Who's Responsible For Employee Self-Care?

A few years ago, a friend's new job was to implement a large roll-out of a new company. What looked like a great career choice on paper turned out to be the mother of all high-stress jobs.

Bad management. Bad planning. Cultural misunderstandings. If there was any way to screw up this rollout further, someone at corporate ferreted it out and applied it with all due haste.

My friend was a bundle of nerves. "Why don't you take a vacation?" I asked.

"I don't dare," he said.

"Come on, you've got legally-mandated vacation. You're going to have a heart attack or a stroke if you don't get a little stress relief." I suggested his favorite vacation spot--okay, his only vacation choice--but he ix-nayed the idea.

"Yeah, and when I get back there will be three times more work," he added. "Emails, voicemails, reports, new tasks. It'll take me two weeks to get through it all because while I'm catching up more will accumulate."

"How much will get you done from a hospital bed?" I asked.

"Taking a vacation is a career-killer."

"Oh come on. A career killer?" No senior manager I ever knew didn't take one. Or several.

That was his story and he stuck to it.

The work accumulation? Maybe. I suggested they could probably get someone to fill in during his absence but he insisted no one else could do his job. Was that his crazy work culture or his own ego? Maybe one or both. But still, a career killer? Really?

Where does the stress really originate?

Corporate culture squeezes more work out of their employees with longer hours, a trend that started in the '80s, and my friend's employer did seem genuinely unconscious of the human need for time off. Employees can push back, and maybe a few somewhere got fired for it, but is it perhaps the employee, afraid to ask for time off, telling himself or herself that it's a 'career killer' just to avoid a confrontation? Even if the confrontation offers nothing more than a well-practiced guilt-inducing disappointed look that you care so little about the company even to consider such a huge ask?

So, stress levels build and mental health problems reportedly rise with it, while LinkedIn trends with 'news' that employees allegedly would be happy with lower pay if only their employer would take their mental health and stress levels seriously.

One wonders who backed this study. Maybe Jack Ma, striking back at all the ingrates at Alibaba who are tired of working 9/9/6.

Or maybe it's just an employee's perception that their name will be added to A Book somewhere in the seventh level of hell, with a black D (for "Disloyal") by a Performance Review Nazi. "No raise for you!"

Our negativity bias impels us to take the easy way out to avoid challenge, or to look like a hard worker who doesn't need legally-mandated breaks, or we just feel guilty taking a personal day off because we've been trained to believe dedicated employees don't do that.

The consequences? The American Institute of Stress claims stress causes U.S. industry $300B annually in employee turnover, diminished productivity, absenteeism, and increased safety incidents, accidents, medical, legal and insurance costs.

The World Health Organization reports depression and anxiety costs $1T globally and that every U.S. dollar spent on mental health brings a $4 return in improved health and productivity.

Just think, if Jack Ma was a little more progressive-minded regarding the Alibaba workforce, he could be worth $167.2 billion dollars instead of a $41.8B net worth loser.

Granted, that math might be just a little bit creative. And snarky.

The point remains: Managing workplace stress is a joint effort. Employees need to practice self-care and challenge themselves when they're afraid to take needed time off. Just asking isn't nearly as likely to destroy your career as a stress-induced major health problem.

Employers who demonstrate they're serious about reducing workplace stress and tension will become more attractive to qualified, talented job-seekers and will find measurable increased productivity. A happier employee is a more engaged one, after all.

Employees at companies not yet aware of the importance of reducing stress, anxiety and depression can gently grease the wheels, perhaps by sharing information about the importance of employee health and wellness and importantly, how it benefits employers. Show them What's in it for us?

At the end of the day (literally), it's up to us to practice self-care. Perhaps the first obstacle is challenging the assumption in our own brain that our manager will turn into a fire-breathing hellhound if we ask for help.

Or, do we just not want to admit to ourselves that the company will continue running, and the world will continue to revolve around the sun, if we're not there every working minute?

This article first appeared on the Empathy North blog.

Stressed man image by Free Images on Flickr. Find them at Ink!