I’m Afraid to Speak Up 🤐
Why don’t we share our frustrations in the workplace?
“I’m totally burned out.”
“I have too much on my plate and I’m completely stressed.”
“I worked 70 hours last week; it’s become the norm, not the exception.”
These are comments I often hear from professionals during coaching sessions. They are frustrated, on the verge of severe burnout, or deeply dissatisfied by what they feel is a lack of balance or appreciation for their efforts.
As the coaching session unfolds, we start talking about ways they can improve their situation. We explore what options are available to them, including how to express their frustration with their managers. This is usually what I hear:
“If I tell my boss, they’ll ignore me or fire me.”
“I’ve shared my frustration, but I’m told to, ‘Find a way to make it work.’”
“I don’t want to be perceived as disloyal or unable to do my job; it will hurt my reputation.”
These responses evidence a deep-seated problem with how the workplace is currently structured. Too often employees feel powerless; afraid to speak up and ask for necessary changes because they fear the repercussions will be worse than their current suffering.
But hopelessness and fear of repercussions in the workplace prevents our best work. It stifles creativity, collaboration, and genuine team work. Psychological safety is an essential attribute of the strongest teams and their members. As a conscious leader, how are you creating an environment where your team can share their true thoughts without fear of reprisal?
Here are a few solutions we need to consider for all involved:
1. As the employee, learn to advocate for yourself. One perceptive to consider is if your paycheck didn’t show up, you’d advocate for it. So advocate for your health and your work conditions in the same way. You can approach it more effectively than Office Space’s Milton. There are conscious leadership ways to have a productive conversation that will result in the balance you need to be your best.
2. As the leader, create psychological safety and regular feedback loops for all team members and leadership. How will your team be able to share their struggles if they fear they will lose their job, irritate a coworker, or never have a specific opportunity where they can candidly share their thoughts? Intentionally create the space and zealously protect it.
3. As the employee and the leader, practice empathy. In a recent post on Pocket, author Anne Helen Petersen shares how walking in another’s shoes produces empathy: “Reading and learning about what other people are going through produces empathy. It helps us all acknowledge that burnout isn’t a personal problem—it’s a societal and structural one.” So, as the employee, how can you see things from the manager’s point of view? What fears do they have that cause their behavior? As the manager, how can you become more sensitive to what your employees are experiencing, create space for them to share, and express empathy in finding a mutually beneficial solution?
4. As a conscious leader, restructure to flatten hierarchy within the organization. One of the chief drawbacks of how the current workplace is structured is that people who are otherwise equal human beings outside the office are suddenly in a pecking order when they walk into the office (virtual or physical). In that environment, it’s easy to feel like your wellbeing matters less than those above you. So consider ways to ensure everyone on the team feels equal in their ability to speak up, contribute and ask for what they need.
These are just a few of the ways both employees and leaders can help address the fear of speaking up in the workplace. Coaching is an excellent way to empower employees who want to find their voice, and for leaders who perhaps have a blindspot in this area.
We can all work to make the workplace work for everyone. Conscious leadership is calling all of us to learn new ways of being that will help us create a future of work full of abundance and wellbeing for all.
Work happy. Live happy. BE happy.
Meredith
Meredith’s coaching helps conscious leaders step courageously into the future of work. Contact her to develop your conscious leadership and transform your organization into the workplace of the future.
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