April is stress awareness month.
Awareness events are crucial for driving conversations that are otherwise not given the attention they deserve and this April, we want to do our part here at Culture Correspondence to shine a light on something so pervasive, it’s being labelled a modern-day stress epidemic.
Over the next four weeks we’ll be discussing the relationship between stress and performance & productivity, how to ensure that managers (the frontline for stress management in companies) are themselves effectively supported and we’ll be closing out by reframing stress management at work altogether; giving the power back to employees.
We’re starting by understanding the foundations that underpin this whole topic - the science of stress.
We need to understand the difference between useful stress and chronic stress, and take steps to create a work environment that promotes healthy stress levels, not aspire to one that is an entirely and rather unhelpfully, stress free zone.
Healthy Stress Levels
We’ve all heard of the term ‘fight or flight’... But what is this? What are stress responses, and how much control do we really have when this is happening to us?
There are good reasons we get stressed, and the reality is that some stress is good for us. In evolutionary terms, we need (the right kind of) stress in order to perform well.
Stress is our body's response to any demand or pressure placed upon us. And the word ‘any’ is important. This is a natural physiological response that prepares us to either attack and defend ourselves, or hit bricks and hot step it straight out of the potential grasp of a perceived threat.
When we are faced with a stressful situation, our brain sends a signal to our body to release stress hormones, including cortisol and adrenaline. These hormones help us to respond quickly and effectively to the situation at hand. As such, a short peak of stress hormones is helpful. It keeps us aware. It’s an impressive and important survival mechanism.
And it’s served us pretty well so far.
The problem is that what we’re trying to fight or flee from nowadays, is sometimes impossible to do either in the face of; and ever present, constant sources of pressure can create chronic stress. Instead of a temporary, fixed state that sees us working from optimised awareness, chronic stress has some seriously negative effects on our health.
Self-Correcting Teams
I am all about self-correcting teams; I’ve written in previous editions of Culture Correspondence about People functions aiming to enable, rather than manage. Instead of intervention being the primary goal, I believe People professionals should aim to create sustainable people operations practices that take more from the world of product design than they do from the traditionally administrative approaches commonly seen in Human Resource Management.
We shouldn’t be aspiring to command and control how people learn, think and act; we should be aspiring to improve the systemic and structural provision in place that enables those things to happen.
We should be trying to get out of peoples’ way and to unlock self-correcting teams.
We want our employees to be autonomous, to spot problems before they arrive, to be innovative and to operate from a place of curiosity. I believe teams operating from a baseline of normalised chronic stress, cannot be expected to self-correct or to achieve their potential.
Yet I have met founders, leaders and senior management teams who contribute to an environment of chronic stress, sometimes knowingly, sometimes proudly and expect the same constantly optimised standards of not only output - but also effort - from the human beings they’re leading or managing.
I’m not talking about taking our feet off the gas when it comes to constant improvement or reducing the ‘stretchiness’ of our stretched goals. I’m not talking about slowing down or becoming less ambitious or optimistic. I’m talking about the sort of toxic hustle culture stuff that is frankly just wildly unrealistic, and scientifically proven to be so.
Hijacks and Off Switches: What Toxic Culture Achieves (Neuroscientifically)
- Amygdala Hijacks
We’ve all got an amygdala. It’s the part of the brain responsible for processing emotions such as fear, anger, and anxiety. When the amygdala perceives a threat, it can activate the sympathetic nervous system, triggering the fight or flight response.
During an amygdala hijack, the emotional response can be so intense that it overrides the prefrontal cortex; the part of the brain responsible for rational thinking and decision-making.
When we talk about being ‘present’, we’re trying to consciously engage. And this sort of mindfulness can help reduce the emotional impact of an amygdala hijack. By really paying attention to thoughts and feelings - without applying any judgement - we can become more aware of our emotions and more able to recognise when an amygdala hijack is happening.
So… when we perceive that someone is being irrational, it could be more helpful to think that actually, they’ve been hijacked. If a workplace culture is chronically toxic, it’s constantly hijacking people. And, that’s not cool.
- Hitting the Hippocampus Off Switch
The hippocampus is a region of the brain responsible for memory formation and retrieval. When the body perceives a threat - and the amygdala sends a signal to the hypothalamus, which triggers the release of stress hormones like cortisol and adrenaline - these hormones can have a negative impact on the hippocampus.
Chronic stress can cause prolonged exposure to high levels of cortisol, which can damage the hippocampus and impair its ability to form new memories. This can result in difficulty learning new information or retaining important details.
Oftentimes we’re being asked to do just that - learn new information or retrieve important information - when we’re under the most pressure.
If an employee experiences an amygdala hijack due to a stressful interaction with their manager during a meeting, it’s pretty likely they’re not going to recall the really important details that manager was so stressy about!
We all know that constant exposure to stressors - such as a heavy workload or a toxic work environment - not only negatively impacts individuals but the company as a whole; reducing productivity, increasing absenteeism and damaging overall employee engagement and satisfaction.
And, as is the case for every important entry in the HR calendar, it’s absolutely not good enough to be inclusive to, or attempt to normalise discussion of important topics - like stress - only once a year.
We believe that by confidently articulating how and why employees are experiencing stress responses at work, and by highlighting the causes of stress, People functions in particular can become champions of normalising this conversation in the workplace. Together, we can help achieve Stress Awareness Month’s ambition and create,
“... Dedicated time to removing the guilt, shame, and stigma around mental health. To talk about stress, and its effects and open up about our mental and emotional state with friends, families, colleagues, and professionals.”
Word From The Street
Ginni’s favourite quote of the week from the HR Community
Particularly since we’re touching neuroscience this week, this excerpt from a TED talk feels super relevant and also eye-opening when it comes to the reality of how our brains work when pitched against common workplace narratives about being busy. This talk is all about the importance of time to pause, think and even… be bored. It suggests how and why “boredom truly can lead to brilliance.”
Recommended
No cookie cutters or silver bullets here, just things Ginni thinks are interesting and/or useful.
To be most useful this week, we’re signposting to stress.org’s 30 day challenge.
It takes 30 days to turn actions into habits and this month-long programme is designed to help people do just that; form new, healthier habits by committing to daily tasks that support physical, mental and emotional wellbeing.