Workplace Empathy and Boundary: How HR Balances Personal Empathy and Professional Empathy

Abstract

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This study explores how Human Resource (HR) professionals navigate the complex balance between showing empathy and maintaining professionalism in the workplace. Drawing on qualitative interviews with experienced HR practitioners, the study investigates the emotional challenges they face when responding to employees’ needs, and how organizational structures, cultural norms, and institutional expectations shape their practices. Rather than treating empathy as purely emotional, this study focuses on how HR professionals actively construct boundary between personal empathy and professional empathy through the use of neutral language, careful reframing, and referring to company policies. They find ways to respond with compassion while still fulfilling their responsibilities to the organization. The findings highlight the practical contradictions HR faces between care and control, flexibility and rules, human connection and organizational demands. This research contributes to a deeper understanding in HR work and provides insight into how professionals manage the invisible boundary between being supportive and being responsible.