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It’s that time of year. The weather is changing, the leaves are falling, and you’re SAD. But you’re not alone. Nearly 10 million Americans suffer from Seasonal Affective Disorder. While SAD is most prevalent in those ages 18 to 30, it can affect anyone, and the effects are different for everyone.
Symptoms of SAD include:
Fatigue
Loss of concentration
Insomnia/Inability to wake up
Mild to severe depression
Weight loss/gain
Employers may see these symptoms in the form of attendance issues, decreased productivity, mistakes in work completed, or a lack of concentration in meetings. Your initial reaction may be to consider disciplinary action, but before you do, consider the behaviors you’re seeing. Are these recent changes to an otherwise well-performing employee? If so, did these changes occur around the change of the season? While SAD affects most people in the cold weather seasons, some individuals do suffer SAD in the warmer season as well.
So how can you help an employee who may be suffering from SAD?
Utilize your EAP. If your organization provides employees with an Employee Assistance Plan, now might be a good time to remind employees of this benefit. Send out a communication to all staff reminding them of the EAP benefit and the services it can provide to them.
Up the lighting. Take a look around your facility at the lighting. Are all areas well lit or does your office exude that dim ambiance? While dim lights might be preferred in the summer months, you might want to turn up the lights in the cooler months.
Encourage employees to get outside. If your office is in a great location for walks, encourage your employees to take advantage of that and get moving outdoors. Consider forming a walking team that meets daily to get outside and walk for 15-20 minutes. Think about setting up a basketball hoop, volleyball net, cornhole, or other outdoor activity to encourage employees to get outside during their breaks or lunch.
Talk more. Check-in with your employees more often, just stop by to say hi and see how they’re doing. And be an active listener. If you listen, you may read between the lines that they aren’t as okay as they say they are.
Offer flexibility. If possible, consider a more flexible work schedule. That may include shifting your hours and letting employees arrive a little later or it may mean allowing affected employees to work from home on their bad days.
Offer up FMLA and/or ADA. Understand that while most people who suffer from SAD are able to struggle through, some aren’t. In some cases, SAD can be debilitating and lead to severe depression. In these cases, employees may need and qualify for FMLA and/or ADA accommodations.
One of the questions I often help employers work through is can they terminate an employee. And too often I hear “But we’re in an at-will state” or “we’re an at-will employer”.
At-will employment is often misinterpreted to mean that an employer can terminate an employee whenever they please, and while at-will employment policies do state that the employee or employer can terminate employment at any time, with or without cause, and with or without notice, there are limitations to that on the part of the employer.
First, all states are at-will employment states. Some states have added legislation that further limits the bounds of at-will employment, but the overall objective is the same.
So what does at-will employment really mean?
Yes, employees can resign their positions at any time, with or without notice, and with or without reason. And yes, employers can impose penalties if employees do not give notice within the limits of federal, state, and local laws, such as setting a vacation policy that requires 2-weeks’ notice to receive a payout of accrued, unused vacation time upon termination. And yes, if an employee gives a 2-week notice, the employer can opt to take that notice effective immediately, and it’s still considered a voluntary resignation.
But what at-will employment does not mean is that an employer can terminate employment with or without notice, and with or without cause, if doing so violates other employment laws.
When reviewing an employer’s request to terminate an employee, there are a few things that I take into consideration:
Is the employee in a protected class? For example, are they female, are they over the age of 40, are they a minority, are they disabled?
What is the employer’s reason for wanting to terminate employment? Are there performance issues and if so, have they been addressed with the employee, and has the employee been given the opportunity to improve performance? And have those performance issues and conversations been documented? Is it an attendance issue? Is there documentation of poor attendance and disciplinary action for violation of the attendance policy? Is there a written attendance policy?
Is the termination a layoff? If so, is it truly a layoff or is the employer using that reason as means to get rid of an employee they just don’t want? While there are no legal limitations on how long a position must be vacant in order to constitute a layoff, the adhered to standard is six months unless there is a significant change in business. If an employer lays off an employee and refills the position in 2-3 weeks, chances are it wasn’t really a layoff but an excuse to terminate an employee they didn’t want.
Is there an employment contract that impacts Employment-At-Will? Employment contracts are a legally binding document that outlines the terms of employment, and often includes the length of employment under the contract and penalties for terminating the contract early, both for the employee and the employer. Such contracts may create limitations to employment-at-will.
