ANXIETY AND THE WORKPLACE

information and support for family and friends of those with anxiety disorders

Suggestions for Employers

If you manage an employee who suffers from Panic-Anxiety Disorders, here are some suggestions on how you can have a positive impact:

1. Encourage the person with Panic-Anxiety Disorder (PAD) to seek medical treatment first to rule out any underlying medical condition. If possible, put her in touch with the company's Human Resource Director or Employee Assistance Program.
2. Assure the PAD sufferer that it is fine to enlist a couple of co-workers with whom she feels comfortable to act as support givers in the event of distress. If she is dizzy or having trouble catching her breath, she may fear being alone.
3. Help her combat catastrophic thoughts by replacing them with positive ones. For instance, encourage her to change a thought like: "I'm going to collapse" to "I've never collapsed before, so there is no precedent that I'm going to collapse now."
4. Try to design assignments to maximize the PAD sufferer's effectiveness without adding additional stress. If there are jobs she can complete at home and that is where she feels safe, perhaps in time of distress she may be allowed to work at home.
5. Don't insist that a worker with a "social-situation phobia" attend lunch meetings in restaurants or staff parties that will increase her anxiety.
6. Discuss assignments with the affected worker before imposing them. Involve her in setting expectations.
7. Don't underestimate the healing power of compassion and compassionate humor. One employee with PAD says she and her co-workers laugh together each morning when they gather around the coffeemaker and she is given only 1/2 cup of decaffeinated because they don't want to have to take her to the Dizzy Clinic. "For me," she says, "a serious approach with a touch of humor make my work environment a delightful place to be."
8. Understand that a worker with PAD may need to be excused from work-related travel or find someone to drive her to and from work or therapy appointments. PAD sufferers often avoid confined places such as automobiles, trains, busses, subways and airplanes. She fears being "trapped" in a location or setting from which "escape" may be difficult. She's also anxious about what other people will think of her if they witness her having an attack.
9. Invite an employee afflicted with PAD to make up her own First Aid Kit: a list of potential workplace remedies that can be realistically and readily adopted.
10. Don't treat the worker as if she's a child or her complaints are "made up" or "all in her head." PAD is a real disorder and it is estimated it affects some 15 million North Americans alone. Although a child can suffer from PAD, your worker is not one and deserves to be treated with dignity, the same as you would treat a worker with a chronic illness such as diabetes.

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