A lot of managers want employees to go the extra mile, yet they treat the relationship like a transaction.
That mismatch is where trust starts to crack.
In this episode of Management Muse, Cindi Baldi talks with award-winning author Hanna Hasl-Kelchner about the workplace social contract: the unwritten agreement that determines whether employees lean in, pull back, or start polishing their résumés.
Hanna breaks down the five “speed bumps” that can block trust: approachability, recognition, bias, workload management, and conflict management.
From overlooked ideas to overloaded high performers, this conversation gives managers a practical way to spot where trust may be getting stuck, and a roadmap to get the relationship back on track.
Episode Highlights
- What a workplace social contract really means
- Why employees stop going the extra mile
- The five trust speed bumps every manager needs to address
- The subtle cues that may hurt your approachability as a manager
- When recognition can backfire
- The boundaries needed to build fairness
About Hanna Hasl-Kelchner:
Hanna’s a no-nonsense workplace fairness strategist and the award-winning author of ‘Seeking Fairness at Work – Cracking the New Code of Greater Employee Engagement, Retention & Satisfaction.’ Her straight talk and practical tools have helped organizations from startups to S&P 500 companies tackle the messy realities beneath the surface of employee engagement and retention.
Connect with Hanna:
Linkedin | Facebook | Blue Sky | Youtube
Watch This Episode on YouTube:
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Want to Go Deeper? Check Out Our Recommended Reading:
- T. Kähkönen, et al., “Employee trust repair: A systematic review of 20 years of empirical research and future research directions,” Journal of Business Research, 130, 98-109 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2021.03.019
- Rousseau, D.M. “Psychological and implied contracts in organizations,” Employ Respons Rights J 2, 121–139 (1989). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01384942
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