Lincoln Leads

The autonomy paradox: solving the stress and mental health challenges of telework

• Lincoln Financial Group • Season 2 • Episode 2

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In 2020 the COVID-19 pandemic caused an estimated 76 million U.S. Workers to shift to a work from home environment, essentially overnight. While much of our world is beginning to show signs of pre-pandemic lifestyle, there are some changes – like working from home – which may persist post-pandemic. Listen to learn about the Autonomy Paradox in telework – a key concept exploring the root causes of mental health & stress which can adversely impact your workforce. Employers can help their employees navigate these complexities – and our expert physicians are here to offer solutions. 

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GP-LLTAP-AUD001   3/23 Z01  LCN-5505941-031023
© 2023 Lincoln National Corporation. All rights reserved. 

Rana Czellecz:

Hi everyone. This is Raina Czellecz assistant marketing director at Lincoln Financial Group. In this episode of Lincoln Leads, we're going to discuss, what's become a hot topic-working at home. Early on in the COVID-19 pandemic an estimated 76 million U.S. workers were suddenly reassigned to work from home. That number is significant because it represents 40% of the U.S. workforce. And most experts think that about half of them will never go back into an office even after the pandemic is over. Because it's a sudden and dramatic change in work, it's important for every employer and employee to understand not only the benefits of such an arrangement, but perhaps more importantly, how to avoid the potential problems with work-life balance, stress and mental wellness. Today, we are fortunate to have two physicians with expertise in occupational medicine who will join us to talk about the consequences of this huge shift, with a specific focus on challenges to mental wellness. They will describe the autonomy paradox in telework, a key concept that explains increased stress and reduced mental health. Based on scientific research and best practices from successful companies, they will offer some suggestions on what employers can do about it. Dr. Glenn Pransky is an associate professor at the University of Massachusetts medical school and scientific advisor for Lincoln Financial Group. And Dr. David Berube is the vice president and chief medical officer for Lincoln Financial Group. Dr. Berube, can you talk about some of the consequences of this huge shift?

Dr. David Berube:

Yes. Thanks Rana and Dr. Pransky glad to be with you today to talk about this important topic. Let's start off by defining what the autonomy paradox is for teleworkers. Almost overnight we had a huge portion of the population shift to working at home full time. We told them to set up home offices, figure out their working arrangements, even the work hours and how they could get things done, lots of self control or rather, autonomy. But the paradox is that most did not have all of the necessary experience, tools, support, supervision, and work environment necessary to get the job done in an optimal way. We'll get to ways employers can solve this problem. But first let's look at what we now know about this massive shift to working at home. Working at home has proven to be quite successful. In some ways, print them employer perspective, they were able to maintain business continuity, some found greater flexibility and coverage, and were able to engage workers who had the right skills, but were unwilling to move. And of course there's the real estate savings. For some employees, they were very happy to end a tiring commute and over 60% said they were more productive. The less distractions, more flexibility in work hours, less interruptions, and they were able to maintain their income when others found themselves out of work.

Dr. Glenn Pransky:

Quite true, David, those pluses are all very evident in recent surveys of employers and teleworkers, but there were also significant downsides. For employers, the loss of in-person meetings often meant less collaboration, especially informal meetings and thus less innovation and communication was more often problematic when employees get together in person. For some employees, unfortunately this sudden change created a lot of stress. The number one complaint is loneliness and isolation. People are saying that they get less feedback, have less contact with their supervisor, and don't know if they're really doing a good job. They feel less visible in the organization and don't know how they will be recognized for their work. They're clearly working longer hours as it's much harder to set boundaries on the work day, when at home there's no clear home versus office separation. Also the technology often doesn't work as well at home as in the office, and there's nobody nearby to help fix it. And with families present, there's the challenges of trying to care for children and working at the same time. All of this is stressful and that stress is layered on top of the already elevated stress from living through a pandemic. David, what are you seeing in terms of the impact of all of this on mental health?

Dr. David Berube:

Yes. Glenn the situation is both complicated and evolving. Recent studies show that because of these problems over two thirds of teleworkers want to get back to the office. In fact, 40% of teleworking moms with children at home, don't think the current situation sustainable very much longer. Many report that they are burned out and are looking for another job actually. What we're seeing is the additive effect of all of these job and home related stressors. Plus the stress from living through a pandemic that is having such a profound effect on everyone's lives. This causes symptoms such as anxiety, anger, distraction, and feeling depressed as well as headaches and other physical issues like stomach upset and perhaps worsening of present conditions like high blood pressure. Employees with these symptoms go to see their doctor looking for relief. And the doctor does what they're trained best to do. Treat the symptoms from a strictly medical only point of view. So the employees may end up with a diagnosis or medications, or even a sick note to be out of work, but commonly none of this addresses the root causes of what led to the situation of the employee with increased stress and so on. So it's not very effective.

