Reviewer Aleena Ortiz Interviews Hanna Hasl-Kelchner, Author of Seeking Fairness at Work: Cracking the New Code of Greater Employee Engagement, Retention & Satisfaction

Fairness. You learned the concept as a toddler and it stuck—to be treated unfairly will always be deeply unsettling and intuitive. And that sense of fairness sharpens in adulthood, especially in professional settings where money, self-esteem, and shifting power dynamics often conspire to create a toxic environment. Indeed, it is in the workplace where fair play is abused the most.

With an entrepreneurial background complemented by decades of experience practicing business law, Hanna Hasl-Kelchner has seen the gamut of troubling employer-employee behavior—and decided to do something about it. Now, through her consulting business and speaking engagements, she strategizes with companies of all sizes to make their suites and shop floors run more effectively. We caught wind of Hanna’s work after her recently published Seeking Fairness at Work earned a glowing Foreword Clarion review from Aleena Ortiz. Their reviewer-author conversation makes it abundantly clear that Hanna is helping the business world become a fairer place.

Many self-help books about career and business miss the mark. Usually, they completely misunderstand the power dynamics inherent between employers and their employees, or frame career development with idealistic stuff like achieving dreams and all that jazz. Seeking Fairness at Work is a down-to-earth but informative assessment about the types of power dynamics that arise in the workplace due to unspoken norms and outdated misconceptions. What would you say was the turning point in understanding the relationship between people’s careers and their humanity in your own life?

About ten years ago I had the privilege of hearing UNC Professor Mabel Miguel speak about the responsible use of power in organizations. She said that power is not inherently good or bad. It’s merely the ability to control resources. It’s about influence.

Having worked in several fear-based environments where certain norms get excused as “that’s just the way it is,” her observations were a huge “aha” moment for me. It made me question the reasonableness of it all because I saw how workplace stress put one coworker in hospital. I saw how outspoken peers got ostracized. I saw another driven to drink on the job and yet another to rely on prescription anti-depressants to get through the day. The dysfunction it created was wrong from an ethical and business perspective because it not only derailed careers and ruined people’s health, it also kept the organization from fully tapping its talent. It was a misuse of a critical asset.

From your educational background in law and management to your entrepreneurial, editorial, and consulting experience, you’ve certainly been in contact with a lot of people to discuss workplace fairness. What do you think sets you apart from other speakers when it comes to listening to people’s stories and understanding their struggles on a personal as well as corporate level?

I’m in favor of gathering different points of view and building bridges. My diverse background, as you point out, gives me an advantage in connecting the dots in what at first glance appear to be competing perspectives.

In Seeking Fairness at Work, for example, I challenge employer “truths” and offer a new take on employee engagement, reframing it as a response to management’s use of power. In the process I candidly confront assumptions about how things are “supposed” to work.

At the same time, I appreciate how speaking truth to power makes leaders uncomfortable, surfacing fears they may not realize they have. That’s why I honor the voices in their head by expressing them in italics throughout the book. Those thoughts represent conversations and misunderstandings that need to be addressed, which I do.

“Seeking to understand, then be understood,” as Stephen Covey writes in The 7 Habits of Highly Successful People, opens the door to constructive conversations and more success.

That’s why acknowledging management concerns and being able to say “yes, I get you,” and then providing more information for broader context creates a winning framework for advancing fairness at work. When everyone has the same information they generally arrive at the same conclusion.

If most or all employers and managers acted in good faith and with fair play, as you promote in Seeking Fairness at Work, what do you think the workplace or our world would look like?

It takes the right mindset and skill set to act with good faith and exhibit fair dealing. Some people are capable of it, some are not. The hiring process, professional development opportunities, and consistent accountability are powerful guardrails for developing and protecting those competencies.

The enormous benefit of fairness is the safe space it creates and the freedom it gives employees. The safety of being appropriately rewarded and recognized, for example, respects employees’ talents, which in turn creates a sense of belonging. Plus, the freedom of not needing to protect their back leaves more energy available for selfless collaboration and inventiveness that converts into productivity and innovation.

