10 more ways to make your workplace more PTSD friendly

After the earlier post on 10 ways to make your workplace more PTSD-friendly, here are 10 more hints and tips that can help you create a more inclusive and productive working environment for your colleagues.

And like the previous post, you will probably find that many of these ideas don’t just help your PTSD employees, but many more colleagues as well.

10 More Ways:

1. Encourage the use of transparent, shared calendars so colleagues can be mindful of booking one another’s time. Create a culture that seeks to avoid overloading people’s days with too many meetings.
2. Avoid surprise, last-minute meetings, especially if they are meant to convey announcements but the detail isn’t clear. This can cause anxiety to the best of us, but it can be particularly hard to manage if you’re already dealing with PTSD.
3. Provide desks/seating/working areas suitably distant from any high traffic or busy areas in the workplace, like near the bathrooms, kitchens, printers or open collaboration spaces. It can be very distracting to someone with hyper-arousal.
4. Provide back-to-the-wall seating with a view of any entrances so a PTSD-sufferer can sit without the anxiety of someone surprising them from behind.
5. Provide adjustable, warm or soft lighting rather than distracting harsh or flickering lighting.
6. Try to optimise natural light where possible to create a more calming workplace environment.
7. Consider using colour-psychology for your decor, choosing cool and calming colours or soft hues rather than bright, aggressive or high-contrast colours.
8. Consider adding plants to your workplace, as they can create a more calming and soothing environment.
9. Consider providing mental health training for your workforce and the provision of named mental health first aiders. Even if you never need the services of a mental health first aider, just knowing that they exist and are encouraged to be in a workplace is reassuring. It showcases that the organisation takes mental health seriously, that it isn’t a taboo subject and that you’ve got support if you ever need it in the future.
10. Give colleagues the opportunity to speak up – and the psychological safety to do so without fear. Actively seek feedback from your workforce, including anonymously. Get the views from your colleagues on what’s working and what could be better. By listening and acting on the feedback is both empowering and highly reassuring.

Once again, you will probably find that these measures don’t just benefit employees with PTSD. Many other colleagues might prefer to work in this sort of environment as well.

If you have any success in implementing any these policies, or any obstacles as well, please add your experiences to the comments below.

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