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

Minimum requirements should include:

• Team Composition

• Chain of authority

• Exit strategies

• Member list and all contact methods

• Collect verifications of qualifications of all team members

• Verification that all team members have been screened for PTSD and prior trauma

• Plans for changes in circumstances, shifts, time off

• Complete data about will your company require to return to 100%, 75%, 50%, 25%

• Services

• Anticipated obstacles to complete recovery

• Written plans for the Emotional Continuity Management for specific incidents, even those that appear to be unlikely :

  • tornado

  • earthquake

  • suicide

  • cyber crime

  • shooting

  • fire

  • Emotional Terrorist

  • winter storm

  • hurricane

  • chemical spill

  • shelter in place

• Extensive lists of local, regional, national and international recourses

• A chronology of how you have tested your plans and lessons learned data

• Reproducible copies of required or preferred forms or documents

• Emergency numbers for team members and families

• Complete written policy and procedures

• Company/Administrative buy-on statement

• List of insurances and legal support

• List of all employees under the domain of the Emotional Continuity Management Team

Start collecting data for an ever-evolving team notebook with reproducible documents, forms, logos, policies, plans, procedures, checklists, guidelines, resources, requirements, and anything your team decides would assist them in emotional continuity management during an emotional incident or disaster

Use the following pages to start your TEAM NOTEBOOK:

Disaster Emotional Continuity Management Checklist

PLANNING PHASE (prior to a disaster incident)

• Define qualifications necessary for Emotional Continuity Management team membership and leadership

• Select and interview applicants

• Provide training and continuing education

• Provide regular training and practice drills

• Plan task assignments, authority lines, and delegations of responsibility

• Create a disaster buddy system

• Chain of command structure should be provided to all employees

• Contractual relationships with external disaster services providers

IMPLEMENTATION PHASE (during a disaster incident)

• Provide a central location for communications for your team and outside teams

• Do a disaster buddy check-in

• Initiate pre-planned task assignments, authority lines, and delegations of responsibility

• Coordinate responses

• Coordinate lines of supply, equipment, and information

• Assess needs with an ongoing process of open communications

• Provide a clerical manager for support

• Provide other support services such as communications, logistics, supply

• Orient team to the specific event

• Define event status and review plan

• Profile the participants of the event

• Collect resources, make network connections, implement memos of understanding,

• Create a blueprint of actions for immediate response and build in plan for long term

• Make task assignments

• Continue training as needed with regular updates and support

• Review short term response

• Begin discussions of intermediate and long-term responses

• Continue status updates, consultations, liaisons, MOU's, and provider partnerships

• Provide expert consultations and trainings

• Support staff and manage self-care

• Defuse as needed

• Document activities

RECOVERY PHASE (after an incident)

• Debrief participants and team members

• Continue self-care

• Maintain liaisons and links with other network connections

• Ongoing training should continue

• Discussions on lessons learned

• Wrap up details

• Paper work completion, filings, recordings

• Support process over the long term no matter how long it takes

• Send thank you letters

• Support and encourage buddy sets and support and reorganize around any buddy losses

• Provide memorials and commemoration programs

• Acknowledge and give appropriate recognitions

• Return to phase one and begin new phase of recruitment for planning for next disaster

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 hierarchical 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 haven't 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 ne 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'll find out as soon as I can," than to say, "I have no clue" 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. Know 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 employee 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, yours and theirs. It's 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 doesn't mean a crying jag with your staff necessarily , 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.

Administrative Buy-On Evaluation

(Rate the following between 1=Low and 10=High)

How well does administration support the Emotional Continuity Management Plan?

How completely has the Emotional Continuity Management Plan been incorporated into the Emergency Management Plan of the company?

How well have other departments in the company been informed or notified about administrative buy-on?

How well have other departments supported the Emotional Continuity Management Plan?

How well supported is the need to practice and drill for emotional emergencies?

How extensive are the opportunities to drill for emotional emergencies?

How financially supported is the Emotional Continuity Management Plan?

How supportive is the administration about providing opportunities for training employees in emotional management?

How supportive is the administration about providing opportunities for training management emotional management?

