Dear Ellie, Watching the Warning Lights Flash
Dear Ellie,
I’m an HR professional at a mid-sized organization, and I could use some perspective.
Over the past several months, I’ve noticed a significant shift in employee morale and trust. Long-tenured employees who once seemed deeply committed are talking about leaving. Employees are frustrated with leadership decisions, and concerns are piling up around performance management, workload expectations, and communication from the top.
At the same time, the executive team has become increasingly focused on financial pressures and organizational survival. Leadership practices have changed, and many decisions are driven by urgency rather than long-term culture or engagement.
As HR, I’ve raised concerns about employee sentiment, organizational risk, and the need to address certain issues proactively. Leadership listens, but I’m often reminded that final decisions belong to them and that my role is advisory rather than decision-making.
Recently, things have escalated. Within a short period, we’ve had unexpected resignations, emotional employee complaints, and growing concerns about workload and support. What worries me most is that leadership seems to have known about many of these issues for some time, yet there’s little documentation, follow-through, or visible action.
What can I do when I can clearly see culture problems, declining trust, and rising turnover risk, but senior leadership doesn’t appear ready to acknowledge the severity of the situation? How do you keep advocating for employees and the organization when your influence feels limited?
– Watching the Warning Lights Flash
Dear Watching,
In Greek mythology, Cassandra was given the gift of prophecy and cursed never to be believed. I call what you’re experiencing the “HR Cassandra Complex.” You can see exactly what’s coming, you’re pointing straight at it, and the city keeps planning a parade around the wooden horse. It’s exhausting, and every ounce of your frustration is earned.
When executives go into financial survival mode, their vision narrows. They develop tunnel vision for the P&L and start treating culture as a luxury they can no longer afford. Your leadership is right about one thing: your role is advisory. But right now, you’re advising them in a language they’ve stopped speaking.
If leadership is hyper-focused on financial survival, stop bringing them problems wrapped in HR language like morale, sentiment, or trust. Panicked executives can’t hear those words; they file them under “soft issues.” Pick up the language they’re still fluent in: risk and revenue. Translate every culture problem into that lexicon and present yourself as an advocate for the company’s financial viability rather than for employee wellbeing. Don’t worry, you still get to care about the wellbeing part.
How to Advise When No One is Listening
Do the math. Don’t just tell leadership that turnover is increasing. Calculate the cost of those unexpected resignations. Take the salaries of the people who just quit, multiply by 1.5 (a midpoint of Gallup’s estimates for replacement, lost productivity, and training), and put that number on a slide.
What to say: “I know our priority right now is financial survival. In the last 30 days, unmanaged workload concerns have cost us $350,000 in replacement costs. We’re bleeding cash through turnover. We need to stabilize the core team to protect the bottom line.”
Create a paper trail (aka CYA). If your role is advisory, formally document your advice to protect the company, and yourself. When leadership ignores an escalating employee complaint, put your recommendation in writing. This forces leadership to actively own the risk of their inaction rather than passively ignoring it.
What to say: “Following up on our discussion regarding [employee complaint]. As your HR advisor, my recommendation is to initiate a formal investigation by [date] to mitigate potential hostile-work-environment liability. Let me know if you’re opting for a different business direction so I can document our strategy.”
Support the micro-cultures. If the executive team is a lost cause right now, shift your influence to the middle managers. The macro-culture might be on fire, but middle managers can still build firebreaks around their teams. Spend your energy coaching them to buffer their people from the executive chaos, prioritize workloads, and maintain psychological safety at the department level.
Resources to Back You Up
When you switch your argument from feelings to financials, use these to make the case:
Gallup: 42% of Employee Turnover Is Preventable: 42% of employees who quit say their manager or organization could have done something to stop them. Gallup also estimates replacement costs by role: roughly 200% of salary for leaders and managers, 80% for technical professionals, and 40% for frontline employees. Use those numbers to do the math for your executives.
Stephen M. R. Covey: The Speed of Trust: Covey treats trust as a hard economic driver, and his formula is simple: when trust goes down, speed goes down and costs go up. Show leadership how their communication gaps are slowing down execution and raising operational costs.
And Now a Word from HR…to HR
This might hit hard, but you have to emotionally detach from the outcome. You’re the navigator on this ship: you can map the route, flag the storms, and recommend a course correction, but your hand isn’t on the wheel. The CEO’s is.
If you give them the data, highlight the financial risks, map the solutions, and they still steer into the rocks? Let them. You can’t care more about the survival of the company than the people who own it. Set your emotional boundaries, do your job with integrity, and if the ship starts to sink, don’t be the one who goes down with it.
Stay resilient,
Ellie
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Elizabeth “Ellie” Tancreti is a seasoned HR consultant (and former Senior Recruiter, Onboarding/People and Culture Specialist) who’s faced the same challenges—and helps professionals like you get unstuck.
Bring your questions—on burnout, alignment, career pivots, leadership challenges, building culture, or any thorny questions keeping you up at night. Ask your question and get Ellie’s advice or connect with Ellie on Substack.
The information contained in this site is provided for informational purposes only, and should not be construed as legal advice on any subject.
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