Page 21 - BusinessWest October 26, 2020
P. 21

Meagan Tetreault, standing outside Big Y’s
West Springfield store, says the company has taken an individualized approach to helping its thousands of employees cope with the stress and strain of
the pandemic.
   they’re at the office or at home, said Meredith Wise, president of the Employ- ers Assoc. of the NorthEast (EANE).
And they’re responding, as she is responding herself (EANE has 22 people on
its payroll), with policies, formal and informal, and action plans focused on providing some stress relief and perhaps a sense of nor- malcy in a year when some companies and agencies are offering ‘mental-health days’ in the office instead of at home.
“Our team is feeling
it,” said Wise, using ‘it’
to refer to the sum of the stress incurred at work and at home. “We’re having
a difficult year here, and everyone is pushing for the numbers and pushing for the registrations and push-
ing to connect with our members and provide the best service. And then, at home, it’s not like they’re going home and then relaxing and getting away from the pressures and having time to rest and refuel. They’re going home, whether they’re working remotely or working at the office, and they’ve got all the stuff in their personal life.”
Elaborating, she said this collective ‘stuff’ constitutes everything from fear of contracting the virus to negativity on the nightly news, to the
inability to do the things they want to do and go to places they want to go.
Add it all up, and it’s exhausting and often overwhelming, she said, adding that, as an employer, she considers it her responsibility to help valued employees cope with all this.
Amy Roberts, senior vice president and chief Human Resources officer at PeoplesBank, agreed.
“There’s a lot of stress, and initially, people were trying to do everything and be 100% in everything, and I think most are now acknowledging that this is not realistic or sustainable.
She told BusinessWest that the focus for busi- nesses over the past few months has shifted from dealing with an emergency — getting everyone home and making sure they’re safe — and setting up people to work from home if needed, to cop- ing with this fatigue that has settled in.
“One of the things we’ve tried to do through the whole situation is be flexible and creative in working with each person as their own needs evolve,” she explained. “You have parents who have kids in school or at home, or a combination of both, and then you have employees with sig- nificant others who are exposed or working in sit- uations that put them in potential harm. There’s
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codes to those food trucks; from pumpkin-deco- rating competitions to the ‘concert T-shirt day’ — no explanation needed — staged by MBK.
Overall, business owners and managers are recognizing that their valued employees — the ones who remain after many others have been furloughed or laid off — are tired, worried about the future, ‘Zoomed out’ (another phrase you hear a lot these days), unable or unwilling to take paid time off, and unable or unwilling to leave work behind when they leave work — whether
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