Not enough to worry about? Add people's mental health to mix

By Brice Wallace

Business owners and executives who fret about the success of their companies have had a new layer of pressure in recent weeks. While focused on the financial health of their companies, many are trying to cope with their own mental health and that of their employees.

That topic was the focus of a recent Silicon Slopes webinar. The current stress is universal, according to Mark Jaggi, partner at Advanced CFO. People who are still working may be feeling shame, fear or survivor’s guilt as they realize other people are now unemployed. People are unsure where their next job will come from or if their government-supplied funding will last.

“The amount of vulnerability and uncertainty right now is at an all-time high,” Jaggi said. “It’s not been seen in my lifetime, for sure. … Those are the things I think most people are dealing with. It’s certainly what I’ve dealt with.”

Johnny Hanna, CEO of Homie, said he has called people — and fielded calls — to get advice about navigating the current situation. Shame and fear were common themes, he said.

“I heard a few CEOs say, ‘I don’t want to be a bad CEO and let my people go,’ so they were telling themselves they were bad if that was what they had to do, versus ‘This is out of your control, really. You need to survive as a company,’” Hanna said.

“I heard others that said, ‘I need to go meet with my team tomorrow and tell them everything’s going to be OK, while the news is in the background telling me the world is crashing and falling apart. And then I need to go and be that same person for my family and my wife and kids and I have to be this ‘leader.’

“If I need to reduce salaries for employees, how do I have those conversations and are they going to be OK? And if they’re not, is it my fault? Am I a bad leader? So, these are just really challenging, hard questions that are happening right now.”

Discomfort is also permeating the business world, according to Page Checketts, founder and executive director of the Utah Childcare Cooperative. She has owned the business for just over a year, meaning she already was nervous because of the newness. “So now we add in this COVID uncertainty and then it’s even scarier,” she said.

Dr. Megan Call, a psychologist at the Resiliency Center at University of Utah Health, said the virus’ impacts have caused some people to strengthen their relationships with colleagues, friends and family, while the downsides have included panic attacks and heightened levels of stress.

But you might not have heard about those, speakers said. Take Hanna, who said he grew up on a ranch with his “cowboy dad” and did not talk about his feelings.

“I think a lot of that’s in the business community,” Hanna said. “I think people think it’s weak: ‘Don’t talk about your feelings. Leave that stuff at home. Come in and get work done.’

“I think that’s been one of our biggest problems as a society. I think we tuck away how we’re feeling, we try to bottle it up and it doesn’t go anywhere. It just stays right there and we continue to deal with it.”

“We don’t want to talk about our problems, don’t want to talk about our feelings,” Jaggi added. “That’s just straight-up pride, and that’s always been an Achilles’ heel of growth.”

The webinar participants offered tips for people to help cope with the current environment. Most prominent was sharing personal struggles, opening up, providing hope and trust, while being real and vulnerable. They suggested leaning heavily on “truth-tellers” who will be honest.

“Just acknowledge the realness, the truth of the situation, that this is hard, this is more than you’ve been asked to do before,” Checketts said. “Your normal support system and resources that you go to — the park that you just go to — is no longer available for you to let go and let loose. Just acknowledge that it’s hard and listen to each other.” By making connections with others, “then the solutions just start to flow,” she said.

Other suggestions included setting boundaries and prioritizing work tasks, scheduling “escape” activities and balancing work with the rest of life.

“Like, it’s inevitably painful that we’re here, in this economic situation, in this pandemic,” Hanna said. “We couldn’t control that. That’s inevitable pain. Optional pain is what we put on ourself, like the worry, the stress. Worrying doesn’t ever get you anywhere. It’s additional pain. It’s causing more pain.”

The webinar moderator, Angie Balfour, chief people officer at Weave, said she has reached out to others, seeking help.

“Nobody’s great at COVID-19. Nobody has the plan. … I think we’re all navigating through this and learning from each other,” Balfour said.

Jeremy Andrus, CEO of Traeger Pellet Grills, said everyone should recognize that stress currently exists in “many of us, if not all of us.”

“It happens all along life’s journey, but certainly in this moment.” Andrus said. “Pick up the phone, talk to a friend, talk to a loved one. There are all sorts of people who will stop on a dime to have a great conversation with you.”