The fires never stop
SUPPORTING PEOPLE WITH
Hi y’all!
I’m back in Virginia after spending some time in Austin with my coworkers. IRL time is always SO MUCH fun but then I need like 3 business days to recover.
Since the pandemic I've become an introverted extrovert. Is that even a thing?? IDK
One thing that remains the same… I love to yap. Here are the places you can count on me to talk about the things that really matter:
🎧 On the podcast, Amina Gass joined me to talk about the emotional tax of being “the only” in a room, on a team, or even at the company.
📺 On HR Therapy this month, we’re doing Tech Stack Therapy. When is it time to move on from certain tools? How do you know you’ve picked the right system? And what is worth patching vs plugging? A crew of characters like RyanMae Pepin, Paula Tett and your fave Dr. Ken all join me to dig into your tools and more!
Now, onto today… the *current* toughest challenges HR is facing and what to do about them.
CULTURE
The 3 types of challenges HR is up against: Copy anchor linkCopied
All quarter, I’ve been talking about what’s been shaping our cultures in real time from the shifts, pivots and slow burns changing how our teams show up at work.
Sometimes all of this can feel utterly exhausting.
The other day I caught myself staring at my back to back wall of meetings on my calendar and thinking how are we supposed to keep doing all of this, all at once, with half the resources and none of the certainty?
I def spiraled for an afternoon. Our work can be a bit overwhelming, no lies there!
And then I got hyped to write this newsletter! Because I don’t think it’s impossible… but I think we need a PLAN.
So this week, I want to zoom out.
Instead of just naming specific things that are happening, I want to talk about how to think about these challenges, now and in the future.
Because when you understand the type of challenge you’re facing, you can design better solutions and not just be in reactive mode all the time.
Let’s break it down, the three types of challenges HR is up against:
✅ Human
✅ System
✅ Business
Categorizing the chaos: Copy anchor linkCopied
To make sense of the chaos, I like to get organized.
I put our HR challenges into three major buckets.
Each one demands a different kind of response and if you’re not careful mixing them up is how we end up overwhelmed and solving the wrong kinds of problems.
Here’s what they are (and why they matter):
🧠 Bucket 1: The Human Challenges
Think: emotional + cultural load
These are the people-side storms HR is constantly walking into. They can be messy, emotional, and exhausting. Like:
- Employees quietly disengaging
- Burned-out managers and leaders
- Declining trust
- Chronic change fatigue showing up as missed deadlines
- Teams stuck in conflict loops with no one mediating
Why it matters: These challenges often hit the culture first. When culture starts to cracks, things like performance, trust, and retention tend to follow.
⚙️ Bucket 2: The System Challenges
Think: structural + operational friction
This is the invisible drag: the outdated systems, wide tech stacks, tangled processes, and broken infrastructure HR is trying to fix mid-flight. Like:
- Clunky tech stacks + manual admin (my nightmare!!)
- Skills gaps and obsolete org charts & models
- Siloed functions and unclear ownership
- Compliance and risk issues
- HR policies duct-taped together from three different eras of the company
Why it matters: These challenges block scalability and crush efficiency… and HR usually gets blamed because it is directly felt by the employee.
📉 Bucket 3: The Business Challenges
Think: strategic + resource tension
These are the macro forces squeezing HR from the top down. Like:
- Flat budgets + rising expectations
- Constant reorganizations and layoffs
- CEO/Board pressure for ROI
- Sudden market swings that derail workforce plans overnight
- Aggressive growth targets with zero headcount to support them
Why it matters: These challenges set the tone and pace, and sometimes the human cost is ignored until it’s too late.
👀 Seeing your challenges through these three lenses won’t make them disappear, but it could make them more solvable. When you know what kind of problem you’re facing, you stop throwing rando fixes (guilty) at everything and instead focus on how to prioritize and build scalable solutions.
Instead of living in constant reaction mode, this gives you a framework.
