What Practising Manager Conversations Does to Sick Leave

Twenty years ago I was a team lead, and looking back, I was bad at employee conversations. That is the honest truth.

When someone came to me overwhelmed, I made it small: a burnout you fix with paracetamol, a depression with a swim, a concert or a good meal. I didn't say these things literally, but if I'm honest, I thought them. I forced my own narrative onto their story, because underneath it I had a sick-leave percentage that needed to come down, and I treated the conversation as a tool to get there instead of a genuine conversation.

What the research shows

One study has stuck with me. Researchers trained managers of about 4,000 employees at Fire & Rescue NSW in exactly these conversations. Six months later, sick leave in their teams was down 18%. In the untrained group, it was up 10% over the same period. Same pressure, opposite outcome, because someone had practised the conversation instead of forcing it.

Practice changes how you listen

Practice doesn't just make the conversation easier. It makes you more capable of seeing the person in front of you, because you're not busy fighting your own fear in the moment.

I believe AI roleplay can do exactly that job, at scale, before the moment counts. If I'd had the chance to practise this twenty years ago, I think I'd have been a better manager.