Sep 27, 2026 · 10 min · 9 segments
In the previous episode, Helen McCabe and Jamila Rizvi talked about explaining traumatic employment gaps. Now, the duo are looking at how trauma can change your response to the job interview scenario…
Jamila RizviHostHelen McCabeHost
Last week, we talked about how to explain a traumatic employment gap in your resume.
This week, we're going to approach the same subject, but from a different angle.
We're going to be looking at how trauma can change your response to the job interview scenario entirely.
If you're someone who has lived through coercive control or perhaps a serious workplace psychological injury, then your nervous system can treat any workplace as an active threat matrix.
That means that when you're showing up for an interview, you might be actively scanning for danger that may not be there, and that can inhibit your performance.
Research confirms this can be a challenge.
Trauma rewires threat detection.
After trauma, the body becomes hypervigilant and fires fight, flight, freeze at lower thresholds.
Repeated exposure shrinks the window of tolerance over time.
Even after starting a new job, a manager's tone or an ambiguous email can feel really dangerous.
people are now more aware of trauma and how it shows up.
This has sharpened public understanding of how control and fear can shape a person's wellbeing and perspective.
A
of coercive control can fracture your sense of safety in all sorts of situations, especially high-stakes settings like an interview.
Australian work health and safety regulators now treat psychosocial hazards as a formal duty of care for employers and trauma-informed practice has moved into the mainstream workplace investigation guidance.
So what all of this means is that the experience that you might be having ahead of or during an interview is is not something that is foreign to every employer now.
This kind of language, this kind of understanding is something that employers more and more have to think about because we know that there are employees who have been through traumatic experiences that are going to affect how they show up at work.
Last week, we talked about how to explain a traumatic employment gap in your resume.
This week, we're going to approach the same subject, but from a different angle.
We're going to be looking at how trauma can change your response to the job interview scenario entirely.
If you're someone who has lived through coercive control or perhaps a serious workplace psychological injury, then your nervous system can treat any workplace as an active threat matrix.
That means that when you're showing up for an interview, you might be actively scanning for danger that may not be there, and that can inhibit your performance.
Research confirms this can be a challenge.
Trauma rewires threat detection.
After trauma, the body becomes hypervigilant and fires fight, flight, freeze at lower thresholds.
Repeated exposure shrinks the window of tolerance over time.
Even after starting a new job, a manager's tone or an ambiguous email can feel really dangerous.
people are now more aware of trauma and how it shows up.
This has sharpened public understanding of how control and fear can shape a person's wellbeing and perspective.
A
of coercive control can fracture your sense of safety in all sorts of situations, especially high-stakes settings like an interview.
Australian work health and safety regulators now treat psychosocial hazards as a formal duty of care for employers and trauma-informed practice has moved into the mainstream workplace investigation guidance.
So what all of this means is that the experience that you might be having ahead of or during an interview is is not something that is foreign to every employer now.
This kind of language, this kind of understanding is something that employers more and more have to think about because we know that there are employees who have been through traumatic experiences that are going to affect how they show up at work.
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