At Work, Under Pressure

CONNECT WITH JESSI ON LINKEDIN >>> HERE!

Suicide prevention is not just a clinical issue.

It is a public health issue, a systems issue, a workplace issue, and an economic issue.

In this episode of At Work, Under Pressure, Jessi Beyer sits down with Dr. Deb Stone, Senior Director of Knowledge and Review at The JED Foundation, to talk about the economic impact of suicide and self-harm, what people misunderstand about warning signs, how public health approaches suicide prevention, and what schools, communities, and workplaces can actually do to reduce risk.

Deb shares research estimating that suicide and self-harm injuries cost more than $500 billion annually between 2015 and 2020, with much of that burden falling among working-age adults. She also explains why that figure is likely an underestimate, including the reality that some suicides may be classified as accidents or other causes.

Jessi and Deb discuss:

• Why “if someone really wants to die, they’ll just do it” is a dangerous misconception
• What warning signs people can actually look for, and why asking directly about suicide does not put the idea in someone’s head
• How a public health approach differs from treating one person at a time after risk has already emerged
• The JED Foundation’s comprehensive approach to life skills, connectedness, help-seeking, crisis systems, and suicide prevention
• Why suicide risk is shaped by individual, relationship, community, and societal factors rather than one simple cause
• What employers can do to support working-age adults who may be struggling
• Why training people to recognize and respond to distress is one piece of a much larger prevention system

This episode is for HR leaders, educators, community leaders, public health professionals, clinicians, executives, parents, and anyone trying to understand what meaningful suicide prevention looks like beyond awareness campaigns.

Because suicide prevention is not one program, one training, or one resource.

It is a system of skills, supports, environments, and people who know what to do when someone starts to struggle.

CONNECT WITH DR. STONE

• LinkedIn
• The JED Foundation Website
• Study on the economic cost of suicide and non-fatal self-harm by Dr. Stone and colleagues

CONNECT WITH JESSI ON LINKEDIN >>> HERE!

What if employees and managers never had to raise a ticket to get help?

That is the question behind Kinfolk, the HR AI agent built to remove operational admin from HR, IT, payroll, and other teams that keep the organization running.

In this episode of At Work, Under Pressure, Jessi Beyer sits down with Jeet Mukerji, founder of Kinfolk, to talk about AI agents, HR operations, employee enablement, security, governance, productivity, and how the role of people teams may change as AI takes on more administrative work.

Jeet shares how his path moved from music, marketing, and product into HR tech, and why he came to see HR, IT, and payroll as the engine of the organization rather than simple cost centers. He also explains how Kinfolk handles employee and manager requests across systems so people can get help without navigating artificial departmental silos.

Jessi and Jeet discuss:

• Why HR is often incorrectly treated as a cost center instead of a multiplier on one of the company’s largest investments: its people
• How AI agents can remove administrative work without replacing the nuanced judgment HR teams still need
• Why faster employee support can improve productivity and reduce operational drag
• What security, permissions, approvals, and “least privilege” look like when AI touches sensitive HR systems
• Why building an internal AI tool is more complicated than simply telling Claude Code to “make it secure”
• How AI may push HR toward more strategic, creative, and human work
• What the future of people operations might look like as system builders and front-facing HR roles become more important

This episode is for HR leaders, people operations teams, founders, IT leaders, payroll teams, AI builders, and anyone trying to reduce administrative drag while improving the employee experience.

Because employees do not think in departmental silos.

They have a problem, they need help, and the faster they get the right support, the faster they can get back to doing meaningful work.

CONNECT WITH JEET

• LinkedIn
• Kinfolk Website

CONNECT WITH JESSI ON LINKEDIN >>> HERE!

Great leadership is not just about holding people accountable.

It is also about understanding what is actually happening before deciding why someone is struggling.

In this episode of At Work, Under Pressure, Jessi Beyer sits down with leadership coach and author Mike Goldman to talk about high-performing leadership teams, accountability, coaching, vulnerability, talent development, and why assuming positive intent can completely change the way leaders respond when someone is falling short.

Mike explains that leaders often become frustrated because they unconsciously assume negative intent: they’re lazy, they don’t care, they should know better. His alternative is to assume that people are doing the best they can with the resources they have, then get curious about what the leader or employee may be missing.

