Most workplace crises don’t begin with an employee complaint, resignation, or a public conflict like a lawsuit. Those events just get our attention because they are visible. They force us to acknowledge conditions that existed long before the crisis emerged.
In the decades I’ve been working in employment law, human resources, litigation, mediation, and conflict resolution, I have noticed a recurring pattern. Like people (because they are managed by people) organizations often wait to look deeper until there is a big issue that demands their immediate attention. They can overlook warning signs for weeks, months, and even years. Instead, they look for quick fixes and scapegoats, neither of which lead to sustainable change.
Workplaces become unsustainable gradually. By the time people start talking about burnout, turnover, disengagement, conflict, or legal risk, there have been several opportunities to prevent crises.
Here are three of those warning signs:
1. The Same Problems Keep Returning
One of the clearest signs of an unsustainable workplace is repetition. The same complaints, communication issues, team struggles, and leadership challenges keep surfacing. A “difficult” employee leaves, but another one quickly surfaces. A manager receives coaching, yet similar concerns arise a few months later. A policy is updated, but employee frustration about the process continues. You wonder if you should have bothered at all. Instead, ask:
Are these isolated problems, or are they evidence that something in the workplace system needs attention?
2. People Stop Having Difficult Conversations
Another common warning sign is avoidance. Managers postpone uncomfortable conversations, claiming they are “too busy” when really they feel under-skilled to have them effectively. Employees stop raising concerns because they become resigned and cynical, believing nothing will change. This leaves teams working around issues instead of addressing them.
Avoidance can feel easier in the short term, but it often creates larger problems over time. Healthy workplaces see conflict as valuable information about what is and is not working. The question becomes:
Do people have the skills, support, and psychological safety necessary to discuss difficult issues constructively?
3. Values and Daily Experience No Longer Match
Many organizations have values statements that sound inspiring. They attract employees who share those values–and who are excited to find employers with them. But if those employees don’t see consistent, concrete examples after they are hired, they disengage. For example, a company claims to value collaboration, yet teams compete against each other for resources. Its employees assume the competition is more important than teamwork or completing tasks effectively. They stop caring about those experiences, too.
Over time, that erosion of trust affects morale, engagement, retention, decision-making, and performance. Ideally, before a crisis occurs, the leaders ask:
What is making this workplace unsustainable?
A Different Way to Think About Workplace Challenges
Burnout, turnover, disengagement, conflict, leadership exhaustion, and legal risk are often treated as separate problems requiring separate solutions. What if they are connected? What if they are signals that something about the workplace itself has become unsustainable?
That is the question at the heart of Unsustainable: Why Our Workplaces Aren’t Working and What to Do About It.
It is also the question that guides the work of Third Ear Conflict Resolution, where we help organizations and leaders navigate workplace challenges with greater clarity, alignment, and intention. Sometimes the issue involves policies and procedures.
At others, it involves leadership practices, communication habits, or unresolved conflict. Most commonly, it involves a combination of factors that have gradually become normalized.
The good news is that once those factors are identified, organizations and leaders can begin making meaningful changes.