Work isn’t a meritocracy and playing nice won’t get you promoted.
I’m Yasar Ahmad, one of the world’s leading HR voices with over 15 years in the boardroom and 550,000+ professionals following my work. Each week, I cut through workplace noise with blunt truths, proven strategies, and unfiltered advice to help you earn more, influence faster, and build a career that actually pays off.
If you’re tired of being underpaid, overlooked, or underestimated — this is your playbook to win at work.
EX VP HR: 10 Things HR Won't Tell You (That Could Save Your Career)
10 things HR knows but won't tell you, answered properly from a hammock in my garden. No corporate script, just straight answers from someone who sat on that side of the table for two decades.I'm Yasar Ahmad, a former global VP of HR, and this is the kind of blunt career advice most people never get. We cover the questions that actually decide your next move. Is a PIP survivable (and how to tell if it's genuine or a setup)? Is the anonymous engagement survey actually anonymous? Do exit interviews matter? Should you take the counter offer, and why 70% who do leave within six months anyway? Are networking events worth it, and the one plan that makes them work? Is being liked at work a weakness? Can introverts actually get to the top? Should you tell colleagues what you earn? Should you ever quit without a job lined up? And the big one: 90 days, no budget, what do you actually do to get promoted?This is office politics, workplace visibility, salary transparency, and promotion strategy without the HR-approved non-answers. If you're good at your job and tired of guessing how the system really works, this is the one for you. Drop your own question in the comments and I'll answer it in the next one.Subscribe for the stuff nobody tells you about how work really works.Chapters:0:00 10 things HR won't tell you0:11 Is a PIP survivable?1:09 Is the "anonymous" survey actually anonymous?2:11 Do exit interviews matter?3:17 Should you take the counter offer?4:28 Are networking events worth going to?5:37 Is being liked at work a weakness?6:52 Can introverts get to the top?8:12 Should you tell colleagues what you earn?9:47 Should you quit without a job lined up?11:38 90 days, no budget: what you actually do━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━Newsletter: https://newsletter.yasarahmad.com/Website: https://www.yasarahmad.comCoaching: https://www.ovdlab.com/forBlog: https://ovdlab.com/blogSocials: https://ovdlab.com/bioBooks: https://ovdlab.com/shop/bundleContact: Hello@yasarahmad.com━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━#HRSecrets #CareerQuestions #OfficePolitics #CareerAdvice #WinAtWork
14 Oct 2026
5 Things You Should Never Give Your Boss (Even If You Want To)
Get the Executive Interview System Here: https://ovdlab.com/shop/the-executive-interview-system____Your job gets your effort. But there are five things you should never give people at work, even when saying yes feels easier. This is where to draw the line, and the exact words to use.I'm Yasar Ahmad, and I've spent over two decades in HR. This is practical career advice on setting boundaries at work without torching relationships, built on a Stoic backbone. Most boundary advice tells you to "just say no," which gets you a reputation, not respect. Instead I give you the sentences that make the trade-off visible, so your manager or colleague has to respond to it. First, your self-respect: when another urgent task lands on a full week, "I can take this on, which existing priority should we move?" Then your peace of mind, how to stop office drama and workplace anxiety from eating your evening by separating what you know from what you're guessing.Then your time (how to shut down endless explanations once you've made your case), your trust (why an apology isn't the same as changed behaviour, and how to credit your work), and your loyalty (how to pin down a vague promotion promise instead of waiting on "you're essential" forever). If you're the reliable one who always says yes and keeps getting taken for granted, this is the one for you. Pick the one conversation you need this week and write your version of the sentence before you walk in.If you're preparing to look elsewhere, my Executive Interview System walks you through it: 36+ video lessons, a 72-hour prep plan, frameworks for 55+ interview questions, and salary negotiation. Check it out at https://www.ovdlab.com/shopSubscribe for the stuff nobody tells you about how work really works.Chapters:0:00 Five things to never give at work0:11 1: Your self-respect (the trade-off sentence)1:38 2: Your peace of mind (office drama)2:43 3: Your time (endless explanations)3:44 4: Your trust (apology vs changed behaviour)5:03 5: Your loyalty (the vague promotion promise)6:01 Recap: pick one conversation this week━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━Newsletter: https://newsletter.yasarahmad.com/Website: https://www.yasarahmad.comCoaching: https://www.ovdlab.com/forBlog: https://ovdlab.com/blogSocials: https://ovdlab.com/bioBooks: https://ovdlab.com/shop/bundleContact: Hello@yasarahmad.com━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━#Boundaries #CareerAdvice #OfficePolitics #Stoicism #WinAtWork
14 Oct 2026
EP2: Why I Never Get Imposter Syndrome: A Masterclass in Confidence With Isra Chaker
Isra Chaker got asked one question by the Gates Foundation: how do you get people to care about something they've never been taught to care about? She had no health degree, wasn't a doctor, and had built her career running campaigns. She answered with a movement that has mobilised over $135 million for mothers and babies in more than 20 countries.I'm Yasar Ahmad, a former global VP of HR, and this is the kind of career conversation I wish I'd had at 25. Isra is the founder and CEO of Every Pregnancy, and her path is a masterclass in visibility, confidence, and how to build something from nothing. We cover the practical career advice underneath the story: how she handled 423 job rejections and zero interviews before her first internship, how she went from employee to CEO, why she never suffers from imposter syndrome, and how she pitches funders (warm them up, one slide, leave time for questions) to raise millions. She also breaks down public speaking, reset time after rejection, and how to answer patronising "you should be doing this" feedback without folding.We get into the honest stuff too: chasing purpose over money, why your work should connect to your purpose, the misconceptions she faces walking into a room as a young Muslim woman, and the most toxic thing a boss ever said to her (she sued them). If you want real talk on leadership, entrepreneurship, and backing yourself, this one's for you.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━CONNECT WITH ISRAInstagram: @IsraSpeaksWebsite: https://www.isachaker.comEvery Pregnancy: search Every Pregnancy on all platforms━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━Subscribe for the stuff nobody tells you about how work really works.Chapters:0:00 The question that started a $135M movement1:11 From bullied kid to "social architect"3:30 Moving to DC and 423 job rejections5:03 Jumping into Syria advocacy on Capitol Hill5:58 What Every Pregnancy actually does7:47 Designing a campaign: the landscape analysis9:58 The Gates Foundation call11:19 Why she never gets imposter syndrome12:57 Going from employee to CEO14:58 How she raises money: the pooled fund model20:52 Being a CEO and a present mother22:42 Rejection and the power of fast reset time25:58 Her pitch technique (and never calling it a pitch)29:31 The misconceptions she faces in the room32:51 Public speaking and recovering when you waffle34:33 The community she's building next37:52 Toxic bosses and best career advice39:46 Purpose over money: the real debate44:36 One message for you━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━Newsletter: https://newsletter.yasarahmad.com/Website: https://www.yasarahmad.comCoaching: https://www.ovdlab.com/forBlog: https://ovdlab.com/blogSocials: https://ovdlab.com/bioBooks: https://ovdlab.com/shop/bundleContact: Hello@yasarahmad.com━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━#IsraChaker #EveryPregnancy #CareerAdvice #Entrepreneurship #WinAtWork
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