The Silence of Emotions and the Risks for Relationships in the Company
Progressive emotional detachment undermines collaboration and a sense of belonging, turning work into mere execution of tasks without human connection
by Alberto Varriale*
A few months ago I held a series of meetings on the topic of empathy in business. Nothing particularly new, at least on the surface. Yet, what struck me was the way people listened. As if that topic touched on something long held back. As if talking about emotions at work was a need that had been left unspoken.
This led me to observe a phenomenon that is less obvious than others, but no less insidious: a widespread form of emotional indifference that runs through many organisations today.
It is neither declared apathy nor explicit disengagement. It is something more subtle. A progressive anaesthesia. We react less, we expose ourselves less, as if paying attention to what we feel - and what others feel - has become superfluous, or even risky. Emotions are not denied, they simply stop being considered relevant: a background noise to be ignored. And so, without realising it, we become invisible to each other.
This indifference does not arise by chance. It is the result of several factors that intertwine and reinforce each other.
The first is the constant pressure. In increasingly competitive environments, workloads grow, expectations rise, mistakes become intolerable. For many, the only way to resist is to switch something off. Not because it is no longer felt, but because it costs too much to feel. Emotional detachment then becomes a survival strategy: a defence that protects in the short term, but over time deeply impoverishes.
