Today’s episode is a little different. You might’ve noticed, it’s Monday, not our usual Wednesday release. And that’s no accident. We’re marking Blue Monday, dubbed by the media as ‘the most depressing day of the year’. But where did that idea come from, and is there any truth to it? To help us explore that, we’re joined by Emma Newell, Chair of the TEA Wellness Council. Together, we’re talking about burnout, wellbeing and what it really takes to create a culture of care in the attractions industry. Because let’s face it, behind the scenes, it’s not always as joyful as it looks to our guests. From long hours and tight deadlines to working across time zones and living out of a suitcase during installs, this industry can take its toll. But it doesn’t have to be that way.
This special Monday release of Skip the Queue marks Blue Monday, often labelled the most depressing day of the year. But is Blue Monday real, or just clever marketing?
Andy Povey is joined by Emma Newell, Chair of the TEA Wellness Council, to unpack the truth behind Blue Monday and explore a much bigger issue facing the attractions industry: burnout.
Key Topics Covered:
Show References:
Emma Newell, TEA Chair, and Strategy, Culture & Leadership Coach at Magnetic Moon Coaching
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Andy Povey: Welcome to Skip the Queue and welcome on what we're calling Blue Monday. I have the pleasure today of being joined by Emma Newell, who's the chair of the TEA Wellness Council. Emma, that's not the only thing you do though, is it? Can you just introduce yourself briefly to the listeners at home?
Emma Newell: Yeah, certainly. So I am a strategy, culture and leadership coach, which means I help busy business leaders and CEOs to get unstuck, create a clear strategy and align it to their people.
Andy Povey: And obviously a aligned business leader is obviously going to feel a lot weller. That's not a really good term, is it? A lot weller than someone who is not aligned?
Emma Newell: Yeah. Well, I would say in my experience, because I work predominantly with business leaders and business owners, they are often some of the most burnt out people that I work with, but they are probably the ones that are unlikely to express it and very much because of their role. So they need to potentially present that everything is going well for them. But actually behind the scenes as a leader, sometimes they do have an emotional and physical burnout. And I often say to them it's pretty lonely at the top. And so they can able to talk to me about how they're feeling without having to necessarily share it with their broader teams.
Andy Povey: I'm making a note of your phone number now, Emma. Thank you. So we're going to talk today about Blue Monday and burnout in general. Emma, can you talk to us a little bit about the phrase Blue Monday and why it's not possibly the most appropriate label?
Emma Newell: Well, I mean, Blue Monday is essentially, it was a marketing term, interestingly, it was created by Sky Travel and I think 2005. And at the time I actually worked for Virgin Holidays and Virgin Atlantic. And so January is your biggest time in the travel industry to be selling your holidays and your summer holidays. And so Sky Travel invented this using a marketing company to try and sell more holidays. And us at Virgin Holidays at the time thought that's brilliant marketing.
Andy Povey: Of course. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Emma Newell: But the reality of it is, Andy, is that every day can be a day that is not so great. And every day can be a day that is fantastic. And there's no particular day of the month. The reason that it was created outside of marketing is that typically by the time you're getting to Blue Monday, which I think is the third Monday of January, typically people are getting close to their payday. So, you know, December has been a tough month with regards to outgoings. Sometimes people have been on a diet for amount of time. Maybe they're doing dry January, or maybe they have not done dry January and they're thinking, I should have done dry January. The body's going through a detox. Typically when the body goes through a detox, the liver tends to get a bit cranky, a bit upset.
Emma Newell: And an upset liver can make us. Make us not feel ourselves. Yeah. And I think in general, when it comes to the weather, and I'm talking about the weather in the Northern Hemisphere and those of us that tend to have drastic drops in temperature and rainy days, we're finding that we're just. We're in our homes, we're not getting as much oxygen as we would do in a beautiful summer's day. We're not necessarily going out doing walks, or we're looking outside and thinking, I really should go out and do some exercise, but actually I might just stay in. And of course, the darkness of the time as well. So we're lacking a little bit of that beautiful UV rays and of course the vitamin D that comes with that. With UV rays, we have a hormone called serotonin.
Emma Newell: And serotonin is kind of our optimism hormone. I don't know if you've heard of that, Andy. Yeah. So, like when we are lacking serotonin, which is best to get naturally through the sun, then, yeah, we can sometimes look out on that Monday and think, oh, goodness, when's payday? I need a holiday. Which is precisely how the holiday industry jumped on the back of it.
