My team is stressed and overwhelmed – how can I persuade management to make changes?

Many organizations are unlikely to make change unless whatever is happening harms the bottom line.Getty Images

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Ask Women and Work

Question: I work in a fast-paced environment. I have noticed stress mounting for several employees in my workplace, but I feel helpless to change the situation. What can I do to compel management to make changes?

We asked Roxanne Francis, psychotherapist and CEO at Francis Psychotherapy and Consulting, to tackle this one:

First of all, it’s important to recognize that many organizations are unlikely to make changes unless whatever is happening is harming their bottom line or productivity in some way. If you go to your leader and you say, ‘Everyone is stressed out,’ the leader may say, ‘I’m really sorry, but there’s nothing we can do about it.’ And if nothing is being affected, no one will be willing to listen. Even if they mean well, your leader likely reports to someone else, and they may not have the authority to make any changes.

However, what you can do is take stock of not just the stress, but the wellness of your team. Ask these questions: ‘How many people are going on stress leave? How often are they going on stress leave? Are we stretched because half of the team is constantly calling in sick? How is that hampering productivity? Are we missing deadlines? Are mistakes being made when we are providing service?’ These are big indicators that your staff isn’t well.

This kind of information is what management is most likely to respond to. If you point these issues out to them, they might do their own investigation and then go to the director and say, ‘Stress is a big factor on my team. Staff members are often absent and we can’t service all of our clients because of this.’ That may prompt management to think about what can be done to remedy things, such as increasing the coverage for therapy in the employee benefits plan, increasing vacation time or putting more people on the team to reduce the stress.

Leaders are also more likely to pay attention when you bring some kind of solution to them. I’ve heard many leaders say, ‘Don’t just bring me your problems – what do you think we can do to fix it?’ Otherwise, it just sounds like complaining. So, you could say, ‘Everyone’s really stressed out. Could we bring on a student to relieve some of the workload? Or, can we extend the deadline on our big project?’

As a staff member, it’s important to pay attention to how your manager reacts to your concerns. Are they really listening to what you have told them, or are they brushing you off? It will be either a green flag or a red flag. If they are just brushing you off, you have a decision to make about whether this is the right place for you. I know the economy is challenging right now and people don’t want to find themselves out of work, but you can stay in your job and apply to a different department. Or, you can stay in your job while you apply for another job.

It’s been said that people don’t leave bad jobs, they leave bad managers. If they’re transparent enough to say, ‘I understand what you’re saying and I’ll mention it to the director, but my hands are tied,’ that’s one thing. But if they say, ‘Suck it up, buttercup,’ that’s a whole different story.

Submit your own questions to Ask Women and Work by e-mailing us at GWC@globeandmail.com.

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