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TITLE
‘You just don’t talk
their suffering. Many simply decide
about certain topics’:
that expressing suffering is too
how concerns to
risky, limiting their ability to receive
disclose suff ering compassion at work.
to leaders constrain
RESEARCHER’S TAKEAWAY
compassion at work
‘Our key finding is that fears of
disclosing suffering at work may be
PUBLICATION a primary constraint on compassion
Sustainability itself. Concerns about expressing
suffering were pervasive among
BACKGROUND/AIMS
our participants, including image
Employee and organisational
management concerns, perceived
sustainability are threatened by
organisational pressures and
widespread stress, burnout and
worries that their suffering may add
mental health challenges, among other
to the burden of other colleagues.
life events. Compassion at work may
‘Our early work suggests that
create more sustainable organisations
cultivating compassion at work
by alleviating this suffering, but it
actually begins with evaluating and
often fails to unfold. One potential
shaping the communication climate
explanation is that employees feel
within an organisation in order to
uncertain in expressing suff ering
help employees feel comfortable
at work. This study examined how
occupational safety and health.’ disclosing suffering and discussing
suffering employees make sense of
Mikkel Brandt Petersen and details to get adequate help.’
compassionate interactions with
Jeppe Ajslev, authors Cris Tietsort, lead author
leaders, and the concerns they have
IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE about disclosure at work. IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE
– IOSH’S TAKE – IOSH’S TAKE
METHOD AND FINDINGS
Where workers have reservations By identifying the factors that stop
Using qualitative, semi-structured
about the extent to which their workers from feeling able to disclose
interviews, the researchers found that
safety and health are being their suffering – for example,
suffering employees have four driving
prioritised at work, it is perhaps worries about crossing professional
concerns: (1) professionalism and
unsurprising that more absences boundaries and burdening
the appropriateness of suffering; (2)
are eventually recorded. On the one colleagues – the means to address
the validity of one’s suffering; (3) the
hand this might come from a higher these challenges are made clearer.
collective impact of a compassionate
number of accidents or incidents Compassionate policies,
response; and (4) image management.
that affect workers’ physical health, leadership communication
These concerns were often layered for
but it might well come from the strategies and the use of an
employees in ways that compounded
mental health impacts of feeling independent ombudsman signal
the challenge of disclosing suff ering
unsafe or undervalued. a rounded approach to building
and openly engaging with leaders.
Particularly in an era where compassion within an organisation.
OSH is searching for predictive CONCLUSIONS Acknowledging the concerns of
indicators, it is worth exploring This study highlights the workers and developing a culture
safety climate as a barometer of precariousness and challenges of compassion can serve the
health and safety outcomes. It is associated with personal suff ering objective of building a resilient and
also a question of working out what within organisations. Employees face a sustainable workforce.
the key drivers of a safety climate variety of concerns, compounding the For the full report, go to
difficulty of expressing and discussing
ILLUSTRATION: IKON actually are in a given organisation.
bit.ly/disclosing-suff ering-leaders
For the full report, go to
bit.ly/Denmark-safety-climate
IOSH MAGAZINE 73
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