Andy Povey: No, that makes absolute sense. And from a marketing perspective, I could completely see the sense in that. We do a lot of attractions that have big Christmas events. There's always a case of a discussion, I suppose, of when do you launch your tickets for Christmas? Is it in the middle of the summer when people aren't necessarily thinking about what they're going to do in December? So similar kind of psychological process or thought process, I think. And I've got a couple of thoughts or comments from what you've just been saying. I was introduced to the concept of damp January earlier this year, which I think is a little gentler on yourself, I suppose, than dry January. Not making too big a change. And I completely support or agree with your concept discussion about getting outside.
Andy Povey: There's huge health and mental health benefits and physical health benefits from getting out and just walking. So we're hearing the term burnout all over the place at the moment. What does it really mean? And how do I tell if I'm burning out?
Emma Newell: Well, there are typically two types of burnout. So we have a physical burnout and emotional burnout. So physical burnout. Let's start out with that. So there are multiple theories. There's a particular theory called adrenal fatigue, which hasn't been classified as a medical condition in the medical community. However, adrenal fatigue is known as. When your adrenals, your cortisol levels have been producing at very high amounts for a very long time. And those people who have ever suffered from a huge amount of inn tiredness, it's probably and most likely caused by the fact that they've had very high cortisol. This is our stress hormone from. And when we have this level of stress hormone, what that can mean. And for those.
Emma Newell: And it's very disputed, this adrenal fatigue topic, many people believe it's very true, is that you begin to get this inner tiredness that then leads to other things. So it could be that your eyes start to get a bit more scratchy and a bit tired. It could be that your blood pressure is elevated. Could be that you notice hunger changes, such as craving sugary food or salty food. You could find yourself being quite heavily reliant on stimulants, whether that be caffeine, alcohol. I've already mentioned sugar, it could be cigarettes, where you're actually finding yourself unable to function when doing that. It can even lead to other things like lightheadedness as well. And the point is this, is that when our bodies are extremely tired, the chances are our bodies have not had the right amount of rest and digest.
Emma Newell: So I'll talk a little bit more about rest and digest in a moment. But so the first way we can burn out is through physical. And so you're going to notice that, Andy, because you're going to wake up and you're going to feel tired and you're going to find that your mind isn't necessarily firing on all cylinders. And you might find some weird and unusual types of sort of illnesses that aren't anything serious. But you know what you're finding that you might have a few more aches and pains. Clumsiness can be a sign of just this deep inner tiredness. So the second way in which we can burn out is through our emotional burnout.
Emma Newell: And emotional burnout is often a lot easier to notice because when we're emotionally burnt out, what we tend to find is that we fall out of what's known as our window of tolerance. So the window of tolerance was. Is a psychological experiment which was first designed by A guy called Dr. Dr. Dan Siegel in 1999. And he worked out very clearly that actually when we are in our window of tolerance, and I'll explain a little bit more in a moment, when we're in our window of tolerance, actually we can manage the stresses and strains of day to day life.
Emma Newell: You know, whether that be I'm running late, I've missed a train, whether that be the chaos of things happening, whether that be someone you know being quite rude to you in a meeting, or whether that be looking at your email inbox and think, oh my goodness, I've got 100 unread emails. And what tends to happen when in our window of tolerance we tend to remain calm and stable? So we are calm, but we're alert, okay? We're not anxious in the way we do it. And where we have a nice wide window of tolerance, which means that we've possibly been investing in our physical health, it could mean that we've been investing in our emotional health, or it could be that we are naturally have a wide window of tolerance. And I need to flag that.
Emma Newell: Actually our window of tolerance can change rapidly over time. It can get bigger and smaller. But when we're in a wide window of tolerance, and actually, you know what, life keeps throwing things at us and we just seem to manage it and we get on and do it. But actually what can happen is that our window of tolerance can narrow. And when that window tolerance narrows, the same stimulus gives us a different response. So stimulus and response is a coaching phrase, right? And so we can fall out of our window in one of two ways. So the first one is known as hyper regulation. Okay? The hyper regulation is when our body goes into fight or flight, okay?
