HR Spotlight Interview
In HR Spotlight’s special Women’s History Month edition, we are sitting down with Jenn Harrold, the Senior Vice President of Human Resources at NewDay USA. With over 20 years of experience spanning technology, fintech, omni-channel retail, and logistics, Jenn has built a career translating business needs into human impact.
In this candid interview, she pulls back the curtain on the heavy emotional toll of being a corporate “first responder,” absorbing organizational stress so others can move forward. She also confronts the reality of the “glass cliff,” where women are often brought into leadership roles during crises specifically to fix broken systems. Jenn shares how she unlearned the conditioned need to “over-function” to prove her worth, transforming her approach by setting boundaries and refusing to carry fractured cultures alone.
Thank you for joining us, Jenn! HR has been through the wringer lately. From being the ‘bad guys’ during layoffs to the ‘fun police’ during RTO, a lot’s been happening. If you could clear the air right now, what is the one thing you wish every employee understood about your job?
Jenn Harrold:
I wish more people understood that HR professionals are people first.
When we orchestrate layoffs, we are not just managing spreadsheets, we are thinking about how to preserve dignity, how to communicate with clarity, and how to protect the people who are leaving and the people who are staying. We think about the ripple effects, and it takes a toll.
Sometimes we are asked to eliminate roles that belong to colleagues we’ve worked alongside for years. Sometimes we are even involved in decisions that impact our own teams. That work is heavy.
What’s rarely talked about is that we are the support system for everyone else, but we don’t always pause to process what we carry. We absorb a lot so others can move forward with steadiness.
Behind the policy and the process, we are simply human beings doing our best to balance compassion with business reality.
What boundary did you have to learn to set in your career that changed everything?
Jenn Harrold:
Early in my career, I thought being capable meant being available — all the time.
I’m a mom. A wife. A leader. I’ve carried a lot of titles. And somewhere along the way I decided I should be excellent at all of them simultaneously. I said yes quickly. I fixed things fast. I prided myself on being the person who could just get it done.
And for a while, that felt like ambition.
But if I’m honest, I was over-functioning. I wasn’t fully present anywhere. I was stretched across roles trying to prove I could carry it all — at work and at home.
I had to confront something uncomfortable: many women are conditioned to believe we have to outperform, overdeliver, and overextend just to earn and keep our seat at the table. I see it in my circles all the time.
At some point I realized that constantly being the fixer wasn’t leadership so, I started setting clearer boundaries.
At home, that meant being intentional about when I was working and when I was not. Not taking calls at dinner. Not mentally drafting responses during family time.
At work, it meant pushing back when “Can you just handle this?” became the default. My ability to GSD doesn’t mean I should absorb every urgent ask. Capability should not automatically equal responsibility.
The boundary that changed everything was this: I don’t have to prove my value by exhaustion.
When I stopped over-functioning, I didn’t lose influence. I gained clarity. And I show up stronger in every role because of it.
We’ve heard it said that ‘Nobody plans to go into HR; they are usually dragged into it because they are good at listening.’ Is that true for you? What was the specific moment you realized, ‘Oh, I’m actually meant to do this’?
Jenn Harrold:
Like many people in this field, I found my way here through proximity to people and performance. I began in the staffing agency world and eventually corporate recruiting.
The turning point came during a restructuring when I found myself leading recruiting and talent management. It was uncomfortable at first. I wrestled with imposter syndrome, the quiet voice asking, ‘do you actually belong in this seat?’
Then I led a major initiative that required aligning business strategy with talent outcomes. We weren’t just filling roles; we were shaping the future of the organization. That was the moment it clicked.
I realized I wasn’t just good at listening, I was good at translating business needs into human impact and vice versa. That’s when I knew this wasn’t accidental. It was alignment.
HR requires a weird mix of skills. You have to be part lawyer, part therapist, and part data analyst. If we stripped away the job title, what is the one ‘superpower’ you rely on most when the office is on fire?
Jenn Harrold:
Calm under pressure.
HR requires a strange but powerful blend of skills, part compliance, part therapist, part strategist, part analyst. But when things escalate, none of that matters if you can’t regulate the room.
In moments of crisis, my role is to create stability. I slow the pace emotionally, even if the decisions need to move quickly. I gather facts rapidly, assess risk, consider impact, and then move people toward clarity and action.
Panic spreads fast. If I can steady the energy, align the stakeholders, and keep the focus on solutions rather than noise, we can navigate almost anything. Rapid change and adaptation don’t intimidate me, they energize me.
