E-mail Overload Causes Anxiety

I was reading the July 26th edition of the Vancouver Sun and this caught my eye… “Play nice in e-mail and avoid trouble…tips from the University of Victoria”.

I was reminded that E-mail is now “well into it’s second decade” but many people, especially in the workplace, have yet to learn “e-mail etiquette”.

Janice Johnson, co-director of the University of Victoria’s Information Technology Renewal Project, is hoping to “re-educate both faculty and staff about how to deal with and manage e-mail workloads”.

I’ll be interested to find out how UVic is going to measure this goal. Perhaps I will give Janice a call.

Further along in the same Vancouver Sun article we learn that the University of British Columbia’s Sauder School of Business has a fellow researching the subject of technology and emotions.

This research is being conducted by assistant professor Robert Cenfetilli who writes,

One of the major downsides of e-mail remains the sheer volumes of messages that accumulate in in-boxes and the expectation that they ought to be read and replied to anywhere, anytime…

If you work in construction, you put your hammer down and go home…

The boundaries between work and home have become so blurred, that anxiety and feelings of being overwhelmed are not uncommon among BlackBerry owners!

I don’t think that this will come as a surprise to anyone reading this post.

I wonder what else we can learn from construction workers?

Lesley

Are You Suffering From Information Fatigue Syndrome?

This disorder was first recognized in the 1990’s by a Dr. David Lewis who coined the term information fatigue syndrome.

Anyone out there suffering from information overload? Bogged down with the technology that is supposed to be helping you?

I remember when personal computers were first introduced (yes, I’m that old) and were hailed as a way to save time and reduce paperwork in the office.

This week I was working in an organization that is introducing a new computer system. The staff have been told they have to keep all the old paper files AND start entering data into the new computer program.

For the interim they have to enter the data twice. Everyone was busy before and now they have even more work to do! Not an uncommon scenario in most workplaces.

Add that to the fact that most people are expected to be available, if not 24/7, then for a good 8 to 10 hours a day and you have a recipe for stress and burnout.

And just like burnout, symptoms of information fatigue syndrome include the following:

• increased anxiety
• increased stress
• sleeplessness
• increased self-doubt in decision making (Do I have the right information? Do I have enough information? Have I backed up my information?)

Not only are many of us expected to keep up with the latest technology but we are overloaded with information from multiple sources…such as:

• email
• voice mail
• meetings
• faxes (does anyone use these anymore?)
• internet
• face book
• blackberries
• websites
• blogs
• have I missed any?

How many of you go on vacation and take your blackberry or laptop with you?

A close friend of mine went on vacation and took her blackberry. Of course she couldn’t resist reading her office emails (this was a gal who complained about being overworked).

She ended up responding to an email and getting embroiled in an argument with her boss which essentially ruined her vacation. Yes, she was at fault for taking her blackberry with her…but isn’t that the expectation?

Aren’t we supposed to be connected to work 24/7?

Speaking of being unable to leave the computer alone…it’s the middle of summer…time to turn off the blackberry and leave the pc at the office…

And go for a walk!

Lesley

Rebuilding Trust in the Workplace

At least one quarter of all people visiting this blog have clicked on the post Building Trust in the Workplace.  I suppose that this shouldn’t surprise me given that this blog is called healing the workplace.

Trust is a core value for most of us and the opposite of trust is betrayal. So…when trust is broken in organizations…employees feel betrayed.

It can take a VERY long time to rebuild this trust once it is broken.  

Trust can’t be negotiated or bought…it has to be earned.

Trust is an essential human value. Psychologists claim that trust in one’s self and other people is so important to human relationships that it influences everything a person thinks, feels, says and does.

Trust flows from the top of organizations. If management is unpredictable, unfair, reactive or otherwise lacking in integrity, employees will not trust what is said to them…and will behave accordingly.

Julie Miller and Brian Bedford write…

Public confidence in the business world has rarely been lower. The impact of the Enron and Worldcom scandals, plus senior leaders who feathered their own nests at the expense of customers, employees and stockholders, have created a deep and widespread suspicion of companies and their leadership.

Large and small businesses should ask themselves, “What can we do to regain the trust and confidence of the people we need the most: the customers, the employees, and the stockholders?”

One answer lies in a return to strong core values.

Core values are beliefs and codes of conduct that identify what an organization holds to be important!

Many organizations believe that they can get people to “buy into” their stated core values.

According to Jim Collins this just isn’t so…and he writes, “you cannot install new core values into people”.

Collins suggests that once an organization has identified its core values then the next task is to FIND people who are already predisposed to sharing those values.

This is were recruitment and retention come into play. As an employer, you must first attract and then retain people who believe strongly in the same values that you do.

How to do this?

You might take a look at what Starbucks is doing to recruit and retain employees. A few years ago I stopped into a local Starbucks for my soy latte and picked up one of their many brochures.

This brochure was entitled Living Our Values: Starbucks Commitment to Social Responsibility.

Inside the pamplet was the following Mission Statement and Guiding Principles:

• Provide a great work environment and treat each other with respect and dignity.
• Embrace diversity as an essential component in the way we do business.
• Etc. Etc. Etc.

Now, Starbucks has identified some core values and embedded others into the principles that make up their mission statement. Some organizations choose to highlight their core values separately.

I’m not sure how well Starbucks is doing as far as staff satisfaction and staff retention BUT they do survey their employees on a regular basis and conduct an annual “Corporate Social Responsibility Audit”.

AND, despite having to close 600 stores in the USA recently, they still have a strong, loyal following throughout the world.

Anyway, enough of this rambling. It is a FABULOUS July evening and I’m going to go outside and water my plants.

Enjoy!

