The New Science of Success: Navigating Volatility in the Modern Workplace

In September 2026, psychologist Angela Duckworth, best known for her groundbreaking work on the psychology of achievement, released Situated: Find the People and Places That Bring Out Your Best. The book arrives at a moment of profound professional anxiety, particularly within the hallowed halls of academia, where the traditional promise of long-term job security is rapidly eroding.

By shifting the focus from internal grit to external environment, Duckworth’s latest work offers a potential bridge between individual agency and systemic reality. However, when placed in conversation with the precarious landscape of higher education—a sector grappling with enrollment cliffs and fiscal volatility—Situated raises an urgent question: In an era of "quiet firing" and structural instability, is personal agency enough to sustain a career?

The Evolution of Duckworth’s Thesis: From Grit to Environment

To understand the significance of Situated, one must first revisit the cultural phenomenon of 2016’s Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance. In that work, Duckworth argued that the secret to outstanding achievement is not genius, but a unique blend of passion and persistence.

While Grit became a touchstone for educators and corporate leaders alike, it also faced significant sociological criticism. Skeptics, including those writing from the perspective of institutional sociology, noted that the narrative of "grit" often minimized the structural barriers—poverty, systemic bias, and policy failure—that shape an individual’s trajectory. If success is purely a matter of personal resolve, the argument goes, then failure becomes a character flaw rather than a consequence of a rigged system.

Situated serves as a thoughtful, if implicit, evolution of this discourse. Duckworth acknowledges that our environments—the people we surround ourselves with, the physical spaces we occupy, and the cultures we inhabit—are not merely backdrops to our efforts; they are the primary architects of our outcomes. While Duckworth remains a psychologist focused on individual agency, her new work underscores that we are not autonomous agents operating in a vacuum. We are, by definition, "situated."

Chronology of a Crisis: The Higher Ed Employment Shift

The release of Situated coincides with an alarming trend documented by scholars like Kevin McClure, a professor of higher education at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington. In his recent analysis, Needlessly Insensitive Terminations in an Increasingly Volatile Higher Ed Workplace, McClure highlights a jarring reality: the historic "academic bargain" is dead.

The Erosion of the Ivory Tower

• The Decades-Long Status Quo: For nearly a century, higher education jobs were defined by a trade-off. Employees accepted lower salaries compared to the private sector in exchange for the "golden handcuffs" of stability and tenure-like security.
• The 2020–2025 Inflection Point: The post-pandemic landscape, characterized by dramatic shifts in enrollment, ballooning administrative costs, and federal policy whiplash, forced institutions into a permanent state of crisis management.
• The 2026 Reality: Today, the trade-off has inverted. Staff and faculty are increasingly facing "private-sector fickleness"—abrupt layoffs and contract non-renewals—without the benefit of the higher salary brackets typical of the corporate world.

McClure’s research, complemented by his 2025 book The Caring University, paints a portrait of a sector in transition, where "seismic volatility" is the new norm rather than a temporary anomaly.

Supporting Data: The Impact of Environment on Agency

Duckworth’s Situated provides a robust framework for how individuals might cope with this volatility, even when they cannot control the overarching institutional budget. The book synthesizes a vast array of research, showing that small, targeted changes to one’s environment can lead to outsized impacts on professional flourishing.

The Mechanics of "Situation Engineering"

1. Micro-Environment Modification: Duckworth suggests that productivity is often a byproduct of physical and digital design. By curate one’s immediate workspace to minimize friction and maximize focus, individuals can increase their "cognitive bandwidth."
2. Relational Architecture: The book emphasizes the intentional cultivation of mentors and "reliable supporters." In a volatile environment, these networks serve as essential shock absorbers.
3. The Limits of Agency: Unlike Grit, which suggested an almost infinite capacity for self-improvement, Situated implicitly recognizes that there are boundaries. The core takeaway is that while we cannot always change the organization, we can change our relationship to it.

Official Responses and Industry Perspectives

The academic community has received Situated with a mixture of hope and skepticism. HR directors in higher education argue that institutions are attempting to remain "people-centric" despite facing existential financial threats. Conversely, labor advocates argue that the adoption of "corporate" tactics—such as the quiet firing or the "at-will" employment structure—demonstrates a fundamental betrayal of the academic mission.

"The challenge," notes one university administrator, "is that we are operating in a resource-constrained environment where the old model of institutional loyalty is no longer fiscally sustainable."

In contrast, union representatives argue that the "volatility" described by McClure is a choice, not an inevitability. They suggest that instead of asking staff to "re-situate" themselves to survive, institutions should prioritize transparency and long-term retention strategies.

Implications: Building a Career Amidst Instability

For the average higher education employee, the synthesis of Duckworth’s work and the current fiscal crisis presents a paradox. If "gritting it out" is no longer a viable survival strategy, and moving to a new institution is not a safe bet—as most campuses are experiencing similar tremors—what is the path forward?

The Shift Toward "Individual-First" Work

The most profound implication of Situated in this context is the invitation to decouple one’s identity and life goals from the institutional mission. If the institution is no longer capable of providing security, the employee must, in effect, become their own "situated" manager:

• Prioritizing Personal Sustainability: Duckworth’s focus on environment suggests that staff should prioritize work arrangements that reduce stress and protect their mental health, even if it means slowing down the "hustle culture" of their respective departments.
• Decoupling Identity from Institution: The era of the "company man" or "institution-loyal academic" is coming to a close. Employees are encouraged to build professional networks that exist outside the walls of their university, ensuring they have a support system that survives even if their current department is shuttered.
• Strategic Boundary Setting: If no job is truly secure, then working in ways that prioritize the institution above the individual is a high-risk strategy. Instead, professionals must treat their career as a portfolio, building skills and relationships that are portable.

A Challenge to Leadership

The final question remains for figures like Duckworth: Does this advice scale to those without the protection of tenure? Duckworth, who holds a tenured position, writes from a place of relative safety. For the administrative assistant or the non-tenure-track lecturer, the "power of the situation" is often constrained by the very real threat of unemployment.

Yet, perhaps the most empowering takeaway from Situated is the realization that we are not as powerless as our institutional hierarchies suggest. By focusing on the "micro-environments"—our habits, our immediate collaborators, and our daily routines—we reclaim a degree of sovereignty.

As higher education continues to navigate its most volatile period in modern history, the advice of Situated may not be a panacea, but it is a vital tool. We may not be able to fix the crumbling foundations of our institutions, but we can, through intentionality and environmental design, ensure that our work life remains a source of flourishing rather than a site of depletion.

The question for every professional now is not just "How hard are you working?" but rather, "Is your current situation allowing you to thrive, or is it merely draining your capacity for the future?"