It’s the latest in the world of “maxxing” — when people take an activity to the extreme to get major benefits.

Slowmaxxing started as a wellness trend centered on mindfulness and slowing down everyday routines. And according to experts at Owl Labs, it has spilled into the workplace, with employees pacing their tasks to prevent burnout and protect their energy.

Why is that important now?

Frank Weishaupt, CEO at Owl Labs, lays out the reasons, based on their annual State of Hybrid Work report. “Nine in ten employees (90%) say they’re stressed at work, with 51% saying their stress has stayed the same since the previous year and 39% saying it’s gotten worse. On top of that, 7% of employees say their day has no clear start or end at all, and nearly 1 in 5 (19%) say they at least have a start time, but no defined end.”

Simply put, some people who are overstressed are deciding to slow down. To. The. Max.

Problems with Slowmaxxing?

As a journalist who champions HR professionals and employers in general, I looked for reasons slowmaxxing is bad for business. I imagined that slowmaxxing means people will take longer to do their jobs and hurt productivity. I couldn’t find the evidence.

“While productivity matters, companies also need to think about the health and well-being of their employees,” says Weishaupt. “Burnout has a way of catching up with you, and when it does, it hits productivity anyway. Slowmaxxing, in a lot of cases, is a defense mechanism for employees to push back against a corporate world that keeps asking them to be ‘on’ outside of work hours.”

So this story is about burnout and employees’ need to reel it in and be as productive as possible. Employers can help, and slowmaxxing might be one of the tools to help.

Slowmaxxing: Creates Clarity, Focus

Consider this: Slowmaxxing has been referred to as the art of intentionally slowing down to reduce burnout, boost mental clarity and feel more present. If your employees have mental clarity and are more focused, won’t they do a better job? Yes, they will.

The good news is companies are already investing in well-being. The global wellness economy hit a record $6.8 trillion in 2024 and is projected to reach $9.8 trillion by 2029, growing 7.6% annually, according to The Global Wellness Institute Report.

Slowmaxxing can be an extension of the existing good intentions and systems.

“When your workforce is stressed — and burnout is the No. 1 driver of disengagement — a productivity dip isn’t a risk you can avoid by ignoring slowmaxxing,” says Weishaupt.

Who’s Slowmaxxing and Why

Some employees may have already adopted slowmaxxing.

“Just as there may be several reasons why employees are slowmaxxing, there are various signs that they are doing it,” says Weishaupt. Some signs are that employees:

• Do only what is explicitly assigned and don’t take on additional responsibility 
• Take longer to respond, especially if it’s after hours, and
• Block their calendars for personal time or for more breaks during the workday. 

On the surface, that might seem problematic: They’re doing the minimum or less. But remember, slowmaxxing is about preserving energy for the right stuff.

Handling Slowmaxxing

Whether you want to address existing slowmaxxing or you want to see if it’s a tool you can add to your well-being toolkit, you want to consider the root of the burnout.

Weishaupt suggests these questions:

• Does the workload make the best use of an employee’s capabilities?
• Is the amount of work reasonable within the workday?
• If and how is their slowmaxxing impacting their output?
• What is causing them stress at work and what can help change that?

“Depending on these answers, a conversation with the whole team as well as one-on-ones with employees is helpful in understanding how to provide the right support if the quality of work is suffering,” he says.

But be aware: “Persistent slowmaxxing may indicate that an employee not only feels burned out but also undervalued, micromanaged, or believes that extra effort will not make a difference in their growth at the company.”

Help Reduce Stress

Stress and burnout lead to slowmaxxing. Employees need other avenues to reduce stress.

“Employers need to address the root causes of that stress, whether that’s setting clearer boundaries around the workday or giving employees more flexibility in how they manage their time, rather than treating slower work as the problem itself,” says Weishaupt.

He suggests managers and HR leaders try these tactics to help employees avoid burnout.

• Identify top priorities for the team and the employee so objectives for the week or month are clear. Decide what can be postponed, delegated or removed with the understanding that priorities may change. If a new priority is more urgent, identify an existing priority that can be moved down the list.
• Give employees more control over their work after providing clear guidance and deadlines. Here at Owl Labs, we believe that as long as an employee’s output remains high-quality and contributes to the success of the team and company, we don’t focus on how and when they work. 
• Train managers to detect stress early by noticing signs like lower engagement, missed deadlines, frustration, etc. Guide them on how to touch base with employees in a thoughtful manner, holding conversations about workload and work that feel supportive and not a performance review. During these conversations, examine together how to reduce unnecessary meetings and calls, simplify workflow for faster, higher quality work and eliminate busywork. 
• Reward effort beyond hours clocked in at the office. Redefine success to highlight collaboration, the quality of the work, sustainable performance and impact, all while taking into account the pressures of outside life. 

