For a long time, work was built around routine.
There was repetition.
There was predictability.
There were clearer task boundaries and more stable workflows.
People were still expected to perform. They were still expected to think, adapt, and deliver. But they were not expected to do it at this speed, with this level of interruption, or under this much pressure to constantly switch, respond, and recalculate in real time.
That is what has changed.
And it matters more than many organisations realise.
One reason we may be seeing more anxiety, more visible ADHD traits, and a growing need for workplace adjustments is that the modern workplace now demands a pace of thinking, switching, and output that many human brains were never designed to sustain.
Human brains are increasingly being asked to work like machines
In many workplaces now, the expectation is no longer simply competence.
It is speed. Fast replies. Fast decisions. Fast transitions between tasks. Fast recovery when priorities change. Fast emotional regulation in high-pressure environments.
People are expected to absorb information quickly, shift direction constantly, and keep producing quality work without much pause in between.
That may sound normal because it has become common.
But common does not mean human.
It means we have gradually built workplaces around a pace that more closely resembles machine logic than human biology and rhythm.
This was not always the standard
Work has always carried pressure. But the texture of that pressure used to be different.
Twenty years ago, most workplaces were still demanding, but there was often more room for:
deeper focus
slower transitions between tasks
learning through repetition
more predictable structures
less constant digital interruption
Go back further and the difference becomes even clearer.
The issue is not that modern work is simply harder. It is that it is cognitively faster, more fragmented, and less forgiving of normal human variation.
That is a major shift in how work is designed.
AI is accelerating that shift
A lot of people assume Artificial Intelligence will reduce pressure at work.
And in some ways, it can. It can reduce admin. It can organise information. It can support memory. It can help hold structure.
Used well, it can genuinely reduce some forms of cognitive load.
But in many organisations, that is not what happens.
Instead of making work easier for humans, AI is often used to make work faster.
Once AI speeds up reporting, the expectation becomes faster reporting.
Once AI drafts communication, the expectation becomes faster communication.
Once AI can process information instantly, the expectation becomes faster judgement.
The tool was built to help.
Then the pace around it increases.
And before long, the human brain is expected to keep up with a machine-enhanced environment.
When people struggle, the system often blames the person
This is where the problem becomes more serious.
When people begin to fall behind, struggle with the pace, or lose their ability to stay on top of everything, workplaces rarely stop to ask whether the role itself has become unreasonable.
They do not usually ask:
Is this level of switching sustainable?
Is the information load too high?
Is the environment creating more friction than the person can absorb?
Are our expectations being shaped by technology rather than by human capacity?
Instead, the questions tend to focus on the individual.
Why are they so disorganised?
Why can’t they focus?
Why are they struggling to cope?
Why are they behind?
Why are they burning out?
But this is not a human failure. It is a systems problem that gets turned into a personal one.
And once workplaces make that shift, the output of an ordinary human no longer feels sufficient.
Staff are driven harder, productivity expectations keep rising, and the pace of work continues to accelerate without anyone stopping to ask whether the pace itself is helping drive more anxiety, exposing executive function strain more harshly, and increasing the number of people who now need adjustments just to keep up.
Why ADHD and anxiety are becoming more visible
This is an important distinction.
The modern workplace does not “cause” every case of anxiety or ADHD.
But it can expose, amplify, and punish executive function challenges far more harshly than older work environments did.
People who may once have coped in slower, more predictable systems now find themselves colliding with:
constant task-switching
higher information load
more interruptions
tighter response windows
and less room for recovery
That pressure shows up first in areas like:
attention
planning
prioritising
emotional regulation
time management
working memory
These are all executive function capacities.
And when the system keeps speeding up, more people start to look as though they are failing — when in reality they are being measured against conditions that few human brains can comfortably sustain.
The range of acceptable human functioning is narrowing
This is the deeper issue underneath all of it.
As work speeds up, the range of what gets treated as “acceptable” human functioning is narrowing.
People who need more time to process are seen as slow.
People who need clearer instructions are seen as difficult.
People who cannot switch instantly between demands are seen as inflexible.
People who burn out are seen as unable to cope.
The system quietly rewards those who can mimic machine-like responsiveness for the longest, but that narrow band of humanity are only a fraction of the population.
Everyone else is expected to adapt, mask, or fall behind.
That is not a sign of healthier workplaces, and it's not a sign of a well-planned society.
It is a sign that work is being designed around an increasingly unrealistic model of human functioning. And every year more and more people are falling prey to machine-like expectations in the workplace.
Workplace stress is most clearly linked to rising cardiovascular risk — especially high blood pressure, coronary heart disease, and stroke.
Could it also be causing the rise in ADHD diagnoses as well?
We do not need more machine-like people
We need more intrinsic human-based system design.
That means designing roles, workplaces, and systems that reflect the way humans actually think, process, and recover.
It means:
clearer priorities
fewer unnecessary interruptions
blocking out deep thinking time
more realistic pacing
less constant task switching
more structured communication
better tolerance for cognitive variability
This is not about lowering standards.
It is about designing standards that human beings can actually meet without paying for it with their health.
Because the issue is not that people are becoming less capable.
It is that work is increasingly demanding a style of performance that treats speed as normal...
Constant output as reasonable...
And mental strain as a personal weakness.
One practical question for leaders
If AI disappeared tomorrow, would your workplace still be designed in a way a human brain could realistically sustain?
It is a useful question.
Because if the answer is no, then AI is not solving the design problem.
It is simply helping the system hide it for a little longer.
The bottom line
The modern workplace is increasingly shaped by machine-speed expectations.
Then it acts surprised when human beings struggle to keep up.
AI did not create this problem on its own.
But it is accelerating it.
If we continue to design work around speed, constant switching, and performance driven output, more people will be treated as though they are failing when what is really happening is much simpler:
The workplace is now operating faster than many human brains can realistically sustain.
That is why we are seeing more visible strain, more demand for adjustments, and more people questioning whether something is wrong with them.
Human beings are not becoming less capable.
The modern workplace is demanding more speed, more switching, and more constant output than many human brains can sustainably manage.
And that is not an individual weakness.
It is a design decision.
And society is going to pay a heavy price.