What Goes Up Must Come Down

How to understand and mitigate stress among remote and hybrid workers

In the years since the Covid-19 global pandemic, employees and employers alike have begun to seriously address issues surrounding mental health and employee well-being in the workplace. Unfortunately, the rapid implementation of remote work rendered inadequate many of the tools and systems we long relied on to address employee well-being. While it may seem to have been a paradigm-shifting moment, the workplace changes caused by the pandemic simply brought to light underlying problems.

Many of the tools and systems we relied on previously were, to be blunt, not getting the job done. Relying on employees to speak openly with managers about what negatively impacts their job performance requires a level of trust and openness few businesses have achieved.

Furthermore, to the extent that such conversations were taking place, they relied on a level of closeness not so easily attained in remote office spaces. In fact, a recent study found that when compared with in-office employees, remote and hybrid workers are more likely to experience depression and anxiety symptoms.

It’s Not Me, It’s You

When it comes to workplace stress, nearly eight in ten workers say they expect management to take the lead in managing workplace stress, with 55% reporting their employer is not doing enough to help. However, managers are faced with the task of building a plane while already in the air. Furthermore, the managers have no instruction manual to help them navigate, as efforts to mitigate anxiety fell short even before the pandemic. Working with tools designed for an entirely different work environment, it is no small wonder employees feel managers are falling short.

Additionally, increased depression and anxiety result in decreased productivity. Seeing this, employers often seek to tackle these issues from a top-down way. While well-intentioned, these initiatives often paint with too broad a brush. Employers must understand the different stressors faced by their workers in order to overcome them. As some major employers have no plans to require employees to come back to the office, any solution to this problem must help remote and in-office workers alike.

Me, Myself, and My Screen

Part of the problem for in-office and remote workers stems from difficulty pinpointing exactly what their stressors are. When seeing each other daily, employees will be better able to relate with colleagues over shared stressors, and supervisors will have more opportunities to observe and understand those anxieties. However, the nuances of interactions do not always come through in a direct message or video call.

Many of the problems faced by remote workers, as with workplace stressors writ large, existed long before the pandemic. These stressors were simply exacerbated by the rapid workplace changes. Even in an environment of full honesty and transparency, workplace stressors will remain. The key comes down to understanding what those stressors are. Wherever we are working, we are not always the most reliable narrator. Only by recording when we experience stress, whether working from home or working in-office, can we begin to understand our stressors.

As Easy as Checking Your Pulse

A deeper understanding of individual stressors seems obvious, but if it were that simple, why haven’t we done it yet? Tailoring mental health programs for all employees to their own individual stressors seems easier said than done, but with the resources available today, that is no longer the case.

While we may not fully understand our stressors, our body doesn’t lie. Using the very wearable technology already prevalent among office workers, you can now track physiological stress reactions, creating a roadmap of your stress. However, while some use wearable tech to track step counts, relatively few employees use wearable technology for such workplace monitoring, meaning nearly all of us rely on unpredictable means of understanding our stressors. With such poor maps, it is no wonder we have not gotten where we want to go.

By tracking biometrics and connecting that data with GPS and calendar data from the smartphones ever-present by our sides, we can create the map we need. We can see where we were when we experienced increased stress. These can be combined to help users glean insights based on that information about when they or where they were stressed, for example, advice on how to have a conversation about proper workload or preferred communication styles. The vast majority of employee-related stressors come down to breakdowns in communication, so pinpointing when and where those breakdowns occur is vital.

Additionally, such data could potentially help employers better understand the stress experienced by their workers. By analyzing breakdowns of stress among various groups of employees - between remote and office workers, for example, or how stress levels change from in-office to remote work for hybrid employees - executives can integrate wearable tech into employee wellness programs.

We Are All in This Together

These insights empower employees to gain a deeper understanding and mitigate stressors individually while helping businesses implement programs tailored to the specific wants and needs of their employees. This understanding enables workers and managers to tackle stress issues collaboratively rather than separately. When able to have a hand in mitigating their own stress, employees can better determine the work-life balance, and home-remote balance, that best suits them. This leads not only to improved employee well-being but improved business outcomes as well.

Edward J. Beltran is the CEO of Fierce Conversations, a communication and leadership training space. According to Beltran, the days of the singular approach to leadership/communication training focused on in-person training are gone forever. Leaders and their teams now need a suite of dynamic tools that help them better meet their daily challenges. This philosophy led to the creation of the Pulse By Fierce app, a tool to help reduce the $300 billion lost annually due to employee stress.