Jessi and Mike discuss:

• Why assuming positive intent creates better coaching conversations
• What separates a merely good leadership team from a genuinely great one
• Why vulnerability includes being able to say “I screwed up,” ask for help, and give difficult feedback
• How leadership teams can stay connected to what employees closer to the front line are actually experiencing
• Why employee feedback is useless if leaders never communicate what they did with it
• How to decide whether someone should be coached up, moved into a better-fitting role, or coached out
• Why Mike believes the number one driver of profit growth is people growth

Mike also explains why senior leaders cannot afford mediocre performance in roles with outsized influence, and why companies often make the mistake of investing disproportionately in struggling employees while failing to keep developing their strongest people.

This episode is for CEOs, executives, HR leaders, leadership coaches, people managers, and anyone trying to build a team where accountability and humanity can exist at the same time.

Because assuming positive intent does not mean lowering the standard.

It means getting curious enough to understand the real problem before deciding what needs to happen next.

CONNECT WITH MIKE

• Website
• LinkedIn
• Facebook
• Instagram
• Jessi's interview on The Better Leadership Team Show

CONNECT WITH JESSI ON LINKEDIN >>> HERE!

Everything starts with a job.

A job supports families, homes, cars, dreams, and the ability to build a life. And for Janel Hunt, EVP of Human Resources at BGSF, that means HR is never just paperwork. It is where people, business, compliance, technology, and human support intersect.

In this episode of At Work, Under Pressure, Jessi Beyer sits down with Janel Hunt, EVP of Human Resources at BGSF, a publicly traded workforce solutions company focused heavily on real estate, property management, and property technology. Janel shares how her psychology background shaped her HR career, what it means to keep HR human inside a regulated public company, and why people teams have to balance compliance, business outcomes, employee experience, and human connection.

Jessi and Janel discuss:

• How BGSF supports companies through staffing, workforce solutions, and property technology
• What changes when HR operates inside a publicly traded company
• How people teams can keep compliance human and business-forward
• Why benefits, inclusion, volunteer time off, parental leave, and connection groups matter to culture
• How AI can support HR teams without removing the human from the loop
• Why suicide prevention readiness belongs in every leader’s toolkit before a crisis happens

This episode is for HR leaders, staffing leaders, executives, people teams, public company leaders, and anyone thinking about how to use technology, benefits, compliance, and culture to support people at scale.

Because HR is not just about keeping the company compliant.

It is about making sure the humans inside the company have the tools, resources, and readiness they need when work and life collide.

CONNECT WITH JANEL

• [email protected]
• LinkedIn
• Website
• Blood Cancer United Fundraiser

CONNECT WITH JESSI ON LINKEDIN >>> HERE!

HR is not just paperwork, policies, and onboarding forms.

At its best, HR helps organizations understand their people, build healthier cultures, and make sure employees have the tools they need to do good work.

In this episode of At Work, Under Pressure, Jessi Beyer sits down with Cindy Halstead of Archer HR Consulting to talk about fractional HR, workplace wellness, compliance, onboarding, culture, manager training, and how HR has evolved from a tactical function into a strategic advisor to leadership.

Cindy explains why HR professionals need to understand the whole business, not just the people function. She also shares how fractional HR support works for startups and small companies, why CEOs often need help before they realize it, and how companies can build stronger foundations around compliance, onboarding, culture, benefits, and wellness.

Jessi and Cindy discuss:

• How HR has evolved from tactical support into a strategic business partner
• Why fractional HR can help startups and smaller companies build scalable people systems
• The common HR challenges Cindy sees across industries, including recruiting, communication, conflict, and onboarding
• Why workplace wellness has to go beyond physical health and check-the-box resources
• How managers can be trained to notice when employees are struggling and have better conversations
• Why companies should start thinking about HR, culture, onboarding, and compliance before they grow too fast

This episode is for founders, CEOs, HR leaders, fractional executives, people managers, startup teams, and anyone building a company that wants to support employees as full humans, not just workers.

Because people do not leave their lives at the door when they come to work.

And if you want them to be productive, healthy, and engaged, you have to build the systems, culture, and support that make that possible.

