Overcoming the Unsettled Workplace

Humans are certainty-seeking machines. It’s no surprise the last three years have caused plummeting well-being and increased anxiety. No place is this more apparent than in the workplace.

Some employers are beginning to come to terms with the role they play in the larger dynamic, while others may need a reality check on the impact they have on employees in an uncertain world.

U.S. workers are facing a potential recession, worry that technology will replace them, and mass layoffs in the tech sector amid nationwide job growth. People are struggling to adapt and find ways to gain control of their work circumstances.

The COVID-19 pandemic was a watershed event. According to a recent U.S. Surgeon General report, the pandemic “brought the relationship between work and well-being into clearer focus for many U.S. workers.” Surveys showed 76% of workers in 2021 experienced at least one symptom of depression or anxiety – a 17% increase from 2019.

In addition, 81% said they were seeking workplaces that support employee mental health, and 84% shared that their workplace had a negative impact on their well-being.

Colorado State University researchers are exploring how individuals cope with the changing workplace. They are focused on remote work and fighting burnout, what organizations can do to support individual well-being, and the implications of strongly identifying with employer organizations.

Remote Work

Remote work, or teleworking, is generally seen as a resource that makes it easier to do one’s job. However, for those who prefer to keep their work and private lives separate, a move to teleworking feels like a loss of control, according to a study by Associate Professor Samantha Conroy of the College of Business.

Employees exist on a spectrum of needs and preferences; CSU management and psychology researchers have identified key factors that dictate the way people perceive their work, including:

• Work-life boundary preference.
• Socioeconomic status.
• Technology aptitude.
• Demographics.

A recent review by Associate Professor Gwen Fisher and doctoral student Julia Beckel in the Department of Psychology explored the impacts of teleworking on individuals. On the positive end, remote work generally reduces exhaustion in employees by cutting commute times and increasing flexibility. However, it can also decrease their engagement in work due to a lack of feedback and social connection, and often, less clarity around individual roles and responsibilities.

“More frequent opportunities to interact with other coworkers and supervisors, both formally and informally, may mitigate decreasing engagement,” Beckel said. “Think of the utility of informal channels like Slack (or Teams).”

In a fully remote work environment, this can look like consistent leadership check-ins, aiming to support the employee and their goals regardless of workload, paired with messaging channels that serve a specific purpose. “Ensuring appropriate levels of social support and feedback are key to creating connection between employees and the organization in virtual and hybrid working environments,” Beckel added.

The Case for Social Support

Military service members, like college students, are young people who need social support. Jacqueline Wong, an industrial-organizational psychology and occupational health doctoral student, examined the role of work-family resources for military service members in her study published in Occupational Health Science last year.

“We found that creating a family-supportive culture and providing resources are important foundations for building military personnel’s inherent resilience to improve outcomes and well-being,” Wong said. “The idea is that it’s actually organizational culture and resources that come first and enable folks’ resilience.”

While military life differs from the civilian workplace, Wong’s findings are relevant to many companies that ask more of their employees for less. “It’s no longer a question of if, but when we need resilience in the workplace,” Wong said. “However, I worry that it can be a slippery slope when it comes to placing too much of the onus on individuals. As organizations continue to examine and emphasize resilience, I hope they equally consider the working conditions that they expect employees to be resilient to.”

Organizational Identification in Uncertain Times

Humans often build their identities around what they do professionally, which can benefit the organization. However, a review by Conroy and fellow CSU management faculty Chris Henle and Lynn Shore finds that overidentification can be detrimental to employees, especially if they experience layoffs.

Such overidentification can lead to employees justifying unethical behaviors in the organization and resisting reform because they believe preserving and protecting the organization is paramount. Attachment to the organizations we work for is generally driven by the employer and expected to be reciprocated by employees. This is seen in behaviors such as referring to coworkers as “family” or a focus on passion as the reason employees should work overtime or take on additional responsibilities.

“Organizations are important because they give us meaning, and at the same time, there’s this tenuous relationship because it could end,” Conroy said. “It can be a lot like human relationships: How do you manage a relationship where the person could hurt you at any time?”

