Why Seeking Fairness at Work Matters

From communication to engagement, managers best be on their toes

Tough but fair. That’s my management style. You can get the gist of it in a jiffy, but up until reading Seeking Fairness at Work by Hanna Hasl-Kelchner, I hadn’t dug far beneath the surface of “tough” or “fair.” Now, thanks to the insight into business ethics and psychology, I have more to underpin at least one of those two words.

The book is compact yet protein-packed like a meat lover’s stromboli. It was published in April 2024, and I should’ve read it sooner. Seeking Fairness at Work keeps engagement high through a conversational tone as well as the well-timed use of analytics and anecdotes. The structure gives the research breathability, increasing not only the learning but also the impact of the education. Those same things—engagement and structure—are, not so coincidentally, essential to company culture and prosperity.

From a fairness perspective, the social contract binding managers and employees is the sun in the workplace solar system. An accord based on good faith and fair dealing, with more to it than the loose “You scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours.” In my line of work, the editors, designers, and A/V pros in the group I oversee use creativity to find solutions and produce jobs. As the leader, I help them start, develop, hone, or deliver something of quality. While I’m oversimplifying, Hasl-Kelchner explains that the gravity of the social contract and the cognizance on both sides that the social contract exists, even if not signed, enable teams to build meaningful support and trust.

More of that. Please.

How We Relate and Connect with Each Other (Source: Seeking Fairness at Work by Hanna Hasl-Kelchner, MBA, JD)

Work can be a bear. The pace is ridiculous, turnaround times are tight, piles appear on your desk and in your mind. We’ve all been in turbulent situations, so we should all know that engagement eclipses mere focus. You’re connected. Present. Contributing. You feel valued. If a portion of your bento box of projects is classifiable as “career advancing,” great. So, what the book shines a much-needed light on is that managers, the ones who accepted the responsibility to lead in the first place, own the responsibility of enhancing employee engagement. Judging by the analysis, it's probably less than a 50/50 proposition.

Communication can also be a bear—beyond the usual breakdowns during Mercury retrograde, that is. Over time, it could be years but hopefully not months, organizations force people to conform to their poor communication patterns when the stench of unfairness is resident. Toxic. This tends to occur in conjunction with another business-deflating activity: adhering to outdated processes. At that point, Hasl-Kelchner says, the social contract isn’t just null and void, it’s been ripped up altogether.

How the Most Common Workplace Norms Betray Fairness (Source: Seeking Fairness at Work by Hanna Hasl-Kelchner, MBA, JD)

While challenges always exist in the office, whether in-person or remote, Seeking Fairness at Work filled me with a sense of hope. Dozens of Fairness Factors—maxims, in essence—are interspersed throughout, anchoring each chapter with quick-hitting sentences that are worth digesting on their own. The book is instructive, providing a toolkit necessary for managers to improve performance. To embrace their role as steward of employee growth. To actively listen, because the fine folks who do the work deserve to be heard and understood, then empowered.

Mindfulness is required to turn this concept into a success story. Do you have the managerial gumption to broach tough subjects with compassion? Resolve issues with empathy? These are vital to attaining new heights as a group or a company, and I could argue it applies to individuals as well—this isn’t hippie nonsense, though I’m sure a contingent of managers today still believes otherwise. Fairness at work is a thing, it’s real, and I have a feeling it’s morphing into a bigger deal. But it requires a plan, care, execution, like a product launch…if not, cleanup in Aisle 7. Or in fairness language: Reduced engagement and inefficient comms result in stagnant to declining revenue.

One reason why the book works is that Hasl-Kelchner never strays too deep into a morass, dishing out just enough doom and gloom to balance the positivity. More importantly, Seeking Fairness at Work blurs a line. I don’t read a lot of books on business, but the trend is I walk away with lessons that translate to other parts of life.

My experience here was no different. I’m grateful for that.

Sampling of Fairness Factors

Fairness is about giving credit where due and not stealing someone else’s ideas or work product

Fairness is about utilizing self-awareness to appreciate how we impact someone else’s point of view

Fairness is about allowing trusting relationships and a growth mindset to inform win-win solutions

Fairness is about recognizing that professional development encompasses more than promotions

Fairness is about giving employees a voice in new policy processes to facilitate buy-in and compliance

Seeking Fairness at Work on Amazon

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