Hello hello 👋🏽,

Welcome to this 21st edition of Marketers Help Marketers.

Today’s edition is for the parts of a marketing career we all experience… but rarely talk about publicly.

The Sunday-night dread. The founder's “ideas.” The politics you didn’t sign up for. The quiet fear of layoffs. The moments where you wonder: Is it a bad week… or a bad place?

This newsletter is based on my conversation with Ayushi Mona Singh, a marketing leader who has worked across 5 different industries in multiple marketing functions. She has been recognised by Business World in their 30 Under 30 list for her work in patient advocacy during COVID-19. She also teaches marketing programs at Kraftshala, writes online, and creates playbooks to help people work and market better.

Ayushi has a very grounded way of naming what’s actually happening at work (and what to do about it).

Today, we will be covering difficult, almost taboo situations we all face but rarely discuss openly with coworkers. And if your friends don't work in marketing, they won't quite get it either.

That’s what we will get into this one. 

The “quiet curriculum” of marketing careers

No one joins marketing thinking they’re signing up for:

But marketing, more than many functions, sits in a strange place.

You’re close to revenue, but rarely credited for revenue.

You’re close to product, but not always heard by product.

You’re responsible for perception, but judged by numbers.

And because marketing is visible, everyone feels qualified to critique it.

That’s the quiet curriculum:

You don’t just learn marketing.

You learn people.

You learn power.

You learn how people behave under stress.

And amongst all this, you learn how your own nervous system responds when every conversation becomes a confrontation.

No one warns you about these parts. But if you're navigating this now or trying to heal from what you've already lived through, this is for you. 

It’s to help you diagnose the world you find yourself in and make better moves from there.

You know that feeling of Sunday scaries (maybe you are having one right now, as you read this). 

Monday looms. 

And you wonder: is this just a bad week, or is this a sign I should leave?

Ayushi has a compelling way of looking at this issue: burnout versus burnout.

Most people talk about burnout. Very few talk about boreout. And marketers often experience both, sometimes simultaneously, which is when careers truly crash and burn.

Boreout: When you're under-stretched

Boreout is when you’re under-stretched, underused, underchallenged, undervalued, and slowly disengaging.

Not every role will feel exciting every day. Sometimes work is repetitive. Sometimes you'll do "unsexy" execution. That's normal.

But boreout becomes dangerous when it turns into chronic disengagement, resentment, the feeling that you're wasting your potential, and slow skill decay that eventually makes you invisible.

So how do you fix boreout?

Create stretch on purpose.

• Take ownership of a messy problem.

• Raise your hand for cross-functional work.

• Choose one metric or outcome you can move and document.

The good news about marketing is that there are endless avenues to practice your craft.

Ayushi warns: if you're not sharpening your basics where you are, you'll carry the same gaps into your next job.

Burnout: When you're over-stretched and disrespected

Burnout is when you’re over-stretched and depleted, especially when the environment is chaotic, disrespectful, or unfair.

Burnout is often the organization's failure: unrealistic demands, poor leadership, chaos without support.

And here's the uncomfortable part: a lot of marketing burnout doesn't come from the work itself. It comes from how marketing is treated.

But there's also something most people don't talk about: burnout has a physiological dimension.

If you're not sleeping well, not exercising, not eating properly, not talking to someone when you need support, your body will react. A lot of us overlook this fact. But our biologies work the same way: we all get irritated when we're running on four hours of sleep, and someone asks us to pivot the entire campaign. If your baseline is wrecked, everything feels like burnout.

Another burnout trigger is external pressure to change.

Ayushi talked about a batchmate at L'Oréal who loved their sales role. Two years in, they were making good money, liked their colleagues, but were drowning in pressure from everyone asking, "When are you moving to marketing from sales? It’s a waste to do Sales after going to MICA."

Ayushi's advice to her then: "If you love the job, if you like the people, if money is decent, do not leave. If the marketing job has to come, it will come."

Her friend stayed. Eventually, moved to marketing a few years later on their own terms - great category, strong perspective from sales, and a team aligned to her execution style. Had she jumped too soon, she'd have made a poor decision in the short term.

Ayushi's line, I want you to remember:

Once you can name what you’re experiencing (burnout vs. boreout), the next critical step is to understand whether the problem is you or the environment you are in.

Your abilities matter very little. Your environment matters disproportionately more.

Ayushi used this metaphor: “If a seed isn't growing, you don't shame the seed. You check their environment.” 