How supportive is the administration about creating cooperative partnerships with other emergency response agencies prior to a disaster or emotional event?

How supportive is the administration about providing pamphlets, books, literature, posters , media education, and other hard-copy information on Emotional Continuity Management Planning?

How well do personnel know what they should do in an emergency to caretake their emotions?

How well prepared are you to manage extreme emotions in the workplace?

How well prepared are you to manage emotions resulting from a catastrophic disaster?

Emotional Continuity Management Event Hot Sheet

Fill out this hot sheet if there is an incident: (can be used for Drills)

• What is the nature of the event?

• What is the scope of the emotional impact?

• How much geography/territory is involved? (i.e. a fire in the break-room, a devastated community or a devastated one block radius, a 48 car pile up in front of the main entrance to the worksite, death of one colleague, death of many colleagues)

• Who is in charge, authority/command structure? (Who do I report to?)

• Has there been property damage?

• Who has authority for restoring the property damaged?

• How many victims are involved?

• What are their ages if known?

• Are any children involved?

• Will the children's needs be treated separately from adult needs? Elderly? Special Need/disabled?

• What are the general nature of any injuries? (mild, moderate, severe, catastrophic)

• How many support staff will be involved?

• Support systems and teams in place now? On the way?

• How long will I be expected to respond?

• Will I be safe? How will that be accomplished?

• Is there a dress code? Or is there any special circumstances where clothing or footwear should be a factor? (i.e., is the entire staff trained in full range of disaster protocols from shelter in place to full evacuation?

• Has the entire staff been trained in what emotions to anticipate during this kind of incident?

• Are there cultural, religious, political, or ethnic variables that I should know or understand?

• What languages will be spoken? Will there be translators?

• Am I covered by company liability insurance or my own? Or both?

• What duties am I expected to perform or am responsible for providing? (i.e., debriefings, defusings, counseling , crisis response, medication assessment, diagnosis, mediation, communications, transportation, referrals, hand-holding)

• What paperwork will be required to manage this incident? Do I have all the required forms?

• What are the Mental Health or Disaster Professional qualifications necessary to deal with this?

• Who else will be helping me on this?

• Will I be fed, housed, provided for, given chocolate?

• Will there be an expectation of continuous service, or will there be opportunity for self care, support for me if I need it, breaks, days off, etc.

• What are my other resources?

• If I find that the situation is beyond my scope, expertise or personal tolerance, or if I become ill or injured or incapacitated, what is the protocol for a professional exit strategy and will that be supported

• Who will take over my assignments?

• What are the qualifications of the disaster team?

• What are the qualifications of the Emotional Continuity Management Team?

• How do I protect myself and my team first?

• What is the emotional environment needed for rapid recovery?

• What is the physical environment (locations on-off site, recovery equipment, communications, paper/pencils, water bottles, cell phones, toilet paper) needed for rapid recovery?

• Do we have event-specific planning strategies?

• Memos of understanding, agreements, contracts with Local, National and Global Resources?

• Have we tested this plan?

How to Set up a Drill

1. Establish full buy-on administratively

2. Determine leadership

3. Prepare with paper drills and table-talks prior to simulation drills

4. Define the goals of the drill

5. Develop appropriate and safe logistical settings

6. Develop appropriate scenarios

7. Create scenario assignments

8. Consider management of a real emergency or unexpected event during the simulation

9. Review plans and gather feedback

10. Conduct the drill

11. Collect results

12. Celebrate the closure of the drill formally

13. Debrief participants and planners without critique

14. Planners then can evaluate the success or failure of goal achievements

15. Add or subtract necessary components and schedule next drill cycle

16. Send thank-yous to all participants

17. What questions will you need answered to make good decisions?

18. What resources will you need in each case?

19. What resources will you activate immediately?

20. What resources will you put on stand-by?

21. How will you approach administration, employees, vendors and ancillary participants?

22. What plan will you write?

23. What policies for emotions will you want in place?

24. What people with what qualifications will serve you best?

25. What level of emotional impact will this possibly have?

26. What risks will there be for solo or group emotional spinning?

27. What tools will you use to manage the emotions of employees?

28. How will you take care of your self as you participated?

29. What would be the estimated costs of this for your company

30. What would be the estimated costs for your company if it was unprepared for a real emergency?

Tips for Success of Drills

Clear Notifications - Always state "THIS IS A DRILL" when making phone calls or contact calls during the drill. Remember when Orson Wells read the story War of the Worlds on radio and some people really thought the Earth was being invaded by aliens . People are fun! And people are nervous. Our world is scarier than it was a few years ago. It is better to be cautious than to create more emotional impact. It is critical to inform and notify all players and anyone who might be concerned that this is not a drill.

