In today's workplace, stress and fear often the norm

Does this sound like your workplace?

You want to talk to your boss about a touchy subject, but you worry that speaking up will propel you to the head of the line during the next round of layoffs.

You argue with a colleague about work, even though you used to get along like college roommates.

You’re burdened by too much work, but you soldier on because there are more job applicants than jobs and your family needs the paycheck.

Three years into the nation’s worst economic crisis in generations, the climate around many offices, factories, stores and other places of employment on this Labor Day has changed, workplace professionals say.

Fear and stress dominate the workplace for many as companies call on employees to do more with less amid a dismal job market; 51 percent of respondents in a recent Gazette online poll said they either were working a bit harder or doing the work of two to three people since the recession began. And until the economy adds significant numbers of jobs — the Colorado Springs-area unemployment rate stood at 8.9 percent in July — don’t expect the workplace atmosphere to get much better. 

“The key word is really uncertainty,” said Marie McIntyre, a Georgia-based office coach and author, whose weekly workplace column runs in Sunday’s Gazette Business section. “Even if you have a job, and even if you feel fairly secure in your job, you’ve usually seen instances of people in your workplace or have friends or neighbors from other places lose their jobs with no warning. They were in perfectly good jobs, but through no fault of their own, their jobs just went away. That pervasive uncertainty is the main factor that really increases the stress right now.”

Stress and uncertainty play out in several ways in today’s workplace — affecting managers as well as rank-and-file workers, experts say.

Some employees become risk averse — they avoid situations they can’t control or that bring added pressure, McIntyre said. They’re reluctant to make a decision if they believe a wrong choice could threaten their job, they avoid high-profile projects for fear of falling flat, or they turn down promotions because greater responsibility comes with higher expectations.

Even employees with a good job offer from another company might choose to stay where they are, McIntyre said. It’s not that they don’t want a new challenge, she said; rather, employees don’t want to become the new kid on the block — who doesn’t have a reservoir of goodwill built up with their new employer — if layoffs come.

Heightened workplace tensions also mean employees argue more instead of talking out their disagreements, said Steve Tucker, program manager with Colorado Springs-based Profile EAP, Centura Health’s employee assistance program that contracts with about 70 state and national organizations to provide employee and management services.

“Those things that might have been discussed before all this pressure and stress was going on now come out in a bit more intense way,” Tucker said. “There’s more intense conflict, there’s stronger disagreement ... with co-workers not getting along. That was going on before, but we’re seeing when it’s happening now, it’s more intense.”

The conflicts aren’t just among rank-and-file employees; they involve bosses, too, Tucker said.

Supervisors who have seen their budgets cuts and who have been forced to lay off good people are stressed as well, he said. Meanwhile, their employees are expected to do more work with fewer resources, and even work longer hours — although the U.S. Commerce Department reported last week that second quarter worker productivity fell more than previously thought, which suggests doing more with less might no longer be an effective business strategy

The willingness by employers and employees to have collaborative discussions has shifted, and neither side has as much patience as before, Tucker said.

“The supervisor is not as easily supportive of the issues that the employee comes to them with, and the employee ... takes the tact of being more attacking and accusing,” Tucker said.

Employees, however, need to be cautious about their dealings with supervisors in this climate, McIntyre said. For example, would an employee’s controversial opinion during a staff meeting be appreciated or antagonize the boss?

“Everybody with half a functioning brain cell knows that their boss has ... a huge effect on their job security,” McIntyre said. “I think people have been making much more of an effort to get along with their bosses, even if they don’t like their bosses.”

Personnel evaluations — written by managers — have become especially important in this era of increased workplace jitters, McIntyre said.

Upper management might know layoffs are coming, so they pressure lower-level supervisors to be more realistic and straight-forward on employee evaluations — using them as a tool to help determine who stays and who goes, McIntyre said. Likewise, some rank-and-file employees will appeal a bad review because they know it could determine their fate in the company, she said.

