Happy Wednesday, everyone. I'm Frank Richardson, an organisational psychologist observing the workplace with curiosity and care. Each week, I share insights to help HR leaders better understand the people behind the processes and build cultures where both individuals and organisations can thrive.
This Week in Workplace Whiplash 🌀
For years, workplaces were mainly responsible for work. This week's stories suggest the job description keeps expanding:
🏋️ Terry Crews Wants Employers to Focus on Wellbeing
Speaking at the SHRM conference, actor and former NFL player Terry Crews argued that employee wellbeing should be a priority for HR leaders. With burnout remaining stubbornly high, the discussion has shifted from whether organisations should care about employee wellbeing to how much responsibility they should take for it.
👉HR Brew🍪 Meta and X Are Fighting Over Snacks
Meta recently announced plans to improve food and drink offerings for employees, prompting X to jokingly promise it would match any snack budget to attract talent. It's a funny story, but also a reminder that organisations are increasingly expected to compete on experience, culture, and perks, not just pay.
👉HR Grapevine⚖️ An AI Lawyer Just Won Its First Court Case
A UK HR consultant recovered £7,000 in unpaid fees after using an AI law firm to prepare her case. The opposing side hired both a solicitor and barrister and still lost. Beyond the novelty, it raises a fascinating question about what happens when professional expertise becomes dramatically cheaper and more accessible.
👉HCA Mag🤖 AI Is Creating a New Burnout Risk
HR leaders say retaining top talent is their biggest priority right now, particularly those leading AI adoption across organisations. The irony is that the people helping companies become more productive are increasingly at risk of becoming overloaded themselves.
👉HR Brew
From wellbeing and burnout to legal access and even free snacks, organisations are increasingly being asked to solve problems that once sat firmly outside the office…
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A few years ago, one of my direct reports added her menstrual cycle to my work calendar.
Not annual leave. Not a doctor's appointment. Her actual menstrual cycle.
And while this is a pretty extreme example (no one else has updated me on their reproductive health since), it highlighted to me that people really are sharing far more of their lives at work than they used to.
Over the years, I've had employees confide in me about relationship breakdowns, fertility treatment, financial stress, mental health struggles, caring responsibilities, grief, burnout, and just about every other major life challenge you can think of.
In many ways, that's a good thing. I'd much rather work in a culture where people feel comfortable asking for support than one where everyone suffers in silence. But the problem is that every time we encourage people to bring more of themselves to work, somebody has to receive that information. And more often than not, that person is their manager.
Managers these days are expected to coach careers, identify burnout, support mental health, navigate neurodiversity, create psychological safety, manage conflict, facilitate difficult conversations, and somehow still deliver projects on time.
And while none of those expectations feel unreasonable on their own, put together, they describe a job most managers never applied for.
What's the most unexpected thing an employee has ever shared with you?
🧠The behavioural science lens
Modern managers spend a surprising amount of time doing work that never appears in a position description. Behavioural science helps explain why this can become so draining:
Compassion fatigue isn't just for healthcare workers: When people repeatedly support others through emotional challenges, it can become draining, even when they genuinely care. Compassion fatigue is well documented among healthcare workers, but the same dynamic can emerge for managers who become the first point of contact for every personal struggle within their team. Over time, constant exposure to other people's problems can leave leaders feeling emotionally exhausted themselves.
Unclear roles create stress: One of the strongest predictors of workplace stress is role ambiguity: uncertainty about where your responsibilities begin and end. Many managers are no longer just managing performance. They're expected to coach careers, support wellbeing, navigate mental health conversations, and identify burnout before it becomes a problem. The challenge is that few organisations have stopped to define where those expectations end.
Psychological safety has changed what gets shared: For years, organisations have worked hard to create cultures where employees feel safe bringing more of themselves to work. In many ways, that's been a positive shift. But greater openness also means managers are increasingly exposed to personal information, challenges, and vulnerabilities that previous generations of leaders may never have encountered.
Boundaries make support sustainable: There is often an assumption that caring and boundaries sit at opposite ends of a spectrum. Research suggests the opposite. Clear boundarieshelp people understand what support can realistically be provided and protect relationships from becoming overwhelming or dependent. In other words, managers don't need to become counsellors in order to be compassionate.
🚀What this means for leaders
The answer isn't to tell employees to keep their problems to themselves. Work affects life. Life affects work. And pretending otherwise helps nobody.
But organisations do need to recognise that every new expectation placed on managers comes with a cost:
Decide where the boundary actually sits: Many organisations talk about supporting the whole employee, but far fewer have stopped to define what that means in practice. When does a manager's responsibility end and another form of support begin? Without clear boundaries, managers are left to make judgement calls about issues they were never trained to handle.
Don't mistake proximity for expertise: Managers are often the closest person to an employee's day-to-day experience, but that doesn't automatically make them the best person to solve every problem. Being trusted with sensitive information is different from being qualified to act on it. Sometimes the most supportive thing a manager can do is help someone access the right support elsewhere.
Recognise the hidden workload of management: Most organisations are very good at measuring output, deadlines and performance. They're much worse at recognising the emotional effort involved in supporting a team through difficult periods of life. That work is real, it takes energy, and it rarely appears on a position description.
💬 Final thoughts
Most managers genuinely want to support their teams. But at some point we've started treating them as managers, therapists, coaches, mediators, and amateur psychologists all at once.
Then we wonder why they're so exhausted.
The surprising part isn't that managers are burning out, it's that we're still acting surprised when they do.
If any of these hit differently read together, I'd love to hear it.
Until next week,
Frank
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