Do You Have Empathy Blindness?
Your weekly round up of what's going on in the Admin world
Hello everyone. I hope you had a lovely long weekend last weekend.
The issues in the Middle East seem to have paused for a short while, but that won’t stop some of the oil price increases that we are seeing. More on that in just a mo.
This week I’ve been reading up about why workplace bullying might be more common in some offices than others; a shiny new job searching tool where AI seems to be actually helpful; plus a really interesting article looking at how some people lose empathy when they move into leadership positions (you can’t tell me you didn’t just immediately think of someone who lacks empathy in your office!!).
I hope the sun has been shining on you this week ☀️
Yvette
NewsWrap
Reports are now coming in that there are flight cancellations due to a shortage in jet fuel. There are differing reports depending on what articles you read - so as always, consider who is writing the article and what (if anything) they might be set to gain from the wording of them. Still, when there is any crisis in the Middle East, there’s always a risk to oil and oil prices so it’s good to consider how that might impact you. The cost and availability of flights is one thing. The cost (including the recently reported increase in checked baggage on Southwest Airlines’ flights) and availability of everything else is another.
An interesting correlation has been found between workplace bullying and your office layout. According to a study, those companies operating in a traditional, open-plan office have the highest levels of workplace bullying. One possible explanation for this is that there’s little room to withdraw from an uncomfortable situation you might find yourself in. I’m not sure how I feel about this. On one hand, being able to hide away (as someone who has been bullied in the past) can help the effects of it. However, I’d like to hope that an open plan layout isn’t a catalyst for someone being nasty.
Those of you looking for new roles, I’ve come across a platform called Jack & Jill. It’s an AI-driven service where you upload your CV and ‘chat’ with Jack about what you are looking for. It then searches the internet to find roles which match your requirements - but in a much more sophisticated way than LinkedIn or Indeed. If you get selected for an interview, it gives you info on the hiring manager, and it gives you some test questions based on the company and interviewer’s profiles. I’d recommend giving it a look. I was sceptical at first, but it’s actually not bad.
Do you develop Empathy Blindness when you move into a leadership position? Research suggests that this has happened many times in many businesses where leadership have made feedback unsafe for middle management. The result of this is an environment where leadership think everything is fine, and everyone else knows they are on a sinking ship. Some extreme examples include the demise of Nokia and also the 2008 financial crisis. Time after time we are told that great leaders are ones who treat people like people, and this seems to support that claim.
A lot of us are thinking about objectives and what we can do better or more of this quarter. Last week’s Extra Wrap (just below) was about giving yourself a bit of a mid-year reality check. Bain and Gray also think that now is the perfect time to do a bit of spring cleaning and have written an article about how you can audit your support function. Now that Q1 is finished, now is when we are all starting that next push for Q2. Get yourself off to a flying start so you’re not panicking come the end of June and haven’t achieved anything of note.
The remote vs hybrid vs office debate isn’t going away. So how about yet another take on it even though no-one asked? This one is about your company’s digital infrastructure and the digital abilities of your colleagues. What if your colleague isn’t great with Excel? Or your company’s servers are slow and rubbish? What if your company still has a lot of paper-based processes? Pushing everyone to work remotely - even part of the time - can put huge pressures on different areas of the company. It can also make those colleagues who rely on being able to ask a question to the person sitting next to them get further and further behind. For the latter, I’m a big fan of 15-minute ‘coffee breaks’ where you and a colleague have a cuppa together and a natter - just like you would in the office.
If you have Slack, there are a few apps - like Macarons - that can randomly pair you up with a colleague if that’s not utterly terrifying.
By referring your friends and colleagues to The Admin Wrap, you can earn yourself free access to The Extra Wrap - our in depth thought leadership pieces which are sent out every Monday. Can you make it to the top of the leader board?
🔎 RealityWrap:
“We’re Like a Family Here” (Until We’re Not)
There’s a particular sentence that should make you pause in an interview, and it’s not about salary or title. It’s when someone smiles and says, “We’re like a family here.”
It sounds reassuring. Supportive even. The kind of place where people look out for each other. Sometimes, to be fair, that is true. People build genuine relationships at work. They support each other, step in when things get tough, celebrate wins together.
But “family” is not a business model, and the moment things get inconvenient, that sentiment disappears because families don’t performance manage you out of the door.
Families don’t restructure you away because priorities changed. That’s the job of companies.
The issue with the “family” narrative isn’t that it’s always false. It’s that it blurs the lines in a way that benefits the company far more than it benefits you. It encourages loyalty without protection, flexibility without boundaries, and extra effort without clear recognition. You stay late because the team needs you. You pick up the slack because “we’re all in this together.” You don’t push back because it feels transactional- and families aren’t supposed to be transactional.
Except it is. Because it’s a company! Your contract is transactional. Your pay is transactional. Your role, your progression - all of it can be changed, restructured, or removed entirely.
Yet people feel guilty setting boundaries. Uncomfortable asking for more. Disloyal for even considering leaving. As though acknowledging the reality somehow undermines the relationships they’ve built.
However, you can care about your colleagues and still be clear-eyed about the structure you’re in. You can be supportive and invested, without absorbing more and more than you’re recognised or rewarded for.
The companies that lean hardest on the “family” narrative often rely on that hesitation - because if you feel emotionally tied to the business, you’re less likely to question it and are therefore less likely to leave.
But the narrative can change in a heartbeat. Suddenly it’s “business needs,” “market conditions,” “organisational shifts.” The tone becomes formal, the distance reappears, and the same company that called itself a family now sounds like the legal document it always was.
Remember, work can be meaningful and the relationships you make can be genuine. But the structure you’re operating in is still a business, no matter what it’s called.
EventWrap
👉 EA How To is running an AI Summit on 1st May - 3 hours of some of the best speakers around, covering everything from AI Agents to getting buy-in from senior leaders. This session isn’t for beginners, so if you are already a steady user of AI and want to really take off - this is the session for you. Get all the info here, including the full speaker list, and if you’re not an EA How To Plus member yet, join up and you’ll get 25% off the Summit (note: their membership is only open to new members until the end of March - so don’t miss out!)
Executive Assistant Network are hosting a webinar on 16th April about Managing Up and Influencing Executive Focus. This one is for our Aus and NZ friends and is at 1pm AEST. Sign up here (it’s free if you’re a member)
ES Global is back for 24 hours of live learning! Wherever you are in the world, you can access top speakers and top content from just £199. Join Lucy and the team on 11-12th June - if you sign up you’ll also get 30 days of access to the replays (in case, you know, you might need to sleep at some point in those 24 hours!). Check out all the details here
For a list of Conferences, head over to the Conferences section in our Ultimate Assistant’s Toolbox.
If you are running an event aimed at administrative professionals, please send me an email and let me know all about it - hello@theadminwrap.com
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