
In current episode of Business Essentials Daily Podcast, Barrington Centre’s Principal Psychologist, Rhonda Andrews, speaks about the increase in formal and informal complaints of bullying and harassment that she is seeing as employees make a return to the office. Seeing a correlation between fatigue and increased instances in complaints, Rhonda points to cumulative mental load and living with a high degree of uncertainty as the cause of heightened sensitivities and friction within the team dynamics.
Rhonda says it is important to recognise that “employers have been to hell and back” since 2020, and are understandably getting “impatient about getting businesses back on track”. However, she also says that it is important to grab and hold on to the silver linings that COVID had brought about. Despite the different operational models of different businesses, employers must firstly recognise that business interface has changed forever, and listen and collaborate with their staff to find a win-win solution that works for the team and the organisation.