Who's checking on you?

On the surface, selling out sounds like a pretty good holiday problem to have. That’s the case until the costs add up.

CommerceIQ discovered that stockouts cost brands 140% more than baseline on Black Friday and 248% more on Cyber Monday.

Holiday growth can be difficult because more sales don’t always mean more profit. Margin quietly disappears across ad spend, discounts, inventory decisions, creator payouts, and returns that hit in January.

9 Plays to Defend Your Margin This Holiday Season looks at nine of those places, including:

Plus learn four more ways to keep more of what you earn this Q4.

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Covering today

It was the end of a long quarter. That week I'd had a team member in tears in a 1:1, a customer escalation that landed on my desk at 6pm, and a re-forecast my boss needed by Friday.

I got home and sat in the car outside the house for ten minutes before I could go in.

When I did, I was asked how my day had been. I said "fine".

Sitting there, I worked something out. All week, I'd asked everyone how they were doing. Not one person had asked me. And if I'm honest, I hadn't given anyone the chance.

Last week we talked about what to do when someone on your team says "I'm not okay". I asked you whether that had ever happened to you. The most common answer, 8 of 19, wasn't "yes, and I felt ready". It was: "I've been the one who told my manager."

So this week is about you.

Gallup's latest State of the Global Workplace report found that only 22% of managers worldwide were engaged at work in 2025. That's down from 31% in 2022, and the biggest single drop came in the last year. Managers used to be noticeably more engaged than the people they lead. That gap has almost closed.

It's lonely up there, too. A British Red Cross study for the UK parliamentary group on loneliness found 32% of senior managers often or always feel lonely. That's nearly twice the average.

And the CIPD's 2025 Health and wellbeing at work report names heavy workloads as the top cause of stress-related absence.

None of this means you're doing it wrong. It means the job has got heavier, and most of us are carrying it alone.

Here's the number that gives me hope. Gallup found that training lifts the share of managers who are thriving from 28% to 34%. But managers who have training and someone at work who actively encourages their development? 50%.

The course helps. The person helps more.

With Lovable, you'll have a working version of your client's site ready for the first meeting. Plus:

Start building, $5 off

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In coaching, I ask managers one question more than any other: who's in your corner?

Most answer with one name, usually a partner or a close friend. That person is doing the job of four, and quietly wearing out.

Here's the map I use. Two questions: is this person inside or outside your work? Do they steady you, or stretch you?

You don't need four best friends. You need four roles covered. One person can fill two, but nobody can fill all four.

Write a name next to each corner. Then ask: when did I last talk to this person about me, not the work?

International Stress Awareness Week starts on Monday. Pick your emptiest corner and send one message before Friday. If you don't know what to say, start here:

That's it. One message.

Sending one message is the easy part. The hard part is knowing what to say once you're sitting across from them, and actually saying "I'm stretched" to the person who sets your targets.

Below is The Corner Kit: a short check to see how close to empty you are, word-for-word scripts for your boss, a peer, a sponsor and a mentor, a worked example, and a day-by-day plan for Stress Awareness Week. Print it, keep it in your notebook, use it this week.