In light of new research, EAPs may want to consider screening for burnout contagion in employee assessments, identify patterns emerging with the workforce, and
proactively propose EAP programming to make a impact on the work
organization with interventions that reduce risk.
Humankind is, collectively speaking, a social
animal. We are aware of one another on certain levels, and if one was to
make a map of the world solely based on how relate to one another, you
would also be looking at the travels of shared ideas, sickness, love and
hate.
We connect with one another through various means and
ways, including empathy, emotion, success and defeat. These ribbons of
relation changes not just day to day, but sometimes minute to minute.
Among those, though, is something that simply does not get enough credit: burnout.
A
new study by Michigan State University education scholars are proving
how the culture of an environment (such as the workplace an EAP may find
themselves in) can contribute directly to a contagious spread of
burnout.
Do consider the information presented here: http://msutoday.msu.edu/news/2017/is-teacher-burnout-contagious/
Burnout
is a terrible affliction--an insidious slow boil process--that can
strike in just about any workplace, especially in a workplace
environment that is not keeping the employees health and well-being into
consideration. Late nights, unfair workloads, time away from family and
home - all of these are indicative of a ticking time bomb! Eventually
the human animal will break down, and pretending that such a thing will
never happen to you can only bring harm to the workplace.
Consider,
if you will, the fast-paced and emotionally charged setting of a
hospital. RN’s bustling about, residents doing 20-48 hour shifts and
worse. All it takes is one person to suffer from the various symptoms of
burnout before it begins to spread like wildfire, causing mayhem within
the personal lives and habits of the entire staff.
“Wherever
there is smoke, there is fire,” or so it’s said. There are plenty of
symptoms to be on the lookout for, and recognizing overpowering workload
per person is one thing to keep in consideration. A culture that does
not promote the mental well-being of their employees is one that will
eventually suffer in quality of produced work and overwhelming turnover
rates, costing a company in both time and money.
The modern day
professional, no matter what level of employment they are at, should be
aware and mindful of what kind of environment they are empowering within
the workplace. Listen to one another, and hear one out. Pay heed to
stressors and how they are affecting the workplace and the workers
themselves.
Do consider such resources as found here: https://www.workexcel.com/stress-management-training-powerpoint-ppt-presentation-with-stress-management-tips-for-employees-or-ppt-dvd-web-course-video/
The
benefits of having such an employee awareness program will easily pay
dividends and help counter burnout within your company! Stress
management is more than an art form, it’s a daily awareness.
By
recognizing stressors and how to properly manage them, paying heed to
co-workers, employees, and employers alike one can certainly fight back
against such a negative culture, creating a workplace that will
positively affect output and production as well as the mental health and
well-being of all involved. #burnout #eap
Many good
employee assistance programs have closed down, consolidated, or been
turned into 800 hotlines over the past several years.
Will it happen to you?
Many of these solid EAPs lost the battle to stay open even while they
were pointing to lives saved as a result of their services.
Over the years, I have identified a few contributing factors to this
sort of tragedy. The leading factor that stands out is a lack
of difficult employees referred by supervisors as the only way
they could have possibly gotten help--under duress, with the leverage
of job security motivating their choice to use the EAP, and then following through with recommendations given to them.
That's it in a nutshell.
You see, self-referrals are a good thing, but telling top management
that they would never have used an 800# hotline--only your EAP--to get help is not going
to be believed. If you use this line, then I can guarantee that you
will soon be putting your office plants in a cardboard box.
Supervisor referrals of the most at-risk troubled employees, however,
are completely different story.
The most difficult and problematic employees don't use an 800 hotline. Their level of denial and over-adaptive use of defense mechanisms preclude self-motivation and insight.
Instead, these employees reach the EAP because of constructive confrontation by
managers, often where declining the formal supervisor EAP referral means
termination for performance issue. This constructive coercion (which is really what it is) is the dynamic that saves lives. This is leverage.
You can increase the number of these valuable supervisor
referrals, and it may help you not become a statistic. Click here to see two products to grow your EAP utilization with formal supervisor referrals.
People with high stress jobs have a 22
percent higher risk of stroke than those with low stress jobs. That’s what an
examination of six studies concluded after following 138,782 people for 17 years.
That is a big number. And that increases credibility in my view. What’s high stress? Answer: Time
pressure, mental load, and coordination burdens. That's what the study focused on. Researchers to see physical labor as producing the same degree of mental stress. EAP Impact: Create services and
programs which 1) give people more control over their work. Become a “control
over your work expert” in your organization to reduce health problems and
health risk by doing so. These at-risk jobs include nursing aides, waitresses, service
industry positions among others. Anywhere people are faced with unpredictable demands and very little ability to have any control over when, how much, and the details of how they going to do that work create inordinate stress. Who in your organization matches this sort of occupational profile? There's the value added proposition. My suggestion is to forget the brown-bag seminar approach. Make it more programmatic than that. For example, invite employees into the EAP as self-referrals to discuss their job stress and discover how more control can be instituted. The answers you find may save a life. Test your assumptions, ideas, and strategies. That is what these medical researchers are concluding. EAPs are in the most strategic place to make this difference. http://healthcare.utah.edu/healthfeed/postings/2015/10/101515_job.stress.php
