Equity Inclusion Leadership

25 February 2025

Mindfulness teaches us we cannot control emotions, but that we can observe them neutrally. The process of accepting your reactions and being present to each moment, choosing a valued direction and taking action is important. As workplaces encourage us to ‘bring our whole self to work’*, more and more, in stressful times team members will experience many different emotions.

Organisations are putting a lot of impetus on employees to manage our individual stress. This is important! Psychological science shows clear links that creating clear relationship boundaries, getting outside, eating well (without too much focus on diet culture), talking to professionals (hello employee assistance counselling programmes!), exercise and managing consistent sleep patterns assist to reduce stress. But is it better to put employees on another round of stress management courses, or is best practice to also to address structural imbalances that lead to stress?

I’m not sure if you’ve heard of The Systems Thinker, but I’m a huge fan of this publication. In fact, if you have limited time – just go read this article right now. If you’re still here, and you want to keep reading this particular piece, here’s a summary – Coleen Lannon suggests some structural approaches to managing employee stress could include:

• Keeping a small, stable, primary work group,
• Formalised structures for regular time off (for example, a four-day or five-day working week),
• More holidays / paid time off work,
• Delegating tasks with a clear purpose and understanding of the skills needed,
• Discouraging ‘workaholic’ environments from the very top level of organisations (this may involve being very disciplined with the amount of work that is agreed upon by the organisation by senior management, and in corporate environments, may effect directly effect revenue).

In a study “Stressors, withdrawal and sabotage in frontline employees: The moderating effects of caring and service climates”, researchers Feng-Hsia Kao, Bor-Shiuan Cheng, Chien-Chih Kuo and Min-Ping Huang examined the relationship between social stressors in frontline environments and quantifiable employee behaviour related to stress. This is the big stuff that Human Resources professionals try to reduce – employee turnover (people quitting), and high levels of sick leave. We want people to take sick leave when they’re sick, but it’s even better if they don’t get stressed and sick in the first place – but sometimes people just get sick regardless. Basically it costs a whole bunch if an organisation needs to spend heaps recruiting people, and when lots of people leave it causes institutional knowledge to disappear. The study suggested creating a caring climate and examining social stressors could reduce employee turnover and sick leave levels – nothing surprising there.

World Health Organisation’s booklet Work Organisation and Stress has some interesting ideas about structural approaches to stress management. It distinguishes between pressure and challenge and stress, which is important. Challenge keeps us motivated, makes us work harder and stay more alert. Stress, on the other hand, could come from when the pressures at work are too high, or it could come from when an individual’s knowledge and abilities aren’t utilised (or at least, if the employee perceives this as so). This makes it extremely important for leaders to manage to outcomes, and to clearly explain to their team members that they have been chosen for particular tasks due to their proficiency or desired growth in a particular area. If a leader explains to me that they’ve chosen me to complete a task because I had previously identified I want to learn how to do that sort of thing in the past, I am more likely to perceive any challenges as learning opportunities. If I’ve been assigned a task without any explanation, the assignment will seem random and my motivation to complete it may be reduced.

The most interesting thing about the World Health Organisation booklet to me, is that the way we design teams can cause work stress. Team members need to feel like they have a choice in the tasks they complete, and the demands of work need to be matched to the knowledge and ability of workers. I guess this is where mentoring and small sub-teams can really come into their own. If a team member is lacking in a certain skill, they can be matched with a mentor who has the existing capability to complete a task or project. This has the added benefit of increasing leadership ability in the mentor, and increases the perception of support across the team. If these matches are made outside of existing formal team structures, even better – the perception of support is increased across the whole organisation.

Shift patterns, too many meetings, not enough meetings, too many emails, not enough emails about important topics, loud and intrusive work environments, too quiet work environments, people eating eggs or tuna at their desk (ok maybe that’s just me) – there’s a lot that can stress people out at work. I should know, I score very highly on the HSP psychology test. It’s important for me to set my own boundaries, which sometimes means working alone in a meeting room, from home or even a cafe if I need to meet a deadline. That’s within my own circle of control. There are also important structural considerations that senior leaders and all people managers (in their particular circle of control) can implement that will have a positive influence in all of our work lives.

From an organisational culture point of view it is important to acknowledge the emotional needs of staff and take a systems-thinking approach to managing any structural stressors that may be in play. 2020 was a stressful year. Let’s ensure we’re protecting and empowering our people to make 2021 a beneficially challenging year.

* I would argue the more reliable metric here is the ability of employees to feel COMFORTABLE to be able to bring their whole self to work, as no-one needs to see casual, opinionated weekend Saturday night Anna on a Monday morning, right? But it’s nice to feel comfortable enough at work to talk about your sexuality, to individualise your dress sense within dress codes, and to have a joke with your workmates in a kind way within the realms of a Code of Conduct.

About me: Anna Wilson-Goldman is a learning and organisational development professional from Aotearoa, New Zealand. She has three cats, a tiny dog, three chickens and one civil union partner. When she’s not practicing mindfulness meditation or working, she’s in her garden or posting at instagram.com/kapitigardener.