Workplace Stress: The Good. The Bad. The Ugly.
Anyone who has been in a situation where workload is excessive and unmanageable, or where bullying and harassment are the rule rather than the exception would likely agree that these workplace stressors are insidious. They can creep up on you so subtly that you miss the warning signs until they are blaring at you, or worse, have knocked you flat. Before you realize it, you are in physical and/or mental distress, and the approach to “tough it out” to keep your job is a considerable burden. It’s all too easy to feel isolated and to withdraw from the key people who can support you.
Sometimes it takes a colleague, a friend, a family member or a doctor to kick you out of your spiral downward due to stress. I once worked with an amazing woman who was in a senior leadership position at an organization and was, essentially, working herself to death. Her doctor finally told her to take a leave of absence for a minimum of six months, but more reasonably a year. When she left, they backfilled her position, and the person in her place said the workload was impossible so they hired another person to assist. Even with two people doing the work, they said there was too much, and a third person was hired. It took three people to do the job my colleague had been doing for over three years. We all need to recognize when workload is beyond reasonable, and when to seek help to relieve workload stress before it becomes damaging to our health.
When it comes to intimidation, bullying and other abusive workplace behaviour, there can be multiple sources – managers, elected officials, colleagues or customers. It’s a reality in the workplace, but just as sexual harassment is an anathema that won’t be tolerated, these other abusive behaviours must also be eliminated from the workplace.
The March edition of Exchange, the LGMA’s member magazine, tackles these issues in Stress: The Good. The Bad. The Ugly. The feature story explores the types of stress we experience in the workplace – including the fact that some stress is positive and ultimately necessary for progress and success. It’s also unnerving that so many local government managers have talked about the challenges they face, and the lack of viable options to address the source of stressors affecting their health. We originally hoped to share some case studies with you, but the reality is that even retirees are not comfortable discussing their past experiences when there are so few solutions in place. But while your options may be limited – there are some tactics you can apply, and some decisions you can control, to help protect your health and support your job enjoyment.
Considering the research on the long-term damage chronic stress can cause in an organization, including impeding its productivity and customer service, you would think that the benefits of protecting a healthy work environment would take precedence and allow for prompt elimination of threats that can cause a toxic culture. So the hope is that organizations with toxic cultures will eventually implode in the sense that they can’t function effectively without change. This may happen if customer service is directly affected when people refuse to work for employers who don’t uphold shared values and a code of conduct based on a respectful workplace. And when services are directly affected, perhaps a true cultural change will be forced on leadership and on all employees until a positive, productive and engaging workplace becomes the norm.
Until then, maybe we need to wear pink shirts every day.
It’s been a privilege…
When great leaders retire, we all feel the loss, but we also consider ourselves privileged to have been part of the team. So when Tom MacDonald, Executive Director for the Local Government Management Association (LGMA) announced his retirement, there was a line up of privileged team members who wanted to share their stories in Exchange magazine as a way to show their appreciation for his leadership.
Capturing all the anecdotes and insights about Tom would take a book, which means the greatest challenge was selecting the nuggets that would best tell his story. What emerged for me was a picture of a humble, visionary leader who understands and values people, and has the ability to blend ingenuity with practical applications to move himself and everyone around him from good to great. I’ve since learned that Tom is a big fan of the book, Good to Great, by Jim Collins, which is where he started to apply this approach in his own life. When his staff suggested this for the title of his story, it was a perfect fit.
The other underlying theme to every interview was friendship. Everyone he meets becomes a friend, and every friend treasures this connection. I’ve had the pleasure of working with Tom on Exchange for the past few years, and I too enjoy the benefits of his thoughtful and insightful advice, his leadership approach that allows me to take the lead in my areas of expertise, and his friendship. Interacting with Tom has afforded me the opportunity to learn from an amazing leader. He motivates people and creates an environment where everyone maximizes their individual skills as well as their cohesive capabilities as a team. He is open to new ideas, and frankly encourages us to push boundaries and take a few risks. He sets clear goals, but provides flexibility in how they may be achieved.
Tom knows how to have fun and laugh at life’s ironies, but he also makes it okay to seethe with righteous anger and frustration when we witness injustice. He is a champion for local government employees, and an advocate for continuous improvement in the profession.
Tom is everything we talk about when describing exceptional leaders, and he will be missed around the office as he steps out into new adventures in his retirement. At the same time, because he’s a great leader, he has established an amazing team and the foundations for success that will provide for a smooth transition and future achievements with the incoming Executive Director.
Best wishes Tom. Thanks for everything.
Open Up and Build Trust – Or Else
As a communications professional, my role has always been to share information with customers, residents or any other affected audience. I can remember a group of us joking about what happens when you have a communications person and a lawyer in the same room giving advice. The communications person says: “Tell them everything!” and the lawyer says: “Tell them nothing!” We usually met somewhere in the middle.
These days, there is a growing shift towards sharing more information. It’s difficult to pinpoint the drivers behind this trend. There seems to be a general lack of trust in governments and accusations of them hiding things or doing secret deals at the expense of taxpayers. Elected officials have increasingly proposed that the electorate should have greater input into decision-making and the words “community engagement” are becoming a common part of the government vernacular. When you factor in social media, electronic content management systems and other online tools, it’s become significantly easier to share information and generate discussion. The result is tremendous potential for communication and consultation in communities.
The challenge with all of this “openness” is the corresponding requirement to protect personal information. Government is tasked with privacy laws and Freedom of Information requirements that put it in a difficult position when trying to meet the demand for being open and sharing information more readily. File storage for social media platforms is in the United States, which does not meet the more stringent criteria for privacy protection upheld in Canada.
And some of the “Wikileak” incidents have resulted in the release of confidential and/or compromising information. There are other considerations as well: competitive information, details from closed meetings and preliminary discussions that many feel are best kept behind closed doors until there is some definitive decision to move forward as speaking too soon may raise unnecessary concerns or otherwise undermine the project or process.
Open government practices are designed to find a balance in this mix of information demand and privacy requirements. Technology is making it easier to share open data that has been stripped of personal information. Mobile apps and other software are being developed to apply data in a way that makes it useful as a customer service tool and easily searchable as a resource. Social media platforms are assisting with community engagement by building online communities for information sharing and increased collaboration.
The concept of open government and the new tools and approaches like open data and social media are still relatively new. Their potential is largely untapped, and the risks are largely unexplored. In the September edition of Exchange magazine, the story Building Trust Through Transparency highlights the progress being made in open data projects and provides a guide and resource for local governments across the province. Similarly, Successes in Social Media are case studies highlighting some best practices in how these new tools can be applied effectively. It is evident that early days or not, there is a shift underway in B.C. local governments as organizations strive to meet demand for communication and community engagement in a responsible manner.
As a communicator, my philosophy remains vested in the idea that sharing information and being more open is essential to building trust and establishing relationships.