In a recent New York Times article, Ann Carrins posited the need for a regular mental health checkup citing the growing number of resources available for people to ‘self-check’ their symptoms for depression, anxiety, and eating disorders, amongst other issues. This is undoubtedly good news for business, as most functioning employed people don’t go near the subject of mental health, don’t touch their benefits, and probably feel that taking care of depression or anxiety by going to therapy is a slippery slope: sooner or later (or immediately) the therapist is going to find something, and then how to do you get out? Oddly there was no mention of stress in the article, despite the fact that stress costs US businesses $300 billion annually in productivity, lost time and employee conflict.
Dr. Andrew Shatte, world renowned psychologist in the field of cognitive behavior therapy and resilience training and a colleague of mine, said: “In the mental health field, we currently have diagnoses for anxiety and depression but not for the stress. But that doesn’t make the issue of stress any less powerful or dangerous.”
Stress acts more like a ‘silent killer’ creeping up, overtaking our behavior until we gradually become unproductive and then sick. We can’t see the impact of managing our stress as easily or readily as dropping down a dress size. But just as we can’t see our IQ or our cholesterol levels, we learn from these objective measures and they serve to guide us in our life and behavior choices. Shatte concludes “My guess is that sooner than later the powers that be will include a disorder that incorporates what we call stress. There’s a precedent for emergent disorders, especially those that have big social health consequences, to finally get included in our book of diagnoses, the DSM.”
Entrepreneurs are typically under considerable stress and often for long periods of time. But while so many entrepreneurs have a high tolerance for stress, they may not know when they are near the edge of needing some help. We tend to think about a stressed out workforce as one that is under the pressure of maintaining a declining business with fewer resources, amidst business model change or one struggling to hold onto legacy revenues. But consider the company that is doubling their sales quarter after quarter. Entrepreneurs and their workforces who typically operate in a continual state of hyper drive face a different kind of stress, which comes from willingly being in a constant state of mental arousal – different but equally damaging as the stress that comes from anger, anxiety, lack of control over one’s problems. It’s sort of like an inbred insensitivity to stress – but the stress nevertheless takes its physical toll. So, especially as we end the year end race to a positive finish, it’s important to stay alert to the stress trap – for you and your employees. Here are five questions that are true tests of how you and your business are holding up. Give yourself and your team an honest assessment and if any of these indicators seem to be trending downward, get some coaching, before stressed out becomes burned out.
1. Work life conflict (or imbalance) is an issue for a growing number of my employees.
2. My team and I are able to roll with the punches when adversity strikes.
3. I have concern about how our turnover rate has spiked recently.
4. I see a growing level of frustration or anger in our employees, especially when they are under pressure.
5. There seems to be an increasing level of conflict between employees.