I witnessed these dynamics in action with one department head at a manufacturing company. It can be done. His reputation for integrity and respecting his team translated to the bottom line. It also attracted the best talent in the building.

The process of acting in good faith and demonstrating fair dealing is multi-dimensional. The five-part strategy in Seeking Fairness at Work provides an easy to follow road map along with over one hundred fairness factors that identify specific opportunities for incremental improvement.

Unfortunately, we live in a world where asking for basic respect in the workplace can be a political statement. In Seeking Fairness at Work, you talk about how “political correctness” isn’t about who’s right or wrong, but about basic human respect and making employees feel accepted and welcome. The transgender community, working women, and people of color struggle to get recognized and respected, with workplace discrimination stats that are much higher than their white cismale peers. Do you have anything to say about workplace fairness as a political debate, or do you believe it should be a nonpartisan issue?

Workplace fairness is a productivity and profitability issue. It’s about what’s in the best interest of the organization. Full stop. If an organizational culture is “political” it means power is being used somewhere to advance an “us vs them” agenda and the organization’s interests get bruised in the process. Sadly, the terms “political correctness” and “woke” are wildly misused as excuses to defend and rationalize disrespectful behavior without consequence. It’s fueled by fear and a scarcity mindset that views fairness as a zero sum game.

Discrimination based on criteria unrelated to job requirements or performance, whether implicit, unconscious, or systemic, serves to strategically undervalue a worker’s capabilities. It’s being dishonest about job qualifications. It’s a classic “us vs them” dynamic and condescending form of exclusion that’s highly demotivating—to those subject to the bias and those witnessing it because they could be next through no fault of their own. Such toxicity diminishes the effectiveness of the workforce.

Leaders who turn a blind eye to discrimination conveniently overlook the fact that work needs to get done through others. Ignoring the damage discrimination causes is managerial negligence and poor asset management. Honesty and respect are among the human dynamics that grease the wheels of productivity and profitability. That’s why being fair is a smart, responsible business practice, not charity.

In Seeking Fairness at Work, you talk about how people are inherently social creatures, and thus even small indications of disinterest, anger, or annoyance can have a huge impact on employee satisfaction, engagement, and productivity. As the corporate world becomes increasingly remote and tasks get allocated online, do you think people’s face-to-face interactive needs can be accommodated, and how?

Yes, little things can be impactful, but that doesn’t mean we’re all hypersensitive snowflakes who melt at the slightest side eye. Reasonable people recognize the need for give and take in relationships. They’re resilient. It’s only when things are persistently, or outrageously, lopsided that employees feel taken advantage of.

My advice to managers to improve their connection with remote workers is to compensate for the inevitable reduced face-to-face interaction. Here are a few suggestions:

• Talk to your employees. Find out what they like about the job and what management could do to make it better. Discover what you need to keep doing, as well as stop doing. Show you care. Managers who called their employees at home during Covid, for example, had more productivity and higher retention rates than those who didn’t. Staying in touch one-on-one lets misunderstandings be addressed before they fester and metastasize. It also lets employees know their needs and concerns are being heard and understood. It creates a psychological safety net and contributes to their sense of belonging.

• Video conferencing is a terrific way for remote employees to connect with each other and in-office colleagues. Research, however, shows remote workers are often left out of Zoom conversations, so make a point of including them. Don’t let them hide behind dark screens and muted mics. Let them know in advance they’ll be expected to participate and identify the agenda items needing their input. Remember, high tech requires high touch. Good meeting management matters.

• Learn from the experiences of distributed teams, organizations that have no offices at all. They rely on regular communications, policies, and guidelines to get high quality work done. Routines keep people connected. Finding the right balance to avoid tipping into micromanagement requires input from your team. Procedures will evolve along with the needs of your group.

• And if you have both remote and in-office employees, bring them together during regular office hours to get to know each other. Please don’t make them sacrifice personal time. A monthly gathering if they live nearby, or quarterly if they’re more dispersed, can do wonders for morale if planned properly.

