The role of research in an applied field can be seen in terms of its relevance and use to practitioners. However, it can seem that much, or at least some, educational research currently being undertaken has become focused on the agenda and expressed in the terms of the ideology of governmental department and agencies. Specifically, how meaningful is research if it is carried out on behalf of the leaders (that euphemism for bosses) rather than for those whose working lives are influenced and controlled by the leaders' behaviour and decisions? In the particular focus of this article, the connected areas of workload, stress and bullying, in an English context, can be seen to be driven by relentless managerialism and systemic performativity where the measurement of input and output is all. It can seem that the values and needs of practitioners at the chalk face or, increasingly, those being squeezed between a rock and a hard place, are being ignored. Their role is seen as being the mere recipients of this research. (It is not surprising, therefore, that it can be asserted that many practitioners have no interest in research at all, perhaps regarding it as "Sunday best" thinking). This article will trace the formulation of a research idea from: (1) the intuitive sensing of something there by the prospective researcher; (2) through the noticing of popular trends, using one text in particular as an example; (3) to the making of links between seemingly disparate areas of research; and (4) to the couching of a research question in terms that speaks of and respects the real experience and "feelings" of practitioners and participants in the educational process.