Trauma- Informed Approaches in The Workplace- Tips on Advocating for Yourself and your Employees

Therapists hear from clients daily the impact that the workplace has on mental health and general well-being. The workplace can be a positive place for individuals growing in their career and experience. Workplaces could also be spaces where there has been a lot of harm and trauma created and maintained. This article will talk about some ways individuals can advocate for themselves and their well-being in the workplace. We will also talk about how bosses can create more of a trauma-informed workplace environment for their employees. 

1- What benefits are you offering and obtaining in the workplace? 

Benefits and multiple options for benefits may help employees feel like they have more options and flexibility. If you feel like the place that you work for doesn't have good options in regard to the benefits that they offer, asking for more options and advocating for more may be helpful. If advocating feels scary, gathering up research and concrete numbers to support your position on the issue may be helpful to get your point across. An example of this might be bringing in static measures on working parents and the amount of health care expenses in the average family. Or working with your workplace to send out a survey of the changes to benefits that would like to be made for the company. Benefits can also include PTO which is incredibly important to maintaining work and life balance.   

2- How are workplace complaints handled?

Workplaces are not immune to problems of harassment or unfair treatment. Even if a workplace claims to not have problems they should still know what to do when problems arise. There should be outlined policies and procedures for each employee on how to file complaints if problems come up in the workplace. Harm comes in when workplaces do not take complaints seriously and appropriate action or consequences are not issued for complaints received. Complaints should be handled with care and confidentiality. New platforms that are being utilized more in the workplace like Teams for example may utilize chat/message features. How are higher ups managing chat features and ensuring that they are not being abused or used in ways that are not in line with company values? How can confidentiality be maintained with messaging features? All of these are considerations for workplaces to consider to ensure safety for its employees. 

2. Workshops and Education in The Workplace

Companies that are actively trying to improve their workplace and knowledge on mental health and trauma could benefit from having experts and specialists coming in to present on important workplace issues. Is your company actively trying to improve and enhance knowledge? If not then advocating for such can be transformative for not just you but also for others in the workplace. Trauma and harmful cycles might be perpetuated and continued unintentionally without proper training and awareness. Therapists and other professional educators might have workshops that can provide more information and education. Workplaces that make more efforts to have this also build greater trust and appreciation with their employees. Employees dont want to be appreciated with a typical workplace luncheon all the time. Employees want to feel like company higher ups are taking accountability for their actions and making attempts to do better and be better. If you are an employee and know of trusted professionals that could present workshops you can advocate for that in the workplace to enhance it. Not only could you learn something new yourself but other co-workers might appreciate you taking the initiative. 

If you are interested in receiving therapy to help manage workplace trauma, reach out to us here at Inward Counseling. We have great therapists that can help assist you in this area that are accepting new clients. We look forward to hearing from you.

Click here for more information on trauma therapy.