(Kari) Good morning everyone welcome to the Leading Teams and Supporting Employees through COVID-19 webinar. We're really glad that you can join us today! My name is Kari Uhlman and I am an EAP counselor. And today with us is Matt Gilbert. He is also an EAP counselor. Matt do you want to say hi to everybody? (Matthew) Hi, and good morning everyone. Welcome, welcome! (Kari) So Matt and I are going to be co-facilitating our time together today, and so honored to be able to be with all of you today. So what we'll be doing is talking about the impact of COVID-19 on employees and ways to support employees during these really and stressful times. Including some resources and supports that are available to both you and your team. Today we're really looking at the human perspective with all of this and we want to help provide more information around that piece. So, Matt and I really happy to have this opportunity for us to come together as a community from throughout the state of Washington. And so here we are a group of leaders from throughout the state and we would really love it for you to also participate in the webinar. And so some of you are ready using the chat box which is great and I just want to introduce those of you that are not familiar with the chat box. So the chat box if you hover your mouse over the screen at the very bottom you'll see the word chat and above it a little bubble and then you click on that you'll see a place where you can put in words into the chat box. It would be really helpful if you might notice where it says - and the word tío and then there's who you'd be sending that chat to,in order to create community. We would love it if you would share with all participants and panelists so that we can call on you so we can contribute ideas and suggestions together. If you are uncomfortable with that you can certainly send it just to the panelists ss well but wanted to let you know that you have the opportunity to send that out to everyone and so we'll be asking questions and asking your for your thoughts feel free to put those in the chat box and we'll have a poll that we'll be doing in a few minutes and so feel free to use that chat box as we go hrough the presentation we'll be together for about the next hour and we really look forward to you know working together on this so let's start off with a poll to help us. Matt and I to understand a little bit about your experience with with having employees working in in different areas because everything's kind of restructured right now. So right so like Department of Corrections DSHS, Washington State Patrol there's different areas that are still have employees still working in the field do you have employees that are continuing to work from their agency site because of the nature of their role requires them to stay on site or do you have employees that are working from home or somewhere remotely and you know that's not their typical thing that they would do or perhaps you have a combination of the above the last category is perhaps you're here from human resources or support department so you don't actually have employees that report to you but you're wanting to learn more from laeadership perspective on how to support others but without direct employees so what we would love you to do is pick one of those answers and then we'll give some time for everyone to do that and then Matt will help us out and and we'll look at the results of that so we can just have an understanding of you know where your employees are at this time. (Matt) Yes, and we're looking at about 70 percent attendees have voted so that number continues to climb so we're gonna give it maybe another 30 or 60 seconds. (Kari) Great! (Matt) Yeah we're getting we're getting up there in numbers so keep those votes coming in. It's really interesting to see the percentage splits here. (Kari) Yes and just so you know you know your answers are anonymous into this and so you're wondering about that this will just be a graph that will show up on our screen once everybody's had a chance to input their information (Matt) Yes for sure. And we are looking at currently approximately 160 attendees this morning for this webinar. So thank each and every one of you for for being here this morning and our hope is that you'll not only be able to put a few ideas and tools and tips in your pocket but hopefully you'll be able to share your experience and having attended and tell others about the presentation as well. All right we'll give it another 10 seconds here. (Kari) We're fairly close to the results like I should do this the proverbial drum roll. (Matt) Exactly, yes, others may be scrambling for coffee right now. Okay okay here come the results folks. Okay, great. I'm going to end the polling and let me share those results with folks. (Kari) Wonderful - great, so it looks like we have many people with staff working from home fifty-seven percent and then after that we have a combination of the ones above we have some folks that are continuing to manage folks that are in the field and perhaps some people from HR or supporting departments and pretty small percent one percent still at their agency site so that really tells us that you know there's been a lot of shifting around which we expected but it's really helpful to see that in the numbers there as we move through this presentation. So, Matt, I'll turn it over to you. (Matt) Okay great! What's interesting is xxxxxxx wrote in chat "they are currently working on creating telework opportunities and I suspect that those numbers will continue to flex." A little bit, yeah, will be interesting to have folks attend this in the future and see if those numbers don't drastically shift quite a bit. But, yeah, so when we look at leadership I just want to start off by, and thank you Kari for the introduction and for getting us started this morning - I could not do this without you. (Kari) That goes without saying the same. (Matt) So I just wanted to start off by acknowledging how difficult or hard it is for you as leaders just during these unprecedented times and that leading teams during the crisis can be daunting in times of uncertainty. That people obviously we turn to our leaders for guidance and so often reassurance. And right now you personally may be feeling overwhelmed and and perhaps uncertain about leading in these difficult times. So thank you for being here and hopefully our our webinar this morning will further equip you in the good work that you're doing. So obviously as a leader you've been supporting others you've been supporting employees in the field you've been helping your staff transition to in some cases home-based offices