Would a judge find this termination justified? If an employee were to file a lawsuit for wrongful termination, how would a judge see it? Have I as an employer covered all my bases to make sure the termination was within the law? Documentation is critical to this decision. If an employer wishes to terminate an employee, they must be able to show justification for that decision.
Employment-at-will is not a free pass to terminate employees “just because.” The employer is still responsible for ensuring that the termination is justified and within the limits of federal, state, and local laws.
I’ve been thinking a lot about satisfaction at work and in life. If you’re a fan of Hamilton, you know the iconic song, “Satisfied”, about the struggle of feeling dissatisfied with your life when you’re aware of other possibilities. I’ve felt this personally, and we’ve seen it in others through our work helping individuals and organizations find mutual FIT. We believe person-organization fit leads to job satisfaction and engagement.
If you know “Satisfied”, then you also know the line “I am not standing still, I am lying in wait” from the song “Wait For It”. (Is it obvious I just rewatched Hamilton on Disney+?) That line – and the entire song – describes those of us who find ourselves waiting for something better to come along. A better job. A better boss. A better company. We’re waiting for something better, but we’re not taking any action.
My message today is to stop standing still and take action toward satisfaction. That doesn’t have to mean leaving a job, although the timing for that might be right. It could simply mean taking a moment for self-reflection to understand yourself and identify why you might not be satisfied. Is it a values mismatch?
We know from research and our work with organizations that a mismatch of values or work environment preferences is likely to lead to dissatisfaction, disengagement, and eventually turnover. Long-term FIT is more likely to occur when individuals and organizations share a common approach to work and balancing that work with life.
Question of the day: Are you satisfied or standing still?
Jillian will be speaking at the NASHRM September Workshop on Tuesday, September 8th. Find out more information or register here.
Want to learn more about finding your fit? Check out our sister company MatchFIT. Visit thematchfit.com
“I’m sorry, I’m working from home and my dog is barking.” How many times have you said or heard this lately? I have a mini schnauzer with a not-so-mini personality, so I’m an experienced “I’m sorry my dog is barking” professional. So is the HR leader who said that exact sentence on our call this morning.
By now, many of us have been working remotely for months. Some for years. We’ve adopted new methods, like wearing pajama shorts under that sharp shirt and blazer because no one really ever sees below our shoulders. We’ve found a new rhythm. We work when the kids are doing homework or the baby (and/or dog) is napping. We’ve got this.
But are we engaged? Are we growing? Do we feel connected to our colleagues, our leaders, our organizational and personal purpose? We’re working longer hours and producing great work, but we don’t know if it’s sustainable. The events of 2020 are taking a collective toll on our mental health. If you are an HR leader or a manager of people, consider some best practices for supporting remote workers.
Offer options. Remember that employees have different learning styles, different engagement preferences, and different abilities. We have more options to accommodate differences when we can be in person in an office setting and use technology. Our options shrink when we’re forced to rely exclusively on technology. However, shrunk isn’t nothing. There is really great HR tech out there. There are free online tools. We’re not stuck. We can still offer different options for communication, learning, and engagement. Employee wellbeing is negatively impacted when they’re boxed into a corner. Give them some wiggle room.
If it ain’t broke, don’t break it. If you had systems in place prior to the disruption that still work in a remote environment, leave them be. For example, if you used to send an email or pick up the phone and call when you had a question, but now you’re defaulting to a video call, take a step back and ask yourself why. Do you feel required to use video calling because it’s “more engaging” than phone calls? Video calls certainly add value to a remote work environment, but they should be limited to scheduled group meetings that you would normally have in person, just like scheduling a conference room. Video fatigue is real, and our mental health slides when we feel forced into unnecessary camera time. If the good ol’ telephone ain’t broke, don’t break it.
Seek feedback. I know you know this one. Are you doing it? Openly, regularly, meaningfully? The only source that can tell you if employees are feeling energized or overwhelmed, engaged, or burned out (or Zoomed out) is…drum roll…employees. Talk to them. Remember #1 and offer options to talk to them by email, phone, video, anonymous survey, etc. Pay attention to the options they choose; that’s immediate feedback. The employee who always uses video calls may be signaling that they need social interaction. The employee who emails at midnight may be navigating a schedule with a newborn baby. Next time you’re in a virtual meeting with everyone, use a polling feature or link to a 3-question survey in the chat feature to ask for anonymous feedback about wellbeing and engagement. Here are some tips for effectively using pulse surveys.
