Today almost everyone has constant access to information. There are so many different avenues to gather knowledge about our world from AI to social media to the good old internet. But with all this access there comes a price.
Social media, news commentary, AI feedback all influence how we interact in the world these days and can create some spiraling algorithms that can lead you into a doom-scroll.
Doomscroll: the act of spending an excessive amount of time reading negative, depressing, or alarming news and social media content online
"Research indicates that heavy social media use is strongly linked to increased risks of depression, anxiety, sleep disruption, and negative body image among adolescents. However, these platforms also provide valuable benefits, including vital peer support and social connection, making the overall impact highly individualized and dependent on how platforms are utilized." - National Institute of Heath
As you can see social media can have both negative and positive influences, the trick is how do people balance these? I am sure everyone has that person in their life that struggles with anxiety and depression, it might even be you. They struggle to connect or enjoy the simple things in life. At work they may be the one who's energy just brings everyone down or worse radiates anxiety so bad it creates a tense environment. These people are not necessarily bad workers, or bad people they just have problems regulating themselves.
Global social media reach involves over 5.4 billion users spending an average of 141 minutes daily on platforms.
Platforms shape consumer behavior significantly, with Facebook and YouTube leading daily active use, and influencer and brand content driving major purchasing decisions across demographics. -Pew research center
Usage and ReachGlobal Population:
63.9% of the world's population uses social media, totaling over 5.4 billion active users.
Daily Time: Users spend an average of 2 hours and 21 minutes per day on social networks.
Platforms by Size: Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp each reach benchmark figures near or exceeding 3 billion monthly active users globally.
- Smart Insights Digital Marketing
So what is the best way to deal with such a person?
We can't regulate what they see, we cannot control social media, news outlets or how AI response to them, but we can create environments that allow their systems to regulate. We can help facilitate coping techniques and we can offer services that can help this kind of individual.
How to Create an environment that can allow people to let go of their anxiety:
First you have to recognize that there is not a simple fix when it comes to this, but there are things that can help a person calm their nervous system.
Back in the day the corporate world was referred to as the rat race. There are many stories that talked about climbing the later, stepping on people to get ahead, basically the thought process was all about competition. While healthy competition is good, in our world today many people feel like they're not just competing with coworkers, but literally everyone they see on social media. It causes people to be stuck in this mindset whether at work or at home. This creates a kind of burn out that didn't exist when people clocked out of work at 5pm.
To help counteract this ongoing stress it's time to leave the rat race competition behind and foster a work environment that celebrates the workers. This can be done by not only celebrating the job well done, but also having productive conversations about them to become better at what they are doing, fostering an environment where they feel they can grow and learn things that they are interested in and by allowing your worker to work less traditional schedules or work at home days.
"In the largest study yet of working-from-home professionals, Stanford economist Nicholas Bloom reveals that employees who work from home two days a week are just as productive, likely to get promoted, and far less prone to quit."- Stanford Report
Allowing hybrid work schedules or having work from home days built in like PTO days can allow for your worker to still be productive when they are dealing with emotional turmoil.
Pay attention to your leadership style as well and make sure you are leading with understanding and kindness. Have you set clear expectations and boundaries and explained why they are in place? Younger generations haven't grown up with the same experiences. There's a whole generation who basically spent 2 years at home during covid and lost out on important life milestones like prom, graduation, summer jobs and even in person college. Keeping this in mind it's important to have clear expectations outlined, what you might think is common knowledge may not be to this group.
The COVID-19 pandemic reshaped the early careers of Generation Z and young professionals by normalizing remote onboarding, disrupting traditional mentorship, and shifting career motivators toward flexibility and work-life balance. This "COVID generation" faced unique structural, social, and psychological hurdles as they transitioned from school to the professional world.
_ How the ‘COVID Generation’ Is Dealing With the Workplaceby Kate Field
How to help facilitate coping techniques in the work place:
With all the world changing events that have happened these past few years coping skills have become an essential thing to teach. Many people have not been taught healthy coping skills and may have bad habits that flare when stress gets too high. Having some in house activities that promote healthy coping skills can help your work environment run smoothly. Below are a list of suggestions:
Bringing in a yoga teacher once a week to teach stretches and deep breathing. This can promote wellness in the office.
Set up a meditation room to allow people to have a moment to themselves. This would work well with the yoga teacher so they are taught some meditation techniques. You can also have audio tracks people can play to help calm them.
Creating mandatory breaks where your workers have to step away from their screens. Some times people get too caught up in what they are doing and need an outside influence to step away.
Setting up an in house gym and creating time were your employees can use it. An office gym is great, but if you don't allow for time to use it won't get use like you hope.
Creating outdoor spaces where workers can go to relax, work outside or have lunch. Studies show being outside in nature has a soothing effect on the body. So creating an outdoor space with plants and comfortable sitting spots can help reduce stress.
Working outdoors improves mental and physical wellbeing by lowering stress, boosting energy, and enhancing focus. Key advantages include reduced anxiety, higher vitamin D levels, and better concentration.
Allowing alternative workspaces- yoga balls instead of chairs, floor sitting set ups. Not everyone does well sitting at a desk so allowing them to explore different set ups within the boundaries you set can be beneficial.
Skill development Sessions such as phone etiquette 101- teaching employees how to answer the phone in a professional manner. How to use a fax, printer, phone system etc. Many younger employees may have never grown up with a landline phone they had to answer, or certain types of technology because it was older or just not available for them. Having these basic classes can head off any problems and hopefully lower anxiety because now they have a base to build off of.
Anxiety and depression are not something a workplace can fix, but we can create environments and offer support to help lessen the stress. Understanding that this is an issue many more people are facing these days can help avoid melt downs, toxic work environment and unhappy workers. The key when creating these things is to have clear concise expectations and boundaries. These will help keep the work flowing and hopefully keep people from taking advantage in a negative way. When all else fails make sure you share access to support programs, therapies or other professional services that can help your employee when things get too tough. At the end of the day we are all just people doing the best we can with what we are given and a little kindness and understanding goes a long way.