or in some cases as mentioned working to make that transition into telework and so just to make work sites even safer as a member of the Safety Committee you know even you know looking at workplace safety in the midst of this crisis is is extremely important at the same time you're attending no doubt many many COVID-19 meetings creating new work plans juggling employee questions, shifting needs and just continuing to serve customers and get the essential work done. And, and no doubt so much more. So, thank you for that. Being a leader at this time requires a significant amount of flexibility, adaptability, creativity and certainly stamina. So thank you all for what you're doing to support your employees your colleagues your program your agency your higher education facilities and just really thank you for supporting the members of our community. You know we're all in a position of needing to adapt to changing circumstances and with that having to adjust to how we approach our work so let's talk about multiple leadership strategies that you can use with your employees during this difficult and challenging time and Kari is going to get us started taking look at some setting some goals and priorities, Kari. (Kari) Great thanks Matt. Yeah so I really think about as a leader it's really important to come back to some of the fundamentals right so when you think about like a basketball team and they're struggling you know the coach will bring them back to the fundamentals back to the foundation and so coming back to goals and priorities is really important at this time especially because everything is shifting and changing and in these uncertain times what people are seeking is a strong leader who can give direction about what to do and what not to do and right now you may not be feeling like a strong leader but we're hoping through this presentation today that we can provide some strategies that will help you to to if you're struggling in that area feel you know more grounded and centered in your leadership so at this time you know talking about long-term goals that you had in place before is not as effective then people are really distracted with all the other stressors and priorities that they have and so it's really as a leader coming back to what are the goals and expectations and prioritizing priorities and really re looking at those in the midst of all this chaos so it does require some pausing and reflection on your team goals and objectives and identifying what new work must be done in support of COVID-19 or what must be changed there might be some great software program that you are planning to implement or something like that right now needs to shift to the back burner because it doesn't make sense at this time anymore so it's like we looking at your plan asking yourself asking your team if the work they're doing is essential or they're new and more pressing priorities so really the first step as a leader to provide really clear guidance on business critical priorities is to identify what are those business critical priorities and let staff know about that in a way where people can rally around that and then have a way to contribute towards it so that's what we want to do as a leader is present an opportunity for employees to have something to rally around and feel like they can contribute towards so for instance here in EAP you know we have shifted our our goals over to try to reach out to as many leaders and staff from throughout the state of Washington so we're doing these webinars which we weren't doing as many of those before so that's just one example of making a shift and pivoting in a new direction and putting energy into that and so other people on the team Matt and I are being so supported by other team members and they are in the background doing different things to help support us to be able to be here with all of you so shifting is is happening for everyone and so it's looking at how to make that happen also clarifying who's responsible for what because as everything is shifting you know the roles need to shift the the normal work patterns need to shift communication methods are shifting team dynamics are disrupted so it's important to clarify who's responsible for what and then also we're doing what in order to for help in accomplishing tasks it might even be something as simple as you know well it's not simple but in your department you might identify who can someone turn to if they're having some technical difficulties like IT is very very busy right now and so maybe in your team you want to identify like who can be a point person to maybe help others that are not as savvy in the technology area or things like that those team roles shift or changed due to the key priorities it's really important to identify also who you need to partner with so you may need to make new partners or strengthen partnerships that you already have so for instance you might have another agency that you worked with in the past but now you need to work even closer together we have had lots of agencies who have been willing to step in and help us at EAP which has been so great and so people are you know as their workloads might be shifting saying hey I can give you some of these resources or that type of things so kind of being creative and seeing how we can all work together and then communicating that to your staff so that they have an understanding of what's expected of them what are the goals and what's the direction as best we know it and then knowing that that direction may shift a bit as we continue through all of this next Matt's going to talk about the need to work in new ways. (Matt) That's right and certainly with with COVID-19 all the workplace disruptions you know obviously your employees are will most likely need to change the way they accomplish their work and as such we we may need to establish a few new ways of thinking as we you know approach our work during these unprecedented times and so let's let's just review a few tips to ensure ensure rather that your team continues to remain healthy right connected and and productive first I think it's important to recognize and work to and I like to just put some air quotes up there to normalize our new work environments and certainly the many new ways of working this may you know of course feel challenging at first but by your role modeling and jumping in and exploring new ways of working with your team this can really work to promote the team's overall confidence and just their ability to and your ability just to experience success right now and and one way to do this is to establish you know really just a consistent schedule of virtual