If you could describe the current ‘mood’ of the workforce in 2026 using just one word, what would it be? Why?
Jenn Harrold:
Volatile — but not fragile.
The modern workforce is informed, vocal, and hyper-aware of power dynamics. Employees are recalibrating what loyalty, leadership, and work-life integration mean to them.
That creates intensity. Reactions are sharper. Decisions are faster. Transparency is demanded, not requested.
Volatility isn’t chaos — it’s compression. Everything moves faster now. Trust builds slower and it breaks quicker.
Organizations that lead with clarity and consistency will steady the room. Those that don’t will feel the swings.
We often talk about the ‘Glass Ceiling,’ but lately, the conversation has shifted to the ‘Glass Cliff’, where women are promoted to leadership only during times of crisis. Have you ever felt that pressure to be the ‘fixer’ in a broken system?
Jenn Harrold:
Absolutely.
I have a natural bias toward action. I move quickly. I assess, diagnose, and want to stabilize what feels chaotic. That instinct has served me well, especially in environments where change is constant and stakes are high.
But I’ve also learned that there’s a difference between being invited to lead transformation and being handed a mess and expected to absorb the fallout.
The “glass cliff” is real because women are often seen as emotionally intelligent, stabilizing forces. We’re brought in when morale is low, when culture is fractured, when trust has eroded. The unspoken expectation is that we will “fix” things.
What I’ve learned is this: I am willing to lead in a crisis, but I’m no longer willing to carry a broken system alone. Real change requires shared ownership. I’ll bring urgency, clarity, and solutions — but leadership is a team sport.
Being the fixer is powerful. Being the scapegoat is not.
HR professionals are the ‘first responders’ of the corporate world, handling grief, layoffs, and conflict. What is your specific protocol for protecting your own peace after a day of absorbing everyone else’s stress?
Jenn Harrold:
I compartmentalize — sometimes too well. It’s a strength and a liability.
Over time, I’ve realized that absorbing everyone else’s stress without releasing it is not sustainable. So, I’ve had to become intentional about decompression.
After an emotionally heavy day, I seek quiet. No noise. No input. I give myself space to process rather than immediately moving to the next thing. The pause matters.
Then I regulate — yoga, breath work, meditation. Movement is non-negotiable for me. I start every morning with a workout. It’s how I create resilience before the day ever asks anything of me.
Protecting your peace isn’t indulgent — it’s operationally necessary.
Without naming names, tell us about a time you had to deliver tough news (a termination, a restructuring) that actually taught you something profound about leadership or empathy.
Jenn Harrold:
I will never forget that day.
During a major restructuring, a new organizational design resulted in the elimination of a role held by a dear friend, and I had to be the one to tell her.
Professionally, I was composed. Personally, I was crushed. There is a particular kind of silence that follows news like that — the kind that stays with you long after the meeting ends.
We didn’t speak for a long time. When we eventually reconnected, something had shifted. She has since moved away, and our relationship was never the same.
Leadership is not about emotional distance. It’s about carrying responsibility even when it costs you something personally. Sometimes doing your job well doesn’t feel like winning and you have to be mature enough to hold that complexity without turning it into defensiveness.
That experience changed me. It made me softer in some ways. Stronger in others.
If you could ban one corporate buzzword forever, what would it be?
Jenn Harrold:
“Circle back.”
Not because the phrase itself is offensive — but because it’s often code for avoidance.
If something matters, address it. If a decision needs to be made, make it. If there’s conflict, have the conversation.
“Circle back” has become the polite cousin of procrastination.
HR is often described as a thankless job—you’re the villain when things go wrong and invisible when things go right. Why do you stay? What is the specific moment that reminds you ‘This is why I do this’?
Jenn Harrold:
Because in the moments that matter most, you see the impact.
It’s not in the big announcements or polished town halls. It’s in the quiet moments — when a leader grows into someone more self-aware. When a struggling employee stabilizes and finds their footing. When a difficult decision is handled with integrity instead of ego.
The moment that reminds me “this is why” is when someone says, “You told me the truth when I needed it,” or “You helped me see something I couldn’t see myself.”
HR sits at the intersection of performance and people. That tension is hard. It’s messy. It’s rarely celebrated.
When you help shape a system that both demands results and respects people — even imperfectly — that matters.
That’s why I stay.
A massive thank you to Jenn Harrold for bringing such profound clarity and empathy to HR Spotlight. Her journey proves that true leadership isn’t about absorbing every urgent ask or fixing every broken system alone; it is about creating stability, demanding shared ownership, and respecting the humans behind the performance metrics.
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