CONNECT WITH CINDY

• LinkedIn
• Website

CONNECT WITH JESSI ON LINKEDIN >>> HERE!

Most organizations obsess over strategy, talent, and effort.

But Karina Mangu-Ward argues that the real action is happening somewhere else: inside teams.

In this episode of At Work, Under Pressure, Jessi Beyer sits down with Karina Mangu-Ward, partner at August and author of Teams That Meet the Moment, to talk about decision-making, hierarchy, politics, psychological safety, trust, belonging, and the everyday ways teams organize, decide, and learn.

Karina explains why teams often get trapped in decision swirl, why “just have one decision-maker” is not enough, and how practices like rounds, starting proposals, “safe to try,” and naming trade-offs can help teams move forward with more clarity and less fear. She also connects broken decision-making to the psychological experience of work, including how talented people start leaning out when they feel excluded from the decisions that affect them.

Jessi and Karina discuss:

• Why better strategy, better talent, and more effort are not enough when team practices are broken
• How lowercase-p politics and hierarchy can either help teams or exhaust them
• Why decision-making is one of the most important everyday muscles organizations need
• How “safe to try” helps teams move without waiting for perfect certainty
• Why leaders build trust by explaining the logic behind hard decisions
• How exclusion from decision-making can erode belonging, engagement, and mental health

This episode is for executives, team leaders, consultants, HR leaders, organizational development professionals, people managers, and anyone trying to help teams make better decisions in complex, high-pressure environments.

Because the quality of work does not just depend on the strategy.

It depends on whether the people doing the work can organize, decide, and learn together when the moment demands it.

CONNECT WITH KARINA

• LinkedIn
• Website & Book

CONNECT WITH JESSI ON LINKEDIN >>> HERE!

Money can solve a lot of problems.

But it does not make someone immune to loneliness, burnout, insecurity, relationship strain, career disappointment, or suicide risk.

In this episode of At Work, Under Pressure, Jessi Beyer sits down with Gregg Schoenberg, managing partner at Westcott Inc. and an executive coach specializing in the finance industry, to talk about Wall Street, miserable millionaires, wealth, burnout, loneliness, the hedonic treadmill, market pressure, and what successful people often struggle with behind closed doors.

Gregg explains why the outside perception of Wall Street often misses the human reality underneath. Yes, many people in finance make extraordinary money. But they also work in an environment where the markets never really turn off, bosses and circumstances can exercise a “call option” on their time, and success can become normalized until even huge bonuses stop feeling like enough.

Jessi and Gregg discuss:

• Why “miserable millionaires” are more human than the stereotype suggests
• How the hedonic treadmill shows up in Wall Street compensation
• Why being a servant to the market can create a never-off lifestyle
• How wealth can intensify loneliness, comparison, and isolation
• Why high performers can struggle when their identity is tied to a specific career outcome
• How Wall Street’s incentive structures differ from technology and mission-driven companies
• Why arrogance in finance may be more of a persona than a permanent personality trait
• What Gregg would say to leaders who assume successful people are fine because they look fine

This episode is for executives, investors, finance professionals, coaches, HR leaders, founders, and anyone who has ever assumed that money protects people from deep human struggle.

Because wealth can change your circumstances.

But it does not remove your need to be seen, supported, and understood.

CONNECT WITH GREGG

• LinkedIn
• Website
• TEDxAstorPlace

CONNECT WITH JESSI ON LINKEDIN >>> HERE!

Human behavior is not mysterious. It is mechanical.

In this episode of At Work, Under Pressure, Jessi Beyer sits down with Evan LaPointe of CORE Sciences to talk about behavioral science, neuroscience, leadership, AI, stress, motivation, culture, and why leaders need to understand how human brains actually work if they want better performance.

Evan explains why psychology often fails to land with certain executives until it is translated into the mechanics of the brain: amygdala activation, cortisol, adrenaline, oxytocin, serotonin, dopamine, and how those chemicals shape thinking, trust, creativity, collaboration, and decision-making. He also challenges the idea that AI should be used to replace people, arguing instead that the better current frame is using AI to make humans more capable.

