Resources

PSYCHOSOCIAL HAZARDS AND RISKS

When thinking about Psychosocial Hazards and Risks in terms of the amendments to WHS/OHS legislation, one of the issues to be considered is: Lack of Role Clarity. This was brought sharply into focus in a session with People and Culture Professionals recently - not only do they very often struggle with staying within the boundaries of their own roles due to the weight of expectations of others, but many are experiencing the significant impact of lack of role clarity on themselves. Of course, they are also only too aware that the staff (who are often told to 'just go to HR') are sometimes heavily affected as well when the expectation that "People and Culture will sort it out" turns out to not be realistic as their particular issue falls way outside of the HR remit. Lack of Role Clarity can have significant impact on both those within that particular role as well as others in the organisation.

EMPATHY

In the corporate context, PLEASE can we stop telling our teams that: "Empathy enables employees to place themselves in other peoples' shoes and understand their feelings" Instead, we need to understand the potential psychosocial hazard that team members face when told to 'place themselves in the shoes of others', not to mention the associated risks! Asking our staff to expose themselves, even more than they already are, to their customer's trauma, fear or vulnerability in this way must surely go against the very intention of WHS/OHS obligations to be aware of, manage and control the psychosocial hazards and risks our teams are exposed to in their working life? Yes, Empathy is vital to an ethical, effective, appropriate and compassionate approach BUT we really do need to understand what that actually means in the corporate context.

It's NOT about Resilience!

For those having challenging conversations every day with others that are angry or struggling or vulnerable, you should not be expected to be (or expect yourself to be) resilient to that. You are human and the last thing your organisation wants is for you to lose your humanity in your role. Rather than demanding ‘resilience’ which can then unfortunately be perceived as some sort of failure and which creates a huge barrier to accessing support, let’s: ⭐ Find ways to reduce the impact of other people’s fear/anger/shock on ourselves. ⭐ When we are impacted (because being human is not a bad thing) have strategies which help us to decompress, and ⭐ Understand where and from whom to get support when we need it . 💭 Remember too that Self-Care is a priority and a necessity – it is not a luxury – in the work that you do.