Researchers undertaking fieldwork in fragile contexts are often required to immerse themselves among people and events that can be tough to observe, interpret, and write up. The complexity of such work is likely to elicit powerful and potentially harmful emotional responses for the researcher that, if untreated or unrecognised, can leave them at risk of compassion fatigue. In this webinar, I draw attention to the emotional well-being of the vulnerable researcher. I focus on the ethics review process and argue that current institutional structures are generally insufficient to adequately prepare, monitor, and support researchers to confidently undertake fieldwork in fragile contexts. Using an ethics approach, I draw theoretically from scholars in other disciplines who pay critical attention to these issues and, using their analyses, I present an 'Ethics Framework for Vulnerable Researchers' that maps how interventions and strategies can be applied to the field of IHRM. My intention is to spur an honest and transparent conversation to overcome a 'culture of silence' about the personal difficulties vulnerable researchers face in coping with arduous fieldwork.