Do you have any new projects you’re working on to advocate for workplace fairness?

I’ll be taking my Business Confidential Now with Hanna Hasl-Kelchner podcast to Substack in February/March 2025. The new emphasis will be on fairness at work—Business Confidential Now: #TGIF Edition. It will focus on the fairness issues that have employees and employers grinding their teeth at night.

When I started this podcast in 2016, the focus was on a wide range of the business topics that impact that bottom line because business owners need to juggle them all. It’s not easy and I wanted the show to be an evergreen resource with a deep archive. (To date there are over three hundred episodes.)

However, over time, I’ve come to realize that while these subjects are all important, they pale in comparison to having the right people in the right place and keeping them motivated. The beauty of Substack is the ability to have online discussions. Listeners will be able to leave online comments and ask questions. I’m excited about developing that community of interest.

To anyone dealing with unfairness or disrespect in their own workplace, is there anything you would like to say to those people now?

Absolutely!

First, take a deep breath. Unfairness is an emotional experience. Addressing it needs to be a rational one. Start by exercising self-control.

Second, please don’t poll your friends on social media. Be professional. Talk to someone whose opinion you trust in private for a reality check. Be specific about why you believe what you’re facing is unfair. Remember that fairness is about what’s reasonable under the circumstances, not simply getting everything you want. Someone with more experience can help assess the situation and provide advice.

Third, if you believe the unfairness you’re experiencing is illegal, consider consulting an employment attorney in your area. Every case is different.

And finally, think about whether it’s time to update your resume. Taking charge of your future is empowering.

Seeking Fairness at Work

Cracking the New Code of Greater Employee Engagement, Retention & Satisfaction

H. Hasl-Kelchner

Smart Direction Press (Apr 9, 2024)

Clarion Rating: 4 out of 5

Pithy and persuasive, Seeking Fairness at Work helps to make contemporary workplace issues feel tangible and easier to address.

H. Hasl-Kelchner’s leadership guide Seeking Fairness at Work covers the unwritten company rules that determine workplace dynamics.

Aimed at addressing the postpandemic rates of high employee turnover and low satisfaction and engagement, this management-directed guide seeks to explain what millennial and Gen X employees expect from their employers. It names five foundations of workplace relationships said to foster good faith and fair dealing between employers and their employees. These are all about caring about employees’ physical and mental health in order to mitigate business losses and encourage positive development for employees and employers alike.

In discussing the unspoken norms of employer-employee relationships in corporate American culture, taboos like power, trust, and fairness are centered. Managers, the book says, are too often unaware of or uninterested in their employees’ viewpoints, while what may feel to a manager like light joking about an employee’s work performance or paycheck can feel threatening to an employee.

A variety of techniques are used to illustrate such tensions. First, italic asides serve as the voice of the manager responding to employee requests for fairness and equity. The asides are snarky, exasperated, confused, frustrated, and reactive; the unwilling interlocutor emulates a know-it-all attitude that illustrates the book’s points well. Further, the biochemical processes related to workplace stress are addressed with clarity, as with the role of cortisol in threats against an employee’s livelihood.

The text is pithy and persuasive, as where it compares employees’ responses to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, which holds that physical needs (like a paycheck) ground psychological needs (like workplace esteem and belonging). Statistics and diagrams are also used to address relationships between employers and employees; their information is sequential, showing how all five foundations of workplace relationships (including mutual trust, accountability, and standardized structural safety nets) factor in. And the bullet-point lists at the end of each chapter sum up their takeaways well.

The book’s advice is geared toward employers and managers, and its tone is quite direct. Its focus on corporate culture somewhat narrows the applicability of its guidance in other industries, though the underlying concepts—like nurturing workplace relationships, building a standardized workbook, and emotional regulation—are the same. In all, it does an able job of establishing the building blocks toward a healthy workplace culture wherein fairness abounds.

The leadership guide Seeking Fairness at Work champions employee health as a means of personal and company development.

Reviewed by Aleena Ortiz October 15, 2024

Aleena Ortiz
January 8, 2025

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