meetings and check-ins and ensure procedures are readily understood in order to help your team become more comfortable and productive or as much as they possibly can be during this this time and during these new work environment creation of this new work environment perhaps as quickly as possible so I have a question for chat my question is this what are some ways you are helping to normalize your new work environment and ways of working so I know that there are quite a few out there of you out there doing this work already and so putting on your your thinking caps this early this morning what are some ways that you are helping to normalize your new work environment and so some responses are coming in ooh a weekly virtual staff dinner I like it continuing with supervision encouraging communication perfect we're going to get to that here shortly as well definitely daily check-ins just communicating out are two dos. Keep them coming in because the chat it's helpful for me to see this information but I think what's even more helpful as Kari mentioned earlier that this is about community right now and this is a great opportunity to to really just share ideas as leaders and how perhaps uniquely you're going about supporting your team as well so please please share as much as you possibly can something else I think to consider is you talked about talking I know that sounds a bit redundant but you've probably heard the advice that in times of change it's not possible to communicate too much well this certainly applies to navigating Covid workplace disruptions and it is also true that it is useful to discuss and create new norms for how the team will handle group and one-on-one communications so think about how you may want to identify how you will be addressing one-on-ones and other team meetings through televideo conferencing you might consider having shorter and more frequent meetings adding virtual mourning check ins or Huddle's completing the day with a quick email and in some cases you might even consider whenever possible to do personal check-ins with staff members or team members there's you know it's one thing to have a virtual meeting through Skype or zoom or WebEx but it's another thing to pick up the phone and just have that short conversation whenever possible it really means a lot to your staff you may also need to establish new norms for virtual meetings right so we're still some of us are technologically savvy some of us are technologically sort of migrating and learning to build the car as we're driving in as far as how do we how do we navigate zoom what are the what's the capacity what can we do with Zoom or Skype and and so we may forget to turn our you know turn the mute on while we're drinking or eating and or maybe we would prefer to have team members put their video camera on or in some cases turn it off in addition you might consider establishing a new norm around not multitasking during meetings so some of you no doubt might be listening in and tuning into this webinar and yet at the same time checking email don't worry we're not watching you through your camera and and just multitasking and doing other things and so whenever possible just engage your team and conversation about what they think will work best for them as well during this time you know all things considered and don't forget to leave space as well for social conversation that's so so important so perhaps you you develop a habit of starting a team conference Zoom Skype call with perhaps maybe just a few minutes of casual catch-up or personal check-ins I know the EAP we do that quite frequently and it helps to just sort of acknowledge where we are not just in our workload but also where we're at personally as well and it helps to get the the care and support of team members during this difficult and challenging time so at the end of the day there really is no one right answer for how you communicate with the team the important thing to remember is to communicate and to do it often especially now more than ever with so much anxiety and and in uncertainty also I just want to add take stock you know it's important that the team as a whole and certainly individuals on the team have a clear sense of how things are going and achieving both team and individual goals or objectives utilize those tried-and-true tools for effective performance management that we've all learned over the years and you know such as making sure you revisit your goals and expectations and and continue to continue to deliver timely feedback it's also important that you check in with the team regarding progress towards creating new norms that are useful in supporting the team during this time you know these norms may include reestablishing expectations for work hours and schedules keeping each other informed work coverage ensuring breaks and lunches are taken these are just to name a few and also consider devoting a portion of each staff meeting agenda to say discussing what is working so often we get caught up in problem talk that we we can sometimes lose sight of the things that are working and it's much easier to build off of those things at times and certainly keeps team morale up as well so again you know celebrate your successes whenever possible give those shout outs or kudos like I did earlier in chat for for the director of the EAP program as well as my team members and and and continue to just look to the team to provide input into in terms of what motivates it energizes them or conversely what may be draining about current circumstances I know that many of you are being stretched beyond capacity right now in leading others and so to be able to check in with them and ask them your employees your colleagues a what did what are you experiencing what are you going through and how can I how can I listen to understand and let's work together whether it's in your one-on-ones or on your team meetings to brainstorm solutions to address those challenges and then measure the progress of achieving those solutions as well and then lastly continue to check in on individuals whenever possible you know ask for feedback as a team leader no doubt you're doing that already you're checking in with folks in terms of what you can do to support them and to continue to do the good work and promoting and trying to achieve those objectives and goals during this unique time finding time for personal team member check-ins can go a long way and so you know continue to engage your employees do those walk-arounds we talked about that here in the EAP and supportive leaders you know walk around check in whenever possible they'd like to see leaders out there and and