10 ways to make your workplace more PTSD-friendly

There are loads of approaches, practises and design principles that can help you co-create a PTSD-friendly working environment.

It won’t just benefit employees with PTSD. It can bring benefits to many more of your colleagues too.

Overall, you might want to reduce sensory triggers. It’s good to create regularity and consistency in how things work so as to reduce the unwanted anxiety caused by the unexpected. It’s also really important to give a sense of power, agency and options to colleagues so they can feel a sense of control in how things are done.

Ultimately, actively listening to colleagues and creating the safe space to actually discuss mental health issues is the best starting point. You can build up from there, but there are some more specific hints and tips that might help you create the optimal working environment for PTSD colleagues. Here is a selection:

1. PTSD sufferers can often struggle with memory loss. Documenting tasks, dependencies and accountabilities on visual work-in-progress tools like Trello or Jira can make it far easier for employees to remember exactly what they need to be doing. Wikis, intranets and easy-to-find documentation on policies can also be really beneficial. Think information-radiators (where the details are ‘hot’) rather than information refrigerators (where the information is ‘cold’).
2. Make sure it’s okay to take breaks during the day. Micro-rest can help calm the nervous system so colleagues aren’t burnt out or left in the damaging ‘tired-and-wired’ state at the end of the day or working week. Encourage colleagues to step away from their desks on a regular basis. This is also good for eye and wrist strains if people are working at computers for much of the day.
3. Provide quiet zones for low-stimulation work or breaks where possible.
4. Consider offering remote or hybrid options for colleagues. Sometimes if you have PTSD you’ve got the energy to commute, or to do your job, but not both.
5. Holiday is important. Make sure your holiday leave policies are clear and easy to use. Line managers might also want to check that colleagues are properly taking their holidays so they can rest and replenish.
6. Let new employees join late on their first day (and read more about this here).
7. Try to reduce all the many things that might trigger disassociation or distraction in employees, such as sudden, loud noises or crowded areas. If I’m in a bar, restaurant or public space and someone empties bottles and other glassware into a bin that creates a loud, sudden noise, it’s guaranteed to throw me. Try to avoid similar sorts of experiences in your own workplace if you want to avoid triggering PTSD-sufferers.
8. Consider service animal policies for your workforce.
9. Consider providing noise-cancelling headphones which can help sufferers block out disruptions and distractions.
10. Use agendas in your meetings so it’s clear what’s coming, what the goal of the meeting is and what preparation is required.

If you don’t have PTSD and you’re reading this thinking that YOU might benefit from some of these things too, welcome to one of the many benefits of inclusivity.

Enacting these sorts of policies can help all sorts of colleagues, not just those with PTSD.

If you have any success in implementing these policies, or any obstacles, please share them in the comments below.

And if you have more tips to add to this list, please also share them!