Session Description
What would happen if we created workplaces where people could do great work and feel good doing it?
In Joyful Rebellion, Amy Leneker shares insights from her national research study, The State of Stress & Joy at Work 2026. The findings offer both a hard truth and a hopeful one: while workplace stress is systematically impacting people’s careers and lives, joy can be part of the solution.
Join Amy to explore the connection between stress, joy, and performance, and discover how rethinking the way we work can create healthier, more engaged, and more sustainable workplaces. Together, we’ll challenge some of the assumptions we’ve accepted about work and consider what becomes possible when we make less stress and more joy part of the equation.
This fun and informative session offers a data-driven, hopeful path forward to less stress, more joy, and better work.
Learning Objectives
- Understand the current state of stress and joy at work and what brand new national research reveals about today’s workforce, including how stress is influencing career decisions and leadership.
- Explore the connection between stress, joy, and performance and why creating a healthier workplace experience matters to both people and organizations.
- Apply practical strategies to challenge unnecessary workplace stress and create environments where people can do meaningful work, perform at their best, and experience more joy.
Presenter Information
Amy Leneker believes work can be joyful and she’s on a mission to prove it. After working in the public sector for over 20 years, Amy left state service to start her own leadership consulting firm. Since then, she has helped over 100,000 leaders and teams-including Fortune 100 companies-lead with less stress and more joy. She leads the national research study, The State of Stress and Joy at Work, and is the author of the national best-selling book, Cheers to Monday (Wiley, 2026). She is the host of the weekly podcast Less Stress, More Joy and her work has been featured in Forbes, Bloomberg, NPR and more. Amy and her family make their home in the Pacific Northwest.