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- Insights on Shadow Work, Employee Discontent, and Debate Over Fair Hiring
Insights on Shadow Work, Employee Discontent, and Debate Over Fair Hiring
Inside: Employee Discontent Is Rising - Here’s What Smart HR Teams Are Doing
The HR Takeaways
November 07, 2025
Hey HR Pros,
Work is getting smarter — but not always easier. This week, we explore how hidden inefficiencies, growing employee discontent, and overlooked cultural shifts are shaping the new world of work.
From uncovering the $1.7 trillion productivity drain caused by “shadow work” to understanding what truly drives (and derails) employee happiness, these insights remind us that the future of performance isn’t just about doing more — it’s about doing what matters. Let’s dive in ✨
📰 Upcoming in This Issue
💼 The Cost of Shadow Work: Uncovering the $1.7 Trillion Tax on Company Growth
⚖️ Should Recruiters Give a Hiring Preference to Disadvantaged Candidates?
💬 Employee Discontent Is Rising: Here’s What Smart HR Teams Are Doing
📣 Trending HR News
Perk’s Forrester-backed report quantifies “shadow work”—all the manual, non-core tasks like booking travel, filing expenses, chasing approvals—as a massive drag on growth and morale. Employees lose ~7 hours/week to these tasks; in a 1,000-person company, that’s 7,000 hours weekly and 100+ FTEs worth of lost capacity.
The modeled macro impact tops $1.7T annually across six countries. Beyond time loss, context-switching adds an extra ~11 minutes to refocus per task, and 80% of employees call shadow work disruptive while 45% link it to burnout.
The report spotlights an “automation gap” in travel, expenses, invoices, and team events—and shows simpler, consolidated tools and targeted automation can reclaim focus and retention.
Key Takeaways:
✂️ Target the automation gap: Prioritize high-friction workflows (travel, expenses, invoices, team events) where time and frequency collide; these are prime for quick wins.
🧠 Design for focus, not tracking: Treat the 11-minute refocus penalty as a design constraint—batch admin, reduce handoffs, and minimize approvals to protect deep work.
🧰 Consolidate the toolset: Fewer, well-integrated tools correlate with simpler, effective processes; aim to move from 6+ fragmented apps to a unified stack.
❤️ Link to EX & retention: With 80% calling shadow work disruptive and 45% tying it to burnout, frame automation as an employee-experience investment that improves engagement and stay intent.
In this provocative think piece, Dr. John Sullivan challenges one of HR’s most emotional practices: giving “beyond equal” hiring preferences to disadvantaged candidates without formal policy. While the intent is compassionate, he warns that such actions can unintentionally undermine fairness, weaken team performance, and invite legal risk.
Lowered standards or informal boosts, even for noble reasons, may reduce productivity and erode trust among top performers. Sullivan’s message is clear—inclusion must be intentional and policy-driven, not improvised by individual recruiters. True fairness comes from structured opportunity, not silent exceptions.
Key Takeaways:
⚖️ Fairness must be policy, not preference: Without formal approval, recruiter-led preferences risk bias and potential legal scrutiny.
📉 Performance trade-offs are real: Lowering job requirements for struggling candidates can reduce team productivity and retention.
🧩 Recruiting ≠ social work: Community uplift should come through CSR or outreach—not by bending selection standards.
🧠 Structure empathy with clarity: If supporting underrepresented groups is a goal, HR should document, measure, and govern it transparently.
Employee discontent is quietly becoming one of the biggest threats to workplace performance. According to HBR, one in five employees say their job harms their mental health, and over 40% report significant stress—yet most aren’t quitting.
They’re “job hugging,” staying put but disengaged. For HR and business leaders, this calls for deliberate action: address frustrations, build flexibility, and show care through consistent, human leadership.
The fix isn’t grand gestures—it’s removing friction, amplifying meaning, and helping employees feel seen, supported, and valued every day. Small, steady improvements now can reignite morale before burnout becomes the norm.
Key Takeaways:
🧠 Address burnout before it anchors: Overwork, unclear priorities, and lack of flexibility are major drivers of disengagement.
💬 Empower through autonomy: Give employees more control over decisions and scheduling to restore trust and ownership.
❤️ Foster connection and recognition: Genuine relationships and regular appreciation reduce isolation and increase loyalty.
🚀 Prioritize growth and fairness: Transparent pay, visible development paths, and equitable opportunities drive retention and motivation.
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The bottomline
As leaders and HR professionals, our challenge isn’t simply to manage change — it’s to make work more human, efficient, and meaningful. Whether it’s redesigning processes, rebuilding trust, or rethinking how time is spent, small, thoughtful shifts compound into lasting impact.
Here’s to clearing the clutter — and giving people back the space to do their best work. See you next week!
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