so by doing those walk arounds it just gives you a chance to occasionally invite others into a conversation that perhaps they may not engage at and it could be helpful in the long run and certainly during these uncertain times. And Kari, this may be a good segue for you to talk about engaging in times of uncertainty. (Kari) Yes definitely you know as many of you are probably aware you know Governor Inslee extended the stay at home order till May at this time and could go longer and so you know we really need to look at this what we're in now as a marathon and not a sprint and kind of adjust ourselves accordingly so in these really drawn-out and uncertain times it's really essential for leaders to distinguish the difference between leading and managing leaders need to show up in a forward way and help to instill a sense of energy and inspiration and engage inspire by reinforcing how your group your team is contributing to the mission and the and the goals and what makes them unique in in what they're able to provide so each of us throughout the state here we are all together as leaders and each of us has a role our team has a role in supporting people throughout the state of Washington and so by finding ways as a leader to be able to help employees understand their role and and be aspirational at this time you know for many during a crisis is playing defense but this is also an opportunity to be aspirational as well and so one of the things that you can do as a leader is imagine for yourself that the adversity of the situation could coalesce your team and help them rise to the absolute best and then think about how you can support your team to be able to do that so I don't mean this in a way I mean that even in these times of challenge there are opportunities and if you can hold as a leader the possibility that your team can emerge from all of this I'm more engaged and more capable than you were before then you can work on creating conditions to create that to happen and so and reassure your team and encourage them that you know we can make it through this let's do this together let's explore how to turn these challenges into opportunities and as a leader you may not have the answers but one of the really important things is to listen because people will give you the answers if you're listening team members will say well what about this or we can't do this so how do we do this so you listen to what your group is saying and that can provide you information to help look at like oh we need to do this or here's an idea that someone else had okay how can we put this together as a group another piece that's really important as a leader is and you may not feel calm right now or maybe you do some people like really are inspired by a crisis it's just how they're wired but for many people and it can be very draining as a leader though it's really important to create a of calm and people aren't their best when they're under stress but if you can set the tone with your own behaviors that could be really helpful so you could think of yourself as representing the calm and focus on practical considerations and actions that need to be taken care of the same time reminding your team that you can get through this tough time together and if you as a leader are feeling like this is beyond me I don't have the capacity for this just know that you can you know talk with us EAP and we are a safe space where you can talk about your worries or to be a thought partner in thinking about how to communicate to your team or deal with challenges that you're facing with your team and we'll talk more about ways to connect with us and how we can support you a little bit further in the presentation so you might find that you know we're all finding that people are suddenly working from home and many people are feeling disconnected and lonely and there's the human piece of that and then there's also the piece around that that it lowers productivity and decreases engagement so leaders really need to look at ways to help people stay connected and doing that is important again from the human perspective but it's also important in order to get the work done so under these circumstances as a leader where you're pulled in so many different directions it can be really tempting to just get really focused on the tasks that need to get done and so it's a big ask but we're also you know putting out there that there's a human part and by doing some of the things that you've put in the chat box already about you know engaging people and that engaging people is even more important now than others than ever and so feel free to keep adding into the chat boxes I talk about ways that you're staying engaged with your employees there's a lot of wonderful suggestions and ideas that are coming in this chat box already but you know if you've got some more ideas please put them out there about ways that you as a leader are continuing to stay engaged with your employees because together we can figure this out another thought around engaging in times of uncertainty some of this this may seem pretty basic but when we're really stressed it's difficult to remember some of the basic pieces and that is it's really easy to forget about team members because now your team is distributed in different ways people working remotely maybe some people still working on-site and so out of sight out of mind so just a simple tip to help you with this is to keep a list of current you now your employees or and you know extended team members that are key team members in front of you while you're working each day so that you can make more conscious decisions around allocating responsibilities keeping people informed and staying connected to you key people in your your work world and so just by simply having that list out there in front of you can be a great reminder of that as you're having to quickly move and make decisions all the time our brains are having to work so much harder right now so the more you can keep some things just real simple as reminders in front of you can be really helpful math has meant you have some other thoughts too around engaging in times of uncertainty so would you like to add those too I do absolutely somebody also asked an important question which I was typing in to chat which is to say what how would you address introvert versus extroverts in the workplace and let's see if I can find that question how do you balance communication - and with your team for introverted staff and extroverted staff that is such an emotion there's actually a really good I'd love to be able to address that fully but for the sake of time what I can do right now is link