What happened
Training Journal published Nicky McCrudden’s account of research asking over 300 UK workers what stops co-workers offering compassionate support. McCrudden reports 25 barriers in four clusters: personal competency gaps, beliefs about others, beliefs about the organisation or team, and enduring non-compassionate personal qualities.
Why it matters
For L&D teams, the useful signal is that McCrudden says competency gaps were the most frequently cited blocker, accounting for 37.5% of citations. Reported examples included not knowing what to say, fear of rejection, awkwardness, and difficulty listening or empathising. Beliefs about others and about the organisation or team were also prominent, including workload, norms, remote or hybrid working, boundaries, and assumptions that support is someone else’s responsibility.
What to do next
Treat the findings as a practical design prompt, not a settled prescription. Review whether existing leadership, coaching, wellbeing, and team programmes teach compassionate co-worker conversations explicitly, not only empathy or feedback skills. Use scenario-based practice for colleagues in distress, include short micro-intervention examples, and discuss boundaries and remote-working contexts. Because the article reports sparse wider research on workplace barriers, evaluate pilots locally before scaling.
About this briefing
Reviewed by TutorFlow Editorial. We link the primary source, preserve its publication date, and distinguish reported claims from TutorFlow analysis. Our commentary focuses on practical decisions for educators and training teams.
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