Why We Do That at Work: the Meeting, Inbox, and Human Underneath

Why does the smartest person in the meeting wait until it ends to speak?Why does a capable adult rewrite a two-line email six times? Why do high performers keep carrying more, even when nobody asked them to?Why We Do That at Work looks beneath the ordinary behaviours that shape working life: the apology at the top of an email, the meeting after the meeting, the performance of being busy, the struggle to delegate, the silence, the credit grab, and the burnout nobody sees coming.Drawing on years of observing founders, leadership teams, employees and clients, Karmin Fouché traces the psychology beneath twelve familiar workplace patterns. She explores how pressure reveals what people have learned about safety, usefulness, approval, control and belonging, and how workplaces can reward those patterns until they start to feel like personality.Inside, you will learn: - Why quiet employees may be doing the deepest thinking- What over-apologising and long emails are really protecting- Why competent people struggle to rest or ask for help- How recognition and psychological safety shape behaviour- What leaders can do to create rooms where people speak more honestlyWarm, observant and practical, this book is for anyone who has ever left a meeting with the real conversation still in their head.Work gives our patterns a stage. Once you can see the script, you can decide whether to keep performing it.