Stress and Anxiety and Depression, Oh My!

We all know that the past 4 months have brought stress into our lives. I wrote early about trying to reach out to furloughed or laid off employees because of the anxiety they would experience due to the loss of meaning, identity, and community. I also noted the sustained stress suffered by those that were fortunate enough to keep their jobs because they had started out like a sprint only to discover that the sprint was actually a marathon. Well, the verdict is in, and it is worse than I had imagined. 

TotalBrain is a company that has developed a platform for assessing 12 core brain functions organized under the general categories of emotion, feeling, cognition, and self-control. With over 1 million people using the platform, they are able to track a variety of measures and how those values change over time. Their May results present troubling findings regarding the impact of the pandemic on workers. As you can see in the figure, stress levels, anxiety, and depression risk have all increased dramatically since February. 

Source: TotalBrain https://www.totalbrain.com/mentalhealthindex/

If this is the state of the U.S. workforce, then one can expect to see a significant increase in alcoholism, drug abuse, and even suicide. More importantly, if this is your workforce, you can expect to see these negative outcomes appear, if you haven’t seen them already. 

So, what to do?

1.     Encourage employees to take advantage of Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs). Many employees do not want to admit that they need help, and thus, under normal circumstances, would not contact the EAP. However, you should communicate to them facts like the TotalBrain results, and emphasize how all of the speed, change, pressure, and stress has likely impacted everyone in ways we have never seen before. Let them know that everyone needs help under such circumstances. 

2.     Encourage them to get physicals. We know that all of the mental and emotional stress over a prolonged time will result in negative physiological outcomes. The lockdown made it difficult to exercise, and easy to eat and drink too much, all of which would also lead to negative physiological outcomes such as hypertension, weight gain, and diabetes. Employees should see a doctor for a physical as soon as feasible to identify any such outcomes early, before they can become chronic or fatal. 

3.     Demand employees take complete and non-negotiable vacations. By that I do not mean time away where employees remain connected to their work, but work less. Rather I mean complete disconnection from their work responsibilities…no e-mail, no text, no phone, no contact whatsoever with their jobs. I recently spoke with a CHRO who had never been a fan of furloughs, but found that it was the most effective and quickest way to reduce their costs. She explained that the implementation required complete disconnection from the organization for the two weeks employees were furloughed. She then said that when people returned she was surprised by how many actually appreciated the furlough because the complete disconnection gave them time to relax and recharge. Imagine how much more relaxing and recharging the experience can be when they still receive a full paycheck.

Your employees are at risk right now. It is not because of what you have done, but because of what the pandemic has done to them. However, you now have the opportunity, no, the responsibility, to do something to protect them from letting the effects of the pandemic result in chronic or fatal outcomes.