Vulnerability training is, on the surface, a chance for colleagues to share their fears and connect but the people that have undergone the team talks can feel exploited, reports Hannah Fearn
Louisa Hussey put it off for as long as she possibly could. Five years ago, the fundraising executive was working for a charity which asked her to attend a “vulnerability” session at work – and she couldn’t think of anything worse. But after ignoring a number of emails from her HR department, the 44-year-old was finally told that attendance was a condition of employment; she had no choice.
In July, one Mumsnet user asked whether other members thought what she had experienced at work was acceptable. “My team was brought into a mandatory vulnerability day with HR because ofWe were asked to share our most frightening experience. People were sharing stories of traumatic deaths of partners, being beaten nearly to death by violent family members, one watched their mother jump out a window.” the poster wrote.
A 2022 article in the Harvard Business Review argued that the “best leaders aren’t afraid to be vulnerable”, and that “leaders who create the space for true vulnerability build psychologically safe environments in which people feel welcome to be themselves.” These companies book training courses from consultants without professional credentials or qualifications in the area, and without references and testimonials from other organisations.
“My concerns are that people who are listening may be vicariously traumatised, which is where something that hasn’t actually happened to you starts to affect you as if it has,” she says. Those responses might be physiological, such as a racing heart or feeling tearful, or might affect mental health, such as having intrusive thoughts about what they heard.: if you are distracted by a problem at home, you can say that you may not be your best because there are issues in your personal life.
This was the case for Gemma*, a 49-year-old woman based in the north of England who also worked for a charitable organisation when she was pushed to present her own personal experiences at a vulnerability training session. The experience was so painful for her that she ended up being signed off sick, and later left her job to set up her own business tackling
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