Ways to Slowmax Outside of Work

Beyond the workplace and the stress management tactics you offer, you can share these small slowmaxxing strategies:

• Drink one daily beverage, such as morning coffee, without a screen nearby
• Take a 10-minute walk with no podcast, phone call or step count goal
• Read a physical book for 20 minutes without tracking how many pages you finish, and
• Cook one meal a week without a recipe on a screen or a timer running.

Note: None of these ideas require anything more than anyone already has. They require people to use less of the things that stimulate them.

Where applicable, the guide must include at least 10 pay codes and be updated when a new overtime or pay-differential code is added.

It must also list a contact for disputes over hours or pay-differential calculations.

Employers with a website must post the guide in English, Spanish and other languages commonly spoken by employees.

At hire, employers must provide the guide’s web address or a written copy in English and the employee’s primary language. The web address must also appear on each record of hours provided to employees.

The act doesn’t require employers to create a website or new pay codes. A third-party payroll compliance provision also applies.

More info: Public Act 26-12

While change is very possible, elimination is less likely. In fact, one workplace researcher found that only about 3% of jobs have been lost to AI in the past four years.

But saying that doesn’t eliminate employees’ fears.

What’s Up in This Episode: Tempering Employees’ Fear

That’s why, in this episode of HRMorning’s 3-Point, our expert, Cora Walker, the Chief Human Resources Officer at OmniCable, explains how to help employees overcome those fears. More importantly, she gives us tips on how to get employees to embrace AI so your organization runs even more efficiently.

Click, watch and listen for more details on eliminating AI fears and achieving AI adoption.

Transcript (edited for clarity):

Your employees are terrified that AI will take their jobs. Or they’re just scared they won’t be able to work with AI. That’s the reality in nearly every workplace these days. And in this episode of the 3-Point, we’re going to show you how to move forward without fear.

Cora Walker, Chief Human Resources Officer, OmniCable: “You have got to speak the truth. We have to tell employees that we don’t exactly know how this is going to work out. We need to be honest and mention that there will be work that goes away. So I think it starts there. If you have any hope at all of keeping your employees engaged, you have to be very honest with them.”

So, like our mothers told us, honesty is the best policy. Then, as employees try AI—and experience advantages or learn from setbacks—you want to continue to ease their fears and frustrations.

Walker: “So plugging AI into the right places, and emphasizing to people that this isn’t about replacing you. It’s about replacing part of your jobs. And here’s what we want you to do with that time instead. That has a lot of potential around empathy.” 

Cora Walker shared a great example of that with me: A move to AI in one role would take employees out of physically dangerous situations. Their jobs would evolve so they’d have more oversight, and they’d stay much safer. Beyond safety, embracing AI has the potential to reconnect people.

Walker: “Take away some of that administrative, very repetitive burden from the human beings. Don’t strap them to their desks. Don’t ask them to never get up and take a walk around. Allow the automation to do some of the work. Pull them up from the work. Pull them back a little bit, and ask them to, sort of, reconnect with the people around them.”

That actually works. In Cora Walker’s case, she’s seen employees become more creative and more available to clients and colleagues. And as they reconnect, the AI fears settle down.

So, to temper AI fears:

• Be honest. Tell employees that you don’t know exactly how it’s going to work out, but you’ll work it out together.
• Emphasize what AI will replace. Parts of jobs, administrative work, repetitive tasks. NOT people.
• Use time well. Show employees what they can do with time AI saves them. Remind them to use some of it to reconnect with others.

There’s a lot of good news here. AI isn’t going to replace employees in masses. And you can ease their fears about that. For more help, check out this on HRMorning: When Employees Fear AI Will Take Their Jobs: An 8-Point Guide on How to Talk about It.” As always, thanks for joining me.

And yes, I am going to call all of them Chief Human Resources Officers (CHROs). That is partly because we need to call them something, but mostly because the title was never the real story. While companies debated the name, the work blew past the job description.

I see it every day in my work with leadership teams. CHROs are being asked to help lead AI transformation, workforce redesign, succession and operating model change, often while working within a role designed primarily to run the HR function. The mandate expanded. The authority, resources and structure surrounding it often did not. Hiring, compensation, benefits, compliance and culture still matter. They are simply no longer the boundaries of the role.

That lane is gone.

The CHRO has become an enterprise transformation leader, but many companies still surround the role with the authority, resources and structure of a traditional HR function. The job moved forward. The operating model stayed behind.

