Page 164 - Anne Bruce - Building A HIgh Morale Workplace (2002)

144 Building a High Morale Workplace

Post-traumatic stress disorder A condition that devel-
ops as a result of experiencing a distressing event beyond
the normal range of experiences. It affects hundreds of
thousands of people who have survived tragedies, such as natural dis-
asters like earthquakes and fires or deliberate disasters such as terror-
ism, rape, or school and workplace shootings. Post-traumatic stress
disorder rarely appears during the trauma itself.The disorder can sur-
face soon after an event or months or even years later.The symptoms
of post-traumatic stress disorder include the following:
• flashbacks, in which the victim relives the traumatic event
• nightmares
• insomnia
• sudden and painful onslaught of emotions associated with the
tragedy
• irritability or emotional outbursts
• guilt for having survived the crisis when others did not
• depression
• general emotional numbness, sometimes causing the victim to with-
draw from others
• frequent use of drugs and alcohol

that life can throw at you. When life intervenes, it intervenes.
And no matter how high employee morale runs in your organi-
zation or how energized employees appear, everyone—including

you—is subject to the unexpected, including tragedies. When
life intervenes, managers must deal with it and take action. In
the words of Joan Baez, “Action is the antidote to despair.”

Two Kinds of Managers in a Crisis—Which

One Are You?

So which managers succeed at winning back shattered employ-

ee morale and which do not? There seem to be two kinds.
Some managers can’t seem to rebound from major setbacks or
overcome obstacles and some managers rise above it all, refus-
ing defeat and reclaiming their people’s victory.
What’s the difference?
The managers who help their employees overcome