Every once in a while, my worlds collide in the most unexpected ways.

As a management-side employment attorney, I spend my days in the weeds of the FMLA and ADA. Certifications. Intermittent leave. The interactive process. Reasonable accommodations. You know, the stuff that gets our collective hearts racing.

Based on my commentary from time to time, readers of this blog also may recall that I care deeply about my Catholic faith.

So imagine my delight, ahem, bordering on disbelief, when I learned that Pope Leo recently took time to meet with the Italian Order of Employment Consultants—professionals who, quite literally, sit on the employer side of the table and help shape the day‑to‑day realities of working people’s lives.

Think about that for a moment.

The Pope.

Meeting not with union leaders or employee advocates, but with employer-side advisors.

What Did the Pope Tell Employers?

In his address, Pope Leo didn’t lecture. He challenged and encouraged these employer advocates.

Papa Leone reminded them that they are not mere technicians of employment law, but stewards of the human person in the workplace, urging them to remain close to the employee and to their families, to promote safety, and to ensure that human dignity remains at the center of the country’s labor system.

Let that thought . . . human dignity at the center . . . sit with you for a moment.

Because if we’re honest, it’s tempting in our modern workplace to place above the individual a host of business realities: productivity metrics, doing more with less,
profitable operations, and at times, our own cynicism.

So when Pope Leo spoke these words to our Italian brothers and sisters, urging them to put human dignity at the heart of their work, he was speaking directly into our employment law world.

Whether employers realize it or not, management decisions are moral decisions. And few areas expose this truth more sharply than how we handle employee leave, accommodation requests, and personal hardship.

Putting Employees First Doesn’t Undermine Profit, It Only Makes You Richer

Employers sometimes treat compassion as a cost center.

It isn’t.

Study after study confirms what many of us have observed anecdotally over decades of practice: employees who feel respected, supported, and trusted are more engaged, more productive, and more loyal.

To be sure, long‑running Gallup studies of employee engagement show that business units with higher engagement levels achieve higher profitability, better retention, and stronger customer outcomes than their peers. Gallup’s chief finding is blunt: managers account for a majority of variance in employee engagement, which directly affects financial performance. Need something more than Gallup? Then, maybe this study by the Harvard Business School on “Purpose Over Profit” might win you over.

Pope Leo recognized this modern pressure point:

Today, in a context where technology and artificial intelligence increasingly manage and condition our activities, it is urgent to ensure that companies are characterized first and foremost as human and fraternal communities.

Pope Leo put it plainly when he reminded employment counselors that work exists for the person, not the other way around. That philosophy doesn’t reject profit, it simply places it in its proper context.

Ironically, employers who focus only on output often end up losing the very productivity they seek to protect.

Most Employees Are Not Gaming the System

Before I offer some practical solutions below in response to Pope Leo’s call, let me knock out the elephant in the room: the overwhelming majority of your employees who need help, take FMLA leave or request ADA accommodations do so for legitimate reasons.

Period.

They are dealing with cancer, depression, anxiety, pregnancy complications, sick parents or children, or injuries that make daily work a genuine challenge. And as we recognize May as Mental Health Awareness Month, we must appreciate that plenty of our employees are dealing with limitations we don’t even notice.

Yet, too often, the default reaction is suspicion.

Pope Leo urged employment consultants to be close to those in difficulty, warning against distance, bureaucracy, and detachment from reality. That warning applies squarely to us. When employers assume bad faith as a starting point, we erode trust.

Insights for Employers

If you’ve made it thus far, you’re surely thinking, “Fine, Jeff. I’m good with this Pope. He seems like a honorable dude. And he’s a Chicagoan, which makes him instantly credible. But let’s get real. What practical steps can I put in place to be this ‘good manager’ you reference above?“

I got your back. Here are five practical steps to put in place today:

1. Where an Employee Clearly is struggling or needs help, lead with the question: “How can I help you be [or remain] successful here?” This question reframes the conversation immediately. It shifts the focus away from what the employee cannot do and toward what the organization wants—effective performance. Practically, it surfaces the information employers actually need: what tasks are hardest, what triggers the issue, what has worked before, and what success looks like from the employee’s perspective. Often, the answer reveals that the employee isn’t asking to stop working, but to work differently. It also places the employer squarely in good‑faith interactive‑process territory, focused on solutions, not skepticism. And at its very core, it makes clear, “We want to do everything we reasonably can to help you succeed.” That puts the employee first, ahead of profit.
2. Avoid knee‑jerk denials of assistance in the workplace. The ADA demands individualized assessment for a reason. Comments like “We don’t do that here” or “That’s just part of the job,” or “If I do this for you, I’ll have to do it for everyone” shut the door to continued dialogue. Two employees with the same condition may need entirely different accommodations. Slowing the moment down, asking follow‑up questions, clarifying scope and duration, and reassessing what functions are truly essential are key to the conversation. Employers who develop the discipline to pause before saying no often find that the “impossible request” was never really the request at all.
3. Use flexibility creatively: Implement trial accommodations and temporary adjustments. Flexibility does not have to mean permanence. One of the most underused tools in the interactive process is the trial accommodation. Trying an adjustment for 30 or 60 days allows both sides to gather real data: Does this work? Does it impact our operations? Does it solve the problem, or simply create a mess? Temporary accommodations can also bridge uncertainty. Conditions flare and recede. Life stabilizes. A short‑term modification may be all that is needed, and it avoids locking the employer into an arrangement that no longer makes sense.
4. Invest in managers’ capacity for judgment and empathy, and also train them to stop saying dumb things. Front‑line managers are where people‑first values either live or die. Employers who take the individual seriously invest heavily in training managers to listen, ask better questions, document decisions carefully, and separate performance issues from personal frustration. The goal is not to turn managers into therapists, but to give them the skills to respond with judgment rather than reflex, and with empathy rather than defensiveness. Employees are far more likely to stay engaged when their first disclosure is met with competence rather than annoyance or panic.
5. Document with care, not hostility. Paper trails protect everyone when done right. The best accommodation files show curiosity, dialogue, trial and adjustment. Practically, this means documenting the process, not just the outcome. What alternatives were considered? Why was one preferred over another? Was the accommodation revisited after implementation? When done well, documentation is not adversarial. It reassures employees that they were heard and protects employers by showing that decisions were reasoned, individualized, and grounded in both empathy and business reality.

One Final Point: A Message to My Fellow Management‑Side Employment Attorneys

Finally, a word with my fellow management-side attorneys. With all due respect to employee‑side counsel (and I mean that sincerely), in nearly 30 years of practicing law, I have yet to see a demand letter or employment lawsuit cause an employer to have a genuine change of heart.

That’s not how culture shifts.

Simply put, we management‑side employment attorneys are best positioned to help employers do good.

Why?

Because day in and day out, we sit in the employment law trenches with our employer clients as decisions are made. We advise in real time. We shape judgment calls. We influence tone. We help change managers’ hearts in the workplace.

Of course, we remain fierce advocates for employers. Always have been, always will be. But we also should pride ourselves in encouraging, and at times challenging, employers to identify every reasonable opportunity to help an employee not only keep their job, but succeed.

Back to Pope Leo (and the Bottom Line)

Pope Leo isn’t naive about business. His warning is simple: when employers treat people as means rather than humans, injustice follows. Instead, let’s manage according to the Golden Rule — treat others as you wish to be treated.

When employers lead with humanity, slow down their decisions, train managers carefully, and document thoughtfully, they build workplaces that function better, perform better, and expose them to less risk.

Dignity and profitability are not enemies. Actually, they are the very best teammates.