Published September 2002

Battle stress at work
with teamwork, talking

One of the by-products of this uncertain economy has been an increase in stress-induced wackiness in the workplace.

While certainly our heightened worries about terrorism and personal safety are factors in this, a good bit of the increased stress has been generated by conditions in the workplace itself. Workers are very concerned about their jobs, their savings and their retirement funds, and each day’s economic and business news does little to build up anyone’s confidence.

There are always some behavioral anomalies (the upscale term for wackiness) in the workplace — as there are wherever humans gather — but the high stress levels have added breadth and intensity to these problems in a way that is challenging management’s ability to deal with it.

Each workplace is different, of course, but what we are seeing generally is that the quantity and imaginative quality of rumors have increased substantially. Workers who used to get along famously with each other now cannot work in the same room let alone on the same project. Previously productive workers find their output diminished and that there aren’t enough hours in the day to get their work done.

One of the reasons that stress is such a problem for companies is that frontline managers and supervisors, usually the ones who detect and deal with workers’ stress, are themselves “stressed out.” They have their own set of worries about cutbacks, competition and their financial future.

You don’t have to be a professional psychologist to see that this is a prescription for productivity declines and management problems of all sorts. It is also easy to see that problems will tend to migrate upward in the management structure — primarily because line managers are less able to deal with them.

Stress tends to redirect us inward, focusing our thoughts, perceptions and energies more on ourselves and less on others. When line managers are subjected to this kind of stress, they tend to recognize their workers’ problems later in the development cycle. And this means that more workplace problems spin out of control and have to be lassoed back by senior management.

There is no quick, easy and guaranteed way to prevent, or even reduce, stress-related problems in the workplace, certainly not when so much of the pressure is coming from outside the company. Still, there are things that can be helpful, as well as some ineffective tactics that we can avoid.

It is generally ineffective, for example, to tell workers as a group that they are “worried about nothing” or that they should just “get over it.” Workers’ stress levels do not usually respond to this kind of parentlike dicta. (Quite likely, kids don’t either.) And, however well-intentioned the effort might be, telling people they are worried about nothing when the newspapers, TV and radio are telling them just the opposite story is a risky strategy that could quickly and lastingly undermine management’s credibility.

There are, though, two things that do work — not always, but in most cases.

The first is to double and redouble your efforts at building teamwork — emphasizing that you are all in this together and that, together, you can meet any challenge. And, in doing this, forget about memos, videos and e-mail. This effort requires “face time.”

You can forget about big “events,” too. Typically, expenditures on morale items and events are early victims of budget cuts, but this turns out to be an advantage, since they were mostly a waste of money anyway. Brown-bag lunch talks and potluck lunches are far more effective, and they don’t really cost money as much as well-invested time.

What is needed is for your line managers to spend more time listening to and talking with workers. On paper this may seem to be “unproductive,” but if stress is undermining productivity, the time spent communicating with workers will actually boost output.

More senior management, too, has to make an effort to be more visible, and more visibly cheerful. Nothing spooks a rumor-sodden work force more than seeing the boss walking around with a worried look, so distracted that he or she doesn’t even say hello.

The second thing is to get your line managers more involved in recognizing stress in workers and bringing the team’s resources to bear on the problem. This will raise their effectiveness by shifting their focus away from themselves. When it comes to stress, one way to cure your own is to help others with theirs.

Getting your line managers to see worker stress, and their own, as something that can be dealt with effectively by coming together as a team will be good for the company. It will also be good for the people who make up that company. There’s nothing to worry about there.

James McCusker, a Bothell economist, educator and small-business consultant, writes “Your Business” in The Herald each Sunday. He can be reached by sending e-mail to otisrep@aol.com.

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