For CHROs, the Work has Already Moved

Across our executive search and interim work, we increasingly see CHROs at the center of decisions that once sat elsewhere.

At one global pharmaceutical company, AI transformation initially sat largely within technology. But as AI began reshaping workflows, roles and required capabilities, the CHRO became central to the agenda. Their involvement ultimately expanded beyond HR into enterprise transformation, connecting technology decisions with the operating model, workforce and organizational change.

AI may begin as a technology investment, but it quickly becomes a people and operating question. Which work changes? Which decisions stay human? Which skills become more valuable?

The Chief Information Officer (CIO) must lead the technology. The CHRO must help the enterprise understand how it will work. They should set that future together, alongside the CEO, CFO and business leaders.

This is not mission creep. This is the job.

The Old Planning Model is Breaking

Traditional workforce planning makes the disconnect clear. Most plans begin with today’s organization. Leaders review open positions, forecast headcount, and then decide which vacancies to fill. That works if the jobs and skills the company needs remain stable. But we all know that it’s a fallacy.

AI and business transformation are changing tasks, workflows, decisions and leadership requirements faster than annual planning can respond. A company can hit its approved headcount and still lack the capabilities its strategy requires.

At a large telecommunications company, workforce planning shifted from filling projected roles to asking what capabilities the business would actually need. As technology and AI changed the work itself, the CHRO helped reshape the talent strategy around skills, continuous learning and workforce readiness rather than simply hiring against an existing organizational chart.

The first question cannot be, “How many people do we need?”

It has to be, “What work must get done, what outcome must it produce, and how should that work be delivered?” Only then can leaders decide what should remain human, what can be augmented or automated, and how to access the capabilities needed.

The CHRO is uniquely positioned to connect those choices. Not to own every single one, but to make sure they add up.

Transformation Fails in the Gaps

Companies still manage technology, leadership, workforce, culture and organization design as separate workstreams, but businesses do not experience them separately.

A workforce redesign will fail if people do not trust the rationale. An AI investment will disappoint if workflows do not change. A new operating model will stall if leaders cannot lead inside it. At one global consumer company, plans to expand its manufacturing and distribution footprint initially centered on the facility itself. When the CHRO and her team used AI-powered digital twins to examine how people would work within it, the findings prompted the company to redesign the entire facility.

The CHRO sees where those dependencies meet. The role should help set the future alongside the CEO, CFO, CIO and business leaders, not wait for the strategy and then manage the consequences.

Build for the Job That Exists Now

The CHRO’s original responsibilities did not disappear when this broader mandate arrived. Companies simply added transformation on top.

Asking the CHRO to lead more without changing the structure beneath the role is not empowerment. It is a design flaw.

If AI and workforce transformation are permanent priorities, they need permanent ownership. That might mean an HR technology leader, an AI transformation leader, a COO for HR or another executive with a clear mandate. The title matters less than the accountability.

CEOs and boards should ask one question: Have we built the CHRO role around the job we expect this person to do, or around the function the role used to run?

Changing the nameplate was easy. The real work is in rebuilding the role.

That gap is costing companies more than they realize. The gain in employee retention could be phenomenal.

Payroll as a Retention Strategy

When something goes wrong with payroll (think: a missed benefit change, a deduction error), the cost isn’t just financial. It erodes employee trust that’s hard to rebuild. And what’s less obvious is the opportunity: everything payroll could be doing and isn’t.

Payroll isn’t just infrastructure to get out checks – it’s a platform that communicates employee value, reduces operational risk across the benefits stack and drives retention and engagement. There’s even a new role emerging to reflect this shift, the payroll strategist. It’s a signal that organizations are starting to treat payroll as a function worth investing in strategically, not only operationally.

For HR leaders ready to make that shift, here are three places to start:

1. Close the Total Compensation Visibility Gap

According to Payroll Integrations’ Employee Financial Wellness Report, 58% of employees say they’re staying in their current role specifically because of their benefits. That’s a significant retention lever but it only works if employees know what they have. Most only know their base salary and not the full value of what they’re receiving: the 401(k) match, the FSA contributions, the health benefits. All of it represents real compensation, but most of it is effectively invisible to the people it’s meant to retain.

Employees may leave for job offers that look better on paper with a higher base or more perks, without accounting for what they’re walking away from. And employers, having invested in robust benefits programs, end up watching their investment fail because it never got communicated.

Using payroll as a communication touchpoint changes this. Total compensation statements, benefits reminders tied to pay cycles, clear visibility into what each deduction is delivering–this is what employees need to hear that can dramatically change how they perceive the value of their role. In fact, nearly half of employees say clearly communicated benefits play a key role in their decision to stay. When people understand what they have, they’re less likely to leave in search of something they think is missing.

