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This article was prepared for the January 30, 2002 edition of U.S.
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Key to Success: Resiliency
What the world needs now is more Bill and Hillary. Or
at least more of a quality the pair have in abundance. When Judy
Dowd, vice president at outplacement firm Lee Hecht Harrison, asks
workshop groups to name a famous person with resilience to spare,
the name that comes up first is nearly always “Bill Clinton.”
Then, says Dowd, someone from the back of the room invariably pipes
up and adds, “and what about Hillary?”
“Love them, or hate them,” Dowd says of the power pair,
“they
are resilient.” On Thursday, January 31, at 8 a.m. Dowd gives
a mini-workshop for HR professionals on “Developing Personal
Resilience:
Learning to Thrive in Ambiguity and Change” at the Novotel. Call
609-896-3867.
Dowd defines resilience as the ability to remain flexible and strong
in the midst of ambiguity and change. This quality is especially
important
now, she says, as companies struggle through a tough economic climate
by merging, acquiring, downsizing, and reorganizing. Some employees
are facing lay-offs, while others are looking at new roles and
expanded
responsibilities in a changing organization.
Dowd, a 1984 graduate of the College of St. Elizabeth who also holds
a master’s degree in industrial psychology from Fairleigh Dickinson
University, has been flexible in pursuing her own career goals. After
working in marketing and operations in the health care industry, and
spending time in the insurance industry, too, she realized she was
“one of those people who get restless” in their careers. But
why did she make the career choices she did? The question fascinated
her, leading her to pursue the industrial psychology degree, and to
make a career of helping other choose their careers.
Dowd’s own model of resilience is her grandmother. “She raised
her children — and helped raise her grandchildren — through
troubled times,” she says. As she entered her sixth decade, and
her childcare duties began to wind down, her grandmother went back
to school, earning a nursing degree, and working until she was 80.
“Then, when she was 84, she got on a train, and came into New
York to help me with my baby,” Dowd recalls.
Challenges her grandmother faced included coping with Depression-era
scarcity and war rationing. Challenges Dowd’s contemporaries face
include increasing doses of uncertainty and ambiguity. “People
have become used to change,” she says. “It’s part of our
environment.”
Managing change has been part of the corporate vocabulary for two
decades, but the concept, difficult as it seemed a short while ago,
is easy to cope with compared to its successor.
Now, says Dowd, workers wonder “`When is the downturn going to
turn up?’” They stew over the timing of the next merger, and
puzzle
over what role they will play in a company suddenly headed in an
entirely
new direction. “It’s harder than dealing with change,” Dowd
says of an environment of constant uncertainty.
One of the best ways for early-21st century man to make it through
is to emulate a Clinton, and roll with the punches by developing
personal
resilience. Dowd’s workshop explores four of its components.
Understand yourself. Attendees fill out a resilienceprofileto identify areas where coping mechanisms are well-developed, andareas that might be developed. “We don’t talk about strengthsand weaknesses,” says Dowd. She feels the words carry too heavya load of responsibility in a climate where everyone is alreadyoverloaded.People with well-developed personal coping systems might, forinstance,have a good sense of humor, or might be able to think of bothpositivesand negatives that come with change.Know the territory. This could involve understandingtrendsin professions, the direction in which a company is headed, and howroles within the company are shaking out.Connect to resources. In sharp contrast to our frontierancestors, and perhaps even to the philosophy her grandmother’s peersmay have embraced, Dowd declares: “We can’t do everythingourselvesanymore. We can’t possibly be independent.” Instead, it is nowimportant to know where to go for help, who to seek out as a mentor,and what resources are offered by the company and by the community.Take action. After inventorying personal and communalresources, individuals are in a position to make changes that willposition them to move easily through a shifting work landscape. But,warns Dowd, it is not a good idea to try to change too much at onetime.”We’re not suggesting to anybody that they change theirentire life in 48 hours,” Dowd says. “We try to offerbite-sizesuggestions.”Top Of PagePost-Traumatic StressWe had it all figured out. Life was allowed to handus varied ups and downs, but never any real derailments. Thosewrenchingdisasters were supposed to happen to the others — those separatedfrom us by distance or time. Then came September 11th and ourprotectiveillusions burst. We not only mourned the tragedy that did strike,but we confronted a new anxiety about the future.Now we face a national psychological, medical, and even legal cleanup.”Moving Past Trauma: Coping after 9-11″ on Tuesday, February5, at 5 p.m. the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory explores howthe cleanup can be achieved. The panel will explore post-traumaticstress disorder (PTSD) and substance abuse, then discuss the medical,legal, and management issues involved. Speakers include psychiatristNaomi Vilko, a PTSD specialist; attorney Steven Berlinof Buchanan Ingersoll PC; and addiction treatment specialist ArnoldWashton. Call 609-987-7112 or register via E-mail atcarpenter@blpc.com Attendees are required to bring a photo ID.Even while the World Trade Center stood proud and tall, approximatelyone third of Americans were victims of limiting mental health problemssevere enough to qualify for medical treatment. This is actual,extendedimpairment, the