February 2004 Newsletter ********************************************** IN THIS ISSUE: Boosting Self-Esteem Beating Burnout The Warning Signs of Burnout Urban Legends Set Straight Picking Up Steem... How to Boost Self-Esteem in the Workplace "No one is useless in this world who lightens the burden of another." - Charles Dickens Confidence, self-respect, feeling good about yourself-there are a lot of ways to describe self-esteem. While many of us may use different adjectives to describe this state of mind, one thing is certain: Possessing a high level of self-esteem will carry an individual through difficult times at work and in life. What is Self-Esteem? Self-esteem is a broad term with many implications, which makes it difficult to come up with a comprehensive definition. However, there is general agreement that the term refers to the way we think, feel and act. The National Association for Self-Esteem (NASE) has defined self-esteem as "being capable of meeting life's challenges and being worthy of happiness." How Does It Affect the Workplace? Whether you realize it or not, a lot of unproductive, negative behavior arises from individuals with low self-esteem. You've probably witnessed these types of behaviors in the form of poor customer service, finger pointing when a mistake occurs, or perhaps just plain out rudeness. According to NASE, individuals with low self-esteem generally lack confidence in themselves, and often have doubts about their worth and acceptability. They frequently blame others for their shortcomings rather than take responsibility for their actions. The Bad News While the workplace was once thought of as an avenue for creating and sustaining one's self-worth, a trend is now emerging that seems to contradict this thinking. It appears that everywhere we turn, self-esteem has the opportunity to get battered at work. This is due to many reasons, including: * The new pace of work. According to the US Department of Labor, productivity- which is measured by output per hour of all employees-continues to be on the rise. Quite simply, productivity expectations have grown so significantly that no one feels they are doing enough. Healthcare professionals work an unprecedented number of hours and at such an astounding pace that oftentimes no one stops to acknowledge an excellent performance. * The new pressures of work. Whether it's an on-the-spot diagnosis, turn around test results, or a last minute appointment, consumers seem to be much more demanding than they used to be. The added pressures in the healthcare profession have contributed to a rise in aggression and rudeness in the workplace. Regardless of whether one has high or low self-esteem, rudeness anywhere makes people feel devalued. * The new fears of work. The face of fear at the workplace plays a significant role in crushing self-esteem. Fears of being fired, of rejection, of being hurt-all do their part to contribute to the fragility of self-esteem. The issues above paint a bleak picture in regards to building self-esteem. And there's no reason to sugar coat it-helping your employees build self-esteem is a serious issue. It will take some serious effort on your part. You'll be faced with a load of difficult questions in which there are no easy answers. Questions like: Does my lack of educational background make me a lesser person? Am I less of a professional if I don't have the same or better skills than others? Am I less of a person if I'm not friends with any of my co-workers? The questions above are all legitimate concerns. And with all of this in mind, it really boils down to one question: What does it take to build one's confidence in the workplace, particularly in light of social, power, and expertise differences? The Good News Perhaps the best news concerning self-esteem is the fact that everyone has a choice. Everyone has the choice to build their self-esteem around what they do, what they have, and who they are. Here are some strategies to help your employees make that choice: Acknowledge that Everything Matters. Research has shown that perceived rank amongst peers has a big influence on self-esteem. So, make sure you do everything within your power to convey that no matter how big or small one's role is in the organization, it still matters. For example, a maintenance worker may feel undereducated and inadequate when working around physicians and other healthcare professionals. If this is the case, you should stress how the work they do to maintain the facility contributes to the overall focus of the organization: saving lives. Pursue Your Passions. Self-esteem shouldn't come only from the title you possess at work, but from a variety of elements. Your outside interests, your family, your most valued friendships, etc. Even if it's just for 15 minutes, pursue one of your passions. Write in a journal. Read a bedtime story to your child. Take a cooking class. Put It On Paper. Meaningful work has long been one of the important ways to feel good about oneself. Encourage employees to write down the things they do at work that make a difference. Have them note and keep track of their top two best efforts. By the end of the week they'll have ten reminders as to why they're important and how they make an impact on the company. Create a "Trophy" Case. Tell employees to create some space-perhaps it's their locker, desk, or maybe you could create an area in the break room. Wherever the area may be, have employees post the items they are proud of here. Maybe this could be a note of appreciation from a customer/patient. Or perhaps it's a picture of an employee's prize-winning cake. The idea is to let employees display and share the elements that they feel make them valuable human beings. Beating Burnout Surefire Strategies Chances are most of us have experienced burnout. Maybe it's a show you've grown weary of, or perhaps an exercise routine you've grown tired of. And while losing interest in your favorite TV show may not be the end of the world, getting burnout on the job is a bit more serious. After all, your livelihood is at stake. Burnout can be best described as the loss of physical, emotional and mental energy. According to leading researchers in the topic of burnout, the following six reasons are the primary causes for disengagement and burnout in the workplace: 1. Work overload 2. Lacking a sense of control 3. Insufficient rewards relative to the demand 4. Breakdown or lack of a sense of community in the workplace 5. Conflict of values or seeing work as meaningless 6. Absence of fairness It's important to note that you're not going to make job burnout magically disappear with the purchase of some new technology or from hiring the latest management guru. But you can curb burnout when you make the effort to identify what's causing it and then make a conscious decision to take action. With the most common causes of burnout listed above, we'll now take a look at possible solutions you can implement at