In this climate, some employers have found workers are more likely to fight to protect their wages, benefits and jobs, said Kim Koy, a Colorado Springs attorney and director of the southern regional office of the Mountain States Employers Council, a Denver-based non-profit that represents private employers. In the past, employees upset about bosses or workplace conditions might quit, figuring they could find work elsewhere; now, knowing jobs are scarce, they’ll fight harder to hold onto their positions or dispute unpaid overtime, Koy said.

The council’s attorneys have reported an increase in federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission complaints filed against employers alleging discrimination in the workplace, said Deborah Brackney, a vice president in Mountain States’ Denver office, although she didn’t have an exact number.

Some employers have seen more incidents of substance abuse among employees, said Tucker, of Profile EAP. While nobody knows the exact reason for the incidents, increased workplace pressure likely is a contributing factor, he said.

“It’s a coping mechanism,” he said. “If people are feeling stressed, they’ll do it more.”
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TALES FROM THE FRONT: WORKERS' STORIES

For a story about how workplace conditions have changed during the nation’s three years of economic turmoil, The Gazette solicited comments from rank-and-file employees. Here are the experiences of three local workers. One has witnessed heavy-handed management that has hurt employee morale; a second butted heads with the boss; and a third says work is good, but concerns remain about the future. The newspaper agreed to protect their identities.

Hostile work environment
Employee No. 1 works as a manager for a Colorado Springs nonprofit. Given the nature of the organization’s work, you’d probably expect an employee-friendly environment. Not necessarily, she said.

“This is one of the more hostile work areas I have ever seen,” she said.
Some supervisors within the organization use fear and intimidation to oversee workers, she said. One manager threatened to fire a worker who showed up 15 minutes late one day; the same manager boxed an employee into a corner in order to confront the worker eyeball to eyeball.

What have employees done? Some are staying mum because they support the nonprofit’s work in the community, but they’re also worried about reprisals if they speak out.

“They’re held hostage by the fact that they need the job,” she said. “Morale is terrible. They feel that management, if you want to call it that, is not seeing the real situation. It’s supporting something that’s unjust. But they (employees) also feel that they can’t do anything ... because they’re worried. ‘Gee, will my job be in jeopardy if I say anything?’ It’s a bad situation.”

Walking on eggshells

Employee No. 2 was fired from a job as an assistant manager at an automotive business last month amid onoging tensions between several workers and the owner.

“We all bit our tongues,” he said. “It was like he was really watching us closely. Everybody was walking on egg shells because we didn’t want to lose our jobs.”

The owner might have behaved the same way five years ago when times were better, he said. But the poor economy certainly added to the owner’s stress. Because of the owner’s disagreements with workers and the pressure he was under, the employee tried to lay low before eventually getting fired.

“You do only what you know you won’t get in trouble for,” he said. “You don’t show initiative. You don’t overstep your bounds. You don’t step on your superior’s toes. Anything like that. You have a role here, and you have to stay within that role, because if you step out, you could ruffle some feathers down the road.”

War weariness
Employee No. 3 works in high tech and has been laid off a couple of times over the past decade because of volatility in the global tech industry. Earlier this year, he was hired by a tech company in Colorado Springs that’s done well so far this year.

The company’s work environment is positive, and employees feel valued, he said. Many of the company’s managers have worked in people-oriented cultures of high-tech firms.
“We’re not afraid to bring things up to our boss,” he said.

But like other industries, high tech has gone through severe changes, and the company where the employee works holds a strict line on expenses.

“Nobody gets away with working only 40 hours a week anymore,” he said. Likewise, the company outsources and cuts expenses where it can.

Despite working for a company that’s doing well, the employee said high tech workers in general have a “war weariness” about them because of downsizing, outsourcing and other economic upheavals in their industry. They know things can change quickly.

“In this current climate, we’re just always looking over our shoulders,” he said. “Nothing shocks us anymore. You hear about layoffs, ‘well here we go again.’ Whereas at the beginning of the decade, it was all fresh and new ... Now, it’s one more tool to make their numbers look good.”