Individuals are vulnerable in this relationship, often at the whim of the company or the economy, with more to lose than in human relationships. “You see it in the depression athletes experience when they retire,” Conroy said. “Or how someone may work for 40 years thinking about only their job at the cost of other areas of their lives and finding themselves a bit lost when they retire.”

Resilience as an ’Emergent State’

With a deeper understanding of the individual factors at play in work, we can approach the idea of resilience as a state of being, something people can tap into as a resource rather than a human characteristic.

Think of it like a rubber band full of potential energy that the team, or the individual, loads into it. The group can create the elastic bounce-back potential that’s greater than an individual’s resilience. When considering individual resilience, ask, “how much rubber is in your rubber band today?” said Associate Professor Paula Yuma from CSU’s School of Social Work and the Colorado School of Public Health. Teams can support each other in meaningful ways to help replenish that elasticity.

“Designate regular times for unstructured work-related communication. Casual conversations create the opportunity to identify needed process changes and emerging concerns,” Yuma advised. “And build in time for play! Social cohesion in the workplace is advanced by having fun together.”

Resilience goes beyond the individual level, ascending to team, organizational, and systemic levels. Zooming out, organizations and systems look past individual needs and grapple with big-picture challenges, such as funding and human resources.

“Coping at the agency level and system level impacts adaptability at higher and lower levels,” Yuma explained. “When organizational-level factors aren’t allowing individuals to meet their needs, the strain upsets the homeostasis of the system.”

M. Travis Maynard, management researcher and associate dean for the College of Business, investigates how the military, NASA, and private companies cope in difficult circumstances. He says a resilient team does not necessarily mean it’s made up of resilient individuals.

“Within the last 15 years, we’ve started theorizing about what is adaptation and what is resilience,” Maynard said. “It’s the process of changing, and the reservoir, the capacity to adapt with the confidence needed to execute.”

When a group is cohesive and in the same psychological state, their ability to adapt or persevere increases beyond their individual capabilities.

When the reservoir is tapped, the team enters its “emergent state” – the shared phenomenon the team believes in. When the group is cohesive and in the same psychological state, their ability to adapt or persevere increases beyond their individual capabilities.

The Organization’s Role

Employers can do many things to build a more resilient workforce. From empowering employees to helping create certainty in their world, leadership can make a difference for individuals, and in turn, the organization. Middle management has a unique opportunity to empower many voices in decision-making while facilitating collaborative problem-solving and creating leadership opportunities for their teams.

“Don’t forget to encourage employees to use their employee assistance program, if available, for well-being support,” Yuma said. “Leaders can discuss the benefits and how they’ve used the EAP in order to reduce stigma in pursuing counseling, health, financial, or other resources.”

Beyond offering resources, employers need to ask what staff need and aim to meet those needs. People leave when they don’t feel cared for or seen. Within Wong’s dissertation research, she interviewed people who quit their jobs during the Great Resignation, finding that most realized they needed their work environments to be more conducive to family and life outside the office.

“So many of them mentioned how COVID reminded them of their humanness and the need to be seen that way by the organization they work for,” Wong said.

Part of acknowledging employees’ humanity is helping to create certainty whenever possible. That means providing clarity in teleworking policies or communication expectations and creating opportunities for informal, quick-response communication. When certainty isn’t an option, be clear and transparent, and involve teams in solutions building.

Take what you learn from the above strategies, act on what you learn, then aim to encourage and model the elusive idea of “work-life balance.”

“Highlight successes both personal and professional,” Yuma suggested. “Don’t celebrate overwork or busyness – rather, highlight the ways people succeed while maintaining a healthy balance.”

Imagine the potential of a workforce empowered and seen by its leaders. The only way to go now is forward.

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Building a Resilient Workforce

Chrissi Alvarado is the communications and events manager for the Office of the Vice President for Research at Colorado State University.
Illustration by My Linh Mac, CSU Marketing & Brand Management
Illustrated icons by Wendy Brookshire, CSU Marketing & Brand Management