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Back-to-school season increases workplace stress for nearly a third of workers in Canada, an ADP survey finds.bluecinema/iStockPhoto / Getty Images
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September brings new schedules, new routines and new responsibilities for millions of Canadians. Those changes don’t disappear when parents arrive at work.
ADP Canada’s latest Happiness@Work Index finds that back-to-school season increases workplace stress for nearly a third of workers in Canada.
Among those affected by the season, 24 per cent report increased workloads and responsibilities, while 21 per cent point to changes in their daily commutes or routines and 18 per cent cite higher financial expenses.
For employers, that makes back-to-school more than a personal or family issue. It’s a predictable workplace transition that managers can plan for, says Vergia Davidson, an Ottawa-based registered psychotherapist and founder of workplace mental health consultancy Strive Mental Health, Wellness & Empowerment Inc.
“It’s really important to know that when we’re talking about change management, it’s helping to navigate transitions and being proactive around that,” she says. “So employers or managers might think, ‘Oh, this is a family thing,’ but it follows workers within the work environment.”
The challenge is partly the sheer number of new, personal demands competing for an employee’s attention, which includes visible and invisible work.
“The invisible work is remembering, it’s anticipating, making decisions, the adjustment piece,” Ms. Davidson says. “Then there’s the visible work, the transportation, the childcare, there’s filling out the forms on top of your regular work.”
That can result in stress, distraction and difficulty focusing.
Ms. Davidson says managers can reduce some of the pressure by making work itself more predictable. That can mean clearly identifying the top three priorities for the week, explaining what can wait, communicating consistently and giving employees an early warning when plans change.
“If you don’t give people time to process and clear expectations, naturally there’s going to be a lot of miscommunication,” she says.
Small temporary changes can help, too. A manager might adjust an employee’s start time, move a 9 a.m. meeting later or offer some flexibility around school drop-off and pickup.
And because September arrives every year, employers don’t have to wait for employees to struggle before responding. Ms. Davidson suggests managers begin conversations about what their teams may need during the first few weeks of the transition – but it’s not too late to start right now.
It doesn’t require a new corporate program. Sometimes, planning around a predictable disruption is enough.
“People remember when you think about them,” Ms. Davidson says, “and it definitely builds trust for future things that you need their buy-in for.”
Fast fact
School schedules
29 per cent
That’s how many Canadian workers say flexible working hours would be the most helpful accommodation during the back-to-school season, according to ADP Canada’s latest Happiness@Work Index.
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