern workplaces, bypassing shows up less as spirituality and more as rationalization. Its the act of layering gratitude or perspective over stress until feelings become invisible. Bypassing certainly played a part in my journey toward a catastrophic burnout as a corporate finance lawyer. When colleagues around me experienced layoffs, I buried my misery. Complaining about my situation as a high-flying young solicitor at a Magic Circle firm felt indulgent, and potentially dangerous to my career. This kind of thinking might seem admirable, but research shows that emotional suppression increases stress responses rather than soothing them. Avoidance may feel like composure in the short term, but over time, failing to acknowledge what were feeling can amplify pressure and fatigue. Why ‘others have it harder’ feels so right to say Its easy to see why this phraseology feels comforting. After all, it comes with values we admiregratitude, compassion, and humility. Recognizing that others face greater obstacles fosters perspective and keeps self-pity in check, which are two vital traits for emotional intelligence. However, when this sentiment becomes habitual, it can cross an invisible line from awareness to avoidance. Psychologist Kristin Neff notes that true self-compassion depends on acknowledging sufferingnot ranking it. When we tell ourselves our pain is less valid because others have it worse, were confusing empathy with denial. We treat compassion as a zero-sum game, where we see attending to our own emotions as somehow stealing from others. In truth, self-compassion is critical to our capacity to express compassion to those around us. By acknowledging our own pain, we improve our ability to have a genuine understanding of anothers. When empathy becomes avoidance Empathy bypassing is one of the most elegantand dangerousforms of denial. When we minimize our emotions, we distort the feedback loop that helps us understand our limits and boundaries. Over time, what begins as realism morphs into guilt. A 2019 study found that people who habitually minimize their own distress report greater anxiety and reduced well-being. The protective act of keeping perspective can end up silently draining your mental health. In professional settings, this often manifests as people downplaying the level of stress theyre experiencing or leaders who feel undeserving of support. They tell themselves theyre gratefulbut that gratitude quietly erases their need for care. It causes us to isolate, creating even further harm. Ive noticed this tendency in myself recently in light of global events. Gratitude is an invaluable psychological experience, and building it consciously improves perspective. But when it acts as a lightning rod for all our suffering, it can drastically undermine our emotional well-being. The paradox is that when were empathy bypassing, we seem composed. In fact, the opposite is happening; were actually detached. It might look like strength, but its often suppression. And while culture might reward suppression, it actually ends up reducing both resilience and innovation, which are two qualities that workforces rely on most. The cultural cost of constant perspective Many organizations unintentionally reinforce this pattern through what might be called performative positivity. Gratitude campaigns, resilience bootcamps, and culture slogans about toughness can (if you dont implement them effectively) make emotional honesty feel out of bounds at work. When others have it harder becomes an unspoken moral code, employees begin to silence legitimate concerns. Burnout turns into a badge of endurance. People start seeing expressions of vulnerability as complaints. The result is a well-intentioned culture that values gratitudebut punishes truth. This is where psychological safety comes in. Workplaces where people feel free to express emotions and admit struggle are more collaborative and productive. When employees believe that only unshakeable optimism is acceptable, performance may rise temporarily, but authenticity declines. This leads to a slow erosion of trust disguised as high engagement. The key to balancing gratitude and honesty To move past self-bypassing, we need to treat empathy for others and honesty with ourselves as complementary, not contradictory. The key is integration and allowing multiple realities to exist at once. We can be grateful for having work and still find that work exhausting. We can recognize that someone else is struggling more severely and still acknowledge our frustration or disappointment. Emotional integrity lies in holding both truths without collapsing one into the other. Practicing a more honest form of kindness So how can professionals engage with their struggles without slipping into self-erasure? Start by noticing how often gratitude includes a but. Instead of thinking, Im stressed, but others have it worse, try, Im stressed, and others have it worse. That small changereplacing but with andcreates space for paradox and complexity. It permits you to feel whats true without diminishing empathy for others. Leaders can model this integration publicly. Admitting limits isnt weakness: its acknowledging psychological reality. By acknowledging your own pressures without minimizing them, you create environments where emotional honesty coexists with performance. Plenty of research showsthat self-compassion actually strengthens motivation and resilience, not erodes them. The same principle applies across teams: Acknowledging difficulty deepens accountability, because people who feel seen and valued tend to feel engaged, too. The importance of feeling fully Theres nothing inherently wrong with acknowledging that others have it harderbut kindness without self-inclusion becomes self-neglect. In a culture obsessed with optimism, the quiet act of acknowledging ones limits can be a radical form of strength. You dont build real resilience through comparison, you forge it through integrationthe ability to stand firmly in ones humanity, even when others suffering looms larger. When we stop ranking pain and start recognizing it, we trade moral comfort for genuine integrity. And in doing so, we not only become kinder humanswe become more honest ones too.
Category:
E-Commerce
All news |
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||