A STRESSED SOCIETY’S SPONGE

Journalists are not health-care workers, but they are, in a sense, frontliners absorbing a nation’s anguish in a time of pandemic

CONSIDERING how perilous their line of work is, most members of the media today feel more threatened by the impact of the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic than the usual risks they face while doing their jobs out in the field.

“Living dangerously is the old normal for many media professionals, especially those who are in news and public affairs,” professional coach Anjie Ureta told the press during a recent webinar, titled “Mind the Gap: How do we get to the new normal?”

With the changing times, however, then came an unprecedented health emergency which, according to her, most of them have never encountered yet in their generation.

“It’s the first time that we actually experience something like this ‘pandemic of epic proportions.’ So how do we actually deal with something that we have no knowledge about?” she said.

Journalists, according to the American Psychological Association (APA), are “vicarious frontliners” during this difficult time.

While they are not directly responsible for attending to the sick and the dying like what the medical workers do, they are in the front and center of the scene, gathering stories and reporting to allow the rest of the world to see what they witness.

Because of this unique nature of work of the media, many of them, especially those covering the news, may also experience a feeling of severe guilt, which the APA called as “moral injury.”

In a word, it’s “that feeling where after witnessing a terrible event, you realized you’re not able to intervene, you’re not able to do anything about it,” said Ureta, who also works as a writer, producer and communications consultant with over 20 years of experience in mainstream broadcasting.

“And this feeling is not unique to the time of pandemic. I’m sure many of us, one time or the other, felt that we have risked our lives for a situation that we’re helpless to change, or that we have delivered messages that fell on deaf ears, or worse, messages that could get us into really big trouble.

“So if danger is already part of our reality, why are we so affected by the impact of Covid-19? [It’s because] this is what makes us feel powerless, anxious and, in a lot of ways, vulnerable. And that’s a really tough feeling to face because how do we dodge a death-carrying missile that we cannot see,” she stressed.

Rising stress levels

EVEN without actual data, the

anxiety being felt by the local media is reflected in current local studies that show the grave effects of the virus to the people.

One of which, Ureta cited, is the latest Social Weather Stations report released on June 14, showing that nine out of 10 Filipinos are stressed by the Covid-19 crisis.

Out of these numbers, 55 percent admitted that they were undergoing “great stress”, 34 percent said they were having “much stress”, and only 11 percent shared they experienced “little or no stress”.

“This is something to be concerned about,” she said, while noting that cases of anxiety and depression have already increased globally in the last three months.

Tell-tale signs

STRESS, per the Mayo Clinic, is an ordinary physical and psychological reaction to the demands of everyday life.

“So it’s normal to feel a little more stress during a crisis. But a prolonged exposure to crisis, which has multiple challenges, just like this Covid pandemic, can really push us beyond our ability to cope,” Ureta reminded her colleagues.

With this in mind, she enumerated the following stress indicators that they should be wary of: Mood swings, emotional outbursts, trouble concentrating, changes in appetite, not sleeping well, body aches and pains, feeling more tired than usual, excessive enthusiasm or extreme productivity, forgetfulness, and intense loneliness or isolation.

“These are just like some of the tell-tale signs,” she said. “A lot of people may develop mental health concerns during this time, especially on the lines of anxiety and depression, while others who already are facing mental health issues can get all the more aggravated.”

For a person who undergoes a personal crisis, especially if it involves mental health, the best thing he or she can do is to work on it by himself or herself, the professional coach advised. He admonished, though, that seeking professional help is needed when the symptoms last for several days in a row.

“They’re not there to judge you. They’re there to help you. And now, more than ever, people are so open already about dealing with their mental health problems. There’s no shame in that,” she said.

Rewriting the narratives

JOURNALISTS as storytellers write for other people for their consumption. Looking back at how the virus spread up to the last 100 and so days of the lockdowns, they have reported in trimedia the health and safety issues and protocols, the rising Covid-19 cases or deaths, the new normal, and also the political, economical and social effects of the crisis here and abroad.

“[But] as we go about our daily lives, let’s take a pause and ask ourselves: What narratives are we creating for ourselves today?” Ureta asked her fellow media practitioners. “Let’s look inward and ask ourselves, what’s my narrative? Is it a story of wisdom, or is it a story of woe?”

Contrary to the negative impacts of the pandemic, she pointed out that there is also a great opportunity for something fresh to emerge out of this crisis.

“We can rewrite our personal story, but only if we perceive with an open mind and an open heart. So how can we turn crisis into an opportunity for growth? By our willingness to transform. And this transformation usually happens in stages. So this is how we rewrite our story.”

