{"id":27867,"date":"2026-05-11T13:30:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-11T11:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thebrokernews.ch\/?p=27867"},"modified":"2026-05-10T08:56:23","modified_gmt":"2026-05-10T06:56:23","slug":"when-leadership-makes-you-lonely-j-thamm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thebrokernews.ch\/en\/when-leadership-makes-you-lonely-j-thamm\/","title":{"rendered":"When leadership makes you lonely"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"ccfic\"><span class=\"ccfic-text\">Wenn F\u00fchrung einsam macht: F\u00fcr Jennifer Thamm ist entscheidend, dass Mitarbeitende sich gegen\u00fcber Vorgesetzten und HR nicht offenbaren m\u00fcssen. <\/span><\/div>\n\n<p><strong>Jennifer Thamm, founder of SaysLife, believes that employee wellbeing is no longer a &#8220;soft&#8221; HR issue, but a strategic risk for companies in the insurance industry. In this interview, she explains why mental health, governance and data protection need to be considered together and why managers in particular are often overlooked. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n<p>In today&#8217;s episode of video interviews (in English) from our partner <a href=\"https:\/\/capricorn-connect.podigee.io\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Capricorn Connect<\/a>, host <a href=\"http:\/\/linkedin.com\/in\/jakob-barandun\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Jakob Barandun<\/a> talks to <a href=\"http:\/\/linkedin.com\/in\/jenniferthamm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Jennifer Thamm<\/a>. Born in California, she knows the corporate world from her own experience and has lived in Zurich for 20 years. She has worked internationally for companies such as Zurich Insurance, UBS and Thomson Reuters, working at the intersection of digital transformation, risk management and ethical governance. Today, she is the founder and CEO of <a href=\"https:\/\/sayslife.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">SaysLife<\/a>, a company that aims to help companies take a more structured approach to mental health and organizational resilience.   <\/p>\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"The hidden costs of stress at work: Corporate Well-Being in the Age of Mental Health Challenges\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/DXEQjviDxvQ?start=2&#038;feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n<p>The idea arose from her work as a risk manager. She had seen time and again that although stress, overwork and mental strain were known in companies, they were rarely systematically recorded and managed. This is precisely where SaysLife comes in: with an automated solution that provides companies with data and structures without monitoring individual employees.  <\/p>\n\n<h6 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Privacy as a prerequisite for trust<\/strong><\/h6>\n\n<p>For Jennifer, it is crucial that employees can seek help without having to disclose themselves to managers or HR. SaysLife is expressly not a diagnostic tool. Neither bosses nor board members should find out how individuals respond or how they are actually doing.  <\/p>\n\n<p>Instead, the aim is to give people private feedback and encourage them to make use of existing support services such as coaching, therapy or employee assistance programs. In turn, companies receive aggregated information in order to better understand risks and take preventative action. <\/p>\n\n<h6 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Depression, anxiety and loss of performance<\/strong><\/h6>\n\n<p>In the interview, Jennifer mentions depression and anxiety as key issues in the area of mental health. The consequences for companies are considerable: absences, reduced performance despite attendance &#8211; so-called presenteeism &#8211; and stress-related incidents can result in high costs. <\/p>\n\n<p>The cause is not always to be found in the workplace itself. Stress can also come from the private environment. This makes it all the more important to take a holistic view of well-being that does not prematurely assign blame, but recognizes patterns and provides support.  <\/p>\n\n<h6 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Loneliness at the top<\/strong><\/h6>\n\n<p>Jennifer speaks particularly forcefully about managers. They are often neglected when it comes to well-being. High status or a good income do not automatically mean that someone is internally stable. In her research, she found that many executives feel lonely.   <\/p>\n\n<p>This experience was also personally formative for her. In a previous professional environment, she witnessed the suicide of a CEO and a CFO. For Jennifer, this was a trigger to take a closer look at executive stress and people risk management. She dedicated her dissertation to stress at management level.   <\/p>\n\n<h6 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>No digital surveillance<\/strong><\/h6>\n\n<p>Although technologies exist today that use keyboard behavior, mouse movements, social media activity or other data points to draw conclusions about behavior and risks, Thamm rejects such an approach. Predictive analytics in the area of mental health is tricky. <\/p>\n\n<p>SaysLife does not want to predict whether someone will drop out, burn out or find themselves in a crisis. Instead, it is about orientation, prevention and trust. Companies should be able to manage risks in a structured way without monitoring people or exposing individual weaknesses.  <\/p>\n\n<h6 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Regulation increases the pressure<\/strong><\/h6>\n\n<p>Thamm observes that companies increasingly understand that regulators will demand proof of how they organize well-being and prevention. At the same time, there are still managers who believe that ignorance is a defense against responsibility. This is a mistake.  <\/p>\n\n<p>The sentence &#8220;We didn&#8217;t know there was a problem&#8221; will no longer suffice in future. Companies must learn to take a closer look, not to find culprits, but to become capable of acting. <\/p>\n\n<h6 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Prevention instead of looking away<\/strong><\/h6>\n\n<p>For Jennifer, it&#8217;s clear that HR issues are often at the root of many other business problems. A better understanding of the risks associated with people, culture, stress and health can also improve an organization&#8217;s performance. <\/p>\n\n<p>Her approach therefore combines well-being, risk management and governance. Yoga at lunchtime alone will not solve the major challenges, she says. What is needed are structured programs that protect people, take the pressure off management and help companies to take responsibility.  <\/p>\n\n<p>Binci Heeb<\/p>\n\n<p>See and read also: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thebrokernews.ch\/en\/ai-climate-risks-art-working-uncertainty\/\">AI, climate risks and the art of working with uncertainty<\/a><\/p>\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Jennifer Thamm, founder of SaysLife, believes that employee wellbeing is no longer a &#8220;soft&#8221; HR issue, but a strategic risk for companies in the insurance industry. In this interview, she [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27866,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"_price":"","_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_header":"","_tribe_default_ticket_provider":"","_tribe_ticket_capacity":"0","_ticket_start_date":"","_ticket_end_date":"","_tribe_ticket_show_description":"","_tribe_ticket_show_not_going":false,"_tribe_ticket_use_global_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_global_stock_level":"","_global_stock_mode":"","_global_stock_cap":"","_tribe_rsvp_for_event":"","_tribe_ticket_going_count":"","_tribe_ticket_not_going_count":"","_tribe_tickets_list":"[]","_tribe_ticket_has_attendee_info_fields":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5100,5134,5101],"tags":[12004,5163,12003,5189,7108,5446,5233,8977,12005,5177,7026,12002,5455],"class_list":["post-27867","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-current","category-general","category-video-en","tag-conclusions","tag-depression-en","tag-digital-surveillance","tag-drop-in-performance","tag-fear-en","tag-guidance","tag-health-en","tag-loneliness","tag-look-away","tag-managers-en","tag-prevention-en","tag-sayslife","tag-trust-en"],"acf":[],"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":"Wenn F\u00fchrung einsam macht: F\u00fcr Jennifer Thamm ist entscheidend, dass Mitarbeitende sich gegen\u00fcber Vorgesetzten und HR nicht offenbaren m\u00fcssen. 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