or I will link a wonderful talk from lynda.com on finding your introvert extrovert balance in the workplace and it's just really chock full of ideas and tools but I would also encourage anyone that's struggling with that because we want to recognize that team members are just different right in terms of how we engage and communicate and so stay tuned to the webinar I think we're going to talk a little bit more about that but also we encourage you to reach out to the EAP for private one-on-one organizational consultation support and we happy to do that as well great question and keep those questions coming in they really help and for leaders that are also out there and chat you know feel free to add your insights as well and because again this is about building community so so I just wanted to add in terms of engaging in times of uncertainty. (Matt) Thanks Kari, in times of uncertainty the human brain processes things emotionally and so to help people with you know things like anxiety to encourage team members to feel heard and to help them sort out their thinking you can do this just simply by asking open-ended questions right so even for the whether your introvert or extrovert if you're an introvert I suspect you may want to ask an open-ended question sometimes through email and that allows someone that perhaps needs a little bit more time to process and shore up their thoughts or feelings a little bit more fully and so that can sometimes take a little bit more of a sort of an introspective approach questions like you know how are you feeling what's on your mind and what can I do to help right now also if you have one-on-ones routine meetings or status updates or team lunches you know try to maintain the same routines switching to the virtual format obviously is needed if you don't have many rituals consider introducing a few consistent touch points like a weekly update email or weekly virtual team huddle I've seen in chat the Weekly virtual dinner that's great I've also heard other examples things like the Monday morning email of motivation or something you know just something positive to really kickstart the week perhaps as a positive bookend you know the point is rituals create a feeling of connection it creates a feeling of being grounded that we can all look forward to in times of change and uncertainty so whenever possible maintain and amplify your team rituals I'm interested does anyone have other examples of team rituals that you're continuing to do or say planning to promote team cohesion and connection during this time kudos with each other so important monthly staff trainings okay oh we started a CD 19 music challenge okay that's interesting perfect so keep please please a monthly birthday party wonderful keep the ideas coming in I mean it's really really important that we find ways that staying connected again the human brain it's just we're hardwired to connect to the familiar and to intrinsically we desire connection finally co-create a communication plan you ask your our team to identify who to go to and for what then create and share a plan in your plan name who will be the say primary point of contact what will be the decision-making criteria and when should the team serve roll back to review results so for example if we're trying to decide which communication or electronic platform to communicate on a decision criteria might look something like well we will utilize the platform that everyone currently has installed on their laptops and on X date we will re-evaluate the need for further till a video conferencing or in some cases telework so it's just really important to develop a communication plan of who to go to and for what reasons and in being clear about procedures within a team to help foster connection and clarity in terms of rather in times of uncertainty and there's one other important concept here to remember and that is empathy which Kari you're going to talk to us a little bit about? (Kari) Yeah yes so yeah we're really wanting to emphasize the human side of all of this and I think you know is important to note that with this uncertainty and anxiety around the personal dangers with COVID-19 and all the stressors related to that this it's really having a lasting impact on us as humans and and also you know in the workplace so research is really showing when people are you know secluded as we kind of our physical distancing right now that there's really a long term implications to that and so think you know we talked about the marathon earlier you know the continuing to check in with your employees and all of that it's going to be a longer-term piece of the plan that's really important to help people adjust to all the changes that we're having so check in regularly with team members and their you know sometimes we're at a loss for what to do and I just want to let you know that listening can be so profound just listening and and helping people feel understood for where they're at and not trying to change what their experiences is is really helpful and sometimes it can feel like not enough but when you have had the experience that feeling heard you have a good sense of what how helpful that is so try to really provide opportunities to listen to your team as a whole and individually as best you can with your your team you know it is we talked about the introverted and extroverted and that we all are different and those differences are wonderful because that can make us a really great team that can be a little bit challenging as a leader as you need to kind of change get to know your team and change your approach with different team members and I think it's important to note too that you know it's really important to get to know the perspectives of your employees on your team and realize how these changes are impacting their work ask them what concerns they have and also know that their feelings and perspectives may change from one day or one moment to the next and so to remember to not just put somebody in a box and say okay this person is feeling great you know they're like oh I'm inspired by this crisis and and they're feeling really great that doesn't mean that later that day or the next day they might be really struggling so know that that that things can change rapidly for people so be proactive as much as you can and ask open-ended questions to allow people to talk and really try to listen to understand right rather than give your opinion or try to fix it and follow up regularly with your team to help them stay resilient during these really challenging times you know a big change for employees can also be that before they could step into your office or catch