Canadian HR Reporter

CANADIAN HR REPORTER September 21, 2015 28 NEWS EmploymentSource™ New to WestlawNext® Canada EmploymentSource is your fastest route to the employment and OH&S law you need to expertly advise clients, employers and unions. Be more effective and efficient in your research with the right mix of resources in one online research tool. EmploymentSource combines exclusive expert commentary, case law, legislation and dismissal notice periods, with functionality that is easy to use. Experience the benefits • Prepare winning dismissal litigation strategies • Defend occupational health & safety charges • Advise clients/employers regarding health and safety compliance Visit westlawnextcanada.com/employmentsource or contact us at 1-866-609-5811 for more details 00224VB-A47772 higher levels of emotional exhaus- tion and burnout and, in turn, that is going to reduce performance." Ultimately, when people are not energetic enough, they don't feel their best over a period of time and that's going to reflect in their work performance, said Trougakos. "Over time, this begins to de- plete us, it drains our energy, it psychologically depletes us and it results in us just not being able to perform in the way we would want to or the way we might be expected to," he said. "If you're always under a state of high anxiety, it's draining your resources, it's taking your energy, sapping your energy away from you in having to deal with that anxiety that then subsequently makes performing harder." Social buffers But "social exchange relation- ships" can serve as buffers to the negative effects of this exhaus- tion and anxiety, according to the study, which involved a field study with members of the RCMP. Re- lationships with co-workers "sig- nificantly moderate" the relation between workplace anxiety and emotional exhaustion, while re- lationships with supervisors "sig- nificantly moderate" the relation between emotional exhaustion and job performance. With co-workers, people are more likely to share emotions and information, and colleagues are more likely to be aware if a co- worker is anxious, said McCarthy. Co-workers can help peo- ple deal with their emotional situations and anxieties, said Trougakos. "When we have good relation- ships with our co-workers in a good team setting or whatever it might be, people can pull together and help the people that need it. So this is how people protect their resources, preserve their energy and make their job less taxing for them when they are under high- anxiety conditions." When it comes to supervi- sors, there's a power difference, so employees are more likely to control their emotions. But lead- ers can offer different kinds of resources and tangible support, such as more time or materials, said McCarthy. "at buffers the effects on job performance to the point where if the worker gets to the point where they become emotionally exhausted, a strong relationship with their leader can reduce the impact of that exhaustion on job performance — so both are im- portant, they're just important at different parts of the underlying process." While people might not want to share intimate emotional anxieties with a supervisor, leaders tend to be the gatekeepers of other types of resources, said Trougakos. Fostering relationships As a result, for employers, it's important to train all employees to develop positive work rela- tions and to engage in supportive behaviours. "Sometimes organizations might not always think about… the relations among co-workers, helping to foster the co-worker re- lationship. And so (it's about) hav- ing an understanding that it's re- ally important for your employees to have these strong interpersonal relationships," said McCarthy. That can mean training pro- grams that foster trust and com- mitment among workers, or in- formal strategies that allow work- ers to interact on a personal level, she said, such as employee lounges. "They're engaging and they truly allow for work recovery, they allow for workers to have fun and not necessarily be thinking about the stresses of the job." Some employers probably could care less and just look at productivity and the bottom line, said Trougakos, but it would be ideal for companies and employ- ees to build situations that build relations, such as social functions or mentoring relationships. "When we think about anxiety, a lot of companies… look at it as maybe like some sort of larger problem that a person's having that they might tie with depres- sion and other factors in their life but a lot of times companies have to realize that work itself can be the most anxiety-inducing thing in people's lives," he said. Part of the irony is managers don't get too concerned when they're watching someone with anxiety, said Mary Ann Baynton, program director at Workplace Strategies for Mental Health, an initiative of the Great-West Life Centre for Mental Health in the Workplace. "at person is often very fo- cused on trying to do the right thing and until they are no longer able to function, people just let it go. Whereas because depression is more likely to impact produc- tivity early on, we would be con- cerned and we're more likely to act," she said. "The thing about anxiety or burnout is that once it has reached that tipping point, it's a long road back and managers should be concerned and should be trying to intervene early on to save them- selves, their teams, the workplace and the individual from the worst effects of chronic anxiety." Issues such as precarious work, a lack of clarity, conflict in the workplace, economic uncertainty or job insecurity can cause anxiety levels to rise, said Baynton. "Some research has said that there's actually more people in the workplace managing anxi- ety than there are people in the workplace dealing with depres- sion. e other piece around that is often depression and anxiety will go hand in hand, that one feeds the other." And there is evidence that workplace anxiety is on the rise, said McCarthy. "Employees are often feeling like they need to do more with less; many companies are down- sizing and restructuring and em- ployees that are remaining in the organization are feeling pressure to keep their jobs and maintain these high levels of productivity; and some of them are in fact re- quired to do more because now there's less resources — so these are very real and very concerning issues," she said. "Organizations are more and more coming to terms and re- ally recognizing the importance of thinking about anxiety among their workers, ensuring they don't have a stressed-out work- force because, really, what we're showing is that it comes at a very high cost." Social functions help build relationships ANXIETY < pg. 2 "Once anxiety has reached that tipping point, it's a long road back."

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