Our staff says: "Mentally we are at war"

Authors: ??Ewa Patyk i Olha Zachynska

We are a team undergoing a rapid transformation: from a culturally homogeneous team to a multicultural community. That is why we share our experience of working in the Neighborhood House "Go?cinna Przystań" of Gdańska Fundacja Innowacji Spo?ecznej (GFIS). We invite you to a dialogue on including people with refugee experience in NGO teams in the host community and managing a dynamically changing intercultural team.

Introduction

The war in Ukraine changed the landscape of our work at GFIS. In response to the needs of the community, we developed a humanitarian program, opening support for refugees from Ukraine. Specialist from Ukraine with their own refugee experience joined our team. In the Neighborhood House "Go?cinna Przystań" in Gdańsk's Orunia, we started with a team consisting only of people from Poland, and currently over 50% of our staff are refugees, working with new residents and the host community. We have grouped our reflections on supporting a team that includes refugees in several thematic areas. The quotes come from the statements of the staff of the Neighborhood House.

Emotional support

“We are mentally at war” is a phrase that came up in conversations with our team. This is the challenge that accompanies us. While in Poland, refugees follow the media coverage of the war in Ukraine on a daily basis and receive dramatic information from their relatives who stayed in the country. We hear from our staff: "My head is here, but the heart is in the war zone." Refugees left behind their loved ones, important places, and their homeland. Their lives and health were at stake. Many refugees experienced trauma during the war in Ukraine, escape to Poland or adaptation in a new place. Trauma coping research indicates that post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) affects up to 30 percent of people who experience traumatic events; in turn, up to 25 percent of people show a recovery response, and another 15 percent show a delayed stress response. Importantly, the most common response is effective resilience and building resilience. More than half of people who experience trauma return to their normal activities soon after the event and stay there. Despite this extraordinary resilience, the personal and family experience of war translates into a huge psychological and emotional burden. It is therefore necessary to prepare the management staff for cooperation with specialists who have experienced trauma, so that managers have special attention and sensitivity in this area. The consequence of trauma may be cognitive, emotional or health difficulties. Trauma and constant experience of war can also affect a person's readiness to work. Therefore, it is important to achieve a balance in the NGO between employee productivity and care for a person in crisis. We know that in the environment of non-governmental organizations, where working at 120% is often a standard, adopting a mode of operation focused on well-being can be a challenge. However, it is extremely important and crucial for building healthy teams, especially with persons from vulnerable groups.

Every day, in our team, we try to create a safe space for emotional expression and conversation as tools that strengthen resilience. “Sometimes in difficult situations, for example when a friend's husband returned to Ukraine, it is not known how to help. All I can do is ask if I need anything. And be open to conversation." An important element that our staff pays attention to is also the positive impact of being part of the team. Community is a response to loneliness in a new country and a way to establish new relationships. “When a friend is alone in the country with her children, it is important to be together. Let her know that I am available for anything. If she has a problem, is afraid to get somewhere, has no one to leave her children with - these are her colleagues from work. It is important for me. I am a refugee and have been living here for a short time. When you are Ukrainian and a Polish woman invites you to her home, it matters a lot. It's about being rooted. Sometimes I joke that you are at home in your country when you start going to weddings and funerals."

Another tool for dealing with emotional challenges at work is for us: individual and group supervision as well as psychological support. We try to include supervision elements in our projects and we network with the aid system to give the staff access to psychological consultations. Adopting this approach as a standard has changed a lot in our experience of crises and challenges in everyday work. However, we would like to point out that psychosocial support is a supplement to the economic area, which is crucial for a person's emotional security. We know that, above all, stable and decent employment is a way to regain control over your life and we would like to provide our staff with such value.

Intercultural communication and adaptation

Building a multicultural team is based on creating a system of cooperation between people who, due to their cultural background, can think, communicate and approach teamwork differently. This may be related to cultural dissonance, i.e. a sense of contradiction in cultural patterns to which one is subject. Another possible reaction is culture shock - the acute anxiety caused by having to adjust to a new cultural system and the taxing effort of understanding and adjusting. Cultural differences between Poland and Ukraine are not so significant - a similar language and close geographical location are conducive to understanding. However, there are challenges. In the case of our team, challenges in cooperation concerned, for example, differences in the ways of perceiving time and punctuality (what does it mean that we start at 9.00?), prioritizing tasks (which topics to start working with?), using communication channels (email or Vider? ), language issues, or understanding leadership roles (can the boss sweep the corridor?).

