Most workplaces treat harm as a series of “incidents” — individual moments, conflicts, or misunderstandings. But harm rarely starts there. It starts earlier, in the conditions your workplace produces every day.
In systems work, we call this the thermal layer: the background heat created when roles, expectations, biases, and power imbalances interact.
You don’t feel it because you’re sensitive. You feel it because you’re exposed.
How Harm Begins: System Heat
In thermodynamics, heat isn’t random. It follows patterns. Workplace heat does too.
The Four Sources of Workplace Heat
Each source creates its own kind of pressure. When they interact, they amplify each other — and the heat looks personal even though it isn’t.
Structural Pressure
- Ambiguous responsibilities
- Decisions made without context
- Leadership distance from consequences
Identity-Based Loading
- Being the “bridge” between cultures
- Being expected to show grace under harm
- Being the “example” of inclusion
Power Imbalance
- Leaders shielded from impact
- Downward flow of accountability
- Upward flow of harm
Organisational Drift
- Policies without practice
- Values without behaviour
- Belonging without safety
Where This Leads
Heat forms before harm is visible. The next step is understanding where the heat goes when systems don’t hold it.
This takes us into the next page: Thermal Load & Boundary Membranes.
Systems create heat. People should not be the ones absorbing it.