Trauma and How It Can Adversely Affect the Workplace
Sixty-six percent of the general population has been traumatized at some point. Eighty percent of workers feel stressed on the job. When you combine a traumatic experience and stress, the risk for adverse workplace behaviors can be high. To combat this, emergency managers can collaborate with leadership and human resources to improve resiliency components and decrease stress among their teams.
There are different definitions of trauma. For example, the University of Maryland defines trauma as “an experience that causes physical, emotional, psychological distress or harm. It is an event that is perceived and experienced as a threat to one’s safety or to the stability of one’s world.” The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) defines trauma as “experiences that cause intense physical and psychological stress reactions, which could be a single event, multiple events, or a set of circumstances experienced by an individual as physically and emotionally harmful or threatening, and have long lasting effects to the individual.”
Different ways to experience trauma
Your employees may experience trauma in several ways. One way is acute trauma. It is a traumatic event that often occurs without warning and over which the employee has no control. Examples of acute trauma include:
- Workplace accidents. Witnessing a coworker getting injured or killed while on the job.
- Acute stress due to downsizing, lay-offs, company closings or forces outside of work. It can also include posttraumatic stress disorder.
- Random acts of violence or terrorism, whether in the workplace or the surrounding community.