‘‘The whole of New Zealand will move to Alert Level 4 at 11.59pm tonight.’’
Those were the words of Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern last Tuesday following the discovery of a case of Covid-19 in the community.
The words many, especially in the business community, had been dreading.
With six hours’ notice the country went from almost no Covid-19 restrictions to being in the strictest lockdown since March last year.
The Alert Level 4 restrictions meant all non-essential businesses had to close and the Zoom life was back.
While many headlines point to the economic impact of shutting the doors, what sort of toll does a lockdown take on businesses owners’ and employees’ mental wellbeing?
Last year’s Covid-19 lockdown in March and April came about reasonably slowly and there was a timeframe given from the start — four weeks at Level 4.
However this lockdown, for the majority of the country, came first as a snap three-day lockdown, which was extended to Tuesday this week, then to yesterday, then to next Tuesday.
University of Otago academic Dr Paula O’Kane believed the continued extension would be causing a lot of stress and anxiety.
Dr O’Kane is a senior lecturer in the university’s management department, specialising in human resources, and is also part of an ongoing study looking at remote working.
Restrictions’ financial and economic ramifications were definitely a leading cause of stress during a lockdown, Dr O’Kane said.
While New Zealand had a reputation that it had Covid-19 under control and by and large out of the community since its first outbreak, a lot of organisations and sectors had been ‘‘on edge’’ waiting for the this outbreak to happen, she said.
Dr O’Kane believed while people thought the country was doing all right, businesses had been in a ‘‘state of flux’’ since March last year.
‘‘This lockdown we had another layer to it for people, that being the Delta strain, and not really having that certainty of what is going to happen next,’’ she said.
Although most people and businesses understood why the Government had short turnarounds for the alert level decisions it was making, it was not giving businesses time to plan and they had to plan for multiple scenarios, she said.
‘‘That is actually taking more of a mental toll on people ... it is causing constant uncertainty and uncertainty is not good for people and then that leads to elevated stress levels.
‘‘Some people are going to have a lot more of an ability to cope with stress levels than others.’’
Dr O’Kane described stress levels as like a bell curve — there was a point of good stress and new stress, where most small business owners operated, and a point beyond that where it turned into burnout stress.
‘‘For some people it is really exciting but for other people it is just way too much and they have gone over the other side and down towards that burnout,’’ she said.
When stress levels were high, particularly for small businesses owners, trying to look after staff could be difficult, Dr O’Kane said.
‘‘You’re like chief human resources officer, chief financial officer, you’re also chief IT officer and people are trying to figure out all that works.’’
Dr O’Kane described the conservation of resources theory — which conceptualises a bucket of resources for coping which can only hold so much before it overflows.
The bucket becomes full as more and more pressure starts to build up unless people have the time to empty it.
‘‘If people don’t get that time to empty and refill it, it can start to send people over the edge and that is worrying with small business owners because I don’t think they have had the chance to refill it over the past year,’’ she said.
Dr O’Kane encouraged business owners to reach out to their local networks, industry organisations and other business owners because many people were in the same boat.
AMY Scott is a Dunedin-based communication specialist, public speaker and mentor, among many other things.
The former lawyer has worked with businesses, organisations and government departments to help them connect the dots of personalities.
She believed that during times of stress, people reverted to survival mode, in which they were wired for fight or flight, which could add more pressure on an already stressed-out person.
During the lockdown, this year and last year, Ms Scott has worked with businesses, chief executives and families virtually to help them communicate.
Ms Scott talked about the human pizza theory, which was made up of ‘‘the 10 Cs’’: curiosity, culture, clarity, courage, communication, confidence, cognition, core values, compassion and conditioning.
During lockdowns, leadership was key, particularly for business owners and managers when dealing with staff, she said.
Key to that effective leadership was good communication, Ms Scott said.
Leaders needed to have clarity about what they required to get their jobs done, Ms Scott said.
She believed one of the most important things leaders could do during a time like this was to be honest and even express their own discomfort with the situation.
‘‘It’s actually being vulnerable, being real and reaching out for help, which is not always easy for people,’’ she said.
Ms Scott worked with people using the ‘‘dot method’’, a personality tool which put different personalities into different colours.
Each colour had a different need, a danger zone, a best way to approach them.
A friendly, charming and outgoing person who was quick-witted and creative would be a purple dot; the best way to approach them was to patiently listen to their conversation to see and understand them.
A cautious, conservative person was most likely a yellow dot and the way to impress them was to do something like buying them a lunch.
Other colours included red dots — rationalists — and blue dots, sensationists.
Realising how people and the different dots operated could help de-stress and reassure people during lockdown, Ms Scott said.
A red dot person was straight to the point and would be coping with lockdown differently from a blue dot person, she said.
‘‘While a red dot is very fact and figures, ‘it is what is, get over it’, which is great for them ... they need to have an understanding that their blue dot team members will need some social time on Zoom,’’ she said.
Clear communication could give people a sense of belonging, especially during a lockdown, she said.
‘‘Even though communication is one slice of the pizza, even understanding that one slice can remove so much unnecessary friction and stress.
‘‘It is where you get some certainty, a sense of belonging, people feel heard, understood and cared about and that is what we all want,’’ she said.
While times were tough now and there was a lot of uncertainty, Ms Scott reminded people to not forget the basics in life.
