Apply healthy family dynamics in the workplace
Badly managed workplace stress costs the South African economy billions of rands each year. It debilitates management and employees alike. Counselling psychologist, Dr Anthony Costandius, points out that nurturing your employees’ emotional strengths can help management and staff to endure and thrive.
Dr Costandius says that you can achieve this aim by using effective psychological principles that are also found in well-functioning families. This will give your company the best chance to survive current and future economic challenges.
Stress in the workplace, which is a universally documented phenomenon, is made worse by the current extended global financial crisis. Survivors of cut-backs, retrenchments and corporate restructuring now need to do more with less, while still meeting the same targets as before. Office and home have become inextricably intertwined, providing little opportunity to recharge. If your people are at risk, your company is at risk.
The impact on the emotional and physical well-being of your staff is clear
Increased absenteeism caused by chronic headaches, gastric problems, depression, anxiety, strokes and heart attacks, low morale and reduced job satisfaction have become the order of the day. For companies who now have to survive with a reduced and over-taxed workforce, this is very worrying.
You can only change the above situation if you find more effective strategies to manage and nurture emotional strength in the workplace. Dr Costandius states: "We need to identify people at risk, offer helpful and appropriate interventions, and create an environment where people feel safe to say 'I need help!' without the fear of being victimised or given a poor performance review."
Help is at hand
Dr Costandius believes that by reducing stress and using coping strategies found in well-functioning families, we can improve management efficacy and your working environment significantly. He adds that while many of today’s managers have the functional and technical skills to manage, they lack the skills to create a healthy and successful emotional environment and culture in the workplace.
So what’s the gist of it?
Well-functioning families - it’s all about mutual respect. Family members need to be sensitive to each others’ needs and the boundaries. This is just as applicable to the workplace, but is difficult to achieve in a company environment that has become “unsafe” because of retrenchment and change.
Dr Costandius believes that the challenge for companies is to regain trust, individualise and provide structures within which beleaguered employees can again feel safe and experience a positive purpose to their participation in the company's well-being.
