Ombud’s corner: Make yourself a gift: enjoy your holiday!
The winter break is a vital opportunity to leave behind the end-of-year workload stress, compounded by the rush to complete tasks in preparation of the year ahead, and focus on some genuine rest and recuperation. The challenges of 2015 can only be met if our batteries are correctly recharged: so full steam ahead for a holiday period devoted to a well earned rest and a crucial change of air and ideas!
The importance of restful holidays is a recognised downtime in all modern democracies. This is needed to overcome the work-related stress that is a growing problem in today’s work environment by ensuring the rest and recuperation that is necessary for the wellbeing of all personnel.
In the field of information technology, experts know that machines would not work without “WMS”, which stands for “Workload Management Service”. Things can go very differently when instead of “jobs” for computers we talk of “tasks” for people … and we often forget to take that crucial step back from our commitments in favour of ensuring a healthy balance of activity overall.
Sometimes, at the outset, we do not realise the extent of work involved when we accept a single additional task and, on the other side of the equation, supervisors often have only a rough idea of the overall workload involved. This can happen, in particular, when the team is large, when there are several demands in parallel on our time or when the communication between the supervisor and the supervisee is not optimal.
The end-of-the-year period can be particularly critical as a backlog of tasks builds up in view of the annual closure of the Laboratory. In these cases, it is important to moderate any further requests and also to agree on priorities for existing commitments, which may even lead to simply leaving something behind. Supervisors have a responsibility to keep on top of the situation at such times, and to remain very well informed of the level of activity in their teams, in particular when they are not usually in daily contact with their staff.
It is also a time of anxiety in some areas as we approach the end of the CCRB exercise and colleagues face changes both for themselves and/or for their environment. Here again, supervisors play a critical role in managing the communication of decisions and being generally available and sensitive to the needs of their staff.
These situations are understandably challenging and a lot of good will and determination is required in order to keep the stress levels as low as possible. However, it is well worth the effort, as work-related stress caused by long hours, intense workloads, conflicts with colleagues or supervisors and job insecurity can cause health and performance problems.
What is the answer? Communication, communication and communication… we cannot underestimate the importance of sharing our perceptions and our experience on the one hand, and of listening to others and being attentive to their needs. An open dialogue between supervisor and supervisee is essential to understanding workload issues, as well as other sources of stress.
And what if this need to communicate is in itself a source of stress? Remember the Ombud is available to all colleagues, whether supervisor or supervisee, who wish to sound out their ideas or reflect on their options before taking them up with each other. In some cases, it may even be advisable to opt for an informal mediation where both parties agree to meet in the presence of the Ombud with a view to understanding their differences and moving on.
Let's make enhanced understanding and communication one of our New Year's resolutions!
Season's Greetings and a happy holiday season to all!
All previous Ombud's Corners can be accessed in the Ombud's blog.
