In our March 2024 CharityVillage Connects podcast episode, we explored an alarming Telus Health report that indicated Canadian workers are losing up to 55 working days per year due to workplace conflict. 

As part of our discussions, we interviewed Paula Allen, Global Leader, Research and Client Insights at TELUS Health (formerly LifeWorks). In our interview, Paula addressed how declining mental health scores are contributing to workplace conflict, as well as how racism and microaggressions add to the issue for staff from marginalized communities. She also weighed in on what leaders should be doing when they see these issues manifest in the workplace.  

We kicked off the interview by asking Paula to explain why low mental health scores could be contributing to an increase in workplace conflict – and how individuals are dealing with it. 

Paula Allen: Yeah, it’s extremely important for us to pay attention to this, because … two of the strongest indicators of what we’re seeing right now are scores on anxiety and scores on isolation. Those have been the lowest sub-scores in the mental health index for several months. 

And even prior to that, they were typically the lowest scores. So anxiety and isolation are two things that impact how you show up at work in a very big way. And conflict contributes to both of them. There are many things that contribute, but certainly conflict does. When you think about when you’re in a conflict situation… you can’t control it. There is a feeling of being threatened. That gives you a feeling of being anxious. 

And that also gives you a feeling that you might not be supported. You know, it makes you feel somewhat alone if there isn’t anybody, you know, in the same place that you are in. All of those things are not great for our mental health, but all of those things impact our productivity as well. When you are feeling threatened, when you’re feeling anxious, there’s very little else that your brain can focus on. It takes a lot of effort to focus on anything else. Your primal need is to get out of that uncomfortable state. So if it happens on an ongoing basis, if it’s chronic, that can really impact you and actually impact your physical wellbeing as well as your mental wellbeing and productivity.  

Since power dynamics play a large part in workplace conflict, we asked Paula to explain how racism and microaggressions add to the issue.  

Paula Allen: When you’re in a situation where you’re experiencing a microaggression, there’s a comment, there’s a statement that throws you off balance, that’s not predictable, that gives you a sense that you don’t have a sense of belonging. Your stress level has to go up if you’re a human being.  

So if you look at a situation where you’re experiencing racism or discrimination or exclusion for any reason, number one, it’s not logical. It isn’t logical. It’s stuff that we sort of build as a part of one of the flaws of society, these attitudes. And because it’s not logical, it’s not really predictable. You know, our brain goes to what’s logical, and this isn’t logical, so we don’t really predict it, even if it happens on an ongoing basis. When you have something happening that’s not predictable, it really impacts you, because our brains adapt to change, but when the change isn’t predictable, when the change is frequent, we can’t adapt. It really throws us off balance. 

The other thing that’s really important, I mentioned isolation before as a major factor in our mental and physical health and something that we really do need to make sure doesn’t continue to be compromised. When you feel that sense of racism, discrimination, lack of inclusion, you cannot feel a sense of belonging. You cannot feel a sense of trust. And that sense of belonging, that sense of trust is something that is our best counter to stress. So we’re diminishing resilience when we have those experiences.  

This is not insignificant. And we also found in our research that when we have inclusive environments, when we have environments where inappropriate behaviours are not tolerated, the mental health and wellbeing of everyone, and not just racialized groups, not just people who are differently abled, everyone, their mental health and wellbeing improves. 

Paula wrapped up our interview with some important advice for leaders, in terms of how they view and respond to conflict. 

Paula Allen: Well, it’s on a continuum. We have extreme conflict where both parties are literally fist-fighting. Or you have other versions of it where it’s kind of a little bit one-sided and lopsided, which is harassment and bullying. And then you have your microaggressions, which are also typically lopsided, but people feel attacked. That’s why we call it aggression, even if it is microaggression. 

So everything that we spoke about in terms of conflict, it really is on the continuum that we just mentioned. And I think some of the interventions that employers and leaders need to have are actually quite similar. If you saw two people going at it, if you saw a fight in your workplace, I would hazard to guess that if you were a leader or a manager, you wouldn’t tolerate that. You would intervene. You would say, stop, you would pause, and you would make sure that you had the parties in a place where they were able to kind of reflect and move forward. Like it wouldn’t just continue. We have legislation in this country that protects people from bullying and harassment and that requires employers to understand what’s happening and step in. 

I think the same mindset needs to be applied to microaggressions and the subtle things that actually can cause as much or more damage because they are ongoing. Which is, make sure if you see it, you speak it, you stop it, you make sure that you call it out, and you reflect, you allow people to reflect, you help them get coaching and training, you help them understand how they’re impacting other people.  

Want to hear more from Paula? Listen to her full interview in the video below. 

Listen to Paula and other experts discuss workplace conflict, and how to handle it, in our new CharityVillage Connects podcast episode. Click here to listen.