Stress Management:
Why “Leaving Your Problems at the Door” is no Longer the Standard
Illustration of a professional groomer walking a dog through a background of tangled, swirling black lines representing stress.
by Louise Dunn

For many of us, the word “stress” has become a common term tossed around with a flippant remark or a threatening stare. You most likely have used the word in some form when explaining why you failed to complete a task: “Things are really stressful today; I’ve barely had time to breathe.” Or perhaps you referred to it after you snapped at a co-worker: “Don’t mind me, I’m just stressed out.”

Illustration of a professional groomer walking a dog through a background of tangled, swirling black lines representing stress.
As often as we use the word during our day, many of us have never taken the time to understand stress and its effects on our mental health, our coworkers, our family and our friends. So just what is stress, and how can we relinquish its hold on our daily activities?
Defining Stress
The American Institute of Stress describes stress as a “non-specific response of the body to any demand for change.” The Institute acknowledges that stress “is difficult to define because it is so different for each of us.” For example, some of us seem to thrive in a stressful situation while others falter and seem to implode. So where is that fine line of distinction between good stress and bad stress?

Stress’s “line in the sand” is the difference between being bored and being overwhelmed; between being challenged and being distressed. Good stress is a healthy challenge—one that stimulates a person to perform better. Bad stress is being in a situation where you have no control—one that kicks in your fight-flight-freeze behavior.

At this point, you may be thinking that since stress is a personal state of mind, the business has no “business” in the employee’s mind, but this is where the stance to “leave your problems at the door when you come to work” comes into play. The truth is, the business should pay attention to team members’ stress.

Team members experiencing stress may have depression, anxiety, compulsive behaviors, substance abuse, headaches, fatigue, insomnia, stomach disorders or high blood pressure. Additionally, there may be other signs of mental illnesses such as missing deadlines, increased absenteeism, irritability or difficulty concentrating. These signs or situations make it hard to talk to a person about what they are experiencing. In addition, stress can have a ripple effect, affecting others on the team.

You want to have a culture that emphasizes productivity and connectedness. A connected culture has a shared identity and an understanding of the vision. A connected culture also values everyone on the team and provides the opportunity to voice ideas and opinions.

Workplace Stressors
Causes of stress are known as “stressors.” Keep in mind, however, that not all stressors are bad. For example, sports teams are exposed to stressors during that championship game, but the stressors often make them “up their game” and play even better. The same can be true for work stressors, and this is where a business needs to understand the difference between good and bad stress.

Dr. David Posen, author of Is Work Killing You: A Doctor’s Prescription for Treating Workplace Stress, placed workplace stress into three categories: Velocity, Volume, and Abuse. And these three categories are readily apparent in the workplace of pet professionals:

  1. Velocity: Everything seems to happen at the speed of light. Clients want access to you ASAP—be it by phone call, text message or appointment. Team members want tasks done as of yesterday.
  2. Volume: Appointment requests outnumber openings available. Pet professionals are busy and the sheer volume of work can result in long hours and skipped meals.
  3. Abuse: The third category is one we often tend to be silent about. It is about abuse, harassment, intimidation, bullying, belittling and threats. It can be snide remarks from a co-worker about your incompetence, intimidation from a client accusing of you not caring about the pet, threats about being fired if you don’t move faster or harassment from those difficult personalities.
At this point, you may think that stress is simply the nature of the beast. However, while it may be true that the business must operate with volume, velocity and abuse, it is not true that it can’t help its team members deal with the stress.
Programs and Plans
Business owners are often guilty of telling people to leave their problems at the door, toughen up and just deal with the stressful work of the profession. But what should they be doing instead?
  1. Implementing organizational changes to reduce employee stress
  2. Clearly defining roles (job descriptions) and responsibilities (SOPs)
  3. Creating a quiet area for meals and scheduling meal breaks so they aren’t missed
  4. Ensuring that mental health services are part of the organization’s health benefits and encouraging the team to utilize the services
  5. Providing education and training and using resource materials from the insurance provider at monthly meetings to discuss dealing with stress
The goal of programs and plans is to improve the mental and emotional wellbeing of the individual. But how do you reach an individual needing assistance? To start, you may need to change the company culture.
Cultivate the Right Culture
First, you must evaluate your culture. How many of these factors are a part of your culture?
  • Always focusing on what is wrong
  • Criticizing or punishing people for taking time off
  • Giving negative feedback and ignoring praising or positive feedback
  • High turnover of team members
  • High absenteeism
  • Low productivity
  • Abusive management or leaders
  • Lack of leadership or an overly dominating leader
You may have a toxic culture if you check off any of these. Instead, you want to have a culture that emphasizes productivity and connectedness. A connected culture has a shared identity and an understanding of the vision. A connected culture also values everyone on the team and provides the opportunity to voice ideas and opinions.

A business can no longer demand that employees leave their problems at the door when they come to work. Businesses need to have a strategic plan to address its team members’ mental and emotional wellbeing to allow individuals to reach their full potential, cope with stressors, be productive, and deliver high-quality client service and pet care.

Louise Dunn is a renowned award-winning speaker, writer and consultant. She brings over 40 years of in-the-trenches experience and her business education to veterinary management. Louise is founder and CEO of Snowgoose Veterinary Management Consulting. SVMC works with veterinarians who want to develop a strategic plan that consistently produces results. Most recently Louise received many awards including the WVC Educator of the Year numerous times and VetPartner’s The Life Time achievement Award in January 2016.

Back to Issue