The Stress Doc begins a series on his experience with displaced federal employees. Being downsized has left many at a critical crossroads. They don't want business as usual but many are not schooled in the business of risk.

Risky Business

"I once had a career path - Then this boulder fell from the sky and crushed it." That's how a federal employee described the impact of her downsizing experience five years ago. And the axe continues to fall, at least in the Metro- Washington, DC area. I'm currently providing "Overcoming Stress, Loss and Change" and "Managing Conflict and Anger" workshops for displaced employees in a program jointly funded by the Department of Labor and the Fairfax County Government of Northern Virginia. Employee positions lost have run the gamut - from CIA and Capitol Hill administrators and a State Department translator to aerospace engineers and computer contractors.

And the cuts run deep, especially after fifteen or twenty years of service. One of the biggest shocks for government employees is the loss of job security. An implicit contract has been broken. Many chose the federal government knowing there was a tradeoff: stability, security and good benefits over uncertainty, risk and higher remuneration. And, today, these career propositions and assumptions are "NOLO" - "No Longer Operational." (Nothing like some bureaucraticspeak to dull the mind, if not the pain.) And the Stress Doc's "R &R" - Recognition and Recovery begins with painful, then some playful, first steps.

Workshop Intervention

The initial stress workshop focuses on the four stages of burnout then moves to interactive, small group exercises which release frustration through discussion, team drawing and humor. (Email stressdoc@aol.com if you'd like more info on the creative drawing exercise.) Another exercise encourages participants to reflect on a previous loss experience and to assess how far they progressed through the grief stages. Again, the group sharing cuts into the isolation and helps folks regain their bearings amidst a turbulent transition. And one of the characteristics of profound disorganization and/or crisis is the resurrection of pain related to early trauma, such as unresolved loss, abandonment and betrayal. Whether through downsizing, divorce or the death of a loved one, a lost or unfulfilled dream, leaving friends behind with a move, etc., almost everyone resonates with my 4"F" model of loss and vulnerable change: 1) loss of security and identity - real or dysfunctional - of the familiar past, 2) loss of control or confusion due to an unpredictable or unstable future, 3) the increasing volume of critical voices past and present along with the sense of not having measured up heightens self-doubt and loss of face, and 4) the need to grieve - mourn, rage, obsess, let go - and regain a new focus.

The first ninety minutes of Practicing Safe Stress - Part II is more a free for all. People articulate and share their personal concerns and needs in a more intimate setting. Then, responding to the new "lean-and-MEAN" and no more loyalty economic realities, I introduce a pertinent exercise. After dividing into groups of four, several questions/tasks are posed: 1) identify and analyze your strengths and vulnerabilities as a risk-taker and explorer in general, not just as it relates to work or your career path, 2) what factors - family history, cultural, role models, specific experiences , etc. - contributed to your attraction or aversion to risk-taking and exploring? 3) compose a "Top Ten" list of attitudes, skills and strategies for strengthening one's capacity for exploration and risk-taking.

So what can encourage our curiosity or thinking out of the box, getting us out of our comfort zone; helping us push the envelope? Next time an opening round of my "Top Ten" for becoming more of an adventurous risk-taker. And if you can't come up with ten items, add factors that restrict your exploratory mode or have you risk averse. Until thenPractice Safe Stress!