Please Mute Your Trauma: Workplace Trauma & the Human Side of Work
Welcome to Please Mute Your Trauma, a podcast about workplace trauma, dignity at work, toxic workplace culture, and what happens when organizations forget that employees are human.
Hosted by Tiffany Collins—a Navy veteran, HR professional, doctoral researcher, and recovering overthinker—this show explores the messy intersection of trauma, leadership, organizational culture, burnout, meaningful work, employee well-being, and the experiences people carry into the workplace.
Through humor, research, personal storytelling, and real-life workplace experiences, Tiffany examines the issues many organizations would rather rebrand than confront: organizational betrayal, emotional suppression, unhealthy leadership, workplace identity, belonging, retaliation, trust, and the pressure to remain productive while quietly falling apart.
Each episode asks difficult questions about the way people experience work:
What happens when professionalism requires employees to become smaller?
Why do people spend more energy surviving work than finding meaning in it?
What does dignity look like when someone is struggling, questioning authority, setting a boundary, or making a mistake?
And what would change if organizations stopped treating humanity as an inconvenience?
This podcast is for employees who have survived unhealthy workplaces, leaders who want to create more human-centered organizations, HR professionals questioning traditional workplace practices, and anyone who has ever replayed a meeting, questioned their worth after a performance review, or received a pizza party instead of meaningful support.
Because organizations do not have a people problem.
They have a humanity problem.
And work becomes meaningful when dignity is protected.
Episodes
19 episodes
The 99.9% Problem: Amazon, Pregnancy Accommodations & Workplace Dignity
Amazon says it approved more than 99.9% of pregnancy-related accommodation requests over the past year.So why are former employees describing something very different?That number sent me down a research rabbit hole.I...
AI at Work: We Automated First. Now We Want Guardrails
AI was supposed to make work easier.So why are so many workers experiencing it as uncertainty, surveillance, job insecurity, restructuring, and the persistent question: Am I training my replacement?This episode started with...
Disney Changed the Deal: Employee Benefits, Health Insurance & the Cost of Cutting Coverage
Disney is changing its employee health insurance rules. Beginning in 2027, spouses and domestic partners who have access to medical coverage through their own employers will no longer be eligible for Disney’s medical plan.And yes, health...
Workplace Conflict Gone Wrong: The HR “Get-Along Shirt” Case Study
What happens when leadership makes a decision HR warned would go badly...and then HR inherits the fallout?In this real, anonymized workplace case study, Tiffany takes listeners inside a government agency where a long-planned retirement b...
When the People Who Know Stop Speaking: Boeing, Whistleblowers, and the Cost of Silence
What happens when the people who know the work best stop speaking up?In this episode of Please Mute Your Trauma, Tiffany takes a deeply personal look at Boeing, a company woven into her own family history and the Seattle communi...
Savannah Bananas and Workplace Culture: What They Get Right About Leadership, Values & Employee Experience
What happens when an organization actually lives the values it puts on the wall?In this episode of Please Mute Your Trauma, Tiffany Collins takes a closer look at the Savannah Bananas and Fans First Entertainment—not just as a w...
The HR Paradox: Who Does HR Turn to When They Need Help?
What happens when one of the most influential organizations in human resources becomes an HR case study itself?In December 2025, a federal jury found the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) liable for race discrimination and ret...
Corporate Gaslighting at Work: The Starter Pack Nobody Asked For
Ever leave a workplace meeting and immediately call your best friend just to confirm that you did, in fact, hear what you think you heard?Welcome to the Corporate Gaslighting Starter Pack.In this episode of Please Mute Your Trauma...
Workplace Betrayal: Broken Promises and the Moving Carrot
Broken promises at work do more than disappoint us. They create burnout, erode trust, and can turn hope into a management strategy.In this episode, Tiffany Collins examines “the moving carrot”: the promotion, staffing support, job securi...
Why do toxic workplaces protect difficult people while expecting everyone else to adapt around them?
Why do toxic workplaces protect difficult people while expecting everyone else to adapt around them?In this episode of Please Mute Your Trauma, Tiffany Collins explores the familiar workplace phrase, “That’s just how they...
Your Body Knows Before You Do: When Work Doesn’t Feel Safe
Your Body Knows Before You Do: When Work Doesn’t Feel SafeWhat happens when seeing your leader’s name in an email makes your palms sweat, your heart race, and your entire body prepare for something bad to happen?In th...
Psychological Safety at Work: Are You Safe or Just in Survival?
You can look safe and not be safe.You can look calm and be bracing.You can look professional and be disappearing.In this episode of Please Mute Your Trauma, Tiffany Collins continues the conversation from Episode 4 on profe...
Workplace Professionalism: Who Taught Us These Rules?
Who Told You That Was Professional? The Hidden Rules of Workplace CultureWhat does workplace professionalism actually mean—and who taught us the rules?In this episode of Please Mute Your Trauma<...
Yes, Workplace Trauma Counts: Stop Dismissing What Happens at Work
Workplace Trauma Counts: When Work Leaves a Lasting MarkHow many times have you minimized your own experience?“It wasn’t that bad.”“Other people have been through worse.”“I should be over it by no...
Don’t Be Air. Be Fire: How to Stop Overthinking at Work
Don’t Be Air. Be Fire: How to Stop Overthinking at WorkHow much energy have you spent preparing for workplace conversations that never happened?Replaying an interaction.Anticipating conflict.Analyzing so...
Pretending to Be Fine at Work: The Cost of Emotional Suppression
Pretending to Be Fine at Work: The Cost of Emotional SuppressionWhat happens when pretending to be fine becomes part of your job?In the first full episode of Please Mute Your Trauma, Tiffany Collins explor...
Why I Couldn't Stop Asking Questions
Why I Couldn't Stop Asking QuestionsWhy do some workplace experiences stay with us long after we've left the building?Why can one manager's words echo in our minds years later?Why do some jobs leave us feeling more alive… w...
Organizations Don't Have a People Problem - A Preview of Please Mute Your Trauma
Organizations don't have a people problem. They have a humanity problem.Welcome to Please Mute Your Trauma.This podcast explores the workplace experiences we carry long after we've left the building.If you'v...