Image by Kordian via Flickr
Scenes of Japan trembling once again filled the screens in my newsroom yesterday, followed by a wave of workplace and personal anxiety.
A 7.1 aftershock Thursday sent everyone into high anxiety mode. Another round of global chaos. Then the calm set in when the loss of life and damage was incomparable to the devastation we had already witnessed weeks earlier. Still, the adrenalin flowed--as it probably did in countless other companies and workplaces.
Japan. Egypt. Libya. In our world of insta-information, the pummeling of our emotions by world events is not going to slow down. It's only speeding up.
Global chaos unfolds in real time, even at work
We're all still thinking about Japan, and it's unlikely that you'll be checking your thoughts at the company door. In this era of "real time news," we're all vulnerable to the tragic scenes still coming out of Japan, or from elsewhere in the world, via computer, iPhone, BlackBerry, radio or the TV in the lunch room.
Even though we're watching the disaster from across the globe and through a screen, it still has an impact. "It absolutely replicates in our nervous system," says New York City psychotherapist Jennifer Howard, Ph.D., who has worked with people recovering from trauma.
Howard says that a constant stream of live pictures and updates raises our anxiety and triggers adrenalin."We've got ourselves worked up, so we have to find ways to soothe ourselves." Whether it's nature, prayers or affirmations, it's good to break from the daily grind of work and the ongoing trauma. "We have to take charge as best as we can, but we're not in charge of the world."
Tackling Global Trauma at Work From the Top Down
Managers should gather company leaders for an open discussion on how to handle the trauma in-house, and then respond as a collective, says social psychologist C.V. Harquail PhD, who blogs at AuthenticOrganizations.com. This type of calamity can be somewhat of a wake up call to action toward aligning a companies culture with a greater purpose.
"It's not easy for a company to do, but they must figure out what, if any relationships, exist with people on the ground in the trauma area," says Harquail, which includes clients and sister companies. Ask, "What, as an organization, what can we offer as an organization that's unique and significant that others can't?" Financial institutions, for example, can use their expertise to set up special fundraising programs.
But money is just one way of reaching out. "Companies need to recognize that they can't salve the wounds of someone whose home is crumbling, but they can provide comfort to them by sending something or letting them know you're there," says Harquail. This kind of group project, in turn, is beneficial to help employees cope with the disaster.
When the Workplace Responds to Tragedy as a Collective
"Corporations and businesses would be wise to create a physical and psychological space that holds the collective emotion," says Anne Perschel of Germane Consulting, an executive leadership training firm in Massachusetts.
Perschel says upper management needs to acknowledge such tragedies as they will be on the minds of many. Just because employees might not be impacted directly, they might have friends and family who are.
"We can't function well at that level of heightened anxiety, but at the same time we need to incorporate the reality of the new world we're living in," she says. "A staff manager [can] bring employees together in a collective space, in an appropriate moment, and acknowledge that there has been enormous tragedy. Then open the meeting to discussion. "
At the same time, there has to be a recognition that "this is a place of work" and "we can't pay attention to the chaos for eight hours a day."
