Companies Give Counseling to Staff Stressed Out by War
The Gulf War was only a day old when Bank of America started treating its first casualties.
In a form of psychiatric triage, company counselors and human resource officials spent 30 to 45 minutes with numerous California employees suffering stress and anxiety triggered by the outbreak of war. The counselors soothed fears and offered sources of long-term treatment, said Rod Libbey, manager of the bank’s employee assistance program.
“All of a sudden we were in a violent conflict that they were not prepared for,” said Libbey. “It’s a traumatic, stressful situation. It’s hard to concentrate on the work at hand when you’re preoccupied with something else.”
Stress unleashed by the war has spilled over into the workplace, sending employees to company-sponsored counseling programs and prompting the creation of workshops and support groups dealing with war-related anxieties. In Orange County, FHP Inc., a large health maintenance organization, plans a support session for members called Operation Desert Stress.
Mental health specialists say the additional stress caused by the war can aggravate existing tensions and distract employees from their jobs, reducing performance and increasing the chance of an accident. Already, supervisors at many companies have asked for help in dealing with preoccupied and agitated employees and a few workers have complained of being the subject of anti-Arab taunts and insults, counselors say.
War anxieties come at a time many employees were already concerned about the economy. “People are worried about their jobs and, depending on the outcome of the war, their company may have more layoffs or not,” said Eric Anderson, chief operating officer for LifeLink Inc. The Laguna Hills-based company operates employee assistance programs and provides behavioral health benefits.
The feelings of uncertainty and lack of control caused by the war resemble the mass anxiety triggered by an earthquake. “We are certainly drawing on our experiences from the (1989 Loma Prieta) earthquake,” said Gary Lawson, manager of the Cupertino, Calif., branch office of Managed Health Networks, which operates employee assistance programs.
However, unlike an earthquake and other major disasters, the threat posed by a war “is chronic,” said Lawson. “You can only get so far in your grieving, and then you spin your wheels.”
The conflict has also rekindled painful memories of deceased relatives and has intensified existing emotional problems. “It aggravates other stressful situations in a person’s life,” said Patti Baldwin, manager of counseling services for Minneapolis-based Employee Advisory Resource, which serves 300 companies nationwide. For these individuals, the war “is the kind of situation that is the straw that breaks the camel’s back.”
The emotional toll is heaviest on workers with family and friends serving in military units stationed in the gulf. The Carl’s Jr. fast-food chain has asked Employee Support Systems Co., an employee assistance firm, to aid the staff of one of its San Clemente outlets, which employs seven spouses and a teen-age daughter of Marines involved in the war.
“I want help for them,” said Jose Casas, manager of the outlet north of Camp Pendleton. He said that since the war began he has noticed that the women’s tempers have grown short and that they tend to get tearful when they are criticized.
Maria Sanson, a shift supervisor, said her husband called at 4 a.m. Thursday to tell her that he had come back alive from his first combat mission on the Kuwait border. She acknowledges that she has difficulty concentrating on the job. “Sometimes they ask me to do something, and I go to do it and then forget what it is,” she said, “and I make a lot of mistakes on my paperwork.”
But feelings of anxiety and powerlessness are not limited to those with relatives and friends stationed or living in the war-torn Mideast. “They don’t have to have a family member in the gulf,” said Lawson at Managed Health Networks. “Just listening to the news” raises tensions.
As the war continues and casualties mount, “there is going to be a lot more anxiety and real concern,” said Libbey at Bank of America.
In fact, initial expectation of a short-term conflict may have mitigated concerns of many employees. For example, only one person at the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission attended a monthly group discussion last Wednesday that was modified at the last minute to deal with war-related stress.
“It’s still a little early,” said Marylin Kingston, vice president of Holman Group, which has been asked by numerous clients in the Los Angeles area to set up workshops. “There was a day of euphoria. Americans really thought it was going to be over in two days.”
Besides referring workers to employee assistance programs, corporations have taken additional steps to help them handle wartime tensions. The public address system at GTE Corp. headquarters in Stamford, Conn., for example, keeps employees abreast of the latest developments, said Mary Bernstein, manger of employee assistance programs.
“We feel that’s very important,” Bernstein said. “It’s business as usual, but there is a war, and people want to know what is going on.”
Employee assistance firms are setting up workshops and support groups at numerous companies--ranging from Knott’s Berry Farm to Southern California Gas--to help fight wartime tensions and stress. Counselors say the sessions will give employees a chance to vent their frustrations, realize that their fears are not abnormal and learn stress reduction techniques.