Emma Newell: So this means that we can be angry, we can be anxious, we can be irritable, we can be tearful, we can end up being judgmental, snappy in situations when actually typically you would have let something go over your head. So you can tell if you go into hyper regulation because you feel agitated. Right? I'm sure we've all felt that time when you've just think to yourself, oh, do you know what? The way I responded to that individual or that customer or in that meeting or even to your family members, actually that feels a bit out of character, right? So that's hyper regulation. The other way we can fall out of our window is something called hyporegulation, which is actually known as freeze state. And hyporegulation is when we begin to become very sluggish, very numb and we actually begin to shut down.
Emma Newell: And when we're in hyporegulation, we kind of want to just sit on the sofa, maybe eat fast food, binge watch tv. Actually we don't want to go out and see friends that we know are going to make us feel better. And we actually want kind of more of an avoidance. And freeze is much more of a shutdown. Some people, if they're really going through a tough time, they can be in both hyper and hypo, in which case they are up and down, up and down. So you're going to ask yourself, what do we do to get out of this and what do we do to get out of adrenal fatigue? So there's, I wouldn't want to offer anybody advice on how to manage their emotional and physical health. And there's a really important reason for that.
Emma Newell: There's a lot of people who are, I say, so called wellness experts and weirdly, I fall into that category. There's so much advice out there. Genuinely speaking, anybody could write a book on how to be more physically and more emotionally healthy, Right? I'm sure you could. If I said to you right now, 10 minutes, write down all the things you to do to improve your health, you'd say, I know it. So I'm not going to patronize anybody. And it's important that people say, when people say things like, oh, you should drink more water, you should go for more walks, or you should try and sleep better, or you should try and eat more nutritional food. I'm sorry, but sometimes that feels absolutely insulting to be told what is absolutely obvious.
Emma Newell: And I think what's important is that nobody ever walks a day in another person's shoes. So if I was to say, you know, Andy, why don't you should get more sleep, you might, you don't know the size that I inbox. You don't see the emails that come flooding in at 11 o'clock at night. So, yeah, so I won't, I'll avoid tips and advice. Specifically. I'm very happy to talk later about things that I know work for me and I know have worked for others as well. But the first stage really is stopping for a moment and looking within and taking that time to just do a body scan, whether that be physical and emotional and think, where am I now? Where do I want to be?
Emma Newell: And actually having that moment of pause in order to take a moment, take a breath and evaluate what's going well and what's going less well.
Andy Povey: Fascinating. I mean, you weren't in my house watching me get My kids ready for school this morning. My tolerance levels weren't particularly high. But it's really interesting listening to you describe all of that because I'm sitting here listening, absorbing and recognising things in my behaviour. Maybe I should take a little bit more time to understand and deal with, look after myself a bit more, I suppose, or going out for a lunch walk at lunchtime. So why do you think burnout resonates so well in the attractions industry?
Emma Newell: Well, I've worked in multiple industries, Andy. There's only one other industry I could match to themed entertainment industry and that's travel. So what have I observed in other industries? So let's talk. I used to work in healthcare, so in the pharmaceutical industry. I used to work in the insurance industry as well. And my observations of those industries, to give you some contrast, is people tend to come into work around about 9 o'clock, they tend to finish about 5. If there are emails in the evening, nothing is particularly crisis driven. You know, you might, you know, they might have people who like to answer their emails in the evening, but there's no major crisis taking place. So then I come and enter into themed entertainment industry. I was invited to TEA's Sait events. So two events for Satan.
Emma Newell: Those of your listeners that don't, aren't members of TEA say is annual event and I went to the European Middle east version and I presented a session on burnout reversal and then following year a session on managing uncertainty. So to do that, to really understand my in my audience, I deep dive into what is this crazy industry. I was new to it, I'm only relatively new to it now, five years in. I know there's many people that have been in the industry 20 years plus and I don't know if you're aware of the phrase vuca or if you and your listeners are aware of the phrase vuca. Vuca is a term that was actually originally created by the US army and it stands for volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous. And they were describing Cold War environment.
Emma Newell: But in actual fact, the last 15, 20 years, a lot of companies, a lot of industries have recognised that actually we are permanently living in a VUCA world now that's, you know, a vuca world for insurance and pharmaceuticals and other industries can be very different to themed entertainment. So here's how I see it and has observe as a third party before fully submersing myself. So the volatility that I would say that I associated is that there is a huge amount of, if you think about the things like trade tariffs, you think about currency changes, you think about global conflict, right? We are working in a highly global environment where every country is going through its own particular challenges. We are also finding that in the world of uncertain, just because of what we do.