Lesley

Corporate Abuse: Destroying Soul in the Workplace

In 1996 Canadians Lesley Wright and Marti Smye wrote a book called Civilizing the Worklace. The book is about corporate abuse and the authors paint an interesting picture of abusive workplace cultures which they describe as..soul destroying!

According to Wright and Smye corporate abuse has “many faces” with the following abuses being the most obvious:

• discrimination
• overwork
• harassment
• systematic humiliation
• arbitrary manipulation
• demotion without cause
• withholding of resources

Of course there are many less obvious forms of abuse which are just as damaging to the organization and to the individual.

Wright and Smye hightlight some of the more SUBTLE forms of corporate abuse as well:

• lack of support
• penny-pinching
• micromanagement
• constant miscommunication
• hidden agendas
• surveillance

What is interesting is that they define corporate abuse as “anything that kills good ideas and innovation”.

This may seem like an unusual definition for corporate abuse but I agree that organizations which allow abuse to continue unchecked DESTROY creativity and innovation.

What I find interesting is that one of the biggest concerns of organizations in recent years is about productivity or lack of productivity by workers. I think the equation goes something like this…increased productivity = increased growth = increased profits. 

In a nutshell, that which gives organizations (not for profit and for profit) the competitive advantage is their ability to generate new ideas and innovations.

I also find it interesting the Wright and Smye wrote Civilizing the Workplace in 1996 during a time when

JOBS WERE SO SCARCE THAT PEOPLE FELT LUCKY TO BE DRAWING A SALARY!

 It was for this very reason that organizations were able to abuse people and “get away with it”.

One of the reasons for this is that abusive cultures thrive in uncertainty (you’ll find details in the book) by generating fear and dependency in people.

Sadly, corporate abuse makes itself felt in individual lives before it appears on the bottom line.  People suffer health problems such as…

• stress
• headaches
• ulcers
• exhaustion
• insomnia
• anxiety
• burnout
• heart attacks
• panic attacks
• nervous breakdowns 

AND, if this is not enough there are longer term negative effects on relationships, families and individual self-esteem.

 Are things any better today? Yes and no.

In a recent edition of the Vancouver Sun newspaper Donna Jacobs wrote an article called “Mental Illness: No end in sight”.  Part of her article relates to workplace stress and its damaging effects on people’s lives…one of the experts she interviews states…

Despite all that we’ve learned in the past 10 years…chronic job stress is on the rise!

I’ll have more to say about this later on in the week!

Cheers,

Lesley

 

 

 

Bullying Bosses in the Workplace

Here’s a statistic that should make you sit up and take notice. No wonder our workplaces need healing!

80% of workplace bullies are BOSSES

This startling statistic can be found on the Canada Safety Council website.

In addition, the Canada Safety Council (CSC) informs us that “workplace bullying has become an internationally recognized health & safety issue”.

The CSC defines workplace bullying in the following way:

any vexatious behavior in the form of repeated & hostile or unwanted conduct, verbal comments, actions or gestures that affect an employee’s dignity or psychological or physical integrity and that result in a harmful work environment for the employees…

Surveys show that 1 in 10 workers have been the subject of bullying.

So, who are these bullies and what can we do if we are being abused by one of them?

It should come as no surprise to learn that the bullies who torment us in the workplace were the same bullies who tormented us when we went to school. In other words, when school bullies grow up they join the workforce and continue to bully others.

These adult bullies tend to be insecure people, with poor or non-existent social skills and little empathy. They turn this insecurity outwards attacking the capable people around them.

Now, the REALLY frightening thing is not the fact that these people are bullies, which is bad enough, but that they are in positions of power in organizations where we work!!!

How do these people get into management positions in the first place?

Unfortunately, I don’t have an answer to that question but I would love to hear your theories.  Care to comment?

One thing I do know is that bosses who bully their employees destroy trust in the workplace and once this trust is broken it is nearly impossible to regain it.

Bullying takes its toll on both employees and employers. Bullies poisen their working environment with low morale, fear, anger and depression and the employer pays for this in absenteeism, high staff turnover, severance packages and law suits.

Obviously productivity suffers.

If you are interested in learning more about bullying and how to deal with bullying in your workplace check out the article on Monster. ca.

I believe that currently two provinces in Canada (Quebec and Saskatchewan) and 13 US States have anti-bullying laws in place.

Lesley

Healing the Spirit at Work

Did you know that spirituality at work has become a movement in North America? Not only has it become a movement but it is being embraced by conservative business institutions such as Harvard University and the American Academy of Management.

Harvard University was the first business school to offer a course in spirituality as part of its MBA program and other universities have been quick to follow suit.

In the past 10 years there have been an unprecedented number of conferences organized on the subject. The number of books and articles being written is also on the rise.

But what is spirit at work and why is it important?

Obviously it is intangible.  When it is present in a workplace there is positive energy, laughter, joy, caring, compassion and creativity.

When it is absent, both individuals, and the organizations they work in, suffer.

According to Professor Paul Wong, “many forces have contributed to the revival of spirituality in the workplace including…

• instability as a result from layoffs, downsizing, mergers and globalization
• increased stress in remaining workers who are required to do more with less
• declining job satisfaction and increasing incidents of depression and burnout
• environmental pollution
• scandals of unethical corporate behavior
• technology and its dehumanizing effect
• workplace violence…”

Wong goes on to say that “workers are trying to create meaning and purpose in the workplace and they are searching for a sense of community”.

If you are new to this subject and want to begin exploring it I would recommend C. Diane Ealy’s book The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Spirituality in the Workplace. Don’t be fooled by the fact that this book is one of the “Idiot’s Guidebooks”. Diane has written an easy to read, comprehensive and extremely practical book on the subject.

In addition to this book there are a growing number of websites you can explore.

One of my favorites is the International Center for Spirit at Work.

Have a great week!

Lesley