Responding to employee going through traumatic experience is one of the toughest situations a leader needs to handle.

Imagine one fine day your direct report shares with you confidentially that he is going through major depression, and even having suicidal thoughts.

Truth is, I have experienced this situation several times by now.

In the early days, I would freeze with no word I can utter at that moment.
My brain was racing to find the right words to say, fearing that I would only make things worse.

Unfortunately, nobody told us about this when we took on the management role.
Nobody taught us how to handle this situation.

This week’s Tech Lead Journal episode with Katharine Manning is my attempt to share this important knowledge for handling workplace trauma.

According to Katharine, a workplace trauma is a psychological injury that affects performance.

Everyone of us has some levels of trauma within ourselves.
It could be because of past trauma, personal relationships, family matters, financial situations, or the recent upsetting events happening around the world, e.g. pandemic, layoffs, war, economical situations.

As a leader, instead of shying away from such difficult situations, we should respond well when an employee approaches us and shares their traumatic situations.

Preparation and education are the key things to handle such situations well.
One way to do so is by listening to this week's Tech Lead Journal episode 123: https://techleadjournal.dev/episodes/123

Here are some top lessons I learned from this conversation:
• Recognizing that people we’re working with are dealing with challenges we may not understand about. Our support for them can have a long-lasting impact on their wellbeing.
• Being curious and observing the invisibles are ways to exercise empathy.
• The LASER method is a practical guidance for responding to workplace trauma.
• Avoid problem-solving. Our role is to give the support and tools they need for their own healing. Do not make the same mistake as me!
• Leadership and compassion fatigue are real. Leaders need to be conscious about them and take action to support ourselves.