Based on this experience, we try to implement onboarding in a systemic way, i.e.: planned introduction of a new person to the most important issues regarding the team, help in acclimatization and transfer of knowledge and skills in a friendly way that allow for integration and effective work in a team. The way to do this may be to assign an experienced person in the team to "colleague assistance" or to include new people to work in other teams in the first month in order to get to know the organization. In the long term, an effective solution for us is the role of an informal intercultural liaison. In our team it is a person from Ukraine who has been staying in Poland for a long time. Knowing the cultural context, he helps team members in navigating between intercultural challenges and building understanding. Alternatively, we use the system of "intercultural pairs", where a person from Poland works on a task together with a person from Ukraine. “When we work in pairs of a Polish woman and a Ukrainian woman, we can work on our strengths. A collegue from Poland knows the system, I know the people. One person can bring an idea and the other can implement it. We're learning from each other." At the same time, we are trying to strengthen the communication system that allows you to constantly ask questions and check mutual understanding. Important tools for us are: team briefings and the availability of coordinators in situations that require clarification, as well as improving communication competences, e.g. education in the field of NVC and Polish as a foreign language courses.

Support for people caring for dependents

In the community of refugees from Ukraine in Poland, over 90% of people are women and children - women make up about 50%, and children - over 40%. Also about 90% of working-age refugees are women. This indicates the advantage in the community of refugees from Ukraine of families where women take care of children and dependent adults alone. The functioning of independent carers on the labor market is difficult. When the refugee experience is added to this, the situation becomes extremely complicated. Our teammates indicate that their priority is to meet the needs of peace and stability. Therefore, we consider it crucial to support independent parents and guardians with refugee experience in combining work and being the head of the family, by adapting working conditions to the needs of parents, i.e.: long-term contracts, flexibility of work (especially its time), availability of granting leaves and exemptions from work and access to care services.

We would like to be able to write that we implement this model in 100%, but it is still a "work in progress". Thanks to the involvement of external donors and combining projects, we work to extend employment. Together with the coordinators of individual activities, we pay attention to providing parents and guardians with the possibility of adjusting leaves and leaves to the needs of these people. As far as possible, we create conditions for: flexible working hours, taking the child to work and friendly support in care and remote work. We network people in need with the existing care support system, also as part of our projects - e.g. through a pre-school point, afternoon club or development classes.

In this context, the aspect of being part of the community is also important: “You have lived here for a long time. You know where it's good. Where should I go with my child after work? How to get a doctor? We do not know such details. I know at home, but I don't know how it works here. When you are a refugee in a new place, it is good if you can ask something in the team. The support of friends is a treasure." Rooting a person in an informal support system has positive effects that cannot be replaced by an institution. Together, we act for the benefit of the working person and the family.

Future

Specialists with refugee experience who take up work in social services in a new country often have extensive experience, but their education is not recognized in the Polish legal system. This translates into the inability to find employment "in the profession" and the need to work below qualifications. This strikes at a person's dignity and self-esteem. Thanks to the implementation of humanitarian projects in cooperation with Mercy Corps , we were able to create jobs for people who face this challenge. At the same time, enriching the potential of our organization.

We put a lot of emphasis on making the experience of working at GFIS have a long-term effect. We make sure that our staff from the refugee community, after completing the projects, can find themselves on the labor market. The most important forms of support in this area, which we have identified with our staff, are: support in the recognition of diplomas, translation of documents, legal support, and career counseling (preparation of a CV, familiarization with the Polish labor market) and Polish language courses. Their implementation was possible thanks to social and professional activation projects implemented in partnership with Urz?d Miejski w Gdańsku and cooperation with the local aid network Gdańsk Helps Ukraine of Fundacja Gdanska and Up Foundation. “When I came to work, it was very difficult for me to talk to Poles in the office. I didn't know all the words, I didn't know how to act. I was afraid that I would say or do something wrong. If I can't work here one day, I'll do it somewhere else. I understand how work in Poland works. I have confidence. It's an important cultural experience.

