The Elephant in the Break Room: What Team Tension Is Really Costing You

Most team tension never gets named. We walk past it in meetings, feel it in group chats, sense it in how someone closes their laptop or doesn't respond to a message. And still, no one says a word. But tension that goes unnamed doesn't disappear—it just moves underground where it eats trust alive. If you've ever felt that weird energy shift in your team or watched productivity drop for no clear reason, you're witnessing the cost of unaddressed conflict. Here's your framework for naming what everyone feels but no one discusses.