I recently joined the HR Leader podcast to talk about something I think about every day in my role at Resolve: how organisations can better support people working in high emotion workplaces.
If you’re a business owner, HR professional or leader, this matters to you.
Because high emotion workplaces aren’t niche anymore.
Yes, family law is an obvious example. But so are healthcare settings, professional services, education, emergency services, and any organisation where people regularly deal with conflict, distress, urgency or high-stakes decisions.
When emotional intensity becomes part of the everyday experience of work, it changes everything (performance, retention, culture and leadership expectations).
In our conversation, two themes kept surfacing:
-
How to properly recognise a high emotion workplace
-
Why leadership capability and systems matter more than surface-level wellbeing initiatives
These are issues we navigate at Resolve every day.
Let’s unpack them.
First, Are You Actually a High Emotion Workplace?
Most leaders think of emotional strain as isolated incidents.
A difficult client.
A tight deadline.
A workplace conflict.
But what defines a high emotion workplace isn’t the occasional hard day. It’s sustained exposure to heightened emotional experiences over time.
In family law, for example, our teams work with people in distress, navigate high conflict, and support decisions that feel, and are, life-altering. That emotional intensity isn’t episodic. It’s ongoing and becomes part of the environment.
And here’s where many organisations get it wrong.
They assume professional training is enough protection.
Skill and experience absolutely help. But they don’t eliminate emotional load. Even highly capable professionals can experience fatigue, disengagement or burnout when exposure is frequent and unmanaged.
When emotional load goes unacknowledged, it doesn’t disappear. It shows up elsewhere:
-
Performance dips
-
Increased turnover
-
Quiet disengagement
-
“Good people” who suddenly seem not themselves
Recognising that you operate within a high emotion workplace isn’t about lowering standards or overreacting to normal stress.
It’s about being honest. Because once you name it, you can design for it.
Leadership in High Emotion Workplaces: Technical Skill Isn’t Enough
One of the strongest points from the podcast discussion was this:
We often promote leaders based on technical excellence.
And in high emotion workplaces, that’s only half the job.
Leaders also need to:
-
Notice emotional cues early
-
Stay curious about what’s happening beneath performance issues
-
Create regular space for conversations before problems escalate
This doesn’t mean becoming a counsellor.
It means being emotionally attuned enough to recognise when someone isn’t travelling well, and having consistent, practical ways to respond.
At Resolve, we’ve seen a clear shift away from the old “push through it” mentality. For years, many workplaces implicitly expected people to absorb emotional strain without acknowledgment.
That approach doesn’t align with modern expectations, and it doesn’t support sustainable performance.
In practice, strong leadership in high emotion workplaces looks like:
-
Regular, predictable check-ins (not crisis-only conversations)
-
Clear and evolving role boundaries
-
Leaders modelling healthy switching off and asking for support
-
HR visible and proactive, not only reactive
When these systems are in place, emotional demands become something the organisation holds collectively, rather than something individuals carry alone.
That’s a significant shift.
If You Lead a Team, Ask Yourself This
-
Where does emotional load show up in our organisation?
-
Who is most exposed to it?
-
Are we addressing it systemically or only when someone burns out?
-
Are our leaders equipped for the emotional realities of their roles?
High emotion workplaces don’t need more wellness posters.
They need intentional systems that are designed to support them to do and feel their best. Some key ones are:
Flexible work arrangements.
Clear role design.
Leadership capability.
Structured check-ins.
Early intervention.
No single initiative fixes it. But incorporating layered, deliberate systems can significantly improve outcomes.
Why This Matters to Resolve
At Resolve, we operate in a high emotion workplace every day. That experience shapes how we think about leadership, HR and organisational design.
We’ve learned that good people don’t struggle because they lack resilience. They struggle when systems ignore emotional realities.
That’s why we focus on building environments where:
-
Leaders are equipped
-
Emotional risk is acknowledged
-
High standards are maintained
-
And people can do meaningful work without sacrificing themselves
Working in this space has reinforced something simple but powerful for me- curiosity matters. Asking better questions. Listening closely. Staying connected to our people’s lived experience of work.
If you’re reviewing your leadership capability or rethinking how your organisation supports high-performing teams under pressure, this conversation is worth a listen.
You can listen to the full discussion on the HR Leader podcast here:
Listen on Apple Podcasts here.
At Resolve, we believe good systems support good people. When organisations take emotional realities seriously, they create workplaces where people can do meaningful work without sacrificing themselves in the process.
Because high emotion workplaces aren’t going away.
The question is whether your systems are designed for them.