Happy Thursday, 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 š
A few stories this week that quietly signal where power, flexibility and fairness are heading at work:
š»Firing just got easier in federal roles
A new rule from the U.S. Office of Personnel Management will make it easier to remove certain federal employees by reclassifying policy-related roles and narrowing appeal pathways. Itās a significant shift in job security norms, and a reminder that āprotectedā employment categories can change faster than people expect.
šSHRMš³š± The four-day week isnāt radical everywhere
Shorter working weeks are already embedded in parts of the Netherlands, where reduced hours are culturally normal rather than experimental. The bigger question isnāt whether itās possible, itās why some systems make autonomy structural while others treat it as a perk.
šBBCš Blanket telework rollbacks raise legal risk
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has warned that broad rescinding of telework accommodations without individual assessment may violate disability law. As return-to-office pressures mount, compliance and culture are colliding in very public ways.
šHR Dive
And speaking of performance, pressure and quiet emotional falloutā¦ letās talk about silver medals.
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I was watching a highlights reel of the Winter Olympic Games yesterday, and I couldnāt take my eyes off the bronze medallist. They were absolutely beaming. Proper, open-mouthed disbelief. The kind of smile that says, āI cannot believe this has happenedā.
And then the camera cut to silver.
Objectively a much better result, but a noticeably worse mood?
I pondered this for a moment and then realised, this same phenomenon plays out in workplaces all the time. Think about the candidate who came second for promotion. The team that narrowly missed a target. The senior leader who was āstrongly consideredā.
On paper, theyāre exceptional, but in their head, they lost.
And that gap between objective success and subjective disappointment is where organisational psychology gets interesting.
š§ The behavioural science lens
Thereās a well-documented reason silver often looks more miserable than bronze. It comes down to how our brains construct comparison:
Counterfactual thinking shapes happiness: In a landmark study, Medvec, Madey and Gilovich analysed Olympic footage and athlete interviews. Bronze medallists tended to be happier than silver medallists because silver compares upward (āI was one step from goldā) while bronze compares downward (āI nearly didnāt medal at allā). The emotional experience isnāt determined by rank itself, but by the imagined alternative playing in your head.
Reference points drive perceived loss: Work by Kahneman and Tversky on Prospect Theory shows that we evaluate outcomes relative to a reference point, not in absolute terms. For silver, the psychological reference point becomes gold. That reframing subtly converts āsecond best in the worldā into a perceived loss, even when the objective achievement is extraordinary.
Near-misses intensify emotion: Research on goal proximity shows that when individuals perceive themselves as close to a goal, they mentally represent progress differently, increasing motivational intensity and emotional engagement. Proximity makes the outcome psychologically vivid, which helps explain why second place lingers.
Social comparison is automatic: Festingerās Social Comparison Theory explains why we instinctively benchmark ourselves against those immediately above us. Silver compares to gold because gold is psychologically adjacent. Bronze compares to fourth because thatās the plausible alternative. The direction of comparison determines whether the outcome feels triumphant or painful.
šWhat this means for leaders
If silver feels worse than bronze, performance systems in the workplace need to account for psychology, not just metrics.
Frame outcomes deliberately: āTop 3% of the organisationā lands very differently to āmissed outā. The language you use shapes the reference point people walk away with, and that reference point determines whether the experience feels like progress or loss.
Watch your near-miss talent: Those who come second are often at higher risk of disengagement or exit because they were close enough to imagine the win. Proximity creates emotional investment, and without thoughtful follow-up, that investment can quietly turn into withdrawal.
Soften zero-sum narratives: When only one person advances, everyone else absorbs loss, even if performance was strong. Creating multiple pathways for progression reduces the psychological cliff edge that rankings naturally create.
Separate rank from worth: Elite sport and corporate life share the same trap: when identity fuses with outcome, resilience drops. Leaders play a critical role in reinforcing that feedback is about role readiness, not personal value.
š¬ Final thoughts
Every Winter Olympics reminds us that performance is relative, and that relative positioning carries emotional weight.
Second in the world is extraordinary by any rational measure. But human beings donāt experience outcomes rationally. We experience them through comparison, proximity and imagined alternatives.
Organisations tend to celebrate gold loudly and assume everyone else will absorb the hierarchy. Most do, but near-misses linger longer than we think.
If you want to retain high performers, pay attention to the people standing in the middle of the podium. They are talented, capable and often quietly recalculating their futureā¦ and they donāt always stay.
How's the depth of today's edition?
If something here speaks to you, Iād love to hear it.
Until next week,
Frank
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