How to help employees live with uncertainty

By Jasmin Pillay, HR Director, Microsoft South Africa

We could probably fill a library with what has already been written about how the Covid-19 pandemic has fuelled a rise in stress, anxiety, and mental health issues. As HR practitioners, it is beholden on us to carefully consider how we might best support our employees to manage an environment in which not knowing what is around the corner provokes stress and anxiety at such high levels.

Uncertainty is challenging for everyone

Life can change in a nano-second, and knowing that it is possible, but not knowing the ‘when and how’ is challenging for almost everyone. By and large, we are wired to be planners, and uncertainty causes us to fear for ourselves, and for our families.

I have previously mentioned how the impact of uncertainty on our stress levels was validated by a study at University College London, funded by the Medical Research Council. It found that people who are certain they will receive a small electric shock experience far less stress than those who know there is a chance they may get shocked and a chance they will not. When we know something is about to happen that we will not like, we can brace ourselves. It is the not knowing, the uncertainty, that triggers stress and anxiety.

Certainly, a global pandemic does not allow us the luxury of knowing what comes next. Even the roll-out of vaccines continues to be uncertain as the procurement of vaccinations is ongoing in South Africa, with no definitive timeline yet disclosed. This can be a trigger for ongoing mental health challenges for employees who are wondering when life will ‘return to normal’.

Where to start

The first step is to counsel employees to accept a ‘new normal’. This is likely not the normal they would prefer, but accepting that life has changed irrevocably is an important step to regularising our responses to the environment we find ourselves in.

Another crucial element is to stop the doomscrolling. No good ever came from an excessive media intake, especially when the proliferation of fake news can make it difficult to determine accurate facts from fearmongering scare stories. It is important to discard aspects of catastrophizing – as tempting as it might be to focus on the negative rather than to seek out positive stories.

Reframing the big picture

Globalisation and advances in technology have combined to create an environment where there will be more big picture situations. Actively responding to one big picture situation increases our healthy response to future big picture situations.

As we become more and more connected across the planet in a myriad of ways – socially and economically – and as technology continues to advance in terms of availability of information, we will continue to experience these big picture situations. While this can lead to more underlying and constant stress, it also provides us with an opportunity to develop an awareness of the big picture. “Knowledge is power” goes the saying, and it is key to take our experiences and learn to anticipate future situations in a proactive manner.

This is not to suggest that we all become doomsayers. Rather, by reframing the big picture we develop a better understanding of how big picture situations impact our daily lives and in turn, this can help us make more informed life decisions. For example, consider how the last financial recession prompted many organisations who survived to develop more proactive financial policies to shield themselves from future economic downturns. Similarly, the coronavirus pandemic will likely entrench higher standards of public hygiene, such as handwashing and sanitizing.

Focus on what you can control

We cannot control when or if something bad happens – it is largely out of our hands and no amount of worrying will prevent it. However, we can control how we behave each day, and how we take care of ourselves. Practising self-care takes on an added dimension of importance in times like this. Encouraging our employees to take advantage of the resources offered through the HR structure, such as employee assistance programmes, is an important step. By looking holistically at the support we offer to our employees, and by combining a diverse range of interventions, as HR practitioners we can help our workforce manage this ongoing uncertainty with a more positive, proactive mindset.