Work is about productivity. We show up to increase economic value by repetitively putting widget A on widget B and going home. That’s the old assembly line version of work that most of us are no longer doing. Increasingly, productivity requires human-to-human interaction. This shift changes the way we live, not just how we work.
Work used to be a place where we could distract ourselves from our problems by mindlessly placing widgets while making small talk. The contemporary version of work requires collaboration, vulnerability, and interdependence that are more likely to underscore any difficulties we have outside of work.
The COVID Trigger
COVID quarantine isolation, uncertainty, and loss in recent years have ripped through the global community like an earthquake, and the aftershocks are showing up at work. High demands and low emotional resources ripped scabs off unaddressed old wounds disguised as new ones. The need for sophisticated communication arose at work and in the home. The world learned quickly how intricately intertwined our work and home lives are despite the century-old illusion that we could keep them separate.
High demands and low emotional resources ripped scabs off unaddressed old wounds disguised as new ones.
Many people struggle to keep up with work demands, not because the work is difficult, but because the interaction required to do the job is mentally exhausting. For example, researchers Plaisier, et al. have shown that employees with depression and anxiety can experience further mood dysregulation and subsequent productivity loss from work interaction.
Moreover, mental distress markers pass for personality at work. In many circumstances, mental distraction, risk intolerance, resistance to feedback, and introvert patterns may not be problematic. But, where there is high emotional demand, they take their toll.
Executives may disengage from people and only focus on the nonhuman aspects of the job. They become problem solvers rather than visionary leaders. New employees with old wounds may feel vulnerable collaborating with others or refuse to ask for help. Managers can be resistant to feedback and prone to work conflicts. Introverted employees may miss leadership opportunities.
When behaviors are normalized, they are resistant to positive thinking, relaxation techniques, and efficacy training. They are not diagnosable as mental illness, nor should they be. But, they are sometimes markers of invisible trauma. They indirectly affect people’s ability or willingness to connect on a meaningful level, reason beyond rules, choose quality allies, leaders, and partners, and self-regulate emotions in difficult times.
Coping at Work
Psychologists, police officers, doctors, teachers, and other public-interfacing professionals are trained, or at least warned, to disengage from work when not working. Research on work detachment shows disengagement to be difficult, mainly when work elicits uncomfortable emotions. The reverse is also true. Employees carry open wounds into work.
One in ten adults had four or more adverse childhood experiences. There are more than 60 million adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse, and half of them never disclose it to anyone. Divorce and addiction rates are increasing in adults and their children.
The percentage of Americans who are prescribed medication to help with emotion regulation is alarming. Erich Fromm, a humanistic philosopher, asserted decades ago that what is passed off as normal is pathological. Instead of infusing healing into communities, we create a culture around our wounds.
We provide distractions and dictate customs to disguise dysfunction. When work as a distraction from pain ran its course, we began to identify it as the cause of pain. Perhaps work is not the problem, but the problems people bring to work compromise well-being.
Perhaps work is not the problem, but the problems people bring to work, compromise well-being.
Confidently explaining decisions, convincing clients, leading a team, creating solutions collaboratively, and positioning oneself as an asset at work requires intention and focus. The more human engagement required the more stressed an employee feels when emotional wounds are carried into the work environment.
There is no magic door for employees to walk through to give them a clean slate for 8 hours, no matter how well they seem to perform most of the time. Low-level tasks may be unaffected. However, high-level functions that demand full presence will feel difficult. To the degree that work requires focus, mental flexibility, and engagement with one another without judgment, employees are likely to fall short, no matter what their area of specialty.
Falling Short
The greatest gymnast in the world, Simone Biles, failed to perform at the high-stakes Olympics event after going public about her victimization of sexual abuse by the infamous team doctor, Larry Nassar. Top-ranking tennis player, Naomi Osaka, withdrew from high-stakes international competitions due to emotional distress. One of the most successful entertainers alive, Will Smith, was overcome by emotional wounds at the most prestigious event in entertainment, The Oscars. Smith overreacted to an insensitive comment with physical aggression on live television.
Biles, Osaka, and Smith have in common that their emotional resource reserves were unavailable when they needed to be their best at their jobs. Expertise and professional preparedness are no competition for open wounds. Even the best will fall victim to underperformance. It’s hard to be a hero with a broken wing.
Expertise and professional preparedness are no competition for open wounds.
Please, make no mistake about it. The workforce is not recovering from COVID but from a lack of well-being. Diversity, equity, and inclusion require administrators’ wellness. Retention requires staff wellness. High productivity requires managers’ wellness. Engaged employees need a sense of workplace wellness. Support is needed to reorient people to their inner selves.
Currently, most employees feel their well-being is dismissed by their employees, according to the 2022 Mind the Workplace Report published by Mental Health America.
