ACCESS: From Anger to Clarity in Workplace Transition Coaching
- carolmastrofini
- Oct 7
- 4 min read
Editor’s Note (Repost – May 2025):
This post was originally published in May 2025 and remains one of our most-read pieces on navigating workplace transition. As conversations about remote work, organizational culture shifts, and employee values continue to evolve, Aneesh’s story is as relevant as ever.
“I am mad.” Aneesh’s words were clear, present, and unwavering.
This wasn’t a passing frustration. It was anger rooted in fairness, respect, and communication.
Aneesh wasn’t just angry for himself. He was angry for his colleagues — for the people who had built their lives around a company they believed in.
For five years, Aneesh had been part of a culture defined by connection, shared accountability, and flexible work. He worked fully remote for three years and hybrid for two. He was part of a youthful, passionate workforce that trusted leadership, believed in the mission, and embraced a model intentionally built to support both in-person and distributed teams.
Leadership had cultivated a sense of ownership and belonging across locations. Remote work wasn’t just a policy — it was part of the organization’s identity. This wasn’t just a job. It was a community.
And then, seemingly overnight, everything changed.
🔀When the Ground Beneath You Shifts
New leadership came in with new capital, a new vision, and a sweeping mandate: headquarters would move to a city with a dramatically different culture and climate, and employees would be required to relocate or leave. Remote work was eliminated for everyone.
There was no dialogue. No options.
“This isn’t right,” Aneesh said. “This isn’t how you treat the people who built this place.”
The sense of betrayal ran deep. The workplace transition wasn’t just logistical, it was cultural. Leadership’s decision was handed down without any respect for the communication culture and flexible work model they themselves had fostered.
“We gave everything to this company. And they didn’t even talk to us,” Aneesh said.
His anger was sharp and justified, a response to both his own treatment and the treatment of his colleagues.
The Emotional Undercurrent of Workplace Transition Coaching
In workplace transition coaching, this is where we began. We didn’t try to smooth over Aneesh’s emotions or rush to problem-solving.
We paused. We explored.
The ACCESS phase of the ACTIV coaching framework is designed for exactly this: uncovering what’s happening beneath the surface in moments of disruption.
Workplace transitions rarely arrive in one tidy emotion. For Aneesh, the initial surge was anger. But as we created space for Guided Exploration, our coaching process for surfacing the deeper layers beneath workplace transition, other emotions emerged.
He hadn’t called it grief at first. But when he slowed down, he realized he was experiencing:
✔️ Grief for the version of the company he once believed in
✔️ Sadness over the loss of community, purpose, and shared accountability
✔️ Disappointment in leadership’s failure to honor their stated values
“I just kept thinking — how did we get here?” Aneesh said. “I thought I knew this company. I thought I knew what we stood for.”
This moment was pivotal. Instead of pushing past his emotions, Aneesh began to name them. ACCESS created the space for that naming to happen.
How the ACCESS Phase of the ACTIV Framework Works
The ACTIV model supports individuals, leaders, and organizations through change with clarity and purpose. It includes five phases:
ACCESS – Reconnect with your values, motivations, and deeper goals to uncover what truly matters.
CHOOSE – Make intentional decisions that reflect who you are and where you want to go in your workplace transition.
TAILOR – Shape the coaching process to your evolving needs, strengths, and preferences.
IMPLEMENT – Take action with clarity and confidence, putting your chosen path into motion.
VALIDATE – Reflect on progress, celebrate wins, and refine the plan to stay aligned with your goals.
Every ACTIV phase builds on the last. But it all begins with ACCESS, where reflection turns into direction. Through workplace transition coaching and the ACTIV coaching framework, you gain both structure and flexibility to navigate change with clarity and purpose.
For Aneesh, this was where emotion met insight. He began to look inward, not to excuse what happened, but to understand what truly mattered to him.
Naming What Matters
Through coaching, Aneesh began to name his core values for the first time:
✅ Integrity
✅ Trust
✅ Transparency
For Aneesh, ACCESS was a turning point.
He’d always been clear about his personal values, but he’d never paused to define what he needed from leadership or workplace culture. When those unspoken values were quietly violated, it left him feeling unsettled and disillusioned—without fully understanding why.
These values hadn’t just been missing from the new environment; they had never been clearly defined by Aneesh until now. And that made this moment powerful. He wasn’t just grieving the past — he was discovering the lens through which he could evaluate every future opportunity.
That clarity also allowed him to revisit the company before the restructuring, not through nostalgia, but with honesty. Often in times of change, we idealize the past out of frustration with the present. But Aneesh was able to see the past for what it was: a mix of meaningful growth and missed opportunities for recognition and advancement.
That balanced reflection helped him move past the anger and remember his experience with truth, not just emotion.
💡Insight: From Anger to Clarity
ACCESS created clarity and from clarity, direction began to emerge.
By the time Aneesh completed this phase, the fog had lifted. The betrayal still hurt, but it no longer defined his next steps. He could name what mattered most to him, not just in hindsight but with intention for what came next.
“Once I understood my values,” he said, “I could see everything differently.”
Workplace transition coaching didn’t erase the anger. It helped transform it into understanding — the foundation for making aligned, intentional choices in the next phase of his journey.
📌 What’s Next: CHOOSE
With clarity about his values and emotions, Aneesh was no longer stuck in the past. He was ready to look forward and make choices grounded in who he was, not fear or pressure.
📍 Curious about which values might be guiding—or blocking—your own next move?👉
Schedule a free 15-minute consultation to explore your workplace transition through the ACTIV coaching framework.
