Sep 15, 2020
Stress from the pandemic as well as other major societal issuesis taking its toll on higher education institutions. The effectscan be seen across college and university campuses as students,staff, faculty and leaders try to deal with rapidly changingcirc*mstances. While students have access to counseling services,many higher education employees are feeling intense stress levels –and their job performance is suffering.
This podcast, which focuses on employee stress levels and whatleaders can do, features Dr. Tom Marrs, a clinical psychologist andassistant director for client engagement for the Center forExecutive Development at Texas A&M University’s Mays BusinessSchool.
A Continual Accumulation
Rather than adapting to change, people are finding that theirstress levels continue to get higher as the pandemic continues.They are having difficulty dealing with so many challenges at onetime; these challenges include isolation and problems that comewith that, fear of illness and death from the pandemic, financialstress, political unrest, social discord, the overall lack ofresources, and increased work demands. These various emerging andpressing issues are creating a bottleneck of stressors.
Additionally, people are getting tired from dealing with thecontinued stress, especially stress from unknowns. If something isstressful but there is a known end (as seen in a natural disastersuch as a hurricane or wildfire), you know that you’ll be able torecover in the near future, even though going through the situationwill be stressful. The pandemic, however, is so open-ended thatpeople can’t see the light at the end of the tunnel. This makes itincreasingly difficult to function since humans have a lowtolerance for ambiguity, which also leads to stress.
The confluence of all of these stressors at the same time isespecially challenging. Colleges and universities are dealing withso many situations that couldn’t be predicted. Administrators arehaving to make hard decisions that have an effect on students,staff and faculty.
Additionally, so many institutions have a large influence on thequality of the economy in their community. Higher education’sfinancial impact is wide-ranging and includes tourism, research, anarea’s economic development and student expenditures. Therefore,making decisions to send students home, such as what happened inthe spring, have far-reaching ramifications that can lead toincreased stress.
Survival Mode
Stress consists of physical, psychological and/or emotionaldemands that are placed on an organism. People have a set amount ofbandwidth to use to deal with demands; however, if the stress ofthe demands being faced exceeds that bandwidth, the individuallocks up and shuts down.
Individuals often go into survival mode when facing extremestress. Maslow’s Hierarchy showed that people become verytask-focused when under stress, leaving no room for higher orderthinking and envisioning the big picture of where we’re going.Instead, individuals’ focus gets myopic, narrowing to issuesrelating to survival as well as those they can control.
The problem is that being in survival mode over a long period oftime leads to burn out. The Yerkes-Dodson Human Performance Curveshows that people don’t perform well when they have no stress andalso when they are under extreme stress. It’s only when people arein the sweet spot in the middle that they do their best work.
Currently, we’re fully in the far tail of the curve, which ismarked by continual high stress. The repercussions can be seen inworkplace behavior, employee performance and decision-making.
While people have a compensatory mechanism that can handlestress, they can only compensate up to a point, and once a certainthreshold is reached, people start to de-compensate through burnoutand stress behaviors. This can result in a low tolerance forfrustration, even in minor situations – they can develop a hairtrigger and become more rigid and on edge. They look for potentialthreats in the environment and develop a tall antennae that issensitive to perceived slights. If someone is perceived as causingproblems, that person is labelled as a trouble maker. There alsocan be increased forgetfulness, which is a direct result of beingstressed.
Leaders’ Next Step
Not surprisingly, leaders are reporting having to deal with moredifficult behaviors in the workplace, more infighting among teams,as well as more problems between the leader and team members. Thesebehaviors are predictable.
The real challenge is determining what can be done about thesituation.
Higher education leaders are primarily focused right now on thestudents. Fortunately, students have access to the studentcounseling center, and this generation is utilizing campuscounseling services more often than previous generations. A reportpublished about 15 years ago noted this increase is a result of thedestigmatizing of mental health issues. Dr. Marrs pointed outthat he has seen studies showing a 300% increase in utilization incollege student counseling centers over the years.
But … what are leaders doing to help the faculty and staff?
As a first step, leaders need to consider every option that isavailable to help employees lower stress levels. The challengebecomes how to financially make these resources available whenbudgets are being drastically reduced.
Dr. Marrs encourages leaders to use empathy when assessing howfaculty and staff are functioning in the workplace. Leaders shouldbe aware of their own as well as everyone’s stress levels andmonitor their own expectations for performance. As people comeunder more stress, those closest to them bear the brunt of theiranxiety and fear. Therefore, if an administrator is stressed, hisor her emotions will roll downhill as part of the decision-makingprocess. This leads to increased demands on the team while theadministrator may not have any understanding of the increasedstress that the team is under and how the team is functioning.
One challenge facing higher education is that many college anduniversity employees have not had a chance to release their stress.For example, most have not taken vacations since the Christmasholidays. On top of that, many employees are facing other issuessuch as on-going child care issues or their own health issues,issues that have further increased their stress levels.