you at the coffee machine or something like that to ask a quick question or if they had a concern so just make sure that your staff know how they can still contact you and the best ways to do it and the best times to do that if you're able to do video chats with your staff that's really helpful so that you can pick up on emotional or nonverbal cues during the conversation as humans we really need that visual to be able to understand how the other person is feeling but also it's a way for people to feel more connected with so many people working remotely right now one of the big challenges that they're they're facing is there's not a separation between work and home and you might be finding this for yourself as well so we can really be impacted by that we're going to talk a little bit more about that in a slide coming up but you know there might be times where you'd have to let employees know especially those employees that are just your hard workers and all of that that you know that it's okay to let the word go at the end of their day and maybe to help them kind of think through some ways to transition out of work mode and and into their day because again it's a marathon and we need staff to be able to continue to do the good work so we all need breaks the more you can be visible the better and so it's tricky as a leader because you are doing crisis management for many you know many of us are doing crisis management and trying to balance that with the work that needs to get done and be present and be visible to staff can be a lot to manage at the same time I want to let you know that your presence can really send a profound message that we've got this everything is under control even though you may not feel that completely within yourself but being able to be present is so comforting and you as a leader can be the anchor the anchor that people are meeting right now by continuing to show up by having regular meetings and check-ins with your employees and you can you have the opportunity to help you know them feel more grounded during this really challenging time and as a leader it's going to be a little tricky not just getting in crisis mode but trying to you know take a broader perspective at and and all these other pieces so feel free to add into the chat box if you have ways that you're staying visible to your team while you're working remotely there were a lot of great ideas that were put out there if you have additional ideas about suggestions on ways that you're staying visible and to your team while they're working remotely or working in the field but you know you might be working remotely please feel free to add those ideas to the chat box the last piece I want to talk about in this area is just you know simply setting an example so your role is critical during this time of uncertainty and it's an opportunity to role model and set an example for your employees on how you're wanting them to to to be in the world so by remaining calm and communicating and jumping in and exploring ways to fix things looking at things as opportunities being fair being available acknowledging you know the anxiety that might be there the nervousness that might be there you know finding ways to manage your own again these things can really help you help your staff and ultimately also be more productive as well so I see different ideas coming in into the chat box and I'm just so appreciative today of all the thoughts and ideas that you're contributing that we can all use and as we come together as a community in this really these difficult times we're not able to mention all of them but I want you to know that both Matt and I are looking at them and and I definitely feel inspired by all of you so as a leader there's a we want to talk a little bit about the impact of this on mental health so Matt you have around that (Matt) Kari thank you so much and I concur that chat has been really alive this morning full of ideas and and it is very so thank you thank you all. Mental health it goes without saying ee're experiencing quite a bit of stress right now in lieu or in response to COVID 19 pandemic and all of the adjustments that were that we're going through and make trying to make and during these stressful times it's expected that you and your employees and your family members it's expected that you're gonna have worries you're going to have future worries you're experiencing distress stress and all the uncertainty and changes that we're currently experiencing today and it's at times like this at our own mental health and the mental health of our employees and staff and faculty can suffer and so you may find team members are more easily I guess on edge angry overwhelmed certainly sad perhaps distant some may communicate out that they're feeling helpless or hopeless some including yourselves may want to simply avoid talking or even thinking about COVID main team in response to just sort of the continuous news bites that are constantly out there so it wouldn't surprise me if you two are feeling the same way so just know that these feelings are normal especially when people are feeling pressured we're feeling the pressures of meeting those expectations and certainly wanting to be there for the community and community members to continue to perform above and beyond and that's something that we're certainly asking all of you to do and we're humbled by your service we need to consider social distancing absolutely perhaps it's better defined as physical distancing in knowing that socially it's important to stay connected and I think that's been illustrated in chat of the many ways that we're finding ways to continue to stay connected to those that we support on a daily basis it's definitely a shift from our daily routine and many of us are working from home as Kari mentioned Governor Inslee's Proclamation and many of us are simply just worried about our family members or the future it's important to put effort into staying connected with our employees I'm noticing that if if they're struggling with significant worries or you're noticing perhaps a bit more isolation not in response to avoiding sickness or illness but due to excessive fears things like depression or perhaps in some cases concerns around an increase in alcohol or substance use it's for those struggling and maybe some of you may be struggling as well you know it's important to you to keep in mind at the EAP we're here for you we're here to support you we're here to support your staff your faculty those that you support if symptoms associated with the things that I mentioned earlier if you find that they're worsening with team members or or even for yourselves