Freedom From Stress Now - your advocate for better workplace stress management

My brother-in-law started a new job with a wonderful company, after struggling for a while with a previous work environment that took a lot out of him and his family life. He came back one day from this new job, baffled. His wife asked him, ” What’s wrong?”

He said, ” Nothing… I’m just not used to the way they do things here… But in a good way. You know what happened? Someone at work sent me a letter of appreciation today!!” He grinned. He went from a workplace where he felt abused every second he was there, to having someone take the time to write a thank you letter in this new place. He doesn’t know how he got to be so lucky.

Whether at work or outside of the office, it is nice to know that what we do at the very least doesn’t go unnoticed. It is even more wonderful when we are acknowledged fully as what happened to my brother-in-law.

So think about this. Can you bring up a colleague whose support and great work has helped you along your way? Maybe someone has consistently done something nice but has become such a regular thing that no one picks up on it ( ie. brought / made coffee first thing in the morning ). Write a note. Pick up a phone. Or just go up to that person and tell them. See the instantaneous changes it makes in both of you, physically. Even after that moment is gone, I can guarantee you that the seemingly small gesture on your part is a catalyst for a whole sequence of emotional and psychologically goodness.

Here’s a video I’d like to share with you, fitting into today’s post very nicely:

http://www.nogreatergiftmovie.com/

To being better and better,
Safrina

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Thought it was just another day at work when I started my office routine by checking my email. My eyes caught this headline and an instant knot formed in my throat:

France Telecom No. 2 resigns over staff suicides. According to the article, France Telecom is a ” former state monopoly which employs 100,000 people in France and trades internationally as Orange, the telecoms giant has undergone major restructuring, which unions say have left workers stressed and demoralised.”

“The latest suicide was a 51-year-old father of two who jumped to his death from a highway overpass after leaving a note blaming pressures at work.”

” On September 15, a 32-year-old woman killed herself by leaping from the fifth-floor window of a France Telecom building in Paris. Two days earlier, a male worker stabbed himself in the stomach during a meeting. He survived.”

( Read the rest of the article here )

Is this not a warning bell to all company leaders to heed the emotional wellbeing of their employees? Above and beyond bad publicity, most companies it seems are merely paying lip service when they say they value their employees but when it comes to the nitty gritty of making sure they implement strategies that actually work ( let’s face it, millions of dollars are flushed down the toilet with workplace health initiatives that merely work on the superficial level. In this day and age, more needs to be done, and be done fast ).

I have been an advocate of workplace stress management for a while now, working with individual clients who come to me with various work-related emotional and psychological distress. With the economic reality as it is currently, a catalyst for a lot of corporate changes and retrenchment, mental health professionals such as myself see effective change management not only as a wise business decision but one that is of utmost, crucial importance.

Some of my clients acknowledge that their employers are trying, but many workplace wellbeing seminars they’ve attended are, to quote one of them ” a total waste of my day…”.

Company leaders who want to stay competitive when the economy starts its recovery need to make sure they put aside resources ( ie. budget ) for implementing techniques that are proven effective, and preferably something that puts control back into the hands of their valued people.

Through my experience helping my clients achieve emotional and psychological breakthroughs with their work-related issues, I would like to say this on their behalf:

I understand that in the day and age of do more with less, companies are cutting down on a lot of things. But the one thing you can’t cut down on is the inner and outer wellbeing of those you build your success upon. Your company’s survival is hingeing on this and compounded with economic uncertainty, this issue may well be as fragile as a house of cards.

Above all, be visionary. Seek methods that are more effective. Be open to solutions that appear to go against the grain but in actual fact makes a lot of sense.

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Mergers, layoffs, restructuring…. Everyone’s hearing a lot of mentions of these dreaded words in the media and it is now top-of-the-mind issue for many employees and employers. Understandably, challenging times require hard choices to be made, but an even harder decision to make that will kill a company’s bottom line is if they keep ignoring the true value of their human capital. 

The main issue now? Staff lacking trust in management. Job satisfaction is at a low, and so is employee morale. Is it any wonder, then, that unhappy employees are doing the bare minimum in their jobs and once the economy shows stronger signs of revival they will not hesitate to jump ship?

This is exactly what a survey of 280 job seekers conducted by recruitment firm Aequalis Consulting has found:

- 45 percent of job seekers lacked trust in senior management

- 62 percent were experiencing lower morale

- only 22 percent said they would stay put

According to Aequalis director Simon Boulton, employers were too quick to drop staff when the going got tough, and are now at risk of losing their top performers.

Addressing employee morale and  improving communication may not be top priority for a lot of the executives out there who are too busy putting out fires to pay attention to these `less-than-emergency’ details, but it is imperative that these issues get addressed before it’s too little, too late….

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