Gauging Ourselves
Higher education leaders are not immune to the increasedstress—and the resultant behaviors are having an impact on how someadministrators lead their institutions.
Dr. Marrs believes leaders need to focus on increasing theirlevels of understanding and empathy, but this requires theadministrators to be self-aware. Administrators need to developgrace in working with people during these difficult times.
Leaders need to apply emotional intelligence to themselves to beable to lead during the current chaos. Most MBA programs in theUnited States now teach emotional intelligence because it bringstangible results; it is no longer considered a soft skill.Emotional intelligence becomes critical during times of extremestress and uncertainty.
Leaders also need to pay attention to where the institution andemployees are, e.g., they need to identify when they are beingreactive to situations. Having a high level ofself-awareness, an awareness of others, and then being able tocontrol our own reactions to both unfolding situations and others,will make more of a difference in the current environment thananything else we can do. And the best part is that these approachesare all free.
A Pandemic of Burn-out
People need to talk about and face the stigma related toburn-out. Many are experiencing burn-out, which is very predictablebecause of the large quantity of change present in our society.Humans are not wired to handle this much change this quickly.
We have had to change so many things and learn and adopt manynew processes, such as moving immediately to online learning.Leaders need to recognize that people are doing the best that theycan in these situations. Leaders need to monitor their ownexpectations and cut employees some slack.
Leaders also need to consider simplifying what they are doing inleading their teams. In order to try to maintain a sense ofnormalcy, many will try to find things they can do to feel they arestill in control. This could mean that a leader might decide toroll out a new program or operating procedure. It might make theleader feel better temporarily, but will add to the already-highstress level of his or her team.
Research shows that when people are physically tired, they tendto make good decisions but those decisions are made more slowly.However, when faced with extreme stress, people make terribledecisions with a great deal of speed. Leaders need to consider thisbefore reorganizing departments or rolling out new programs in thecurrent environment.
The high level of stress across the college campus is difficultto deal with. When focusing exclusively on the needs of students,leaders often ignore the needs of their team--as well as their ownneeds. Having this much stress opens the door to bad behaviors.Leaders need to understand how to recognize these bad behaviors andidentify the appropriate actions to take in these stressful times.This is where emotional intelligence comes in and why it’simportant to consider what we’re reacting to.
Working from home also has become especially difficult. Allemployees—but especially members of Millennials and Gen Z—areexperiencing a lack of boundaries separating work life and homelife. Employees don’t know how to unplug and are often workingduring their “off” time. Therefore, it’s important for leaders tohonor team members’ days off by not sending an email or text withsomething to do when they return to work. More often than not, theemployee will respond that day, even though it’s their day off.This means they won’t experience the full break they need to resetand recharge.
Three Recommendations for Higher EducationLeaders
Dr. Marrs suggested three takeaways for higher educationleaders:
- Take care of yourself. You are of no use to anyone if you arestressed out. You will be making decisions based on fear.
- Have empathy for others. Be aware of your own emotionalintelligence. Monitor the engagement and burnout of people who workfor you. Give them time off or find other ways to compensate tohelp them regain their balance.
- This is not a time to make unnecessary decisions that result inchange. When in doubt, consult with others. Have a soundingboard.
Bullet Points
- Higher education institutions are facing huge amounts of stressin the current environment. These stressors include the pandemic,race relations, financial issues, the upcoming election cycle, andthe institution’s own challenges of making changes.
- While much—if not all--of the focus has been on helpingstudents through these current issues, many faculty, staff andadministrators are struggling with handling the current high ratesof stress.
- Being in survival mode over a long period of time leads to burnout. Once a certain threshold of stress is reached, people start tode-compensate through experiencing burnout and exhibiting stressbehaviors, such as frustration, rigidity, being on edge, and havinga hair trigger. They start looking for potential threats in theenvironment and become overly sensitive to what they perceive asslights.
- Leaders need to use empathy when assessing how faculty andstaff are functioning in the workplace. They also should be awareof their own as well as everyone’s stress levels and monitor theirown expectations for performance.
- A leader’s emotional intelligence is critical during thecurrent chaos.
- The current situation is not the time to start a new program,process or initiative. It’s far better to simplify than to addcomplexity.
- It’s important to talk about and remove the stigma aroundburn-out.
- When faced with extreme stress, people make terrible decisionswith a great deal of speed.
- Leaders need to focus on controlling their own reactions toboth unfolding situations and others. This will make more of adifference in the current environment than anything else.
- Employees have difficulty setting boundaries separating worklife and home life. Therefore, it’s important for leaders to honortheir team’s off-time and not text or email them with futureto-do’s that might derail their recuperation time.
Links to Articles, Apps, or websites mentioned duringthe interview:
Guests Social Media Links:
The Change Leader’s Social Media Links:
- Website: https://thechangeleader.com
- Website: https://changinghighered.com
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drdrumm/
- Twitter: @thechangeldr
- Email: podcast@changinghighered.com
