If you want to understand what actually makes new employees feel safe, you have to look at two lenses: attachment theory and psychological safety. The surprising part of her team’s Harvard Business School research is that new employees actually report higher psychological safety than their more tenured peers—and then lose it over time. Yet only 12% of employees strongly agree their organization does a great job onboarding, according to Gallup’s 2018 study. The Harvard Business School’s finding that psychological safety declines over time is a general trend, not a universal law. Psychological safety isn’t a static perk—it’s a dynamic state that starts higher than many leaders assume and frays without daily reinforcement.