Emma Newell: And so when we are on salty, we think about it. Most companies in our industry that I have experience of are actually rather much smaller than we might think. And so because of the huge amount of uncertainty towards revenue, remember, a lot of this is a bid based culture, right? It's a project based culture. So there's a lot of companies who are putting out multiple bids. So what happens if we get none of those bids come forward? Do I have to think about the size of my company? Do I think about how to think about letting go of my subcontractors? What happens if I put forward three bids and all of them are accepted? How am I possibly going to deliver? Do I need to recruit? You know, like vastly recruit?
Emma Newell: What happens if we have a situation where we have feast or famine when it comes to our project work? This other part of the uncertainty is, okay, that a lot of people know their piece of the puzzle when opening an attraction, but what happens if the people before you, the contractors before you, are delayed by three weeks and then that creates that kind of bottleneck of suddenly you need to deliver your piece of work in four days when you were given 14 days. So the uncertainty piece is without a doubt a huge part of the fact that we are project based. And I compare you back to insurance industry. And I sat on a board meeting once where a group of very concerned insurers recognised that their annual renewal rate for home insurance had gone down by 1%.
Emma Newell: So everybody gasped and they did a quick marketing campaign and they were able to bring that back up the following months. This is not something that is the luxury of people working in themed entertainment industry because of this bid based culture, right? There's no regular sales, there's no prediction of, you know, where do we think revenue is going to be in 8 months time? Who knows, you know, permanently? Who knows? So that's the uncertain part of it. The complex part comes from the multi layers of all of the projects. So there's so many stakeholders, there's so many customers, there's so many. There's different languages that we're dealing with, different time zones.
Emma Newell: I mean, in themed entertainment industry, it's very rare that, you know, for me in the uk, I'm talking to only people from the uk and so you're just sometimes you're trying to fit in, like, we all know in the UK it is damned impossible to be able to fit China, East coast, west coast and Europe on the same call. Right? So somebody's in their pajamas at 10 o'clock at night. We know this. This isn't. You've got to remember this is not like every other industry. It's like some, but not like every other industry. And the complexity also comes from the fact that we are constantly working with innovation and that leads nicely into ambiguity. Now, the beautiful thing about innovation, and you know what? I wouldn't change working in an innovative environment for the world. I love it.
Emma Newell: I was born to be in this industry. But what comes with innovation is complete uncertainty because everything's new.
Andy Povey: Yeah.
Emma Newell: You don't know, like, oh, we've got this great idea, we've made a plan. Oh, turns out the plan hasn't worked. And that's it. That's the whole point. You're thinking on the spot. But of course, when you start mixing that with all of the different stakeholders, you know, you're trying to solve problems in the middle of the night for some countries, you know, to get something done. And of course, the sensitivity around things like, you know, rides opening on time, you know, you kind of forget. One of my clients said to me once, and he was working for an integrator company and he said he was driving into work one day, they spent two weeks trying to fix a problem for a ride that was starting the night before, it wasn't working.
Emma Newell: And he drove into work and heard on the radio an advert say, good news, this ride is opening today. Because he was like, is it? Is it so? Yeah. So Vuca, volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous. That is very unique to this industry, which means that burnout is absolutely going to be a potential for everybody. And I say potential because it's still, it's somewhat within our expertise to be able to prevent the burnout or reverse the burnout. But I, I do not believe that the industry and the environment that we work in is conducive to this wonderful, you know, work life harmony that perhaps some other industries get to enjoy.
Andy Povey: Emma loved. Everything you've got to say, everything you were just describing resonates so well. I've been in the attractions industry for 30 years. I've been in the queue line of a ride lane, tarmac without ever having done it before. No clue of what to do, but just hitting where I was told to at midnight on the day before ride opening. It's really interesting that what you've described are really some of the attributes that people, including myself, love about the industry. Anyway, I love the innovation, I love the change, I love the variety. But it's like anything in life, isn't it? Moderation is key. So if you've got too many of these things going off at the same time, then it's naturally stress inducing and can create that burnout.
Emma Newell: And what's interesting there is that those people that have been in the industry a very long time, them think that this is normal, that think that our bodies are supposed to be going through this every single day, 24/7, sometimes seven days a week, for weeks, months, years, decades. But it's actually for our bodies, which, let's face it, ultimately we are like animals, aren't we? That's how when we look at ourselves from a biological and physiological level, our bodies weren't designed to work in themed entertainment industry. So yeah, so if people are feeling that they are struggling slightly, then that would be natural.