Identification Tags - For the same reasons as above, and for ease in managing the Participants, all members should have visible and highly identifiable, temporary identification that is collected after the drill.

Time them well - A drill during a layoff phase is dangerous. A drill during an earthquake is pointless and dangerous.

Evaluations should focus on positive points - Negative critiques destroy buy-on. Attempt to phrase weaknesses and losses in positive " can-do -better-next-time" language.

Have fun - Simulations can be fun and exciting when people are motivated to do their best for the sake of everyone else.

Add a surprise - The unexpected is where drills show holes in preparation. Don't add anything extreme, but include a small twist to make it interesting.

Ask other experts to play with you - Go to your local fire department, hospital or chapter of the American Red Cross and ask someone to help you plan your drill.

Drill a full range of emotions - Include all feelings from small to large, annoyances to catastrophic.

Maintain the illusion - Encourage participants to maintain their acting roles until excused from the drill.

Explain exit strategies and ending calls - Inform your participants how they can exit the drill if it becomes distressful. Also inform everyone when or how the drill will conclude.

Debrief even when it is a drill - Make certain any individual who exits a drill have a mandatory debriefing to deter people who simply want to exit the process so they can go home early, and protect participants who may really have difficulty. This also gets people into the good habit of debriefing.

Pleases and Thank-yous - Courtesy goes a long way to create closure and future buy-on. Write a formal thank you letter to all participants.

Drill and Rehearsal Checklist

• Establish full buy-on administratively

• Pick your team

• Assign roles

• Determine leadership or authority chains

• Define the emotional needs of your company

• Decide on what kind of drill you will have

• Establish timetable

• What is the purpose of the drill?

• What are five specific objectives you will seek?

• What documentation will be required?

• Create and write the emergency and emotional scenarios

• Make participant assignments

• Consider how you would manage a real emergency or unexpected event if one occurred during the exercise

• Make a detailed list of all activities, small and large

• List emotions that you wish to exercise and the interventions you would use

• Decide on how you will evaluate the exercise after it has been completed

• Conduct the drill

• Collect documentation

• Analyze data

• Celebrate the closure of the drill formally

• Debrief participants and planners without critique

• Planners evaluate the success or failure of goal achievements

• Lessons learned

• Add or subtract necessary components for the next drill

• Decide on what training will be necessary and who will get it

• Schedule the next drill

• Send written thank yous to all participants. No memos, real letters.

Additional steps:

• "This is a Drill" instructions given

• Identification Tags

• Evaluations should focus on positive points

• Have fun

• Add a surprise

• Associated agencies participation

• Drill a full range of emotions from small to large, annoyances to catastrophic.

• Participants told to maintain their acting roles until excused from the drill.

• Notifications

• Exit information

• Practice mock debriefings

• Debriefing schedule

• Formal thank yous

• What questions will you need answered to make good decisions?

• What resources will you need in each case?

• What resources will you activate immediately?

• What resources will you put on stand-by?

• How will you approach administration, employees, vendors and ancillary participants?

• What plan will you write?

• What policies for emotions will you want in place?

• What people with what qualifications will serve you best?

• What level of emotional impact will this possibly have?

• What risks will there be for solo or group emotional spinning?

• What tools will you use to manage the emotions of employees?

• How will you take care of your self as you participated?

• What would be the estimated costs of this for your company?

• Outline the performance tasks that must be accomplished

• Outline the emotional components for yourself, the staff, and the community that you must accommodate as the process evolves.

• What emotions are likely to be demonstrated?

