The HR Lady® Newsletter - May 2026

AI Use At Work: Totally Cool & Very Risky

Generative Artificial Intelligence is totally cool (I'm obsessed) and a huge time saver... but, please use caution with AI tools! 

Is it accurate? Mostly, but…”Scientists Invented a Fake Disease Caused by Blue Light—Now It’s in Medical Papers”

Plus, AI companies (and the military) use your prompts & conversations to train their models. Stanford Law School analyzed the privacy policies of the six biggest AI companies in the USA and they found that the AI developers appear to employ their users' chat data to train and improve their models by default, and that some retain this data indefinitely. Yes, indefinitely. 

Oh and your AI prompts are discoverable in court as there is no Attorney-Client relationship with an AI tool.  Such as: "How can I get rid of this employee who is driving me crazy?" Discoverable!!! This may not lead to anything, or maybe it will lead to a giant lawsuit. An AI platform is not an attorney. Sigh.

Trust Is Dead - Fix It

Many organizations say they want honesty, accountability, and retention.
But employees are quietly asking a different question: “Is it actually safe to tell the truth here?”

• When trust starts to disappear, employees stop speaking up long before they quit.
• They stop sharing ideas.
• They stop reporting concerns.
• They stop believing leadership will listen or care.
• And eventually, they stop staying.

Leaders often think turnover is caused by pay alone. Sometimes it is. But more often, employees leave because trust slowly eroded through everyday experiences:

• Managers who dismiss concerns
• Leadership teams that defend poor behavior
• Lack of communication during change
• Employee feedback that disappears into a black hole
• “Culture of silence” environments where speaking up feels risky

Once employees believe nothing will change, disengagement spreads fast.

This is where employee surveys can become either a powerful trust-building tool… or proof that leadership is disconnected.

A survey alone does not fix culture. But a well-managed survey process can reopen communication and rebuild credibility if leadership is willing to act.

The key is not just asking questions. The key is what happens next.

Employees watch for:

• Will leadership share the results honestly?
• Will managers be held accountable?
• Will employees see visible action?
• Will the same problems still exist six months later?

If the answer is “no,” trust declines even further because employees feel they were asked to speak up for no reason. But when leaders acknowledge problems openly, communicate consistently, and make measurable improvements, surveys become more than data collection. They become evidence that employee voices matter. Trust is not rebuilt through motivational speeches or posters on the wall. It is rebuilt through repeated leadership behaviors, such as:

• Listening without defensiveness
• Following through
• Addressing toxic behavior quickly
• Communicating transparently
• Admitting when improvements are needed

Employees do not expect perfection. They expect honesty, consistency, and action. If trust is damaged in your organization, ignoring it will not make it recover quietly. Employees are already talking. The question is whether leadership is finally ready to listen.

🔗 https://thehrlady.com/surveys-and-assessments/

Toxic Management

Every HR professional has had this conversation. You walk into a meeting with leadership, armed with complaints, exit interview data, and a growing stack of evidence that a particular manager is driving people away.  And the response? "But they hit their numbers."

It's one of the most frustrating dynamics in the workplace — and one of the most expensive. Because while leadership focuses on the results a toxic manager delivers, they're completely blind to the cost of the damage left in their wake.

The Numbers Tell the Story
If culture conversations don't move the needle with your leadership team, try dollars. Gallup found that managers account for at least 70% of the variance in employee engagement scores. Low engagement is strongly tied to turnover and retention risk. 

According to Gallup’s State of the American Manager research, “people leave managers, not companies” continues to be supported by workplace data, with poor management behaviors being one of the top drivers of disengagement and resignation.

And those costs add up fast. Gallup puts the annual cost of employee turnover at roughly one trillion dollars across the country. When you consider that replacing a single employee can cost anywhere from half to two times their annual salary, the math becomes impossible to ignore.
 

Train your managers (I can help). Then hold your managers accountable!

Sorry To Bother You. Sorry For The Delay

A recent BBC Travel article explored how British people use the word “sorry” for far more than apologizing — it can mean “excuse me,” “move,” “I disagree,” or even passive frustration. Researchers say many Brits use “sorry” as a social tool to reduce tension, soften communication, and maintain workplace harmony, often without admitting fault. 

For HR professionals in the U.S., it’s a great reminder that communication styles are deeply cultural, and what sounds apologetic may actually be collaboration, politeness, or conflict avoidance.

Interesting takeaway: In some cultures, “sorry” is less about guilt and more about emotional intelligence and social navigation.

Check out my free resources on my downloads page

🔗 https://thehrlady.com/downloads/