Why wouldn’t we feel scared, anxious and distracted when we open up our screen each day, given the world we’re living in? By expecting your people to side-line core common truths in favour of weekly targets will have its consequences. Namely, deteriorating mental health, translating in diminishing ability to work collaboratively and with an availability to creative joint endeavour. Not to mention the fuelling of inevitable misunderstandings and conflict in the team. We like to believe we are separate from others, and that work operates independently from the bigger truths.
For once, I’d like to reflect on how our external truths (Gaza, Ukraine, Trump, welfare reform, NHS crises) impact on how we work, how we relate to each other and our mental health. We try our best to draw a line between the messy mush we can feel inside as we start a new working day, because we are paid to perform, to meet targets and to excel in our roles. Or to appear to excel at least. At the same time, there’s been more narrative about bringing our authentic selves to the workplace. Honourable and nobody would deny it’s a commendable ideal. If you’re a manager, you are clearly torn between the needs of your people and the targets you have agreed to. Who carries the burden of this tension and how is this addressed by HR?
I’m not looking for answers here. More to open a conversation about our experience of managing workload in the context of increasing world conflict, ever widening divide between rich and poor and an ever diminishing commitment to the values of ethics, equality and the rule of law. Of course, we feel scared and anxious about our future, our security at work and at home. No wonder the truth of overwhelm and burn-out are ever present in HR related topics for investigation.
It is in this context that I shifted my attention from training managers in time-management and objective setting in favour of coaching skills, conflict resolution and emotion regulation. I crafted a new approach to workplace support for individuals who are struggling to maintain targets, mental health and harmonious working relationships. I combine mindfulness meditation bite-sized skills training with communication skills, where there is equal emphasis on the quality of the here and now as on the desired outcome or resolution. It’s a skill I learnt in the mushy mess of operational management, personal crises and the need to find a way through the fog, necessity. It’s not rocket science. However, it takes courage and eloquence to dare to open up a pandora’s box of human suffering, both in and out with the workplace. I acknowledge that how you are feeling and thinking right now will impact on all aspects of you what you do at home and at work. I allow confidence and hope to creep back into the experience. Be that in a group training event or a 1-2-1 walk’n’talk with an individual in need.
How do you acknowledge and address the underlying tensions and obstacles to what constitutes good work? How do you balance your commitment to the wellbeing and the productivity of your people? Do you even believe it is any of your business?