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name: workplace-psychology
description: Use this skill when you need a structured, self-management first pass on a work-stress, conflict, or boundary situation — recognising burnout signals, preparing a difficult conversation, or setting a boundary. It organises the issues and routes clinical, safety, or HR/legal matters to qualified professionals.
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# Workplace Psychology & Resilience

> **What this is** — a repeatable, AI-assisted working method for workplace self-management (stress, conflict, boundaries), producing a rigorous first-pass draft / issue map quickly, with a qualified mental-health professional or HR/legal advisor kept in the loop where the situation calls for one.
> **What this is NOT** — **not therapy, clinical treatment, a mental-health diagnosis, or legal/HR advice, and not a substitute for a licensed mental-health professional or qualified HR/legal counsel. If you or someone else is in crisis or experiencing significant or persistent distress, seek a qualified professional.** Every output is a draft for personal reflection that requires professional review before it is relied on where health, safety, or legal matters are involved. No professional-client relationship is created.

## When to use this
- You want to recognise early burnout or chronic-stress signals and plan sustainable recovery.
- You are preparing for a difficult conversation and want to frame it constructively.
- You need help setting or renegotiating a work boundary (time, scope, communication).
- You want to sort what is self-manageable from what belongs with HR, management, or a clinician.
- You need a calm, structured starting point before a hard workplace moment.

## Operating principle
AI and standard, evidence-informed frameworks help organise the situation and draft language for reflection; the person decides what to do, and qualified professionals handle anything clinical, safety-related, or legal. The goal is a faster, better-organised starting point for the individual — never a diagnosis, treatment, or the final word.

## Capability 1 — Stress & burnout management
**Goal.** Help recognise burnout signals and plan a sustainable, non-clinical response.
**Inputs.** A self-described workload, recent stressors, sleep/recovery patterns, and how long the pattern has lasted.
**Method.**
1. Screen against the Maslach burnout dimensions — exhaustion, cynicism/depersonalisation, and reduced professional efficacy — as *awareness prompts*, not a diagnosis.
2. Audit workload and recovery: hours, context-switching, after-hours load, and actual recovery time.
3. Identify controllable vs uncontrollable stressors and where boundaries or renegotiation could help.
4. Draft a sustainable-pace plan: realistic limits, recovery blocks, and one or two concrete changes to try.
5. Set a check-in point to reassess.
6. Flag when to seek professional support — persistent or worsening symptoms, functional impairment, or distress — and route there.
**Output.** A short self-reflection note with observed signals, a sustainable-pace plan, and clear thresholds for professional help.
**Quality bar.** No diagnosis or clinical claim; only standard, safe practices (rest, pacing, boundaries, seeking support); anything persistent or severe is routed to a licensed professional.

## Capability 2 — Conflict-communication strategy
**Goal.** Prepare for a difficult conversation using constructive, standard communication frameworks.
**Inputs.** The situation, the other party's likely perspective, the desired outcome, and constraints.
**Method.**
1. Separate positions from interests — what each side is asking for vs what they actually need (interest-based framing).
2. Draft the message in an observation → impact → request structure (an NVC-style, non-blaming framing): what was observed, its effect, and a specific request.
3. Anticipate the other perspective and prepare for likely responses.
4. Plan de-escalation moves: acknowledging, slowing down, and staying specific rather than characterising the person.
5. Define a fallback and a walk-away point.
6. Flag when the matter is not a communication issue but a policy, safety, or legal one — and route it to HR/management instead of a self-managed conversation.
**Output.** A conversation-prep note with an interest map, a drafted opening, and de-escalation and fallback plans.
**Quality bar.** Language is non-blaming and specific; the skill never coaches manipulation or pressure; harassment, discrimination, or safety issues are escalated, not self-managed.

## Capability 3 — Boundary-setting
**Goal.** Help identify, articulate, and hold work boundaries, and escalate when a boundary is really a policy/legal matter.
**Inputs.** The recurring pressure, the boundary type at stake, and the relationships involved.
**Method.**
1. Identify the boundary type: time, scope, communication, or emotional.
2. Clarify the underlying need and what a reasonable limit looks like.
3. Draft scripts for saying no and for renegotiating scope, in clear, respectful language.
4. Plan for pushback: restate the boundary, offer an alternative where appropriate, and avoid over-justifying.
5. Define a review point to see whether the boundary is holding.
6. Escalate where a boundary issue is actually a policy, safety, or legal matter (e.g., harassment, discrimination, unsafe demands) — route to HR/legal, not self-help.
**Output.** A boundary plan with the boundary type, scripts, pushback responses, and an escalation trigger.
**Quality bar.** Scripts are respectful and non-adversarial; the skill never frames a legal/safety issue as merely personal; such matters go to HR/legal.

## Worked example (illustrative)
*Illustrative and hypothetical.* Someone reports months of 60-hour weeks, growing cynicism, and dropped recovery. The note maps this to the Maslach exhaustion and cynicism dimensions as awareness prompts (not a diagnosis), drafts a sustainable-pace plan with two concrete changes and a two-week check-in, and — because the pattern is persistent — flags that if the distress continues or worsens they should consult a licensed mental-health professional. If the same person also described a manager's threats, the skill would route that to HR/legal rather than treat it as a pacing problem.

## Guardrails & escalation
- Crisis, self-harm risk, or significant/persistent distress → stop self-help and direct the person to a qualified professional or crisis service immediately.
- Harassment, discrimination, retaliation, or safety issues → route to HR/management/legal, not self-management.
- Every technique here is standard and evidence-informed and **must be safe** — nothing involving physical pain, self-harm, sensory shock, or disordered eating/exercise is ever suggested.
- No output may be represented as therapy, diagnosis, treatment, or legal/HR advice.
- Uncertainty and severity are flagged explicitly, with the threshold for professional help stated.

## References & sources
- Maslach Burnout Inventory dimensions (exhaustion, cynicism/depersonalisation, reduced professional efficacy) — Maslach & Jackson.
- Interest-based (principled) negotiation — Fisher & Ury, *Getting to Yes*.
- Nonviolent Communication (observation / feeling / need / request) — Rosenberg, as a communication framework.
- Standard boundary-setting concepts (time, scope, communication, emotional boundaries).
- Framed strictly as workplace self-management, not clinical care; clinical needs go to licensed mental-health professionals and workplace policy/legal matters go to HR/legal.

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*Part of Ed Chen's AI skill set — how one designer absorbs unfamiliar, regulated, C-level work quickly by pairing AI with rigor and professional review. https://edwson.com*