and if you're experiencing stress that is just above and beyond what your typical or normal coping mechanisms are able to support just know that we're here for you okay if you have concerns about a particular employee please please check in with them privately see if they're needing additional support and remind them of the EAP and the services that we can provide you can also contact us about your concerns if you'd like to consult maybe have a particular employee that you're worried about or maybe you're looking to create a plan a strategic plan and helping you move forward in support of your team it support of those that you're working with or in support of yourself during this difficult time we do have what are called organizational consultations through the EAP it's not so much a mental health assessment as it is a way to recieve "light" coaching and support, so it gives us an opportunity to connect with you as leaders and support you and help you create that plan to support your staff later we're going to talk about how to contact the EAP and the services that we we provide but first we also want to shift over to family dynamics a little bit and realizing that the mental health component is such a big broad topic don't be surprised if you see further webinars specifically committed to the effects of supporting trauma or secondary trauma Kari would you like to talk a little bit about family dynamics (Kari) Yes yes and I just wanted to you know emphasize the piece that you talked about about workplace consult so EAP is is here to help you with workplace consults worth you know I definitely some people's jobs have changed 180 degrees and it can be challenging to know what to do as a leader with that and how to help staff and so I've seen some some great ideas in the chat box around that and I just want to let everyone know that we are here for you we may not be able to address all the questions that everybody has today but we want you to know we're available after this webinar so and we'll give you the information on that because that's so important yes and the family dynamics piece is really important to you because the family dynamics really really affects employees and their ability to be productive and so we have a lot of people that are working from home right now we could see that from the poll that we did earlier where you the highest percentage was in this area and so for some that can be really exciting and for others that can be really stressful it could be as simple as being distracted by the laundry and household chores or social media or other distractions or it could be that they don't have a comfortable place to work they are on the kitchen counter they are in the closet I've heard of people working in from their cars and so there's just a lot of additional stressors to the workday we're just learning to use new technology can be really stressful so remembering to check in employees and remembering that we need to expect it's going to take time for them to transition to their home office they're not going to just be up and as productive as they were when they were in the office and so we're having webinars around working from home so that I would suggest to you to you know allow your employees to take that we have one this afternoon at 1:00 p.m. it's getting pretty full but we still have some openings and then we'll offer that again next week and probably the week after that and at that webinar is meant to help provide some strategies on how to be more productive and some different considerations to think about around that so another piece is the challenge around couples spending 24/7 together as they work perhaps both from home or one might be managing the children and the other is you know doing different job from home and so it's much longer of periods of time together as a couple or as a family and you know that we found is information coming out of China is that there was an increase in divorce rates after being you know secluded together an increase in conflict so it's just important to just be mindful that there's a lot of other factors going on for for ourselves and for our employees another key factor around that that I just want to put out there that I think it's really important to just have an awareness of is that domestic violence is on the rise which is to be expected when people are in confined areas together for long periods of time it's expected that that would increase and so I just saw this morning that Seattle was saying they had a little bit over a 20% increase in the last month of domestic violence responses I believe it was now that Oregon has reported an increase as well and while we don't have all the numbers right now this has been something that's been a concern that those of us in the mental health world have had around this so I want you to know that there is the National Domestic Violence hotline and that information is on our web page so if you go to eap.wa.gov and then click on COVID-19 resources there's a section on domestic violence and that's where you can find more information and the hotline number for that also with children this is a really challenging time trying to work from home with kiddos also at home and so as supervisor what this means is that it's going to require more creativity and adaptability on your part as well to have employees be able to continue to work and so to check with Human Resources if you're not sure about the options that you can use for flexible schedules or a modified schedule as many people are meeting to do that at this time also people might be worried about their loved ones they may no longer be able to you know visit someone who is in a nursing home or the cans actually visit someone who's in a nursing home at this time or people that are family members that are ill or high-risk or about themselves being at high risk and so these are all additional pressures and stressors that are on our employees and as leaders need to be considered in when you're you know creating expectations for staff we will have in the next few weeks a webinar around family dynamics and parenting and being a partnership living together those types of things so check out that COVID-19 resources page on our website for more information on that I'm also realizing that that we are at our time and we have a little bit more to go so I want to just acknowledge to all of you that we're so glad that you're here and if you do need to leave us at this time just know that we have this webinar that will be put up and you can view it on demand on our website under the COVID 19 resources section and we are offering this webinar again so if you