the workplace. Evaluate workloads Get together with your team and ask them to list all of their current tasks. Have them rank each task in terms of their importance to the company. This should help you determine where you'll want to focus, cut, and eliminate to produce a high-value, sustainable workload. Give the team members a voice. Having a sense of control over one's work has been shown to be critical to an employee's well being. In fact, research from the Addiction and Research Foundation has shown that high job pressure together with low job control can negatively influence one's health. Show that you have trust in employees' abilities by giving them control over their own work. Give employees a clear picture of what is expected of them. Defining roles in a manner which everyone can understand will give employees much better ground to stand on when it comes to voicing their concerns. Recognize and reward Giving monetary rewards everytime someone takes on more work or does a good job is probably unrealistic. But you can broaden your view of compensation to include anything that proves valuable to your team members. This could equate to a day off with pay, flexibility in scheduling, an extra fifteen-minute break, etc. Also, don't forget that simply saying, "thank you" and "great job," can go a long way to make employees feel appreciated. Make a conscious effort to congregate Having a platform in which employees can talk and discuss their concerns is critical to relieving burnout as well as stress. Try implementing "stand ups" before the start of every shift. Allot ten or fifteen minutes so employees can inform everyone else what they have going on for the day. These brief meetings will not only allow you to gauge workload, but will also give you an idea of how employees are feeling about their job. Link specific jobs to the overall outcome This may be the easiest task of them all. In the healthcare profession, everyone plays a critical role whether they realize it or not. For example, if a food service worker feels that he/she plays no vital role to the company, you can re-establish their confidence by saying, "Sick people in this facility need food. If they didn't have it on time or at all, the advanced care they receive would make no difference. Every role here is vital to the well being of our patients. Your job is not excluded." Put yourself in their shoes Despite all your efforts, mistakes will inevitability happen. Work overload will occasionally occur and sometimes no matter what you do, an employee will get burnout on the job. In these cases, the best thing you can do is to put yourself in their position. Be open, honest, and respectful of your employees' feelings and opinions-that way you'll both be able to get better through it. Source: The Truth About Burnout: How Organizations Cause Personal Stress and What to Do About It. Are you on the Edge of Burnout? The Warning Signs Job burnout doesn't usually happen overnight. In fact, a lot of the people who are burnt out don't even know that they have a problem. It happens gradually, and often before they know it their emotional, physical, and psychological well-being has dramatically suffered. There are warning signs that you might be on the verge of burnout. They include: Health Problems. You may often find yourself calling sick into work. You may be suffering from a range of physical problems including frequent headaches, colds, backaches or even high blood pressure. Irritability. You may find yourself overreacting or becoming hostile. Conflict seems to arise with family, friends and co-workers more than usual. Lack of motivation. You find it hard to concentrate on anything-even the things you enjoy most. You feel bored with your job or find yourself losing enthusiasm. Moodiness. You have an increase in negative thoughts and feelings for no apparent reason. Excessive negative behavior. You may feel restless and find yourself drinking too much coffee, nail biting, gambling etc. Exhaustion. Even after sleeping a full night, you still feel completely out of energy. Fact or Fiction? Urban Legends Set Straight You've probably heard your fair share of E.R. horror stories and hospital mishaps. But do you know if these tales hold any merit? Below, some of the most popular medical urban legends are finally set straight. Claim: An elderly patient met his demise when the gurney he was strapped to rolled away with him. Fact or Fiction: Fact What Happened: In 1991 a news story appeared long after the legend was in circulation-a case of fiction turning into reality. A 76-year-old man died after the ambulance stretcher he was strapped to rolled down a grade and overturned. Edward Juchniewicz of Canonsburg was being transported from a nursing home to a doctor's office for an appointment. The ambulance attendants left the stretcher in the parking lot at the doctor's office and went to talk with the doctor's staff. The cot rolled away and turned over, fatally injuring the man in the head. Claim: A child died during a routine operation because someone used a cell phone in a hospital. Fact or Fiction: Fiction The Story: A story circulated saying that a 4-year-old girl was admitted to a hospital for a minor operation. As the story goes, she was hooked on to a life system and half way through the process, the life support system suddenly went dead. The culprit: Someone was using their cell phone outside the operating room, and the frequency had affected the system. The little girl died soon after. The Reality: No news reports or medical journal articles or FDA-tracked cases have appeared detailing a death caused by use of a cell phone in a hospital. However, some hospitals have banned the use of cell phones on their premises, or at least in their trauma, critical care, and surgical areas. Claim: An inattentive janitor caused death in a South African hospital every Friday when she unplugged patients' life support systems to plug in her floor polisher. Fact or Fiction: Fiction The Story: For several months, nurses in a South African hospital would find a dead patient in the same bed every Friday morning. There was no apparent cause for any of the deaths, and extensive checks on the air conditioning system, and a search for possible bacterial infection, failed to reveal any clues. After further investigation, the cause of these deaths was revealed. A cleaning person would enter the ward, remove the plug that powered the patient's life support system, plug her floor polisher into the vacant socket, then go about her business. When she had finished her chores, she would plug the life support machine back in and leave, unaware that the patient was now dead. She could not, after all, hear the screams and eventual death rattle over the whirring of her polisher. The Reality: This urban legend has been circulating for years, but there were no Friday massacres and no murdering floor cleaners in the South African Hospital, nor anywhere in the U.S. |