• What might be a surprise emotion?

• How will you manage the emotions of your employees and clients ?

• What fears or concerns can you anticipate because they were exposed to a potential health threat? Exposed to injury ? Exposed to death?

• How will you plan for managing: ( see the Emotions List above )

  Fear	Anger
  Rage	Terror
  Sadness	Concern
  Ambivalence	Hysteria
  Boredom	Numbness
  Confusion	Shock
  Horror	Disgust
  Disappointment	Grief
  Denial	Horror
  Grief	Disgust
  Disappointment	Withdrawn
  Irritated	Rancorous
  Pessimistic	Impatient
  Passive	Aggressive
  Nervous	Embarrassed
  Edgy	Sensitivity
  Serious	Frivolous

Emergency Assistance Resource List

DISASTER CONSULTANT

• Local Contact Person:

• National phone number:

• Local number:

• Website:

• Other:

EMOTIONAL HEALTH PROVIDER

• Local Contact Person:

• National phone number:

• Local number:

• Website:

• Other:

MENTAL HEALTH PROVIDER

• Local Contact Person:

• National phone number:

• Local number:

• Website:

• Other:

MEDICAL SERVICES PROVIDER

Local Contact Person:

• National phone number:

• Local number:

• Website:

• Other:

WEATHER SERVICES

• Local Contact Person:

• National phone number:

• Local number:

• Website:

• Other:

HOMELAND SECURITY (HS)

• Local Contact Person:

• National phone number:

• Local number:

• Website:

• Other:

DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE (DOJ)

• Local Contact Person:

• National phone number:

• Local number:

• Website:

• Other:

FEDERAL EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT AGENCY (FEMA)

• Local Contact Person:

• National phone number:

• Local number:

• Website:

• Other:

DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY (DOE)

• Local Contact Person:

• National phone number:

• Local number:

• Website:

• Other:

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY (EPA)

• Local Contact Person:

• National phone number:

• Local number:

• Website:

• Other:

DEAPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES (DHHS)

• Local Contact Person:

• National phone number:

• Local number:

• Website:

• Other:

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

• Local Contact Person:

• National phone number:

• Local number:

• Website:

• Other:

DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE (DOD)

• Local Contact Person:

• National phone number:

• Local number:

• Website:

• Other:

NATIONAL TRANSPORATION SAFETY BOARD (NTSB)

• Local Contact Person:

• National phone number:

• Local number:

• Website:

• Other:

AMERICAN RED CROSS

• Local Contact Person:

• National phone number:

• Local number:

• Website:

• Other:

LOCAL LAW ENFORCEMENT

• Local Contact Person:

• National phone number:

• Local number:

• Website:

• Other:

FIRE DEPARTMENT

• Local Contact Person:

• National phone number:

• Local number:

• Website:

• Other:

EMERGENCY MEDICAL SERVICES

• Local Contact Person:

• National phone number:

• Local number:

• Website:

• Other:

PUBLIC WORKS

• Local Contact Person:

• National phone number:

• Local number:

• Website:

• Other:

EMOTIONAL AND MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES

• Local Contact Person:

• National phone number:

• Local number:

• Website:

• Other:

24 HOUR CRISIS HOT LINE

• Local Contact Person:

• National phone number:

• Local number:

• Website:

• Other:

VOLUNTEER SERVICES ASSISTANCE ORGANIZATIONS

Salvation Army

• • Local Contact Person:

  • National phone number:

  • Local number:

  • Website:

  • Other:

Critical Incident Stress Management Teams

• • Local Contact Person:

  • National phone number:

  • Local number:

  • Website:

  • Other:

Spiritual Support Network

• • Local Contact Person:

  • National phone number:

  • Local number:

  • Website:

  • Other:

D'Mort (Death support)

Search and Rescue

Dive Rescue

Ski Patrol

K-Nine Search and Rescue

HAM Radio Network

WHAT ELSE WILL YOUR COMPANY NEED?

Sample Scheduling Form for Mandatory Meetings

( NAME OF YOUR DEPARTMENT)

Individual Meetings: Circle one : OPTIONAL MANDATORY