Raising the Wellness Flag in 2022
By Jan Jacobsen - http://www.worldpeace.no/THE-WHITE-FLAG.htm, CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3601988
We're only a few days into the New Year and already it's deja vu all over again. In fact, if I were cleverer this is the moment to cue the music and hear "COVID is Here to Stay," to the tune written by George Gershwin and made famous by Tony Bennett and Diana Krall. I mean doesn't it feel like....???
In time the Rockies may crumble Gibraltar may tumble They're only made of clay But COVID is here to stay.
It's hard to believe this winter could be more difficult than the spring of 2020, but it may be. This week I read an NPR article quoting Gaurav Suri, a computational neuroscientist at San Francisco State University who studies how humans make decisions. Suri says humans are tuned to make decisions around stability, not surrounded by rapid-fire change. No kidding. And you don't have to be a neuroscientist to know uncertainty makes us anxious. That, coupled with the real-life possibility of giving or getting the COVID virus, makes life super stressful.
How are museum and heritage organization leaders supposed to lead when everyone is constantly on edge? How can we keep work from becoming a relentless marathon of worry and anxiety as we spend days trying to do our jobs, often in new ways, while trying not to get or spread the virus? There are likely a million different answers to that question, but one might be to make 2022 a year for workplace wellness.
Not everyone can follow the Cincinnati Art Museum's lead and press pause, but it is a great example of how an organization prioritizes staff health and wellness. It's especially farsighted since it now appears many organizations will need to either reduce visitation or close entirely this month. CMA is closed from January 3-12 and staff is fully compensated. According to the article, the museum suggests employees "choose to reconnect with family or work in a food bank, this pause allows us to grow individually while we all grow collectively." Awesome, right? Not only because it acknowledges what staff gave their community over the past 18 months, but because it says CMA prioritizes staff well being, not just as productive museum educators, exhibit designers or shop sales assistants, but as good-hearted humans.
Maybe you can't institute an organizational wellness pause. Maybe no one would listen even if you suggested it. So.... what can you do instead? First, start with yourself. As a leader, do you model wellness and self care? Think about how hard it might be for staff to ask a leader (you) for time off when you arrive early, stay late, send after-work emails, and seem permanently stressed. So start by modeling personal self care coupled with some sharing and transparency.
Sharing doesn't mean an exhaustive account your toddler's gruesome stomach virus, you and your partner's lack of sleep, or how food makes you vaguely nauseous, yet you still soldier on. Instead, it might mean saying "I have a sick child, an exhausted partner, and for the next two days I'll be leaving early. Please let me know if you find yourself in a similar position." And remind everyone that the rules from when they were in day care or kindergarten still apply: Even if you don't have COVID, stay home for 24 hours after a fever or vomiting.
Think about taking meetings out of doors, while walking, if possible. Many of us work in beautiful places. Encourage your team to take 15 minutes a day to walk--inside or out--to change perspective or feel the sun on their face. Even walking to a favorite gallery or room in a heritage site and doing some slow looking can help break the relentless cycle of stress, more stress, crabbiness, repeat. If it helps, encourage staff to listen to music. Some organizations have a room for quiet study, where staff can retreat when they need uninterrupted me-time to re-focus and regenerate. And encourage staff to share anxiety-coping ideas with one another. For example, begin a meeting by asking everyone to share an app, a tool, a practice for stress relief that works for them. Supporting one another is increasingly important as the workplace fluctuates between home and office, causing the personal and professional to overlap in ways it didn't prior to the pandemic.
I say this often, but if you lead an organization, as opposed to a team, when was the last time you looked at your HR policy? Sometimes small changes mean a lot. Does your policy offer personal time off (PTO) as opposed or in addition to sick time? Offering sick time as the only way NOT to come to work is different from providing personal time-off. PTO gives employees the agency to make their own decisions, something every adult needs. Granted paid sick time off is better than no time off, but why should an HR plan encourage employees to be less than truthful? And if it's a choice between coming to work feeling stressed over leaving a sick family member or losing pay, what do you think employees do? They come to work stressed and quasi-sick. They aren't their best selves, and they open the door to making others sick, not just with COVID, but with everyday viruses as well.
Whether you're dealing with staff who are clinically ill, caring for others, or weary and stressed, you need some self-understanding. To return to neuroscience, remember what Brené Brown says about connection: "Shame is the fear of disconnection," and we feel shame when we think we have to explain we're not up to the task. Brown says we all feel that we're not enough. We're not thin enough, fit enough, smart enough, cool enough, and on and on. Yet people who have a strong sense of love and belonging believe they are worth it. Some how they learned vulnerability makes them beautiful and necessary. Brown reminds us we can't treat others with compassion if we don't treat ourselves compassionately. If you haven't heard her Ted talk on vulnerability, start your New Year with that. Start with not being certain, start with being compassionate, start with being whole-hearted. It won't end COVID, but it will help take your team through what promises to be another challenging year.
So...begin 2022 by making sure your HR policy provides a structure for empowerment on the part of your employees. If you're into New year's resolutions, make one about finding the courage to access the vulnerable part of you, and give it a little daylight. And then take that courage and compassion and pay it forward. Your colleagues, your team, your staff will thank you, and they will pay it forward too.
Be well. Stay safe. Get your booster. Wear your mask. Do good work, and despite the mess the world is in, or maybe because of the mess the world is in, I hope 2022 is a year full of creativity, kindness, and compassion for all of you.
Joan Baldwin
