The Field Guide › Article
Explores how legal employment protections relate to psychological safety. Prompted by Mona Chalabi's illustrations of unionisation and the wage premium union members tend to enjoy, the piece contrasts employment regimes: much of Europe — and especially Germany, with its Works Councils (Betriebsräte), employee-set internal bodies that help ensure laws and protections are applied — gives workers strong, well-defined rights, including protection from arbitrary dismissal without a fair documented process and legal protection against workplace discrimination. Most US states, by contrast, operate 'at-will' employment, where either party can end the relationship at any time without notice or cause, with narrow and hard-to-prove exceptions for protected characteristics. The article's hypothesis, drawn from the author's global work, is that strong, well-defined worker rights appear to correlate with greater psychological safety: culture and behaviour still play the largest roles, but robust rights at least signal to workers that they should be treated fairly — and telling your boss bad news is easier when you don't fear being sacked or demoted for it. The piece launches a reader survey to research the link between employment protection and the felt safety of giving 'bad news'.