Though its memories are beginning to fade, the COVID-19 pandemic-era “Great Resignation” briefly revolutionized the idea of employee self-empowerment. Workers frustrated by out-of-control schedules, a lack of competitive wages and on-the-job stress left in droves, leaving healthcare employers scrambling.
Now, in a tighter job market, employees have fewer choices. But the lessons they learned about the real impact of toxic work environments and the freedom they often experienced as remote employees continue to resonate in the healthcare workplace.
Daniel Williams, senior editor at MGMA, recently spoke with Lauren Howard on an episode of the MGMA Insights podcast. In addition to serving as CEO of Clinical Operations Group, Howard is CEO of LBee Health, a virtual mental health treatment program designed to help individuals recover from burnout, toxic work environments and trauma. Howard also heads up ElleTwo, a platform which challenges the traditional norms of professionalism for women.
Living up to impossible expectations
Howard’s involvement in LBee Health and ElleTwo stems from her personal experiences in a job that was stressful and unrewarding, and left few options for employees to dig themselves out of the hole.
“I was deeply in this belief that this was the best it was going to be, and it wasn’t going to be better than this,” she says. “And when I finally left, very unceremoniously, I felt like I had all this potential energy built up that I didn’t know what to do with.”
Howard put her thoughts and experiences from that job into stories she shared on LinkedIn, which led to hundreds of responses from women feeling the same way about their working lives. Building on that, she helped create an online mental health resource, offering support groups to patients across the U.S.
An epidemic of burnout
Howard says her working experiences also reflect a larger trend in American healthcare since the pandemic. The trauma related to the pandemic was universal and continues to be felt in the workplace, she argues.
“Everybody experienced a loss of the ways of life – loss of routine, loss of social opportunities, social isolation. Everything we knew about our lives changed in a two week period, with this idea that it would go back to normal in just a short period of time. Then it dragged on for three years.”
Howard says these shared experiences have left workers with a shift in perspectives about the value and meaning of work. Isolation, burnout, depression and other post-COVID symptoms have become commonplace, and employers need to recognize the impact of never-ending job stresses on employee wellbeing.
Shifts in attitudes about work itself
Toxic workplaces have existed long before the pandemic, but Howard says she feels that the collective self-examination which took place during that time has fueled a new wave of work/life balance, and an interest in jobs with more meaning.
“I think there has been a general shift of priorities,” she says. “We’re having better conversations about how you are not defined by your work. You are a valuable human regardless of what your title is.”
As the height of the “Great Resignation” has passed and economic troubles potentially loom on the horizon, Howard says employers are once again in control of the hiring landscape. But the lessons learned from the post-pandemic era have certainly changed the dynamic, with employees becoming more vocal about their rights and their desires.
“We say this all the time: A paycheck is not a permission slip for abuse,” she emphasizes. “Just because you’ve got a job, they still have to treat you like a human. It’s very hard when people know that, and their employer has not caught up to it.”
Return to office is a return to friction
The shift to home-based and remote work has also drastically changed the employment landscape, and as more private and government jobs call for their workers to return to the office, the same in-office work culture problems have reemerged.
“In general, productivity went up during the pandemic, not down. People were able to recreate their jobs into new structures that worked for them personally. Now, getting called back into offices for reasons that don’t make sense is another huge source of friction.”
Getting help
Howard says employees looking for help in coping with their situations can find free and accessible group services at www.lbeehealth.com, with additional resources and support for female employees at www.elletwo.com.
Additional Resources:
Explore Related Content