need to leave we understand and we have just a little bit more that we wanted to cover before we wrap it up from our perspective so I'll turn it over to you Matt. (Matt) Okay great. Time being our arch-nemesis of course and yes we we appreciate all of you are willing to stay just a few additional minutes I think it'll be worth your time especially as we start to lean into self-care you know we've talked a lot today about strategies to support employees let's focus a few minutes on you as a leader and as a human being with all the additional stress and pressures it's even more important than ever for you to find ways to provide yourself with self-care you know it goes back to the analogy of putting the oxygen mask on yourself so that you can help others and right now you may feel like you are too busy or overwhelmed for self-care I want to remind you that self-care can just take a few moments each and every day and have a long-lasting effect and I think we need to think of this situation as Kari mentioned as a marathon and not a sprint and in order to be there for our employees and in this marathon we need to take the time for ourselves even if you only have time for a brief break or doing small simple things to take care of yourself think of things that you can when you're prioritizing or making a plan or strategy for your day are there some things that you can not attend to or focus on those things that you need to attend to in other words if I heard someone once say if you're operating at 110 percent you're going to burn out so maybe at this time you know how do we how do we operate at 80 or 90 percent so we can reserve some of that time and energy for ourselves and so at the end of the day we're not just crawling under our duvet covers but able to have that time and energy and focus to be there for our family or pets or loved ones our friends so you know we do have a webinar on self-care that gets into the meets a little bit more that I would suggest joining again it's it's either you can attend live or anytime on demand you can find that information on our website if you're not able to participate I suggest you create a self-care plan based on what you already know that does help soothe that does provide grounding that does allow you to connect and get back into alignment with yourself and into those important people in your life I'd also suggest creating a few work boundaries if possible you know things like making sure that you stop checking emails at a specific time of the day turning off your work phone during non-work hours if you're able to or whatever boundaries are appropriate for your position and you know what those are better than I do for sure you might even consider creating a list of ten activities that might generate excitement and enhance your ability to unplug and relax so what would you include on your self-care list that might generate excitement and enhance your ability to unplug and relax like what would that look like for you right and so I think we're just going to go ahead and wrap up right now but we're going to leave a few extra minutes here someone in chat Kari mentioned that we're scheduled until 10:30 that might be the case with zoom we always add a little bit extra time. (Kari) I think technically we had just one hour scheduled but yeah definitely yeah so we wanted to you know just emphasize that again that we are here for you the way to connect with us is to call our main number which is the 877-313-4455 phone number and then you'll be connected to our intake specialists they'll ask you a few questions about what you're looking for and so that they know how you know who to connect you to or what resources you might need and then they'll either schedule you with a counselor if you're needing a organizational consult or your employees or wanting to talk to you a counselor or they'll give you information around resources in the community if there's something specific that there they can provide you at that time just wanted to just emphasize that we are confidential thesee are free and for you as a leader and we're here for you as a human and we are also here for your family members those that are 18 or older and your family can call our number and we can connect them to a counselor if that's what they're needing if you have kiddos or teens that are younger than 18 in your household that you're needing assistance with we can still help it would be working with the caregiver and for us to meet with the caregiver and then we can help with a parenting plan or help direct you to resources that are specific to kids or teams and so we can still help us just a little bit different way that that happens and we're here to help you with you know the small issues and the bigger issues we really look at you as a whole person and want to support you as you know both your work self and your your human self as well so and then our website is eap.wa.gov if you click on COVID-19 resources you'll see links to all sorts of different resources that are available or articles or information and also the future webinars that we'll be having and we'll be offering this webinar again if you want to pass on the information to your colleagues or to your team and you just really encourage people are really wanting to feel a sense of community is what we're finding so even by coming on a webinar that people have said that that's been really helpful to feel connected with others so so appreciate you being here we'll have a copy of the presentation that will be up eventually on the website and the last page of the presentation has some links from the information today that you can click on but we also have other links on our website that you can click on for other information so grateful that you could be here today and thank you so much for being present with us you know for adding your thoughts and ideas in the chat box so that we can all do this together and that do you have anything else you'd like to add before we conclude absolutely you know I just wanted to say that I am so grateful that folks were participating in helping develop the community in chat and also just to let folks know that we do plan on releasing further webinars and so please know that our website will be curated with updates daily as well as attending to folks that are on the front lines that are in the fields and taking a look at things like even secondary trauma and so that's information that's needed and we'll be getting that out to you as well thank you we're so grateful that you were all here and we'll just stay online for a couple more minutes here just allow folks to continue to experience community. Thank you.