We all have barking dogs and laughing children who are equal parts of our remote work environment, and with the right support and good leadership from HR, we can find high work engagement and general and mental wellbeing in this new worklife. We’ve got this.
Feel like you’re on a rollercoaster of emotions these days? Yep, me too.
When we are living out a well-ordered life full of routines, adjusting to a life that has no or new routines can be a challenge. And living on top of our family members day in and day out with little to no break isn’t a walk in the park either. The newness of it can bring some enjoyment and much needed time to just be, then the next minute the newness can make you totally want to lose your ever-loving mind.
For example, one day last week, I was riding a high, sitting in a comfy chair with a lovely view, reading a book while the baby napped on my chest and my older kids were playing outside. The unique situation of having nowhere to be and the opportunity to read a book in the middle of a random Thursday was ideal. Five minutes later, my kids come running in screaming because one has dumped water all over the other one. They’d had just a little too much togetherness. I get onto the one that has been mean, and he smarts his mouth off to me, and I totally lose it. A transition from sheer joy to sheer anger all in about sixty seconds.
And work is no different from home when it comes to the see-saw of highs and lows. One minute I’m excited that our PPP loan is funded. Not five minutes later I’m dealing with the emotions from a long-time client wanting to cancel their contract with us due to the current situation.
My example pales in comparison to the highs and lows that front line healthcare and other works are dealing with. The emotion of seeing a patient go home after four weeks on a ventilator to then go back into the ICU and lose a patient to the virus all in the same day is the real rollercoaster of these times.
So how do we navigate the rollercoaster of emotions at home and at work? And as leaders, how do we help others do the same? I think a video of my kids riding down a hill on their bikes for the first time is a metaphor for how we survive this all:
1. Recognize and acknowledge the emotions you are feeling. Name them and help others do the same. As you can see in the video, the cream of our cookie, our middle child, takes off down the hill with no fear. As her older brother waits his turn at the top he says, “I’m scared of that hill.” As crazy as it sounds, him just verbalizing this (which is hard for him to do) I believe was the step he needed to actually push off and go.
I am scared, I am angry, I am happy. I am all of these things at once. Asking people around you about how they are feeling and allowing them to verbalize their emotions to you can be the best leadership step in helping them tackle the hill. Being vulnerable enough to express the emotions you yourself are feeling to others also sets a strong example and helps you work through being able to push off and go do the next right thing.
2. Peddle fast to capitalize on the momentum of the hill. I don’t know about you, but when I was young and would ride up and down hills, I’d coast down and enjoy the ride. Thinking consciously or not I’d conserve my energy; I’d take a break from peddling. Which made it all the harder to get up the other side.
As you can see, my two take the exact opposite approach. They are peddling their hearts out down the hill. When things look easy, or when emotions are positive and exhilarating, it’s time to peddle faster to prepare you for when things get hard.
If you’re on the high side of the rollercoaster, write a positive note of encouragement to someone, do something you truly enjoy, write down what you’re grateful for, celebrate. This will help provide the momentum needed to get up steep climbs of negative emotions and difficult situations that will come your way.
3. Recognize that we all deal with different situations and different points of the rollercoaster differently; don’t judge or condemn others or yourself for this. The middle child had no fear getting started down the hill but listen to her scream as her brother is headed down the hill. She’s screaming (and you’ll be able to see her if you look) because she was about halfway up the other side of the hill when she fell on her bike because she didn’t have the stamina to get up the other side. No fear going down, all screams going up. Her brother was the opposite. He was scared to go down but had the stamina to make it up the other side.
For too many reasons to count (both nature and nurture related) people deal with the exact same situations differently. And from one day to the next a single person may react totally differently to the same thing on a Tuesday than they did on a Sunday. Don’t be surprised by this and help people where they lack the courage to go down the hill or the stamina to get back up the other side. Help yourself too by not beating yourself up when this happens.
After about a week of tackling the hill, our middle gained the stamina to get all the way up on the other side. She did because we offered her grace when she couldn’t at first by carrying her bike up to the top for her, then teaching her strategies to keep her momentum going, then offering her big words of encouragement as she was in the midst of getting to the top on her own.
Tackling the peaks and valleys of the current situation with grace is the best we can ask of ourselves and of others. When we acknowledge our emotions and those of others and help each other through the ups and downs, we walk away a little stronger, with a little more stamina to tackle the next set of peaks and valleys that will certainly come our way.
How do you navigate the rollercoasters?
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