Who's in Charge Here?
The system is the boss you never knew you had.
TL;DR: Swapping leaders won’t fix what’s broken. The churn, the burnout, the déjà vu of “new jobs, same problems” all point to one truth: the real boss isn’t your CEO, it’s the system. Until we stop feeding it and start reshaping it, nothing changes.
The Revolving Door Illusion
You open LinkedIn and there they are: the new role announcements. As you rage-react with the most appropriate emoji you can muster, you can’t help but think, “Wasn’t someone else just announced in that same role?” Leadership roles are increasingly a revolving door. It’s as if we believe that changing the person at the top will magically cure years of frustration. But if the names keep changing and the problems stay the same, maybe it’s not the leader. Maybe it’s the system.
When There’s No One Left to Blame
Humans are wired to want someone to blame. It’s easier to point to a bad boss, a failed CEO, the old guard, or a toxic agency culture than to sit with the fact that our pain comes from something much harder to name. We want a face to jab our finger at, eyes that can see how much feeling unseen hurts. Someone to hold accountable for the broken promises of an industry that once sold us a dream career and instead left us feeling disposable and disrespected.
But the more you zoom out, the harder it is to find the villain. The truth is, the leaders at the top are often just as unsupported, just as trapped, and just as replaceable as the rest of us.
Another “Fresh Start”
I’ve felt it myself: you start a new job and all the problems feel fresh, like maybe this time it will be different. You tell yourself, finally, I’m getting out of that toxic place. This new company will see me, value me, treat me better. For a while, it feels true. The onboarding is smooth, the welcome is warm, the honeymoon is real.
But soon, you smell something disquietingly familiar: the late-night meetings, the churn, the way your work gets rushed and flattened. Different logos. Different leaders. The same machine. And it’s not just me. Most of us have lived this cycle at least once: the hopeful escape that turns into a familiar trap. That’s when it hits you: the problem isn’t just the place you left, or the boss you couldn’t stand. It’s bigger. It’s the system itself.
The System Is the Boss
Here’s the uncomfortable truth: the real boss isn’t your manager, your CEO, or even your client. It’s the system. The system that demands more for less, faster, and always puts profit over people. The system that keeps timelines shrinking, budgets evaporating, and teams burning out. The one that made mentorship a nice-to-have and buried the memo on Summer Fridays under a pile of Return-to-Office mandates.
It’s why workers feel unseen. It’s why leaders burn out in record time. It’s why churn has become the rule, not the exception. The system is the boss you never knew you had, and until we acknowledge what it is, it answers to no one.
How the Game Punishes Everyone
This is the part that makes it feel impossible: if you don’t play the game, you risk being left behind. If you don’t match the pace of competitors, clients walk. If you push back on shrinking budgets, someone else will undercut you. Everyone is locked into the same race to the bottom, and nobody wins.
Leaders aren’t trained to resist it; they’re thrown into it. Employees aren’t empowered to challenge it; they’re expected to survive it and be grateful for the opportunity. And the whole industry suffers for it.
From Rage to Rebuild
So, who’s in charge anyways? Not the people we think. Not the leaders we scapegoat. The real boss is the system we’ve built, the system we continue to feed every time we rush, underbid, or stay silent.
That doesn’t mean we’re powerless. It means the target of our energy has to shift. Instead of railing at individual bosses or waiting for the “perfect” job to finally appear, we can start asking bigger questions. Is there a more legitimate way to reward great agency culture? What if procurement valued people as much as output? What if mentorship and leadership training were as essential as pitch decks?
Our frustrations are valid. Our anger is real. But the path forward won’t come from finding the perfect leader or the perfect company. It will come from collectively reshaping the system itself.
Because if the system is the boss, then the only way to change who’s in charge… is to change the system.