2. Integrate Systems to Eliminate Blind Spots, Manual Work

Employers have invested in expanding their benefits offerings because they want to give employees more. But the operational reality compounds with every addition. More benefits mean more platforms, more partners, more workflows to manage. According to our report, more than a third of HR teams (35%) say they spend too much time on manual administrative work, averaging 11 hours a week on payroll and benefits administration alone. Every additional benefit becomes another manual process and another place where something can quietly go wrong.

And the stakes go beyond inconvenience. When an employee updates a 401(k) election or goes on leave and that change isn’t reflected in payroll, the organization is at risk. For many teams, making those updates is a manual task assigned to a specific person. When it doesn’t happen (or happens incorrectly), the downstream effects can include plan non-compliance and costly corrections.

Integration between payroll systems and benefits providers isn’t just an IT project: it’s how companies protect themselves and get time back. When data flows automatically between platforms, the margin for human error shrinks, efficiency improves and HR teams get back the hours they’d rather spend on the work that moves the needle.

3. Elevate Payroll from a Function to a Strategy

Sixty-four percent of employers admit they could be doing more to support employees’ financial wellness, and most already have the platform to do it. What’s missing is strategic ownership.

In practice, closing the gap between operations and strategy looks like a few targeted moves: designating someone to own payroll strategy specifically; auditing where manual processes are creating compliance exposure and communicating total compensation, so employees understand the value of what they’re receiving.

Payroll has always been fundamental. The difference now is about building something that works for your employees and your organization. The HR leaders who figure this out first won’t just run payroll better; they’ll create the kind of experience that retains employees and is hard to compete with.

Lactation breaks must now be paid at the employee’s regular compensation rate, including travel time to the pumping location. Employers may not require workers to use paid leave for these breaks, which must be provided in addition to required meal and rest periods. The law also adds scheduling flexibility for postpartum medical visits.

Enforcement shifts from the Attorney General to the Department of Labor and Industries, which can issue civil penalties. Employers should review and update lactation and pregnancy-accommodation policies and provide manager training before the new year.

More info: SB 5217

A new Zoho Payroll survey of more than 100 US payroll professionals found only 7% of payroll teams said AI was central to their process – and nearly half (44%) said they haven’t started using AI yet. 

Payroll teams not yet using AI were asked their top reason for holding off. The most common reason (30%) was a lack of understanding of how AI can help payroll.

AI Priorities on Payroll’s Wish List

Researchers also asked payroll professionals which AI capabilities would have the biggest impact on their teams today. Here’s what payroll professionals want AI to do most:

1. Catch payroll errors before a pay run processes (66%)
2. Deliver real-time compliance updates (36%)
3. Answer employees’ payroll questions (31%)
4. Flag compliance risks intelligently (20%), and
5. Auto-sync journal entries to accounting (15%).

Predictive analytics – often a focal point for vendors – ranked dead last at just 8%. The survey’s findings point to AI priorities focused on preventing problems and reducing manual work rather than predicting future payroll costs.

More info: Zoho Payroll Report 2026

According to the complaint, Trader Joe’s:

• Rounded time punches, resulting in employees being underpaid
• Excluded “Thank You” pay from overtime calculations
• Failed to provide required meal and rest breaks
• Failed to pay required overtime, minimum wages and sick pay
• Issued inaccurate wage statements
• Did not reimburse employees for business expenses, and
• Did not pay wages on time during employment and at termination.

Trader Joe’s denies wrongdoing and said it agreed to settle to avoid continued litigation.

The court is scheduled to consider final approval of the settlement on April 22, 2027.

Takeaways for wage and hour compliance:

• Review timekeeping and rounding rules to ensure employees are paid for all time worked
• Verify that overtime calculations include all required forms of compensation, and
• Regularly audit wage statements, expense reimbursements and final-pay procedures.

More info: Bartlett v. Trader Joe’s Settlement Agreement

More than a third of employees do some or all of their work remotely, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. So you can only imagine that feedback with remote and hybrid employees — people who don’t interact with their boss as much as on-site employees — could be extra awkward.

Employee Feedback of the Future

But managers don’t just have to handle potentially awkward conversations now. Feedback with remote and hybrid employees needs to be handled a bit differently than traditional feedback.

“With fewer face-to-face encounters, feedback conversations can seem more awkward than ever,” says Carolyn Stern, CEO of EI Experience, and author of The Emotionally Strong Leader.

The future of employee feedback is here. Here are six tips to help you and your employees working remotely get the most out of it.

