It wasnt planned, but Hardaway, 65, found a circular nature to his career he seems more than proud of. Whats more, he says, hes nowhere near close to done working.

Hardaways career began in 1984 for one of the top office furniture brands around, Herman Miller. The company, whos name is basically synonymous with the idea of high-end, modern furniture design, employed designers like George Nelson, who served as lead designer at Herman Miller for a time, as well as the incomparable Charles and Ray Eamesyes, that Eames.

For roughly 35 years, Hardaway, taking on different roles here and there while moving up the ranks, was tasked with filling offices with the variety of products Herman Miller peddled.

Herman Millers brand was so well known that it opened up a lot of doors. Im not gonna say that the product sold itself, as no product ever does, Hardaway tells Fortune. I was calling on architects and designers, I was calling on heads of real estate, facility managers, people like that; people that made decisions about commercial office furniture for these corporations.

The officeand what companies were drawn to as they attempted to manifest productivity or collaborationchanged drastically over the decades Hardaway was in the business. He sold office furniture to the IRS, Social Security Administration, and helped furnish offices in the judicial and executive branches. He had Fortune 500 clients like United Airlines, and even held the record for the largest account closed at Herman Miller, he says, which was a $125 million-plus contract to outfit an entire companys corporate campus.

Hardaway saw the office go from the rat-maze-like cubicles of the 80s, to lower walls meant to foster collaboration, to open plans, and then to a variety of different spaces meant for different kinds of work throughout the day. All the while, Herman Miller supplied everything from the cubicle walls and workstations to the now-iconic Aeron office chair.

But as the workforce and the needs of companies continued to force office design to change, a lot of the furniture and products Hardaway sold was thrown out.

Office furniturethe leading source of furniture waste in landfillsaccounts for roughly 8.5 million tons of the some 10 million tons of furniture that sits in waste every year.

During his time at Herman Miller, Hardaway and his team took great pains to outfit the offices of their clients just so. There was an entire design process, he says, to ensure they had every thing they wanted and needed to fit the culture of the company.

Culture doesnt always happen in the office, Hardaway says, but furniture can be a catalyst for that.

But at the end of the day, companies merged, or folded, or moved on, or changed with the times, and who was there to pick up the office chairs no one wanted anymore? What we were doing? We were selling solutions. And what we left behind was furniture.

After enjoying retirement for about six months in 2019, during which he and his wife journeyed down the Nile in Egypt, Hardaway started his own consulting business. Then the pandemic hit, and he was forced to pivot again. He was considering new opportunities when the CEO of environmental advocate and workplace decommissioning company Green Standards came calling.

Hardaway was familiar with the company from his days at Herman Miller. In Green Standards 12 years as an organization, it touts it has so far kept 100,000 tons of office furniture from landfills and diverted more than 240,000 tons of carbon dioxide emissions.

Green Standards works with companies like Google, Microsoft and United Airlines to develop strategies to resell, recycle, and donate office furniture that companies no longer have use for.

Hardaway never expected hed find himself working on the opposite end of an industry where he had dedicated the majority of his professional life. It was during the pandemic, he says, that he realized he wanted to spend the latter part of his career doing something purpose-driven.

His so called aha moment came in his early days at Green Standards while watching a case study theyd done with his old client, United Airlines. The research was done while United was moving into new offices, and Hardaway was still at Herman Miller at the time, working with the airline to sell them office furniture for the new space.

I was working on the new project, Green Standards is taking out the product that I sold in 1998 Thats when it hit me, I have come full circle, and I can make a difference, he says. In sales, our success was always based on hitting your goal, right? I sold $10 million this year, or I did this or I did that. Now, I define success as making a difference. And its like I said, Im not done. Thats why I failed retirement too, because I wasnt done.

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I define soft life as a way of living thats a bit more intentional. I dont think you can buy your way into it, its a state of being, says Genai. Its about moving intentionally, taking inventory of your thoughts, goals and intentions. I like to think about the ideal version of me and what she does, then I try to do that.

As with many viral trends, soft life began with Black women. The idea is said to have originated among Nigerian influencers before making its way to Western culture. On TikTok, the hashtag #softlife has more than 543.3 million views and #softblackgirl is hovering around 16.3 million. 

Soft life, to me, is really about embracing self-care in every aspect of your life from home to work to your relationship with wellness and how you manage your relationships, says Affirmations for Black Women: A Journal author and psychotherapist Oludara Adeeyo. It touches everything.

Soft Black Girl vs. Strong Black Woman

Its a philosophy that more and more Black women have been embracing as a rejection of the Strong Black Woman trope, a perception that Black women are naturally strong, resilient, self-contained, and self-sacrificing.

From the moment I was born, I felt like I had to be a strong Black woman, says Black People Breathe author Zee Clarke. I was thinking recently about how Black women dont have models for rest because our mothers didnt rest. Our grandmothers didnt rest. And when you go back to the times of slavery, we took care of white womens children and then went home to take care of our own. That comes with a lot of fatigue and exhaustion, so the status quo becomes overworking and not taking care of yourself.