She talked about jobs the way we talk about ecosystems - sunlight, soil, water, timing. Sometimes you can be talented and still not thrive because the conditions are wrong.

Your workplace is your emotional home more than your actual home.

Think about it.

You're asleep at home for 7-8 hours. You spend maybe 2-3 hours with family. But you're spending 50-70 hours a week with strangers at work. Strangers competing for the same promotions, the same recognition, the same limited resources.

"You wouldn't tolerate a stranger in your house," Ayushi pointed out. "But you tolerate strangers at your workplace all day, every day, and accept them as your emotional home."

So here's the diagnostic question: Is this a "me problem" I can solve, or an "environment problem" I'll keep paying for?

The Macro and Micro Framework

Before you decide you're burnt out and need to quit, Ayushi says you need both macro and micro thinking.

Not just "my manager is annoying," but also a well-rounded perspective to understand your options.

Look at the macro first:

• What's happening in the category?

• Is the company's business actually stable?

• Are we in a hiring phase or a cost-cutting phase?

"You'd have to be very dumb to leave Meta in 2012, or Amazon in a certain year, or an Urban Company right now," she said. These are organizations shaping their categories. Just by spending a few years there, it shapes your brand value in the market, your work ethic for solving hairy problems, and your industry awareness among a jet-setting group.

Check the company's finances:

• Read their financial statements (upload them into ChatGPT if needed).

• Understand stability and growth prospects.

• This is an economic transaction; if the company is strong economically, think twice before leaving.

Be aware of warning signs:

If your company is doing poorly, if your team is restructuring, if budgets are being slashed, and you're NOT proactively job hunting, then as Ayushi puts it: "Knowing all of that for one, two, three months and still choosing to stay shows a lack of proactiveness on your part as well."

Her take was blunt: in a bad market, even decent work gets respected, because a rising tide lifts all boats.

Marketing careers don't just break because of skill. They break because of timing, runway, leadership maturity, and politics.

And nowhere is that political friction more constant than in the daily grind of stakeholder management.

As someone who works in marketing, you know this pattern:

A founder sees a LinkedIn post and wants you to replicate it.

Finance has campaign ideas.

Random stakeholders throw suggestions like confetti.

Ayushi's take: Don't reject ideas immediately.

Most people aren't trying to sabotage you. They're trying to feel involved and find some excitement in their thrill-less BAU jobs.

Why this happens

1. Your work is visible:

Everything you do is on a billboard, on Instagram, in an email. Nobody knows if finance did a good job, but everyone can see and critique your latest campaign.

2. Everyone consumes marketing:

They see competitors' campaigns. They notice trends. They form opinions. And because they're consumers, they think they understand the business side too.

But there's a massive difference between "I liked that ad" and "This is what will drive a qualified pipeline."

How to handle the constant interference:

Ayushi's advice is counterintuitive: Don't say no.

"If you reject interference in a collaborative environment, you come across as defensive, not open to ideas. Worse, you come across as conservative and not experimental."

Instead:

By not saying no, you do two things: 

you make people feel heard (politics managed), and you protect your roadmap (sanity protected).

But what about when the interference comes from the top? When your founder or leadership keeps overruling your decisions?

Interference becomes manageable when you learn to disagree well, especially with leadership. That’s the next skill most marketers learn the hard way.

So, how do you disagree with my founder/leadership without losing your job?

Ayushi’s answer: Any leader worth working for respects people who don’t bullshit them.

Founders are often surrounded by yes-people. Everyone's trying to please them, agree with them, execute without question.

If you're the one person who respectfully disagrees with data, with a rationale, with a clear alternative, you stand out.

If you’re the person who can say:

“I see what you want. Here’s why it may not work. Here’s an alternative, along with the trade-offs…”

You’re not being difficult. You’re being useful in a real way.

Founders instinctively respect people who are not yes-people. By not bullshitting, you're actually watching out for the business.

But there are two guardrails to watch out for:

• Don’t become cynical (that reads as contempt).

• Don’t become invisible (silence costs political capital).

These are the two worst archetypes in any room: the person who says "nothing to add," and the person who just says "I don't have bandwidth." Don't be either.

Be a contributor. And if your contribution is occasionally a contrary opinion or devil's advocate take, own it with rationale and belief.

But even when you're doing everything right - speaking up, contributing, delivering results- you can still find yourself on the losing end of office politics. Which is exactly what we need to talk about next.

