S2 E8: Healing From Burnout and Finding Your Passion for HR Again, with Tracie Sponenberg

Hebba Youssef
Hebba Youssef
October 25, 2023

Burnout and failure are inevitable in HR. So how can we grow and learn from our own mistakes?

Tracie Sponenberg, Chief People Officer of the Granite Group, joins Hebba to discuss her storied career in HR and to share her love/hate relationship with the industry as a whole. She reveals why open communication and having conversations with your employees, whether it’s good, bad, or anything in between is vital to anyone working in HR. 

Then, she and Hebba delve into various topics, including the challenges of maintaining a small company culture while scaling, the changing landscape of HR roles, and the shift towards leading with humanity rather than compliance.

And stay tuned because later, Tracie opens up about her own experiences with burnout and offers advice on setting boundaries and protecting yourself from burnout in the HR field.

00:01:36 – HR Hot Take

00:03:43 – From Personnel to HR: Finding My Passion

00:07:40 – Key Inflection Points in Tracy’s HR Career

00:11:53 – The Changing Landscape of HR

00:18:08 – The Emotional Burden of HR

00:22:59 – The Evolution of HR and Internal Communication

00:26:35 – Maintaining Company Culture as You Scale

00:28:52 – Preventing and Healing from Burnout

00:37:19 – The Future of HR and People: More Advisory and External Roles

00:43:29 – The Importance of Communication with CEOs

For even more exclusive insider content, don’t forget to check out my YouTube page

Follow Tracie:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/traciesponenberg/

Follow Hebba: 

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ihateit-here/videos

LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/hebba-youssef

Twitter: https://twitter.com/hebbamyoussef

15Five is the performance management platform that drives business results and gives HR teams a complete solution to deliver high employee performance, engagement, and retention while improving manager effectiveness. 

Find out more about 15Five here.

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Hebba Youssef
Hebba Youssef