Managing pandemic workplace stress in creative ways
As companies return to normal after the worst of the pandemic, some of Connecticut’s large employers are finding creative ways to deal with new kinds of workplace stresses.
At Berkshire Hathaway Home Services New England Properties, that means managing what was, for a time at least, the hottest real estate market in memory. That’s a good sort of stress, but one that requires a balancing act — and help from a psychologist — as CEO Candace Adams describes it.
At Westport-based Bridgewater Associates, the world’s largest hedge fund, the challenge includes maintaining a famously intense, bluntly critical way of operating while most employees remained out of the office.
“Because we’re such a close-knit community and we operate like a vibrant think tank, it was a big adjustment for us to bring that part of our culture to a remote environment,” stated Nir Bar Dea, deputy CEO of Bridgewater, in emailed comments.
And at Gaylord Specialty Healthcare, the stress of COVID-19 has been direct, with many patients transferred from acute care hospitals and protocols changing rapidly.
“The general pressure — you could feel it building within the organization. But we have great communication, we have great collaboration, we’re very teamoriented, and we actually
became stronger,” said Wally Harper, vice president of human resources at Gaylord.
The deft way those three companies managed pandemic stresses led them to rate as the best large employers in the Hearst Connecticut Media Top Workplaces awards for 2021.
There are five winners in the category with 500 or more employees and they cover a cross-section of the Connecticut economy in education, finance, health care and real estate.
For a fourth consecutive year, Wallingford-based Berkshire Hathaway Home-Services came out as No. 1, with Bridgewater at No. 2 and Gaylord in the No. 3 position. Middletown-based Liberty Bank and Post University in Waterbury rounded out the category.
These companies are still trying to figure out next steps, while staying alert to new developments such as President Joe Biden’s mandate in early September that larger employers require
employees to get vaccinated against the virus or submit to weekly testing.
‘A perk and a privilege’
Bridgewater, the largest winning employer, returns after a six-year hiatus from the Top Workplaces list. Bar Dea, the deputy CEO, described the hedge fund’s efforts to create facilities, protocols and testing to hold outdoor meetings during th pandemic.
“We set up semi-permanent tents on our campuses, complete with fully functional A/V systems, and even found software that would reduce the background noise from the birds chirping in the background,’ he said.
But the deeper stresses came from managing and shaping the culture at the business where founder Ray Dalio, Connecticut’s wealthiest resident, created a system of “radical transparency” and what Bar Dea calls “the relentless pursuit of truth and excellence.”
“For us, that applies to everything from understanding how the world works to understanding what individual people are like,” he said — including a lot of conflict and self-examination, all the more difficult in a pandemic.
“Today, we’re thinking about the next set of complex decisions,” Bar Dea added. “How do we make being on campus a perk and a privilege? How do we allow employees to benefit from the flexibility of working remotely while still creating the intangibles that happen when people are under the same roof? And how do we make sure that one person’s flexibility doesn’t impact others. We’re in constant conversation with our employees and we are gearing up to go through an experimental process, collect feedback, and figure out what works.”
‘Stress and strain’
Gaylord Specialty Healthcare saw a handful of employees leave last year rather than submit to mandatory vaccines and testing under an executive order from Gov. Ned Lamont. That occurred despite the company offering exemptions on medical or religious grounds, according to Harper, the HR vice president.
With its main campus in Wallingford, Gaylord focuses on rehabilitation for patients transferred from the intensive care units of hospitals. At points during the pandemic, Gaylord has had about 30 patients at a time recovering from a severe bout of COVID-19.
Amid that stress, Harper said, the nonprofit pushed ahead with goals it had set before the pandemic such as establishing a residency program for physicians with niche expertise.
Then the influx of patients happened, Harper said, “We didn’t panic ... we began to swell and grow and hit a highest census we ever had, and that puts a lot of stress and strain on the staff.”
Harper said Gaylord plugged people into new roles as it was able, including from its satellite offices in Connecticut that focus on ambulatory care and physical therapy.
“We found that some of the different clinical staff that don’t typically interact with their kinds of patients were a great asset, and have found new camaraderie, new teamwork, new opportunities to work across lines,” Harper said.
He added, “We continually talk about how well that went, and how the staff that did it felt really good about learning other parts of the business... some of those staff who did it have become highly recognized because of their contributions.”
‘We had to become psychologists’
Fuses grew short and brokers and agents faced an overload at Berkshire Hathaway, as sellers looked to capitalize by putting their houses on the market and buyers found their bids beat
out by better offers.
Berkshire Hathaway retained an industrial psychologist to help any brokers and employees feeling overwhelmed.
“We had to become psychologists, counselors, just navigating through the hecticness of the market,” said Candace Adams, CEO of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices New England Properties and a former Top Workplaces outstanding leadership award winner.
“There’s definitely a heightened stress level for everyone,” she said. “I think we all have to understand that. We have to be more patient, we have to be more cognizant of emotional states of mind, not just physical well-being — how people are feeling.”
With the boom having leveled off, Adams said Berkshire Hathaway’s shift to remote work arrangements has been welcomed by the large majority of its brokers and agents. She added the company will keep that operating practice in place, while reducing the size of its offices in some locations to reflect the move of real estate online.
“We’ve continued our automation of nearly everything our agents have to do with their clients,” Adams said. “That’s a real advantage with them because they don’t have to be in the office if they don’t want to be.”
‘A Herculean effort’
Liberty Bank was scrambling on another front during the pandemic — administering the Paycheck Protection Program that provided several weeks of funding for businesses as an alternative to laying off workers. It was one of the key provisions of the Coronavirus Aid, Recovery and Economic Security Act, with the U.S. Department of the Treasury releasing details of PPP just hours before the application window opened.
“We had teammates from across the bank who supported our commercial bankers,” stated Rob Parry, senior vice president and chief administrative officer. “It was a herculean effort by our commercial teammates, branches and business banking offices as well as back office teammates seven days a week and late into the evenings and early mornings to assist customers and non-customers. And we did it by adapting to a very fluid process and frequently changing guidance.”
Liberty Bank is already looking ahead to the next challenge — a vaccine mandate that takes effect for its employees in mid-November.
“It was a painstaking decision but it was the right decision,” Parry stated. “By returning our teammates back to our offices fully vaccinated, it helps us drive our mission, vision and values and reinforce the culture we have that make Liberty a special place to work. Our mission is to improve the lives of our teammates, customers and communities for generations to come.”