A way to move from “everything is on fire” ➡️ “here’s what we’re gonna tackle first and how.”
On the note of triage…
HR triage 100: Copy anchor linkCopied
The truth is, HR often lives in reaction mode. And that reactive mode can start to feel unmanageable after a while. I don’t know about you, but constant cortisol spikes are NOT FUN.
Honestly, I watched the show The Pitt, and my first thought was wowww this is a stressful environment, I bet HR people would make good nurses/doctors. I also had to watch in small bursts because the show stressed me out so much.
Right now, some of us are running an HR ER with no triage system.
Every Slack ping feels like a code red. Every meeting feels like life or death. (Sorry for the dramatics.)
📣 But not every crisis is a crisis… and not every crisis is yours to fix.
YEAH I SAID THAT.
That’s why classifying challenges matters.
When you know what type of challenge you’re facing, human, system, or business, you stop tossing the same generic band-aids at everything and start prescribing the right treatment.
- A human challenge might need coaching, connection, or cultural repair.
- A system challenge might need new tools, processes, or clearer ownership.
- A business challenge might need executive alignment, budget negotiations, or reframing in ROI terms.
Without this filter, everything feels like a five-alarm fire!!! That’s how you burn yourself (and your team) out…
✏️ Here’s your homework:
- Spend the next week jotting down every challenge that lands on your plate. The big messy ones and even the tiny annoying ones.
- Then, label each one with its bucket: Human, System, or Business.
- Don’t fix them yet. Just notice the patterns. (Spoiler: some of your “emergencies” might just be bad workflows in disguise 👀)
💭 Then reflect:
- Ask yourself: Am I treating human problems like system problems?
- Am I stuck firefighting business problems I don’t even own?
- This lens will show you where your energy actually belongs (and where you can stop spending your energy 🙃).
📋 The goal:
- Stop reacting to everything as if it’s on fire.
- Start practicing triage: Does this need a coaching session, a workflow, or an alignment meeting?
- Because knowing what kind of challenge you’re facing is half the work of solving it.
Classifying the chaos is only step one…
Next up:Copy anchor linkCopied
If you’re reading this and thinking, this is great but I need MORE.
🚨🚨 Well, the Safe Space Summit is just for that… The entire day is built around the toughest, most complicated challenges HR is currently facing from leadership, change to learning, performance and AI.
You’ll walk away with a playbook FULL of tactics to help you navigate your people, system, and business challenges.
🎁 And this week I’m feeling extra giving so approved applicants will get some I Hate it Here swag in the form of a sweatshirt if you purchase your pass this week!
As for the newsletter next week… I’ll go further into challenges and talk about what I think will be your biggest ones to solve this year and in 2026.
❤️ Until then, take a breath. You don’t have to solve everything at once!!
(HUMAN) RESOURCES
- More Americans out of work than there are jobs
- Actors and filmmakers sign a pledge
- Emmys honor the Corporation for Public Broadcasting
- AI mainly used to automate work
WORK-LIFE BALANCE
- 📚 What I’m reading: Play Nice by Rachel Harrison. It’s spooky szn and this was the perfect novel for that because it features a childhood haunted home. I love picking up a few horror novels during fall.
- 📺 What I’m watching: Wimbledon. A 2004 rom com with Kirsten Dunst and Paul Bettany. If you haven’t watched it please do! Also so many side characters before they got famous.
- 🤠 What I’m obsessing over: Red cowboy boots. I recently acquired a pair of red cowboy boots and since then all I've wanted to do is wear them. I never thought I would be this person…
SONG OF THE WEEK
🎧 Orange Shirt, Discovery Copy anchor linkCopied
I LOVE ROSTAM AND HE IS THE BEST PRODUCER.
That is all.
That's all for this week! I hope you enjoyed this, please let me know what you think and what other topics you'd love for me to cover. I'm allll ears.
Reminder: Take care of yourself and know that I support you.
