MIND & BODY : HOW TO PROMOTE MENTAL WELL-BEING IN YOUR SPA CONTINUED FROM PAGE 16
compassion for somebody because they ’ ve obviously had some kind of anguish . And putting their job at risk only increases the anguish . But you have to make certain business decisions to make sure that your team is operating as they need to and other people aren ’ t getting stressed as a result of this one person ’ s behavior .”
Kohler recently implemented a new method for responding when a manager directly asks an employee how they are doing . Instead of simply saying ,“ good ,” they now respond with a rating between one and 10 . When someone isn ’ t necessarily comfortable sharing , this is a way to get them to open up . Specifically , employees are asked how they are in their personal lives and their work lives on that tenpoint scale .
“ It ’ s being vulnerable with that person to where they feel comfortable saying more than just ‘ good ’ because it ’ s almost robotic ,” says Julie Lyon , who is a wellness manager at Kohler . “ Right now , there ’ s a lot of people really struggling , so it ’ s important to open up that door .”
More than ever , life at home is bleeding into life at work , so personal struggles are inevitably going to leak into the workplace .
“ What we ’ re finding too a lot is that we may be doing fine at work , but there ’ s a lot going on at home ,” Lyon says . “ We have to listen to the whole person since there ’ s a lot of different things that people are struggling with right now and it ’ s important for us to be sensitive to that .”
DO : Recommend Resources to Employees
There ’ s justifiably been a push for self-care during 2020 , and the spa is a wonderful place for that . But as a result , clients , guests and employees could be entering the spa in a different mindset . “ Prior to the pandemic , it was probably a lot more lighthearted ,” Erin Schad says .“ But now that we ’ re in the pandemic , our suicide rates are skyrocketing , and our depression rates are skyrocketing across all demographics . Those conversations are a lot heavier and are a lot more serious .”
As a result , therapists and spa managers can indirectly be put in situations best handled by a mental health professional . That ’ s why providing employees with the training and resources they need — even if they don ’ t know they need them — can be so crucial .
“ We don ’ t want those associates to be put into a place where they didn ’ t provide the resources , or use the right language with a guest , or with a fellow associate or a member of the community , without being trained and having the resources available to them ,” Schad says .“ And then on the other side of it , it ’ s almost like the caregiver mentality where they ’ re going home at the end of the shift or at the end of a workday loaded down with all that they ’ ve carried all day long , from the people that they ’ ve been providing services to . And that ’ s heavy . And I think that that ’ s where their own mental health and having adequate resources that Kohler provides to them is that much more important right now , too , because they ’ re taking on the burden of everyone else that comes to them and kind of offloads their life stresses .”
When encountering a co-worker or guest who may need help , there may be a strong urge to counsel them , but it ’ s more important to connect them with the proper resources . Ideally , that will empower them to seek out the
18 PULSE ■ JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2021