We took away psychological safety and then told everyone to be more productive
3 hours ago
- #Modern Economy
- #Psychological Safety
- #Workplace Burnout
- Psychological safety, the workplace condition where people feel safe to speak up, take risks, and make mistakes without fear, is crucial for performance and satisfaction, but is being systematically eroded.
- Current work conditions, marked by layoffs, return-to-office mandates, and economic uncertainty, have led to widespread burnout, declining engagement, and lost productivity, with many employees feeling disposable and stressed.
- Post-layoff, surviving employees often experience 'workplace survivor syndrome'—anger, anxiety, guilt—and see declines in productivity and quality, yet feel pressured to be extra positive and productive while absorbing more work.
- Companies, after layoffs, often push for efficiency via AI and tools to do 'more with less,' ignoring that high-pressure environments without psychological safety lead to burnout, not resilience.
- The modern workplace demands innovation and risk-taking (top of Maslow's hierarchy) while undermining job security and trust (bottom needs), creating a logical mismatch that hinders genuine performance.
- The competitive job market exacerbates psychological harm for job seekers through ghosting and lack of feedback, while both employed and unemployed are expected to perform in an indifferent system.
- Solutions require fundamental change: treating people as humans needing conditions like honest feedback, trained managers, and mental health respect, not as optimizable resources; psychological safety is a prerequisite for business metrics.
- Individuals experiencing this exhaustion are having a rational response to an irrational system; the goal is to preserve oneself for when better conditions return, not to conform to market demands.