Jessi and Evan discuss:

• Why behavioral science became more useful to Evan when he translated it into neuroscience
• How leaders accidentally create the exact mindset they do not want
• Why AI should be treated as a multiplier, not a subtractor
• What happens in the brain when stress, threat, or anger take over
• Why cortisol and adrenaline can reduce logical thinking and performance
• How oxytocin and serotonin support trust, purpose, resilience, and obligation
• Why purpose-driven teams outperform teams fueled by fear, pressure, or resentment
• How leaders can create meaning by helping teams see the real humans affected by their work

This episode is for CEOs, founders, HR leaders, people managers, culture leaders, consultants, and anyone trying to build teams that think clearly, collaborate well, and perform without being driven by fear.

Because leadership is not just about getting people to act.

It is about understanding which buttons you are pressing.

CONNECT WITH EVAN

• LinkedIn
• Website

CONNECT WITH JESSI ON LINKEDIN >>> HERE!

Agriculture runs on urgency.

When a combine is down during harvest, it is not a normal service call. It is closer to 911.

In this episode of At Work, Under Pressure, Jessi Beyer sits down with Mark Reid, CEO of Atlantic Tractor and co-founder of Opervia, to talk about agriculture, dealership culture, employee retention, leadership, onboarding, AI, customer urgency, and what it means to care for people in an industry that often tells people to rub some dirt in it and keep going.

Mark shares his unusual path from horse racing and graphic design to becoming CEO of a 17-location John Deere dealership. He also explains how Atlantic Tractor approached culture after an acquisition, why employee-led culture work matters, how better onboarding helped cut turnover nearly in half, and why ag leaders need to recognize the pressure farmers and dealership employees carry.

In this episode, Jessi and Mark discuss:

• How Mark went from senior graphic designer to CEO of Atlantic Tractor
• Why agriculture includes much more than row crops and tractors
• What dealership urgency looks like when farmers need equipment running now
• How Atlantic Tractor built an employee-led culture committee
• Why turnover, onboarding, and customer experience are connected
• How Opervia is using AI to help dealerships improve intake and support staff
• Why the ag industry needs more curiosity, empathy, and suicide prevention awareness

This episode is for CEOs, HR leaders, ag leaders, dealership owners, operations leaders, customer experience teams, and anyone building culture in a high-pressure, service-heavy environment.

Because in agriculture, caring is not soft.

It is operational.

CONNECT WITH MARK

• LinkedIn
• Atlantic Tractor
• Opervia

CONNECT WITH JESSI ON LINKEDIN >>> HERE!

Most people think they know how to have a difficult conversation.

But when the stakes are high, confidence is not the same as competence.

In this episode of At Work, Under Pressure, Jessi Beyer sits down with Dr. Dale Olsen and Laura Humm of SIMmersion to talk about simulation-based communication training, suicide intervention, law enforcement interviews, subject matter expert development, academic research, AI, and why skills that involve human conversation require practice.

Dale shares how SIMmersion began after a conversation at the FBI Academy, where the challenge was clear: it took too long to train new agents to conduct basic investigative interviews. From there, SIMmersion built conversational simulations that eventually expanded into law enforcement, healthcare, alcohol intervention, disability employment, LGBTQ+ support, and suicide prevention. Laura explains how their team works with subject matter experts, lived-experience experts, researchers, and frontline professionals to build realistic simulations that teach not only what to say, but how to listen, adapt, and respond.

In this episode, Jessi, Dale, and Laura discuss:

• How SIMmersion started with investigative interview training for the FBI
• Why communication skills are difficult to teach through lectures alone
• How simulation helps people practice subtle, high-stakes conversation skills
• Why suicide prevention has moved from safety contracts to safety planning
• How subject matter experts help build realistic suicide intervention scenarios
• Why tone, openness, and listening matter as much as exact wording
• What research has shown about simulation-based training and skill retention
• How SIMmersion thinks about AI, realism, cost, and the human element in training

This episode is for L&D leaders, healthcare leaders, public safety professionals, suicide prevention trainers, researchers, HR leaders, behavioral health professionals, and anyone responsible for helping people perform under pressure.

Because difficult conversations cannot be mastered by reading a slide.

They have to be practiced.

CONNECT WITH DR. OLSEN AND LAURA

• LinkedIn (Dr. Olsen)
• Website (SIMmersion)
• Website (The Dialogue Doctor - Laura's awesome writing coaching business and podcast!)