Marketing careers don't just grow through skill. They grow through navigation.

And that includes politics.

We all detest it, but the problem is that ignoring politics does not make it go away; it just makes you…unprotected.

I loved how Ayushi described office politics as "the purest form of humanity."

Because there are so many human feelings involved -

Ego. Insecurity. Power. Approval. Credit. Fear.

And marketing sits right in the blast zone because it's highly visible, cross-functional, subject to outsiders, and often measured with imperfect metrics.

In marketing, politics shows up as:

• Who gets believed

• Who gets invited to rooms

• Who gets credit for wins

• Who gets blamed for misses

• What narratives stick

And here's the tricky part: you can be doing great work and still lose politically. Because the game is not only about performance. It's perception.

And here's where perception matters most: when someone decides you no longer fit their vision. That's when office politics turns into something more deliberate - being managed out.

Being managed out: 

This is one of the toughest experiences to ever go through in one’s career. It's when your organization has decided, quietly or loudly, that you're no longer part of their future plans. Sometimes it's performance-based. Sometimes it's political.

The question is: are they doing this ethically, or are they gaslighting you on your way out?

Ayushi’s advice: 

If your organization does it decently, you got the better deal. Don't leave even if they've short-changed you a little. In three years, the outside hire might not adapt and get sacked, and you might get your portfolio back. It happens.

Here's the key distinction:

If you're getting phased out legitimately (your skills weren't defensible), then yes - your skills need work. Nobody is stupid enough to kill a golden goose. If you're doing your job well, they'll ideally not move you out.

If you're being illegitimately moved out (you're great and it's politics, favoritism, or bias), then you're actually lucky. It's painful and demeaning. But the truth is: you have skills. You'll get a job fast. And the person who got your old role has to deal with all the crap you left behind.

Sometimes you’ll feel sad, but then you remember there are people still dealing with your old boss. And that's a blessing that keeps giving. 😎

And if you're a woman navigating this landscape, you're often playing a different game entirely.

Let me start this by saying: not all companies, not all managers make life difficult. But if you're a woman in corporate, you've likely paid this tax or know someone who did.

If a man pushes back, he's "assertive, a strong leader." But if a woman does the same, she's "aggressive, emotional, difficult to work with."

Why this matters

The research backs what most women already know:

Blind auditions lead to women's selection chances becoming disproportionately higher. Women get selected based on work done; men based on potential. Companies with women leaders have better evaluations and lower attrition.

Women create better work environments. Ayushi has been part of two women-only teams: "Both were ruthlessly high-performing with higher work ethic and lower politics."

How to navigate this

In the interview process, watch for:

Ayushi turned down senior roles at a large automotive company and a top private bank because they asked about marriage plans. "Once I go there, this is the culture I'll be subjected to."

An important distinction

Men can be fantastic mentors. Ayushi has had several. The problem isn't individual men, it's a culture that sidelines women. Ensure you're not in a toxic environment where women are not valued for what they bring.

The social problems exist. But you can be strategic about where you work and who you work for.

Once you accept politics, bias, and instability as real forces, the natural question becomes: how do I protect myself without living in fear? That’s where optionality comes in.

One of the best ways to reduce career anxiety is to stop making your job your entire identity. 

Ayushi runs ShelfChat, one of India's biggest book communities. She also teaches at Kraftshala on weekends.

She didn't build identity only inside work. She built it outside, too: teaching, community, books, curiosity, a voice. And she did it all with one non-negotiable rule: operate with integrity.

A lot of folks are interested in taking on projects beyond their day jobs, but are often worried about how their employers would react. 

Here are some operating principles Ayushi shared that she follows while working for global companies:

Ayushi used to carry her Broke Bibliophile tote bag (another book community she ran in the past) to work, and her boss knew about it because she never kept it a secret.

Marketers need creative outlets.

If you're a content marketer, you probably love writing. If you're a designer, you probably love art. These aren't just skills, they're passions.

Side projects/gigs actually make you better at your day job.

Marketers who do events in their spare time pick up skills, and when they have to do an event at work, they do a much better job.

In fact, Ayushi won't hire a marketer who doesn't have a clear passion project. "It's a dead giveaway that you have the flair for it."

The one caveat: watch how much time you spend on it.

If your side gig earns you lakhs in brand deals and takes 40 hours a week, you're not doing a side gig anymore, you're doing a second job. That's not sustainable or fair to your employer.

