Naviga Trauma in the Workplace

May was Mental Health Awareness Month, but/and just because it's no longer May doesn't mean mental health issues disappear. The past fifteen months have been deeply traumatic for most of us. A global pandemic that has killed nearly four million people (and counting), the murder of George Floyd at the hands of police that launched civil rights protests around the country, 181 Black people killed by police since George Floyd’s death, and a shocking rise in anti-Asian hate crimes have all contributed to collective feelings of trauma.

According to the NCBI, “Initial reactions to trauma can include exhaustion, confusion, sadness, anxiety, agitation, numbness, dissociation, confusion, physical arousal, and blunted affect.” It’s important to understand that these are normal responses to abnormal situations. We should not normalize the deaths of over 598,000 Americans from COVID, hundreds of thousands of which could have been avoided according to Dr. Birx, part of the White House team responding to the virus. 

It’s not normal for police to kill nearly two hundred Black people in the past twelve months. It’s not normal to blame Asians and Asian Americans for a virus that doesn’t care who you are, what you look like, or where you’re from.

And it’s not normal to suddenly, shockingly, have the entire country shut down virtually overnight. To go from complaining about the daily commute around the water cooler to figuring out how to find a Zoom-friendly corner of your home for meetings, literally overnight. 

None of us has ever been through anything like this. There is no HR policy for dealing with trauma. There’s no handbook. All any of us can do is the best we can in each moment, which will vary from one moment to the next.  A recent survey of nearly 600 HR professionals revealed that 76% of employees are suffering from burnout, and 72% have sought mental health support. 

You may notice some of these symptoms in co-workers or employees: 

• Difficulty concentrating
• Anger, irritability, mood swings
• Withdrawing from others
• Feeling sad or hopeless
• Feeling disconnected or numb
• Increased anxiety

Your people are NOT okay. They’re suffering, especially if they are Black or Asian. The conviction of Derek Chauvin is not a panacea that will suddenly stop police from killing Black people. In fact, the same week of his conviction two more Black people were killed: Duarte Wright and Ma’Khia Bryant.  

What you can do to support yourself and others during these traumatic times:

1. Have empathy: remember that everyone is doing the best they can, and that will vary from day to day depending on what’s happening in the news and at home.
2. Ask what support they need. Two ways you can offer support would be to engage a coach on call for people to talk to, and offer mindfulness sessions to help reduce stress.
3. Arrange for facilitated listening sessions for your employees of color to give them a psychologically safe space to share their feelings and experiences.
4. Leave them alone if they’re being silent- they may need time to process their feelings.
5. For yourself, try some simple exercises and techniques to stimulate the vagus nerve. The vagus nerve is a key part of the parasympathetic nervous system, responsible for regulating internal functions like breathing, digestion and heart rate. You can stimulate this nerve to help induce relaxation and positive stress responses. 

At the end of the day, remember: everyone- including you- is doing the best they can in each moment. Be kind to yourself. Be kind to others.