Should you stay in an unhealthy working environment?
There’s an old saying about being “a fly on the wall”. It is presumed, that in this position a person is unassuming and therefore able to hear and see whatever occurs in a genuine (without pretense) environment. Oh boy! If you could only be a fly on the wall behind some of the closed office doors where people congregate and whisper, during “happy” hour at the local bar, or at some of your colleague’s homes, you would quickly understand that there a lot of people who find themselves in this predicament.
According to a recent Gallup World Poll, a dismal 15 percent of “the world’s one billion full-time workers are engaged at work ” (GALLUP, INC). When looking at working-age adults across 155 countries, Gallup found that the number of employees who were “highly involved in and enthusiastic about their work and workplace” was an unimpressive 15 percent. In the United States, Gallup’s 2017 report shows a more promising picture. Out of over 100 million full-time employees in the American workforce, about 33 percent feel that they are in a promising and engaging environment. Approximately 16 percent report being “actively disengaged” meaning they are miserable. The remaining 51 percent is not “engaged at all”. In other words, they are just there to collect the check and go home.
When we look at other studies that focus on various professions, it’s is not overwhelmingly encouraging. In a study of over 95,000 nurses in the United States, 24 percent who provide care to patients at the bedside and 27 percent who provide care to patients in nursing homes report being dissatisfied and frustrated. A different study looked at burnout and dissatisfaction among 300 physicians. Ninety-six percent say they have either witnessed or experienced negative impacts as a result of burnout or dissatisfaction. A Gallup poll that focused on the condition of schools in the United States revealed that 7 out of 10 teachers report not feeling emotionally connected to or dissatisfied with their workplaces. This is just three professional groups where dissatisfaction or burnout is at alarming rates.
Another data research company reveals that 77 percent of employees experience physical symptoms of stress caused by bad bosses. Symptoms such as moodiness, feelings of a loss of control or powerlessness, forgetfulness, an inability to relax, chest pain, insomnia, rapid heartbeat, and headaches are the most commonly reported. Additionally, employees with ineffective managers have been found to be 60 percent more likely to suffer from heart trauma and 30 percent more likely to suffer from coronary heart disease.
I had a co-worker who I will call “John”. In addition to his full-time job, John was a pastor at a local church. At one point in his career, he was upbeat and talked about enjoying his work and being at the company. Other employees often went to John to work on extra tasks because of his positive attitude and work ethic. However, his department underwent leadership changes and John was feeling bullied by his current supervisor. In John’s perspective, he went from being an outstanding employee to where he now felt he couldn’t “do anything right”. When John sought constructive feedback from his supervisor, it got worse. Instead of receiving positive feedback for improvement, the supervisor took the opportunity to further degrade him by telling him that he was on “thin ice” and scolding him about sharing his ideas during the last staff meeting. After a little over a year of this treatment, John (the once-upbeat employee) shared that he wanted to quit. However, he feared that he could not find a similar job with comparable pay. John had a family who was depending on him and a young church that he was not financially stable enough to give him a full salary. This was not just a psychological decision, it was a financial decision and John felt trapped.
However, the breaking point came when one of the members John’s church called him in the middle of the night. The member shared that her ailing husband had died after a lengthy battle with a terminal illness. While John’s wife immediately began to console the grieving widow, John admitted to feeling frozen. He said he was genuinely sad about the death of his church member and the grief that the family was in. However, he stated that he simply could not muster the strength to console. As a matter of fact, John reported that, outside of work, he no longer had the energy to do much these days. It was apparent that going to work and trying to function and survive was taking all of John’s emotional and physical energy. Slowly, John went into a fight or flight mode where his survival instincts went into gear. Now, even the things that John normally enjoyed like family, church, and friends required too much energy.
I hope we can safely assume that John felt a strong connection to the mission of being a pastor. To some, it may sound horrible for a pastor to be unable to function at a time when a member needs him/her the most. However, extended exposure to a psychologically unhealthy working environment has the potential to negatively impact even the strongest sense of responsibility. One lady, who once shared her story with me was once a strong volunteer and contributor on her daughter’s parent-teacher association. However, now she found herself no longer able to volunteer. She simply wanted to go home, rest, and get prepared for the next work day.
I’ve shared John’s story. What is your story? (I may use some of your responses in an upcoming article.)
Questions for reflection:
1) Does simply going to work take all your emotional energy to the point that you have nothing left when you get home?
2) Has your family or friends noticed a change in your behavior? Have you experienced any of the physical symptoms of stress that you believe are influenced by your workplace environment?
3) Do you have an inner and ill-trained counselor who is denying the real physical and/or mental health impact that your unhealthy workplace is having on you?
If you answered yes to any of those questions, and you have not done so already, I encourage you to reach out to someone you trust. Start the conversation about how your experience is impacting you.