Keep it to 2-5 hours a week. Make it clear, boundaried, and non-conflicting.

Ayushi lists all her side gigs on her CV. She's never been in an interview where people didn't remark positively. In fact, she has gotten jobs specifically because of side projects. Her co-founder at Broke Bibliophiles ran that community for 8-9 years and is now head of customer experience at Crossword. He literally took his hobby into a full-fledged job.

Optionality isn't about hedging your bets or planning your exit. It's about staying creatively alive. And when you're creatively alive, you're better at everything, including your day job.

Ayushi posted about layoffs on LinkedIn. It got 300,000 views. Almost no likes. Almost no comments.

But her DMs were flooded.

"People want to understand how to handle layoffs, but no one wants to publicly engage with the topic."

Layoffs are now an unfortunate part of career reality, which means the goal isn’t to catastrophize; it’s to prepare.

1. Don't panic-post your way into noise

When people get laid off, they instantly spam groups with PDFs and "I need a job" messages.

Her advice: pause.

• Study the market: Who's hiring, for what roles, at what levels?

• Reflect on why the layoff happened: Was it a skill issue or systemic?

• If layoffs happened in tranches and you saw the first wave, that was your signal to prepare (emergency fund, networking, job watching).

If you were genuinely underperforming, fix that before rushing into the next job. If you were good but in the wrong place at the wrong time, you'll land on your feet.

Her take: if you're good, organizations will want you.

2. Treat layoffs as an admin + negotiation event

Step 1: Download everything immediately.

Payslips, performance letters, increment letters, awards, certificates - anything you'll need later. Do this the moment you get the call.

If IT locks you out fast, push back. These are your private financial records.

Step 2: Negotiate.

• Extra months to job-hunt

• An appreciation letter for projects you led

• References

• Reimbursements owed

• Payout details in writing

Don't leave money on the table because you're in shock. Get everything in writing.

Remember, there's no gag order.

If you've been let go, you can post and ask for help. Companies sometimes intimidate people into silence, but you have every right to advocate for yourself.

3. Don't jump from a bad job to a worse job

This is key to remember: it matters for everyone, even if you have EMIs and obligations.

Don't rush into the next toxic workplace just to stop the anxiety.

If possible, freelance, take on fractional work, or support a family business as a bridge to keep yourself intellectually stimulated while waiting for a better environment.

If you have an emergency fund (and you should be building one NOW), use it to wait for the right opportunity. But don't panic yourself into another toxic environment.

And here's the uncomfortable truth: some of you should have seen it coming.

If your company is doing poorly, if your team is restructuring, if budgets are being slashed, and you're not proactively job hunting, you're not being strategic.

4. Build a "Proof of Work" portfolio

If it's public domain, you can show it:

Screenshots of posts, emails, websites, YouTube videos, conferences you organized, everything in the public domain is yours to showcase. Package it so you can explain the impact to your next employer.

5. Consider internal transitions

Sometimes, if you're in a good organization that's slashing marketing but not failing as a business, negotiate for an internal role that's different or hybrid. You may surprise yourself.

If the company wasn't horrible, maintain a decent relationship with folks there.

Acknowledge that it's not your boss who's a terrible human; it's the economic structure of companies that over-promise and under-deliver.

Don't hold grudges. It's easy to be bitter because you're out and someone average is still there. But let go of these traps.

Finally: Watch for red flags in your job search

A key warning sign: 

Companies posting the same role every 3-6 months. Good people keep leaving. Don't end up there.

People are holding onto good jobs now. Many openings are from problematic organizations where good people keep leaving.

I keep coming back to something Ayushi said: "Office politics is the purest form of humanity."

Not because it's good. Because it's real.

And politics isn't just about credit-stealing or meeting room dynamics. It's the whole messy reality of marketing careers: navigating burnout, being managed out, disagreeing upward, the gender tax, building optionality, and surviving layoffs.

The human stuff. The uncomfortable stuff. The stuff we don't post about but all live through.

These unnamed realities shape more careers than any best practices thread ever will.

And there's power in naming the taboo stuff out loud:

When you can name it, you can plan for it. And when you can plan for it, you stop feeling trapped.

Here’s what I’m taking away from this conversation:

If this edition hit close to home: you're not alone.

Reply and tell me: What's one "taboo career thing" you wish marketers spoke about more openly?

I read every reply.

That's all for this edition of Marketers Help Marketers.

Have a great week ahead! ✨

Your marketer friend,

Mita ✌🏽