Emotional Terrors in the Workplace: Protecting Your Business Bottom Line - Emotional Continuity Management in the Workplace

Now that you know there is a disaster brewing somewhere all the time, everywhere, you will know that every day you are either pre-disaster, current-disaster, or after-disaster. That will make your job easier. Many companies gamble that they will have a long, long time before (if) they have a disaster. It is a much more rational policy to assume that you will have a disaster tomorrow and anything you do today will help you survive it. Emotional Continuity Management is not about being paranoid , but it is about being emotional alert that disasters happen. The statistical majority of people that wear seatbelts is higher than those who need them during an accident . Risk-takers gamble. Unfortunately, that gamble influences others if you do not manage the seat belts of your charges, your children. Managers need to make certain their employees have on their disaster seatbelts as they move forward. Good parents protect themselves and their children. Good managers protect themselves and their colleagues before something happens.

BEFORE

• Acknowledge ” Acknowledge that there is a probability that at some time there will be a disaster that has an effect and consequences for your company.

• Brainstorm ” Make a list of all possible disasters that could ever, even in wildest imaginings, touch your company directly or indirectly.

• Buy-on ” Establish hierarch buy-on for your company. If you company refuses to acknowledge the probability that there will be a disaster that has an effect and consequences for your company, dust off your resume and look elsewhere. Denial is not good business.

• Plan ” Create a list of partnerships, interventions, resources, policies, procedures, ideas, concepts, supplies , and contingencies for even the wildest imagined disaster.

• Narrow ” Narrow down your full list to the top ten possibilities.

• Training ” Get training for anyone who might be involved in any disaster, from the line staff to the authority players in key positions . Training can consist of a small pamphlet to significant formal education opportunities.

• Partners ” Pre-plan partnerships with local, state, and federal responder agencies and private disaster industry professionals. Write memos of understandings, pay for retainer fees, and publish a list for everyone on your staff. You never know if you will be there to make the calls.

• Normalize ” Make disasters a normal discussion in meetings, and planning sessions as you would any other part of company business. Disasters are a "normal" part of life and need addressing in a coherent and open manner in the same spirit you would discuss the furniture in the office.

• Learn ” Although everyone is doing fine, this is an excellent time to seek more management training.

DURING

• Self Care ” It is always appropriate to take care of yourself first.

• Survive ” Do what is appropriate to survive a disaster.

• Expect ” Expect emotions of all forms, from immobilized screaming to hysterically funny giggling fits.

• Remember ” Recall the stages of grieving: Denial, Bargaining, Anger, Depression, Acceptance. Add to this blaming, resistance, minimizing, aggrandizing and emotional response and reaction surprises that you have not anticipated.

• Remind ” Remind yourself and others that all disasters have a beginning, a middle and an end. Beginnings are easy, and ends are a relief. Middles are crazy makers and seem to last forever but they do not!

• Learn ” Although this is a difficult time for everyone, it can be an excellent time to seek more management training.

• Review ” Review the BEFORE guidelines and repeat what is necessary to stay on track.

AFTER

• Manage ” Remember that the disaster cannot be controlled, but you can manage through it. Face the changes and work through the transitions between the activity of the disaster and the end of the disaster when changes have been completed.

• Expect ” Don't be surprised. Encourage yourself and others to not be surprised. There is no "going back" before the disaster, there is only moving forward "after" the disaster. Help people move forward.

• Involve ” Involve people in managing themselves and others. In disasters there is a tendency for people to either help others or become looters. Involve people in helping, even if it is a fabricated task like "we need someone to empty the wastebaskets." Busy people become more focused and feel more security. The rubric is that in an abnormal situation, it is helpful to do something that seems normal. Washing dishes, sweeping, dusting, organizing a phone tree, serving water, and other such banal and mundane tasks may keep people from sliding into an emotional abyss of helplessness. An employee who has "power and control" over the wastebaskets may feel less overwhelmed by the power of the disaster and may return to competent functioning more quickly.

• Listen ” Listen. Don't argue, discredit, disagree , or deny people their own perception of reality. People will adjust and recover in their own way at their own speed.

• Okay ” Human emotions are okay. Don't avoid or discourage emotions from your employees. If you feel uncomfortable with emotions find someone who isn't and gently direct people that direction. Do not block the healthy process of emotional recovery or it may come back on you.

• Pay Attention ” After a disaster, the rhythm of work has fits and starts as it re- adjusts to its new flow. Try to move with it without resistance. See or feel it as a choreography with new dance steps. Two steps forward, one step back. One step forward, two steps to the side and two steps forward. Take your time. You will "feel" your new footing soon. Don't be afraid to ask questions or check your footwork from time to time. You don't want to step on toes, but you also don't want to miss a beat. Everything will be uncertain , which will then be followed by what seems like rigid certainty which will then again decay into chaos as it moves back into a more resolved, new form. Take your time. Take your time. The disaster is over now, you have time to figure it all out.

• Insist ” Insist on being in the loop for information sharing. If you are out of the loop your anxiety will increase and so will your employees' anxiety. It is better to say, "I don't know, but I will find out as soon as I can," then to say, "I have no idea!" and leave people in the dark with no sense of leadership.

• Communicate ” Share information, listen, wait, exchange ideas, avoid rumors, seek facts, present facts, offer patience, peace , procedures and protocol.

• Support ” Support your people, knowing they can handle information better than innuendo. People can handle ambiguity if they are in the loop. Waiting is very hard for most people under duress, so make a formal "what-should-we-do-while-we-are-waiting" process. Put things in writing when you can. A quick-fix bulletin board for memos or messages is very supportive for groups of people. Expect people to be distracted. It might help to have a television in the office for a few days. Let people watch it while they are working. Put it in the center of the worksite and not the employees' lounge. Don't make employees pretend nothing happened . That will make you look crazy. Expect random outbreaks of group talking when incidents change. Check up on people to find out if they are in the loop or feel like they are.

• Open up ” Acknowledge stress, both yours and theirs. It is okay to say you are stressed even when you are in a management position. It gives you more credibility and makes you more accessible. This does not necessarily mean a crying jag with your staff, although tears do not destroy leadership potential. Don't hesitate to ask for help. Quick check-ins with employees, without getting deeply involved in their emotions, is very helpful. It is called defusing and takes the edge off the emotions as a brief respite and release. Find a place where you can defuse also. It should not be with another employee that you are managing.

• Debriefings ” Create opportunities to debrief your employees. You can train your people to do it, find volunteers, hire professionals or consultants who have been specially trained in mental health disaster practices.

• Avoid ” Do everything you can to stay away from group blame-frenzy behavior.

• Continue ” Continue to communicate and move forward, check in with people to see if they are moving forward, or if they are beginning to lose ground and need a different kind of intervention.

• Persist ” Persist in assisting people who may need ongoing management support. During normal situations people need leadership. Before, during and well after a disaster people need to keep their focus through the well-balanced position of leaders . Workers who may have lost capacity to work due to loss of technology or services that existed before the incident will need specific leadership to stay connected to the job.

• Learn ” Although this is a difficult time for everyone, it can be an excellent time to gain more training.

• Review ” Review the BEFORE and DURING guidelines and repeat what might be useful or necessary to stay on track. There may be another disaster in your future.

• Lessons Learned ” In the absolutely , most intensely positive manner you can muster after all of this, review every step, BEFORE, DURING AND AFTER, with an eye of successes and areas that need improvement.

• Celebrate ” Celebrate your survival!

• Memorialize ” Plan ahead for the one year anniversary or remembrance moment of the event. Create an annual commemoration for your office. Delegate the task if necessary to someone who would benefit emotionally from the process of creating tribute.