Genai agrees, noting that previous generations prioritized being strongphysically, emotionally and mentally. Oftentimes as a means of survival.

What soft life aims to do is highlight that we dont always have to be strong, explains Genai. Theres strength in vulnerability and theres strength in being soft. Theres strength in easing into things. Im not saying that taking charge is negative, but we dont always have to jump to be the saviors. I think theyre a way for the Strong Black Women and Soft Life Girlies to coexist.

The soft life is about more than aesthetics

Whereas the soft life trend has become synonymous with Black Girl Luxury, Adeeyo insists the lifestyle is about more than Instagram aestheticits a mentality, one that elevates the importance of mental health.

I believe that self-care needs to start practical and once you start it practical, it begins to become instinctual and bleeds into other parts of your life, she says. Its not just about buying stuff, its saying no at work. Its saying no in your personal life. Its saying no because you changed your mind and you want to rest. Its about building community with people that make you feel whole and healed.

Living a soft life is also about determining what works (and what doesnt work) for you.

Its very easy to get caught up in the aesthetic of it all and believe that you need that matching yoga set, you need to drink matcha lattes and do your hot girl walk and cook salmon in the air fryer and sit down with your wine class, says Genai. You think theres a routine or a right way to do it and theres not. Theres beauty in individuality.

Implementing a soft life

As author and activist Audre Lorde once said, Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation and that is an act of political warfare. For Black women, self-care isnt a nice-to-have, it can literally be a matter of death.

The issues are in the tissues, which means when something happens, that shows up in your bodywhether it feels like you got punched in the stomach or you feel tension in your shoulders, she explains. Your mental health is very tightly connected to your physical health, especially Black women. Black people have the highest rates of high blood pressure, heart disease and a lot of those things are a direct result of the discrimination and racism that we experience.

For people who have a hard time putting themselves at the top of their to-do lists, Clarke recommends reciting the mantra, Today, I choose me. She also emphasizes the importance of listening to your body.

As part of living a soft life, Clarke recommends daily morning check-ins where you ask yourself, How am I doing? How am I feeling right now?

I actually use my name like, Good morning, Zee. How are you? she says. Something about using your name positions the question from the perspective of someone who cares for you and you can be honest.

Then she suggests letting how you feel determine your to-do list for the day. So if youre feeling super energized, perhaps you can get around to the extra items on your list. But if youre feeling exhausted, give yourself permission to postpone those tasks for another time.

To start living a softer life, one has to begin by taking an honest look at their current life, needs and wants devoid of influence from family, friends and social media, says Adeeyo.

A lot of us have a hard time being honest with ourselves because weve been told how we should look, feel, do, live, she says. So sometimes we dont even know ourselves. If you dont know yourself, you cant truly live a soft life.

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On Wednesday, Goldman eliminated 3,200 jobs, or roughly 6.5% of its workforce. That came as no surprise as CEO David Solomon had already warned staff last month he anticipated that headcount reduction will take place in the first half of January, citing tightening monetary conditions that are slowing down economic activity.

But getting fired did apparently surprise some employees who showed up for what they thought was a routine meeting, according to insiders who spoke to the New York Post, as the paper reported Friday.

Those employees had reportedly been emailed calendar invites for fake meetings, some as early as 7:30 a.m., at the banks New York headquarters. But when they showed up, they told they were being laid off, with their manager looking on.

Wednesday was internally dubbed Davids Demolition Day, according to the Post. 

Fortune reached out to Goldman Sachs for comment but did not receive an immediate reply.

Etiquette surrounding layoffs has come to the fore of late, especially in the tech sector, which has seen dramatic workforce reductions in recent months, even as overall the U.S. unemployment rate remains low.

At Salesforce earlier this month, CEO Marc Benioff came under fire for dodging questions during an all-hands meeting about mass layoffs announced only the day before. One employee questioned whether the Hawaiian concept of Ohanathe idea of family bonds that encourage people to be responsible for each othershould still be core to the companys culture, as Benioff made it at Salesforces founding.

Elon Musk was heavily criticized in November over the way layoffs were conducted at Twitter after his chaotic takeover. As Fortune reported, some employees found out their jobs were being eliminated after they couldnt log on to their company email or messaging system. Others learned their fate via an (unsigned) email sent after the workday. 

HR professionals did not mince words when weighing in on the tactics. I have worked in HR for over a decade and seen many different sizes and types of companies handle layoffs, one tweeted. From where Im sitting, Musks Twitter is going about theirs terriblylegally, ethically, and humanely speaking. Infuriating and heartbreaking.

On the other hand, one CEO received widespread criticism in August after attaching a teary-eyed selfie to a LinkedIn post in which he described the guilt he felt over firing staff. Detractors called it a PR stunt and accused him of fishing for sympathy.

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