American Psychiatric Association hastens to add, notjust feeling blue. In productivity loss, early death, paid disability,and substance abuse, this illness costs our nation an estimated $113billion annually. The Domenici-Wellstone amendment to the 1996 MentalHealth Act proposed to broaden mental health insurance coverage.Congressrecently killed the amendment.”The Domenici-Wellstone amendment,” explains Berlin,”followingon the heels of the 9-11 disaster brought a lot of necessary lightto a long ignored problem.” The bill, aimed at fixing thedisparitybetween mental and physical health care insurance payments, statedthat neither insurance companies nor employers with more than 50employeescould categorically limit mental health payments. “But sinceDecember,with the economic downturn, no bill that puts a greater burden onemployers is greeted fondly,” Berlin says. “Nonetheless itis a disparity that must be repaired.””Count on it, psychological trauma will prove the greatest loss— in human or cash terms — to come out of the September 11thdebacle,” warns Vilko, who initiated the February 5th seminar.”Our trauma-induced downtime and costs have just begun tosoar.”Vilko, a native New Yorker, took her undergraduate degree at Barnard,then received her psychiatric training at the New York MedicalCollege.For the past 22 years, Vilko has maintained offices in both Princetonand New York, where she specializes in post-traumatic distressdisorderand substance abuse. She is on the staff of Princeton Medical Centerand has taught at Robert Wood Johnson Hospital. Her son, an investmentbanker with Deutsche Bank, barely escaped from the 9-11 attack.”There is nothing vague or categorical about post traumatic stresssyndrome,” insists Vilko. “It is delineated by three clearlyrecognizable symptom groups.” First, flashbacks and nightmaresoccur, usually only for the most immediate victims. Secondly,withdrawalmoves in. The victim doesn’t go out, avoids trains and public places,and fails to communicate. The third symptom, hyper-arousal, Vilkowitnessed clearly on the subway immediately following 9-11. A singlejerk or sudden loud noise sent several crisp-suited business folkcrashing to the floor in expectation. “It was exactly the kindof behavior one so often sees in disturbed Vietnam vets,” saysVilko.Post-trauma stress symptom is an old and familiar disorder. Whilethe syndrome only came into official terminology in the l980s, itpre-dates World War I shell shock. “A lot of it came to ourattentionafter Vietnam, in the form of substance abuse,” says Vilko.Self-medicationvia drugs and alcohol can typically reach 50 percent among traumatizedmales.”But 9-11 is unique,” says Vilko, “because, unlikeVietnam,we can catch the problem before the victim is beyond control.”The events were seen by millions on television. After a month, theinitial symptoms of PTSD were evident in most sufferers. A blendedtreatment of medication and psychotherapy has proven quick, relativelysimple, and very effective in most cases.The problem now becomes getting people in need to receive thenecessarytreatment, without waiting. First, we face overcoming our societalblock concerning any mental problem. Victims of flying bricks getimmediate bandaging. Victims who faced the trauma of flying body partsshould just buck up, we say, and not lower themselves like wimps toseek any psychiatric aid. Secondly, most people fear mind-alteringmedications. But Pfizer’s Zoloft and the new Paxil are reducing thestress amazingly well with virtually no side effects.Conversely, stalling off treatment plants a costly time bomb invictims.As indicated by Holocaust victim analysis, post-traumatic stressdisordercreates a chemical imbalance not only in the victim, but passes theimbalance on to succeeding generations. The initial cost may behidden,but comes due in succeeding generations.Berlin agrees that the victims of 9-11 need immediate treatment, buthe feels that “in the first knee-jerk gush of sympathy after theWorld Trade Center bombing, companies with the best of hearts adoptedsome terribly wrong methods.” Typically, mental health problemsin the corporate community have been handled in group sessions. Whilethis has some merit by addressing the problem, it frequently delaystreatment.”You would not invite all those who had suffered back trauma outon the loading dock to come in and talk the situation over,” saysBerlin. “You’d get the individuals some fast, one-on-one,professionalhelp. The same should be done with those facing emotional trauma.”The Americans with Disabilities Act linked with the New Jersey LawAgainst Discrimination form a united barrier protecting workersafflictedwith physical or mental handicaps. Legally, an employee who isdisabled,perceived as disabled, or who has a disabling history (e.g. recoveringfrom substance abuse), must be able to return to his job withoutprejudice.His employer must also make reasonable accommodation for hisdisability.This baffles most employers. The legal ramifications of handlingover-stressedworkers are vague, but the spirit is common sense. “Treat themas a worker returning healed from a broken leg,” advises Berlin.”It may be counter intuitive, you may want to walk on eggshellsaround them, but use common sense and react normally.”The scope of the explosions of September 11th may be comparativelyminor when set against the air raids of hundreds of cities duringWorld War II. But this one certainly struck hard into the nationalpsyche. Not because we were unprepared or weak; if anything we hadtaken too great a refuge in our strength. Our trauma, collective orindividual, did not spring suddenly from the destruction alone. Ratherit is layered heavily upon a lot of other problems we had not quitegotten around to addressing. Let us hope we can use this event toaddress them now.— Bart JacksonNext StoryCorrections or additions?This page is published by PrincetonInfo.com— the web site for U.S. 1 Newspaper in Princeton, New Jersey.
