The Traditional Approach to Self-Care

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The Self The Beauty of and Problems With Self-Care

Awareness is the greatest agent for change.

—Eckhart Tolle

Ibelieve in the power of self-care, and I believe people are each responsible for taking care of their own health and well-being. However, I also want to warn you that leaders, even those trying to best support their teams, can sometimes get this practice wrong. When leaders get it wrong, then well-intentioned, well-supported self-care programs can inadvertently do more harm than good. When leaders do it well, then supporting self-care strategies and practices can make a significant difference in staff lives. Practicing and supporting self-care are essential components of an effective workplace well-being plan and a particularly valuable place to start.

In this chapter, I will discuss the traditional approach to self-care, including the ways in which this historical approach is akin to putting an adhesive bandage on an elephant-sized problem. Leaders will then discover ways to appropriately share effective self-care practices before discussing the importance of self-awareness to well-being. The chapter concludes with a list of self-care action steps you can begin implementing right away.

The Traditional Approach to Self-Care

Traditional workplace wellness programs are often more about handling and supporting workplace illness than about creating well-being. These programs involve things like providing mental health for stress leaves when necessary and

then return-to-work supports to help employees successfully transition back to work. These are much-needed and appreciated supports for people who are struggling with illness of any kind. The part that human resources practices traditionally fail to consider is the prevention and promotion parts of self-care. How do leaders support well-being, prevent burnout, and decrease or prevent the need for stress leaves in the first place?

There has been some movement toward prevention with attendance support programs, but these programs typically only target certain groups of employees and can be seen (indeed, they are sometimes run) as being more punitive than supportive. For example, all teachers in one school district were sent a letter telling them attendance had been low on Black Friday, a popular shopping day on the Friday after Thanksgiving in the United States. The email reminded educators that leaders expect them to report to work that day and also discussed the consequences of non-attendance.

Take a moment to imagine receiving that email, and think about what such a message might do to the relationships between the school district leaders and their employees. The employees who would not miss work to go shopping—the huge majority—would potentially feel annoyed at being told something so obvious. The few who would have missed may work on that day in the future but are no less likely to miss work on other days. Further, it’s a big assumption to presume all people absent are, quite literally, skipping school, and those who are absent for genuine reasons may feel like leadership is treating them poorly for taking a valid day off. While a leader might review such absences case-by-case so as not to treat everyone as irresponsible and in need of a lecture, the key takeaway is that even the most supportive attendance-management program still only supports the population of employees who miss work consistently. The program does not help the employees who may be struggling and unwell but still come to work.

When human resources departments lead health promotion, some of the oftenused strategies are to provide employees with information through newsletters, emails, or video campaigns regarding ways to take care of themselves. Traditionally, this health information includes physical health strategies like maintaining proper nutrition, getting enough exercise, and understanding the importance of sleep, among other excellent health information. More effective approaches treat this information as holistic, providing people with information and strategies about things like stress management, positive psychology, and other social, emotional, mental, and even spiritual health topics. In this way, leaders acknowledge and value the interconnected parts of health. For example, many employee-assistance plans have self-care articles and tips about resilience, relaxation techniques, and