Year-end Stress: The Challenges Project Managers Are Facing

In the days before COVID-19, society was reaching a breaking point with stress levels. In the U.K., a report by the Mental Health Foundation showed that 74% of respondents had felt so overwhelmed that they weren’t sure they could cope. Project management can be a high-stress field of work, and industry leaders in the U.K. and elsewhere were already discussing what needed to change to address mental health concerns in the industry. And then 2020 arrived, and our collective mental health took a further hit.

In addition to the typical (and already high) level of stress project managers face during year-end reporting and planning, the combined challenges of a pandemic, election year (in the U.S.) and the need to address systematic racism in our own organizations has put many of us in the “not sure I can cope” space. It is important for project managers to take care of themselves and their teams. Mental wellness should be a priority for any workplace; supported, healthy employees mean project success and thriving businesses.

The first (and perhaps most important) step is to acknowledge that you and your team may be struggling; the next is to create an open, communicative culture. As a project manager, you can model this by being open about your own challenges, taking and encouraging others to use personal days when needed and building in ways for the team to connect on topics outside of day-to-day work. The key is to balance empathy and objectivity and recognize that the emotional and logical parts of our brains often don’t work well together. Create hard start and end times for your workday, especially if you work from home. Make sure you’re getting separation between your work and personal lives, and ask your team to do the same.

The challenges this year has brought also present opportunities for project managers to make permanent changes for the better. Many companies have now moved to a work-from-home model as a solution to a crisis. This model, however, could offer a new way forward when it comes to supporting the mental health of project managers over the long term. Consider what things would look like if your team worked from home even post-pandemic. What would you need to ensure your mental wellness? How could you build connection over the long term? What resources do you need? Though the plan may be for you to go back to the office eventually, you can make these adjustments now. Many of these changes would benefit employees working full time in an office, too.

It will be some time before we settle into our “new normal.” Project managers will continue to face unanticipated stressors well into 2021. Reach out for support where you can, bring in new resources and care for your team now, and we may be able to enjoy a healthier, stronger industry on the other side.