Current Corporate Mood: Eep!

Everyone’s a little nervous right now, have you noticed?

We’re all dealing with a challenging work environment. Leadership is freaked out about economic instability (is a recession coming? Wait, is it not coming? Are we already in a recession? What’s going on!?) Employees are wondering the same thing (am I getting laid off? Am I safe? What do I need to do to keep my job?)

Economists keep saying we’re not in a recession, and yet, companies are laying people off left and right. At the end of February, Elon Musk laid off another 200 employees — or roughly 10% of his remaining staff. Stalwart Disney is planning about 7,000 layoffs (some are calling it a “bloodbath”, very off brand for the family-friendly giant).

Indeed.com is planning to lay off about 2,200 people (~15% of their total staff). Google, Amazon, Microsoft, oh my! Need I go on? If you want to see a more comprehensive list of tech layoffs, check it out here.

All of this essentially amounts to one big question in the mind of almost every American employee right now: How the heck do I keep my job!?

Even Small Companies are Getting Nervous

With so many layoffs in the news, even people at small companies start to get nervous. And when people get nervous, it affects everything.

Nerves like that have a physiological impact on us, and guess what? It’s not for the better. When we think we could be on the brink of losing our livelihood, we shift into a fear response. I wrote about this recently, and talk about it all the time: when we feel fear, we risk having an “amygdala hijack”, a biological response that is intended to protect us (but ultimately usually just ends up sabotaging us).

To quote my previous article, “Why does this happen? One reason lies in your lovely brain — an almond-sized part of the brain called the amygdala that has the job of constantly scanning your environment for threats. When it senses a threat, it triggers the release of the “fight, flight, freeze or appease” response, along with stress-inducing hormones like cortisol and adrenaline.”

Fortunately for those of us who study amygdala hijack and understand how to recognize it, we can avoid the negative outcomes that often occur if it’s left unchecked.

It might look like employees feeling scared to speak up, even though they’ve noticed something that needs to be addressed. Their amygdala senses a threat (“maybe I’ll get laid off if I rock the boat!”) so they simply sit quietly and hope someone else can take the risk of making a suggestion.

…And that kind of behavior is ultimately very bad for companies.

Cancel Culture Affects All of Us

We’re all living and working in this tricky environment of fear and cancel culture. We’ve all seen or heard of someone getting written off for something they’ve said or written — even if it was years and years ago! It’s scary! So people are feeling like they have to be super careful about everything they say and do.

And that’s not exactly a good environment for building trust and taking risks.

I feel this myself! Sometimes I feel super nervous about what to share on LInkedIn because I have no idea what hate speech might pop up in the comments. Will I accidentally write something that someone thinks is offensive? I know I’m not the only one feeling this way at the moment.

We now live in a culture where it’s not safe to speak up and speak out and be seen, and this affects women in particular. Women generally incur more scrutiny in the workplace. Fortunately, there are now many companies beginning to bring more awareness to unconscious and conscious bias, but in many cases, the same companies that talk a big talk are slow to create a work environment that allows everyone to step into power and have a voice.

What is the Solution?

I’m not here to point out a bunch of problems without offering some ideas, so let’s dig in.

For employees, it’s time to build your capacity to remain calm, centered, and confident even in the face of great challenges in the workplace. You won’t be able to control everything that happens to you, but you can learn to manage your reaction to them.

When things get me down, I often think about world leaders like Nelson Mandela who remained peaceful, positive and forgiving during and after 27 years in prison. We humans are capable of miraculous things.

Don’t try to handle everything alone. Get support from trusted colleagues, friends, or even hire a coach or therapist to talk it through and develop new skills with. See if your organization offers services around mental health. Take advantage of the therapy sessions often included with your health insurance policy. There are people out there who would love nothing more than to support you.

For employers, it’s about making space for your employees to show up and speak up. Create an environment of trust and respect that honors and uplifts all voices. Advocate for others, especially the people who are historically marginalized, and those that tend to be quieter. Make uncovering your unconscious bias part of your leadership development plans. Step up as a leader that encourages open communication and invites new ideas. Above all, listen, and then listen some more. Then take action on what people tell you they need.

Yes, all of this can be challenging. No, you don’t need to have all the answers. That’s why people like me exist. My job is to work with teams and individuals in cultivating exactly this kind of inclusive, resilient culture. Want to chat about it? Click here to find a time.