HR Tips To Help Manage Holiday Anxiety
If emotional intelligence isn’t your forté, and the holidays make you feel anxious, you’re not alone. We offer employers and people managers a guide to feeling their true feelings during the holidays, and how to help their employees do the same. Curious to learn how? Read on.
By Julie Gellos
The Holidays are a happy time – or so we’re told (and sold) by the movies and commercials, storybooks and songs we consume. Snow envelopes the ground, holiday decor delights the senses, and cheerful traditions warm hearts bringing families together. The holiday break is a chance to relax and take stock of personal and professional inventory, and set goals for the New Year.
The truth is, we would be remiss not to address the fact that the holidays can also be a stressful time, stirring up emotions including anxiety and depression.
The holidays can also be a stressful time, stirring up emotions including anxiety and depression.
Between gift shopping, errand-running, gift wrapping, card writing, cooking and baking, school functions and the endless invitations to holiday party gatherings, the schedule is unequivocally overwhelming. Expectations are high and the pang of envy often supersedes all reason.
Dr. Donna Ferguson, a Canadian psychologist with the WSIB Psychological Trauma Program and CAMH explained, that financial stress is a major burden, especially if one lacks money but still wants to buy gifts for loved ones.
Holiday parties are also a common stressor according to the experts. “[T]hey can be terrifying for people with anxiety disorders, particularly those [with] social anxiety disorder.”
This holiday season, we encourage all our clients and colleagues to manage their teams with empathy and lead with “emotional intelligence.” The term EQ was popularized in the 90’s by author Daniel Goleman.
Emotional intelligence, also referred to as EQ or EI can be defined as the ability to recognize, understand and manage our emotions, and to recognize how our emotions are impacting others, positively and negatively.
Goleman suggested that EQ (or EI) is not innate. It's learned through practice and can be developed, but mastering it requires attention, self-direction and commitment. When successful, the benefits and rewards become obvious in our relationships, careers and mental health.
Here we share a number of EQ tools from several experts including the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence who reported that EQ “…can help you feel better, be more creative, make more deliberate decisions, and improve your relationships.”
So, how is this done in practice?
At the holidays, it’s important to try to pay attention to how people are feeling or changes in mood or behaviour in your workplace. Encourage your employees to practice gratitude and self-care, even if that means putting their personal life ahead of their work obligations for a few days.
Tips to Lead with Emotional Intelligence
1. Try to be aware of, and pay attention to, how people are feeling or changes in mood or behaviour at your workplace.
2. Ask how your co-workers are doing. Do your best to be supportive.
3. Acknowledge that the holiday season can be difficult and that it's okay not to feel happy all of the time, especially this time of year.
4. Share your own experiences with the holidays, and some of the positive tools that you use to cope. Speak in the “I” format. Avoid saying “you should…”.
5. Encourage your employees to practice gratitude and self-care leading up to the holidays, even if that means putting their personal life ahead of work obligations for a few days.
6. Be future focused, remind them it may be difficult right now, but things will get better.
7. Let them know that you are there for them and that they are important to you.
Self care is also essential for the employer to be able to lead with emotional intelligence. Here are 10 tips from the Mayo Clinic to cope with stress during the holidays.
If you need coaching on how to manage your team and improve your emotional intelligence, give us a call. We would be happy to help!
About the Author
Julie Gellos is an HR Consultant with LDHR. She is a high-performing team player with over 15 years' experience in human resources. Julie has extensive experience in professional services, particularly accounting and law. She is effective at building relationships with business leaders that strengthen and foster a collaborative work environment. Service areas of interest include performance management, employee engagement, change management, cultural integration and recruitment.
This busy mom of three also sits on a not-for-profit board and in her spare time loves to travel and spend time with family and friends.