Find ways to calm fears during these scary times

Ah, Halloween! Not one of my favorite holidays of the year, but there are those who love to dress up and enjoy the make-believe part of the tradition. The BBB staff was no exception.

On Oct. 31, I walked into our office only to be greeted by a frightening sight: the entire BBB staff wearing masks that were images of my face (a combination of 10 years of publicity profile photos) and in special “thematic” costumes. To name a few, there was Bowling Jan, Old Lady Jan and Soapbox Jan. There was even Minimum Wage Jan in a McDonald’s uniform.

It is still not clear who had more fun, me laughing at myself or them taking on assorted personas. We laughed our heads off and continued to for most of the day. McDonald’s Jan was offering to supersize everything or add fries to complaints. Soapbox Jan was, well, stepping on and off the soapbox, all in good fun.

Such shenanigans most likely reduced our productivity on Halloween, but that is fine. The level of stress at the BBB is at an all-time high. Service requests, especially pre-purchase business report requests, are up 38 percent over January-September 2007, and BBB staff levels are lower.

Complaints have not increased, but the tone of our customers has changed. They now are more demanding and less patient while businesses are stretched to the limit and on edge. And the BBB is in the middle, trying to keep communication open and civil. Not always an easy task.

Uncertainty and fear bring out the worst in people. Unfortunately, there is plenty of this to go around these days. Reviewing our statistics, it is clear that people are being more careful before they spend money, and that is a good thing. The other half of this equation is the businesses and some of the challenges they face:

•Staff reductions mean fewer people delivering products and services.

•Credit is tight and some banks are cutting back lines of credit and loans.

•Cash flow slows down as businesses take longer to pay bills.

•Many customers are just plain crabby.

Anything we can do as business owners, managers and leaders to reduce workplace stress is critical. When money and time are tight, we reduce staff to encompass the high performers, putting more on them every day. We need to do our part to care for the human aspect of those who carry more of the workload. Here are some techniques for doing that:

•Communicate openly (really be transparent) about the company position so the fear of the unknown does not stoke the stress machine.

•Have fun and encourage laughter.

•Form a Fun Committee to plan inexpensive events.

•Pay attention to the individual, as some people do not like group activities.

•Bring in a massage therapist once or twice a month.

•Check your attitude at the door, and don’t bring your black cloud with you.

•Get rid of negative people. We all get enough of that everywhere else and sure don’t need to work with it.

•Practice random rewards. There is nothing like a pleasant surprise to brighten the day.

I took pictures of the BBB Halloween group and e-mailed them to a few people. One response made me thankful we actually have a culture of fun at the BBB.

She said, “This is really funny! Everyone at our company dressed up today but our department. The manager would not allow us to participate. The phrase circulating is ‘Fun goes to our department to die.’ ”

Ouch. What a sad commentary on that company’s culture. No wonder the turnover in that department is so high.

There is a silver lining to all these layoff announcements. The pool of potential employees is much larger and a whole lot better quality than when unemployment is at 2 or 3 percent. So if you have individuals sapping the energy and productivity out of your workplace, know there are better candidates out there. Not much pulls down a team more than a subpar performer or a negative person. Just be sure yours is a workplace people want to join.

We have an opportunity to make our staff feel safe and supported when they may not feel that anywhere else. Honesty and openness creates a culture of trust, and when we trust each other, laughter comes easier, skins are not as thin, and hard work is a pleasure.

It is hard to place value on intangibles such as the reduction in BBB productivity on Halloween when we spent so much time laughing, truly having fun together as a team.