COVID-19 Stress Mounts at Credit Unions

The offices of the $231 million Actors Federal Credit Union in New York City overlook an empty Times Square, one of the most depressing scenes of the coronavirus crisis, which has added new layers of stress, anxiety and fear in everyone’s work and personal lives.

“You go in and walk through Times Square, and being a Jersey kid growing up in this area, I don’t know that I’ve ever actually seen Times Square empty before at any time,” Daniel Czerniawski, president/CEO of Actors FCU, sadly reflected. “I guess the toughest part in this is the lack of knowing when it really will stop … both from a human tragedy standpoint and a financial standpoint. For me as a CEO, I’m looking at it thinking, what tools can I give to my staff? How do I keep us whole and give them enough support? The phone calls [the staff] are getting [from members] are tough, but there’s just no way around it.”

Most of the credit union’s members are stage actors who lost their jobs when the Broadway theaters went dark after the shutdown. Making matters worse was that many of them held side gigs waiting tables or working in other non-essential service roles, and those jobs have vanished as well.

Because the COVID-19 crisis could last for months or longer, stress, anxiety and fear will continue to build, which can lead to a variety of psychological and physical ailments in people, according to medical research.

A national survey by the American Psychiatrist Association in Washington, D.C., found that 48% of Americans are anxious about the possibility of getting COVID-19 and nearly four in 10 are anxious about becoming seriously ill or dying from the coronavirus. But far more Americans – 62% – are anxious about the possibility of family members or loved ones getting the deadly virus.

“Because there is so much of this pandemic that we don’t know about, our brains have the tendency to gravitate toward the dark neighborhood in our heads, and we start to ask so many ‘what-if’ questions: What if my wife gets infected, what if I get infected, what if my mom or dad get infected? The more time we spend in that dark neighborhood, the more it ratchets up your anxiety,” explained Bill Prasad, who is a psychotherapist at the Houston-based Contemporary Medicine Associates, which treats patients with anxiety, depression, trauma and drug addiction and also conducts corporate performance management to help executives keep their workforce mentally healthy.

In addition to being anxious about contracting the virus, employees are worried their finances will suffer if they have to take pay cuts, whether they might be the next workers to be furloughed or laid off, and a collapsing economy that has already bled more than 30 million jobs.

Although leaders cannot simply lift all the stresses, anxieties and fears that many are experiencing, they can consistently leverage empathy, patience and reassurance to provide some relief and a sense of calm and normalcy.

“Employees really do want to know that their leader sees them as a whole person and not just as a job description,” Erica N. Reed, a psychotherapist, speaker and workplace trainer in New Orleans, said. “Leaders can do this by asking questions such as, ‘What challenges are you having that I can support you in?’ or making statements such as, ‘I recognize how difficult this [coronavirus crisis] is on each and every one of you.’”

For the $122 million Lone Star Credit Union in Dallas, most of its 36 full-time employees went from working in an office to working from home overnight. Fortunately, the credit union already had the remote technology in place to support a large-scale work-from-home model.

“While our executive team and several back-office departments worked from home regularly, most of our staff, like in the call center, did not,” Lone Star Credit Union President/CEO Becky Reed said. “Working from home sounds wonderful, but in practice it can be isolating and overwhelming if you aren’t prepared. Since many did not have time to mentally prepare much less prepare their home office for working there full-time, it definitely added stress on top of the stress caused by the global pandemic.”

While the types of stress differ based on one’s role at a credit union, the Lone Star executive team, especially early on, tried to make decisions based on very little and rapidly changing data. While this can be stressful for any executive team’s decision-making process, Lone Star executives focused on what their staff’s primary worries were, and transparency.

“From a leadership perspective, we increased our communication to staff. We focused on the things that the employees were concerned about – namely their job and the health of the credit union,” Reed said. “We implemented video conferencing and increased our coaching and contact with our staff. Since so many were working in isolation, we increased the number of check-ins we had with department leaders. With the current uncertainty, we felt it was more important than ever to be transparent and forthright with information. I also started a weekly video series called ‘Becky’s Broadcast,’ where I answer employee questions and provide relevant updates. This has been well received by staff and will likely continue even after this is behind us.”

At the $670 million Notre Dame Federal Credit Union in Notre Dame, Ind., executives are holding open forums with staff to discuss their fears, worries and how to survive the coronavirus.

“The one thing we talk about is that there is no sense in surviving this if we don’t survive it together. Every one of us who started this together needs to be there at the end together, which will be a new beginning together,” John Wilkening, chief retail officer for Notre Dame FCU, said. “The team came to the understanding that we control our own destiny if we can reach and help enough people every day. Our outreach training had us prepared for this. Our results have actually gone off the charts. So with our outreach program throughout the branches and call center along with diving into the PPP program, our work days have gotten even busier. The team has shared that coming to work and feeling secure is a shot of normalcy in very unnormal times.”

Sprinkling in some fun also can help relieve stress and anxiety for everyone, he noted.

“We also have done some things that were definitely not part of the program. We had a joke of the day contest … and we also created a technological survivor game,” Wilkening said. “The team truly doesn’t know what to expect coming in today and that is a good thing. It has a culture of fun during the work day with some zaniness sprinkled in, but the results have never been better. The team understands the obligation to help folks and it motivates them. Morale is incredibly high. Attendance is high with few call-offs.”

What also helps employees stay positive is providing support or even special services for others in the community. For example, some credit unions have been handing out gift cards to members and non-members, sending free meals to health care workers or raising much-needed funds for food pantries.

“It’s been scientifically proven that when we’re shifting our focus from our own challenges and we’re focusing on how we can be of service to others, then it does create a total shift in our make-up,” Reed said. “It gives us a boost and makes us feel good about ourselves. It gives us a different perspective on our challenges. Then if it’s done in the name of the company as well, you feel like you’re connected to a cause and that’s very important to a lot of people. They really want to be connected to something that they feel they can get behind and that’s very powerful.”

While stepping up communications just enough – but not too much – with staff is an effective way to engage employees and keep them connected to prevent feelings of isolation, widening those channels of communication can also work to monitor employee behavioral changes, such as irritability, anger, mood swings and declining performance. These changes could signal that an employee may need some extra help or support in managing the stresses they are under.

In addition to working with individual employees, executives should make sure their staff is aware of the credit union’s employee assistance program that can offer confidential counseling services for staff and their families. Research has shown these programs are underutilized. For credit unions that don’t have this type of program, a free COVID-19 guide published by the National Alliance on Mental Illness is available. The PDF booklet includes free resources such as counseling and other information that can help credit union leaders and employees with COVID-19 challenges.