Emma Newell: But what's interesting is the people that I meet and I interact with, both on a strategic level, plus when helping and supporting with their team cultures and also the one to one leadership coaching, is that because they don't recognize that they don't feel okay and because they work with lots of other people who are exactly the same situation, working exactly the same hours, under the same pressure. What that can mean is that the early warning signs are ignored and when they are ignored, that's when sometimes we then find ourselves in a situation. So if it was adrenal fatigue, for example, we might find ourselves in a situation, actually one day, one morning we just can't get out of bed, you know, that's switching off the world.
Emma Newell: Or if it's emotional, they might find that one day they just say, you know what, I can't do this anymore, I can't, I just can't. And of course it builds up over time, but it can act like a bang if you're not listening to those signs. So yeah, that's the main thing about this industry, I would say, is that it is feels normal, but to our bodies it's far from normal.
Andy Povey: So what I'm hearing from you and what I'm taking away while I'm listening is that we need to look at ourselves and watch and take some time to understand the situation we're in. You mentioned earlier that you don't and you're not going to provide tools and advice for an individual on how to improve, how do you address these things? In your life?
Emma Newell: Well, I have been on a wellness journey since. Since 2017 and it came from being burnt out. So, yes, I was. So I used to be a HR director for a large pharmaceutical company. And the story I told myself in my mind is that I needed to be the strongest person. And I unpicked that later on down the line as to why I felt I always had to be the strongest person. But I could guarantee you this that when people were angry, upset, you know, despondent, sad, low, I was always the one with the even temper. Okay. So I was always calm in a. I'm brilliant in a crisis. Always calm, always making people feel better. And I put my physical health to one side. Now, emotionally, I don't tend to suffer too much from emotional challenges, but physically, I ignored my body.
Emma Newell: And there are lots of weirder ways wonderful little illnesses can kind of popped up. So since 2017, I decided to take it seriously. And the way in which I did that is I started from looking within. Right. So I started by thinking, why do I push myself so hard? You know, questions like that, you know, why don't I prioritize my health? Asking myself, yeah, in what ways will you prioritise? Rest this week. And so I tend to. As a personal level, I tend to journal. Yeah, I've always been one of those people. I'm less of a talker. I'm more of someone who will start to write and see where the flow goes. Outside of that, the practical things that I do well, I go for a monthly massage and I make no apologies for that. I love a massage.
Emma Newell: One, it's 90 minutes of time just on my own with no. No notifications. But secondly, there is evidence to suggest that it increases your serotonin levels as well. I do a daily yoga meditation practice, mostly daily. Obviously I. We can't do it all the time, but for that, for me, and it's always different for everyone else, it gives me a huge amount of physical flexibility, so it reduces muscular discomfort. And it also really slows me down. And some of the best ideas I've come up with create creative ideas, have been through yoga. I do a lot of cooking from scratch. I just enjoy cooking from scratch. I really always have done. And. But also, like, weirdly, I kind of try absolutely everything. So I've tried so many things.
Emma Newell: So everything from sound baths to I go on annual yoga retreat every single year. I actually acted as a proactively. I actually work part time. Time. I made that decision to go part time. Yeah. And it's the best decision I ever made. And I just thought to myself, I'd rather go part time and reduce my incoming, you know, salary and anything that I'm spending than working some 50, 60 hours a week. So, I mean, the list that I do could go on forever. But in the summertime, I would say my wellness is much better because I am. There's a lot more oxygen going on. But the main thing that I would say has been the silver bullet for me as an individual is seasonal living. I don't know if you know what seasonal living.
Andy Povey: No, I'm interested.
Emma Newell: Okay. So we have it. So here in the Northern hemisphere, and particularly in England, we have very distinct seasons. And when we begin to embrace that each season can represent something completely different and that our bodies actually want us to embrace the seasons, then we move them in slightly different way with a slight different mindset. So the example is we are now in the winter season. So the winter season is asking our bodies to hibernate. Yeah. It's asking us to have longer night's sleep because it's darker. Right. So the body, you need to sleep. So whereas in the summer I might get seven hours sleep, actually the winter I need to be getting nine hours sleep. Sleep. I know it sounds ambitious, but I do get nine hours sleep every night, regardless of summer and winter. But so.