In the outlined formula, non-governmental organizations take over the tasks of labor market institutions and counteract the social exclusion of employees - while implementing social goals, we simultaneously conduct social and professional activation of the employed staff from the refugee community. The gain for the community is significant and measurable. Therefore, it should translate into the involvement of the local government in supporting NGOs employing refugees.

Working with staff from the host community

“Cooperation with staff with refugee experience gives me a better understanding and feedback regarding our cultural competences. It builds open attitudes in the team and understanding for other life situations. It also increases access to people and communities we did not know about - we learn new tools, language. We can work better."

Including refugees in teams that were previously homogeneous and consisted only of Polish citizens brings great value. It gives new perspectives and ways of working, allows you to draw on diversity. However, it requires parallel work with staff from the host community, as we all interact cross-culturally with our own biases. Research by the Faculty of Political Sciences and International Studies at the Uniwersytet Warszawski on attitudes towards people from Ukraine at work (2023) indicates that the respondents “among the potential threats posed by refugees from Ukraine indicate for Poland: negative impact on the employment, negative impact on the Polish economy/state budget/increase in inflation and crime”. interviewME research from 2022 indicates that: "1 in 3 respondents are afraid that a Ukrainian will take their jobs." These beliefs are associated with the phenomenon of stereotyping, people from a different culture are assigned generalized assessments of mental and social characteristics based on their belonging to a national group. The vast majority of Poles (88%) do not mind working with Ukrainians, but despite the generally positive attitude, integrating an intercultural team is a challenge. The result may be a situation in which specialists from Ukraine, despite their high qualifications and experience, are directed only to auxiliary functions that do not use their potential, or they feel unwelcome in the work environment. Therefore, we make sure that the position and tasks performed at work result from competence, not stereotypes. “When I had to call Poles on the phone (at work) for the first time and do project papers with them, it was a terrible stress. And people came and said everything was great. I got great feedback. Then I was very proud."

Building a safe, equal intercultural team requires the awareness of managers and taking up the topic at the coordinating level. We try to build a space for the staff to learn, intercultural cooperation, seek understanding between cultural systems, as well as accept cultural diversity. This is facilitated by clear communication, strengthening the team's awareness of equality/inclusive values professed in the organization and implementing them in practice - e.g. pay equality, space to speak in the mother tongue in the workplace, or engaging refugee people in positions beyond the junior level. One of our friends from Ukraine says: “It was important to me that someone still doesn't know me well, but already believes in my abilities. He sends me to training. It gives responsible tasks. It's about equality." An important tool for us are staff briefings and supervision dealing with this topic, as well as intervention in a situation of discrimination.

Summary

Reading our text, we can see that many of the proposed recommendations are universal. They apply not only to refugees. They are based on dignity, mutual respect and responding to the needs of employees. However, we would like to point out that we are considering here the topic of cooperation with refugees who, in humanitarian terms, are described as "particularly vulnerable". As staff from the host community, we act, consciously or not, from a position of imbalance and power. This requires us to activate special mindfulness. Reaching once again to the wisdom of our team, we will quote: “I would like managers to remember that working in any team, not only with refugees, is like gardening. When you water the tree, you will reap the fruit."

We would like to thank the people from our Neighborhood House team "Go?cinna Przystań" for their support in creating the text, who shared with us their experience in co-creating an intercultural team.

Bibliography

When preparing from the substantive side, we reached for the literature:

Wojciech Martyński (2023). Poles about Ukrainians on the Polish labor market. 2022 study. In: interviewME .

Beata Krawczyk-Bry?ka, PhD and Dominika Fija?kowska (2015). Cultural adaptation as a challenge in international teams. W.: Sk?odowski H. (ed.). Challenges of business psychology in the cross-cultural dimension. Warsaw: SAN Publishing House.

Tomasz Chacinski (2022). How to support a culturally diverse work environment. In: Worksmile .

The article was originally published in Polish on the ngo.pl website.