Templates to listen to employees

More ownership over project decisions — I feel like I'm just executing someone else's plan without understanding the why.

Burned out — we lost 2 team members last month and nobody's been replaced. I'm doing three people's jobs.

Great in 1-on-1s but struggles in group settings — important decisions get made in side conversations that the rest of the team never hears about.

Not really — the first 30 minutes were status updates that could have been a Slack post. The last 10 minutes of brainstorming were valuable.

The HSA vs FSA choice — I'm having a baby in March and need to figure out which one saves me more on delivery and postnatal costs.

There was no clear path for growth — I asked about promotion twice and got vague answers both times.

The team is welcoming but I still don't have system access and nobody's explained how the code review process works here.

It's slipping — I'm averaging 55-hour weeks and the always-on Slack culture means I can't fully disconnect even on weekends.

In my team, yes. But in leadership meetings I've noticed that the same 3 voices dominate every discussion.

Best: shipping a feature with the team and seeing users love it. Worst: sitting in back-to-back meetings all day with no time to do actual work.

Leading the cross-functional project with engineering — I went from avoiding conflict to running productive disagreements.

The work's great. The constant priority changes are wearing people out, though.

The emergency exit near the loading dock has been blocked by pallets for weeks — I've reported it twice with no response.

Professional but exhausting — 6 rounds over 8 weeks and then radio silence for 2 weeks before the offer. I almost accepted elsewhere.