Employees Behaving Badly:Symptoms of a Stressed Economy

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Experience: 25+ years/ Private/ Canadian

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Workplace Stress

• Bad Economy• Layoffs• Greater workloads,

increased productivity• Longer hours• Smaller/Cramped

workspaces• Office Clutter

• Shorter response time requirements

• Shifting responsibilities• Reduction of vacation• Diverse workforce with

different process methods

Current Economic Situation

Employer’s Responses

• Temporary Layoffs• Terminations• Reduction of pay• Work-share

The stages of stress

2004 Study Results

• Employees who feel overworked make more mistakes

• Higher benefit usage/costs• Managers must distinguish positive stress

signals• Some stress is good and necessary

Response to Symptoms

• Drug & Disability claims are increasing– 1 in 4 employees agreed workplace stress is

overwhelming, became physically ill

• Health & Safety– H&S budget cuts result in more casualties– People don’t report injury for fear of job loss

• Legal– 90% increase in employees suing for stress-related issues– Employer has a duty to accommodate

Aggressive Workplace Behaviours

• 1 in 5 admitted to being more ruthless• 1 in 3 said they would be self-promoting in

order to ensure they prove their value• Nearly half would stay in a job for fear of

low seniority at a new organization• 1 in 10 would take a pay cut to keep their

current job

Increased Workplace Violence

• Prepardis Inc. forecasts incidents could rise• Continued layoffs combined with pressure

of providing for families• Workers are on edge fearing loss of job,

finances, home, etc.• Recent examples• Bill 168

Increased Workplace Violence

• Nearly 1/5 of incidents involve violent victimization

• Men and women equally likely to report violence

• 27% of incidents involving male victims resulted in injuries, 17% involving women

• Violence more common in certain employment sectors

Personal finance is the number one source of stress; five times higher than the next highest, health.

Increase in Mental Health Issues

• 91% of people w/ personal debt report deterioration in mental health due to stress and depression

• Long-term health effects physical health problems-psychosomatic disorders, heart conditions and cancer

• Mental health symptoms

Recession Fatigue: a form of chronic psychological stress caused or heightened by an individual’s economic circumstances, and severe prolonged enough to degrade their personal effectiveness in work or non-work situations

Reactions to recession fatigue

• Sense of frustration, uncertainty, disappointment, ineffectiveness

• Fatigue, confusion, malaise• Personal isolation from family/friends at

work and home• Dilemma between the temptation to quit

or give into despair

Practical features of Recession Fatigue

• Heavy drain on resources, personnel and business

• High input / low output• Fragmentation of human and physical resources• Declining personal efficiency• Decline in innovation, new projects and

initiatives• Increase idle resources• Increasing misemployment

What does this mean for employers?

• Employees will take time off to deal with financial problems

• Take extended work breaks sometimes trying to deal with financial stress

• Spend excessive time at work dealing with personal financial problems

• Decreased job productivity

Other Concerns…

• Relationship between societal economic downturns and an increase in disability rates

• CIPD in UK survey of 1300 HR practitioners in 2003:– Found casual absence increased 10%– LTD increased

Decline in Employee Engagement

• Visible decline in engagement• Engaged employees will help companies

pull through the recession• Companies are cutting back on

engagement investment• Decreasing levels of loyalty and trust

Leading Financial Issues Addressed by EAP, 2008

Debt38%

Fin. Planning15%

Divorce9%

Fin. Stress5%

Bankruptcy5%

Other28%

What can YOU do?

• Prepare for the inevitable recovery• Be resilient and manage performance and

growth• Your best capital is the employees and

their creativity

Strategies

• Open communication; good or bad• Know where you DON’T want to cut costs– Focus on what will never change

• Cut non-essential services; ask for input• Get employees to assist in cost cutting• Always treat employees with respect,

especially if cutting headcount

Strategies

• Continue to focus on careers, growth and development

• Promote EAP programs• Try to prevent serious financial stress• Improve employee engagement• Help employees stay healthy and resilient

Questions

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