First is to cope up with the “body, mind and soul intact” while trying to make the best out of the situation. Next is adapt, wherein people have changed enough to survive and grow within this new environment. Then, as time goes by, evolve by developing qualities that are more appropriate to the new normal.

“So this is the story of our lives. Why are we afraid of something that we have been doing for the last 600 million years, which is evolving. This should be in our DNA,” Ureta said. “If you identify yourself from any of these stages, then we can already start to move forward, start getting unstuck.”

Take a pause

COVID-19 has brought the Philippines and the rest of the world to their knees. Life has grounded to a halt when most of the global community was placed under quarantines to flatten the curve.

The silver lining of a situation where peoples’ movement has been restricted is that some have found their inner talents and joys while in lockdowns. They had the luxury of time to tap into their “inner baker, chef, carpenter, urban gardener, and even Tiktok dancer.”

“For those who spent days upon days just staring at the ceiling or the wall, not even wanting to get up, take a shower, good for you, too, because you’re still here. You didn’t give up, and you allowed yourself time to just be. We don’t lose our self-worth just because we’re standing still,” Ureta said.

What the pandemic and lockdowns have taught people, according to her, is the importance of taking a pause at some point of their lives.

“[These] remind ourselves that we are human beings and not human doings. And this is why we have to take a conscious step backwards and reclaim our power. Our true power lies not in being able to control all the moving parts of our given situation, but our power is in the ability not to be controlled by them,” Ureta stressed.

Just as British pubs reopen, the world’s biggest brewer is shutting the bar in its London offices.

that’s just one of the changes in store as Anheuserbusch Inbev NV prepares to welcome employees back to its uk headquarters site. the move makes the brewer of Budweiser, stella Artois and Corona one of the first major employers—aside from banks—to repopulate London’s financial district more than three months after coronavirus lockdowns began.

AB Inbev will reopen its doors on Monday, two days after pubs. the beer giant worked with social norms professors to refurbish its offices, providing a window into what to expect from big companies elsewhere if and when their headquarters get back to business under the new normal.

About 100 workers in AB Inbev’s advance guard—onethird of the London site’s total staff—will be greeted by posters featuring cartoon characters thanking them for being “beer-making heroes” and encouraging them to keep 2 meters apart. the penthouse bar, which had a dozen taps including Camden town lager and Goose Island ales, has been closed.

Employees’ temperatures will be checked before they enter the building, near saint Paul’s Cathedral. the brewer has stockpiled thousands of gallons of hand sanitizer at its breweries, and batches will be periodically shipped to the head office. Only every second desk will be available to use.

Frugal culture

STAYING shut and broadly embracing remote working— as some tech companies have said they’ll do in the wake of Covid-19—was never an option for AB Inbev, which is known for a frugal, hardworking culture that’s made it the most profitable player in the industry. Chief Executive Officer Carlos Brito has lectured business students about how workplace pressure can yield outsized productivity and how he’d rather not hear about his employees having “fun,” something he’s said is more appropriate for the beach.

Nurturing that zeal has become especially important after beer sales plunging amid the closure of many of the world’s bars and nightclubs. It would be harder to do from home than within the confines of an office, the company says.

“It would be a real loss to us if we were to be a fully remote business,” Cara sargeantson, who works in human resources and is one of 15 employees managing the return to the London office, said in an interview. “A massive part of it for us is our culture. If this went on for any degree of time, we would lose that.”

the company, which has a brewery in the former virus epicenter of Wuhan, China, was one of the first employers to reopen its shanghai building. the windows are opened three times a day for ventilation, the canteen is disinfected twice a day, packages are sanitized with alcohol spray, and employees are asked to clean their mobile phones and keys with disinfectant wipes once home.

Asian sites

ALMOST all of AB Inbev’s offices in Asia have reopened in a limited capacity, as have sites in Mexico and Colombia. AB Inbev has also been one of the driving forces funding the nightlife industry’s return to a sense of normalcy, providing thousands of bars with financial support and reopening kits packed with protective equipment and suggested layouts that comply with social distancing guidelines.

“We really followed China and Korea closely,” Lindsay King, the vice president for people continuity, said in a video interview from the company’s New york office as she took a break from laying arrows on the floor for a one-way system to prepare for reopening this month. “We’ve got stacks and stacks of masks and sanitization products. We’re actually in our ripped jeans and running shoes right now, ready to do the dirty work and get everything up and going.”