Dr. Glenn Pransky:

You know David, this reminds me of similar issues that have been studied in the past, that all showed how this medical only approach wasn't very effective. So if we go back to the 1980s, there was a classic case of a large Australian telephone company that transitioned from manual switching to a more advanced technology that was computer-based call switching. This was a sudden technological advancement and big change for their workforce. People were worried about their jobs, the new technology, they became very stressed out. They developed pain in arms and hands headaches and other symptoms. They saw doctors who gave them different diagnoses and treatments, but these weren't very effective. And so the employees didn't improve. In fact, many of them went out on disability. A similar thing happened in 2011 when earthquakes in New Zealand made the central business district in Christchurch unsafe. This forced government employees to work from home many had similar problems as those in Australia, a lot of stress feeling burned out ad some saw doctors looking for treatment for their symptoms. Again, the medical treatments, weren't very effective. In both of these situations, the consequences, stress, burnout, mental health, and physical symptoms and disability. They didn't respond to medical treatment. They did resolve after employers took action by identifying the root causes of the stress and addressing them. They realized that all stress is additive, regardless of cause. And they had to decrease stress in employees to a level that was acceptable. David, what do we know about the areas that are the most important for employers to focus on?

Dr. David Berube:

Well, Glenn, let's start with the autonomy paradox and consider the situation of an employee having too much latitude and not enough knowledge or resources to be successful. Some of the necessary resources may include technology, supervision and collaboration with others. One critical component is control and role conflict that is having the ability to focus effectively on work, which can be hindered for teleworkers, who can currently provide child and elder care for example. And finally, there's the problem of all of this change occurring suddenly with no foresight, education planning and implementation plan in the context of a stressful pandemic. I want to re-emphasize that these are business problems that employers need to understand and consider how to address. Employees can't fix them on their own. And employers have to look at the total context, how the home setting affects work and vice versa. With the autonomy paradox, again, we mean that we sent people home, put them more in charge of their work, but actually gave them less guidance and support. It's like we're saying go home and figure it out yourself. So the consequences are that people don't know if they are or are not doing a good job. And they may think that they are the only ones who are struggling with the work hours, technical problems, lack of clarity about what they should or should not do. Do they work or meet the needs of their children or other dependents? Commonly, they are thinking co-workers are doing a better job. And this becomes stressful as well. Employers can address this by starting with supervisors, for example, educating the supervisors about this problem and the importance of more frequent conversations with their employees, asking them how it's going or how they think they're doing and what challenges they are encountering. Remote supervision often requires more, not less communication. And since there's no office culture, that's readily apparent, it's important to be clear about the norms of work hours, lunch breaks, availability, reinforcing that indeed, despite challenges employees are in fact, doing a good job, some guidance about how and when to communicate--video call etiquette, for example, and other topics might be very helpful. Again, asking employees about these issues will uncover a lot of opportunities improvement or for the supervisors to speak to their employees abou.t Glenn technology has come a long way and April, 2020 was certainly one of the major challenges for many today. Advancements are so great that they allow employees to attend zoom meetings, even potentially while eating dinner with the family. What else should employers understand about these tools and the resources that are available to them?

Dr. Glenn Pransky:

Well, part of this autonomy paradox, is not having the right tools and resources needed to succeed to get the job done while at home. I think about all the resources I had when I worked in our Boston office, my colleagues and supervisor were just around the corner, always accessible and it was easy to collaborate and there wasn't any miscommunication because we could all be face-to-face. If I had excess work, I could just look around and see who might be able to help out a bit. And even if the technology wasn't great, I didn't have to rely on it a hundred percent for communication. But now working at home, I am fully dependent on the technology and it doesn't work as well at home. And there's nobody in the next desk who can help me solve a problem. Collaboration and asking for help is much harder. Actually, all communication is more difficult. So although I have the same job and in theory, the same resources, in fact, the resources aren't as good and in some ways absent. You know, employers really want to solve this because it directly affects not only stress levels, but also productivity. There was a recent survey of teleworkers that found that over 40% said they were wasting more than four hours a week because of technology that wasn't working as it should. So I think the solutions have to start with getting the technology and the organization that's up to the task of telework. So some considerations for employers are identifying technology that really does effectively support collaboration, identifying a test group of employees who are willing to try out new technology and provide rapid feedback, designating a number of employees who can be go-to resources to help others who are having technology issues, making sure that everybody has the right training to use remote tools and then encourage collaboration through measures such as virtual coffee breaks, group lunches, and continually trying to engage employees through chat. And other features. Recall that earlier we said that it's impossible for employers to solve for these problems without first finding out exactly what is going on. And the best way to find out is to ask employees directly or through surveys. So let's go to the next paradox opportunity, the role conflict problem. Actually, this always was a potential issue for people working remotely, but with school closures and many adults taking their parents out of assisted living, it's become a much larger issue with the COVID 19 pandemic. Think of our example that you gave David about using technology work while at the same time as potentially having dinner with the family, obviously that's something that you'd like to avoid if possible. Employees often lack the understanding and awareness of this problem in many can benefit from education that their employer can provide them about it. Some employers realize that this is an issue that directly affects them and are stepping in to help. They advise remote employees to set up a work area that is as separate as possible from the rest of the household and to tell their family when they shouldn't be disturbed, they offer links to websites and access to consultants who can help with managing family arrangements. Some even provide links to home care and elder care services to help out and encourage employees to set up daycare groups with one or two other families to share the burden. Consultative and support resources are going to be more effective in solving a family's individual challenges than just providing websites and links and pamphlets.

Dr. David Berube:

Precisely Glenn. I think the consultative services are very, very helpful. Let's move to another teleworker issue, which is change occurring to suddenly from no more work in the office to a novel world of COVID restrictions and work from home. You know, this has been very stressful. Pre-planning early and frequent communication and preparation are critical components of change management in any business and frequent reassessment and continuous improvement are also key elements of change management, such principles are not new and apply directly to the telework situation and the pandemic as they will for planning to return to the office. We'd also like to note that employee resiliency, the ability to bounce back is key to getting employees through all of these changes, but resiliency development alone will not result in success in the absence of organizational preparation and sound management. Employees, success with change begins by having the right information at the right time. So employers have to tell employees what changes are coming, how the employer will make that change helpful for the employee and how they going to manage it and where the employees can go to get questions answered and problems addressed. Keeping the facts straight, you know, is important in a time of high stress. So that means reassuring employees about the security of their jobs, the employers priority to keep everyone safe from infection in this setting and reminding employees and helping them focus on trusted resources of information about the pandemic, as well as resources who can assist the employees with their business challenges as well as their personal challenges and change. Employees who are well-informed, well connected who understand their roles and know how to manage their work and personal needs are more likely to be successful. They'll be more resilient and better able to cope with change and experience less stress. Glenn we've talked a lot about different ways that employers can help employees during stressful time. Remote work can be a great opportunity, but it can come with challenges that must be anticipated well-managed.

Dr. Glenn Pransky:

Yes, David, good point. And also we need to think about what will happen when we return millions of workers back to the office. For some, this is going to be stressful also. So a proactive approach is important. We want to make sure that we don't recreate some of the problems that occurred when we rapidly transitioned people to working from home. So we have some excellent resources for employers and employees that we have collected, and you can find them by going to the podcast description and going to the links there. The University of Washington has some excellent tips for employees on teleworking. ADP spark notes come from a company that's been very successful for decades at teleworking, and they have one that we have a link to that addresses the common problem of two spouses who are both working from home and possibly sharing the same area. And then the last link is from Colorado College. And this link is designed to specifically help supervisors manage and support remote workers.

Dr. David Berube:

Well, thank you, Glenn and Rana for this opportunity to meet with you and our audience today. It's been a great pleasure.

Dr. Glenn Pransky:

Yes. Thank you for your attention.

Rana Czellecz:

Dr. Berube, Dr. Pransky, thank you for engaging in such an interesting and powerful discussion. To everyone listening, thank you for joining us. We will continue to cover topics that help employers and their employees navigate this current environment. So be sure to subscribe to Lincoln Leads on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Disclosures:

The information contained in this podcast is for general use and is not a substitute for the advice of an attorney or your human resource professional. Lincoln Financial Group is the marketing name for Lincoln National Corporation and its affiliates. Affiliates are separately responsible for their own financial and contractual obligations.