1. Measure Remote Abilities

Naturally, you want to cover how well employees handle their job duties. Add to that how well employees handle working remotely. If they’re going to be hybrid, you want to establish expectations and measurements for managing remote work responsibilities.

So make time and place to cover:

• Technology access, use and capabilities
• Managing more than one workspace
• Transitioning from place to place
• Availability when offsite
• Interaction onsite, and
• The balance of productivity between workspaces.

At the same time, find out if employees have the resources they need to make the hybrid work situation efficient.

2. Plan to Be Spontaneous

Plan several feedback sessions throughout the year (annual reviews are a thing of the past). But be prepared and willing to give feedback any time.

“It is not necessary to wait until an employee’s next performance review to schedule a meeting. If a manager has feedback that will help an employee, share it,” says Stern.

Point is, if you have feedback that’ll help employees do their jobs better – or stop doing something that inhibits their performance – then give it immediately. And because you’re dealing with hybrid work, step into a meeting space onsite or get on a video call when you’re off premises.

3. Practice the SBI Model

One way to ensure you’re always ready to give effective employee feedback: Follow the SBI Model – that’s for Situation-Behavior-Impact.

You pick a specific moment or an isolated behavior and how it impacts productivity or relationships. Here’s an example:

• Situation: Be specific about where and when. “I noticed in this morning’s meeting …”
• Behavior: Describe the behavior, not what you or the employee might have been thinking. “… you interrupted Jenny three times while she had the floor.”
• Impact: Identify the specific result of the behavior and include a feeling. “That’s frustrating for me, not being able to hear what she has to say, and it’s frustrating for speakers to not be able to finish their thoughts.”

From there, you can ask the employee for feedback on ways to improve the situation.

4. Check Your Intent

Regardless of when or where you give feedback, the purpose is to help employees improve performance. It’s time to check anger, disappointment and judgment at the door.

So, test your emotions before you move forward on planned or impromptu feedback. Are you thinking about venting or coaching? Do you want to criticize or help? Are you angry or concerned?

Act on the latter of each choice. Pause if you feel the former of each choice. Hold off on making the call or scheduling a Zoom.

5. Focus on Action

Because you don’t see people who are hybrid as much – and perhaps because you work different schedules, too – action and follow-up are even more critical.

Be specific with action-oriented language. For instance, “You’ll want to do X going forward” or “Taking this approach will produce immediate results. First, you’ll need to …”

From there, put the actions that you and employees will take following the feedback session in writing. You might send an email and get written agreement to the exact next steps, when you’ll review progress and the expected outcomes.

6. Make Time for Positive Feedback

The old feedback sandwich approach isn’t ideal anymore. Employees hear two positive notes (the bread) and one negative note (the meat), and they’ll remember the good stuff. And never improve the bad stuff.

But this doesn’t mean you want to skip positive feedback, especially in a hybrid work setting where feedback can happen too seldom.

Just separate the two. When you have feedback that’s focused on making improvements or changes, give it alone. When you have positive feedback, give it immediately, in person (via video, if one of you is remote) and with purpose.

The six-figure verdict is a reminder that federal Title VII protects all employees from sex discrimination in the workplace.

Employee Says Job Duties Were Limited Based on Gender 

The surgical technician worked for Northwest Arkansas Hospitals, LLC, d/b/a Northwest Medical Center-Bentonville. 

According to the technician, two female obstetricians in the labor and delivery unit prohibited him from performing most of the duties he was hired for because he’s a man. 

The technician said he complained and escalated those concerns to the C-suite, but the hospital failed to follow its own anti-discrimination policy and did not intervene to end the discrimination. 

He filed an EEOC charge, and the agency conducted an investigation. 

Was It Sex Discrimination?

In the EEOC’s view, the alleged conduct violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits sex discrimination at work. After attempting to reach a pre-litigation settlement, the EEOC filed a lawsuit on the technician’s behalf.

At trial, a former company director testified that the technician was a victim of the hospital’s culture of discrimination. 

The jury returned a verdict for the EEOC, awarding $5,000 in compensatory damages and $100,000 in punitive damages to the surgical technician.

The EEOC said it plans to petition the court for injunctive relief, including requiring the hospital to conduct training to prevent future sex discrimination, and will submit a bill of costs to be paid by the defendant.

Responding to Employee Complaints

How an employer handles a complaint can influence whether employees trust the reporting process. Recent research from Traliant found that employees place significant weight on how employers respond to workplace complaints. 

When an employee raises a discrimination concern, employers should promptly acknowledge it, follow established workplace investigation processes, and document the employer’s response and outcome.

More info: EEOC Press Release