Emma Newell: And it's about kind of nurturing, it's about the hot, nutritious food, it's about staying in. Imagine yourself as this little seed, underground. Right. All these nutrients and you're kind of already still there, but it might be a bit bare on the outside. So actually during the winter months, albeit even though work can be busy, I make every effort not to go out. I make every effort to avoid meeting or interacting with people where, you know, do you want, they might accidentally zap some of my energy and I make sure I eat really well. Now that's winter. When we head to spring is the beginning of energy. So if you think about it like all that, you know, the greens and the flowers. So actually when spring starts to come out, we begin to get this balance.
Emma Newell: And spring equinox is a great time because it's equal day, equal night. And so we're beginning to kind of look out in the world. Imagine like you were that little seed or now there's little sprouts that are coming up. So we're still not going crazy, but we are going to spend some time, you know, outside a little bit more, thinking a little bit more about our goals. Where we want to go in life and then we hit the summer. Summer is all about abundance. Right. So summer's a great time to go out and go to the barbecues and meet friends and go on holiday. So summer is a wonderful time of abundance. And then we begin to tilt back into autumn. And autumn is beginning to go inward again. Me personally, the shift to autumn is not a nice time for me.
Emma Newell: So we, I've had to work and meditate on it, embracing the fact that we are now moving to darker nights. What's interesting is when I talk about the topic of summer being abundance, talking about long, you know, long days, long hours. A lot of us are trying to live our whole life like summer. Yeah. Where we can't. We're still going at everything at 100 miles an hour. In actual fact, the winter months are the most critical time of year just to rest and to restore. And so that could arguably lead to why November, December and January are months where people are just tired, Andy. Yeah. Going through the motions because their body is crazy, craving some rest. And ironically, the festive period of December hits exactly the wrong time of year bodies.
Emma Newell: So there's no wonder that January is a tough month for people. So, yeah, seasonal living. I, you know, I would thoroughly recommend anybody just taking a look at it and seeing if it's something that they'd be interested in.
Andy Povey: I love it. I absolutely love it. I have said for the past two or three years to my wife, the when my kids are at university, we're going to emigrate to southern Spain for the first quarter, January, February, March, because I, I don't enjoy the gray days, but maybe I should just change my opinion and engage from them in a different way. Very interesting. So you're the chair of the TEAWellness Council. What's that all about?
Emma Newell: Well, in 2004, September it was the TEA recognised that wellness, which is a very broad term, I know that, Andy, but wellness is a concern for the industry. And there were a number of sessions. There was one at one of their events called Inspire and there was a session where it was just a freestyle session where they talked about what happens when things go wrong. And that ended up having a huge amount of engagement. I then did a couple of these sessions. I mentioned burnout, reversal, managing uncertainty, again, huge amount of engagement. And Clara Rice, who is a long standing member of the industry, she made the suggestion with Matt Barton, let's set up a wellness council. Which then began. I've now taken on as the chair. Now a wellness council is different to a committee.
Emma Newell: So we're not a committee of people trying to change everybody's lives. Right. And we're certainly not a group of people that would tell people how to live their life. I've already talked about that. That can be very patronising. But what it does have is a group of 12 very committed volunteer members who all have a passion in that area. And what we've been able to do based on a survey that has recently gone out for the last three months, which is closed now, but on a survey to be able to create a, a strategy for the council. And the council is an advisory board and the strategy has essentially three pillars. The first one is to create on the TEA website some wellness resources for those that might be interested.
Emma Newell: And we know that we have a lot of access to all the information that we could possibly need right now. But about some little bite sized chunks that might be particularly relevant to the industry. Everything from managing trade shows to those, you know, how to reward your team after a map project, those kind of kinds of things. There's also the area of industry events, so lots of different TEA events and a lot of them are fast going. Lots of fun design adverts like thoroughly, I absolutely, thoroughly love the TEA events. But is there a way in which we can consider wellness sort of underpinning some of the design from it? You know, whether that be the daylight amounts, whether that be how much amount breaks might be in there. So we're going to be looking into that.
Emma Newell: And then finally we're creating some virtual wellness events and we call them virtual because we wanted to have maximum accessibility to our members. So we're doing three of them this year on particular topics. And it's the kind of area that if you're interested then feel free to, you know, jump in and learn. If it's not for you and you're doing okay, that's all right as well.
Andy Povey: Absolutely.
Emma Newell: Yeah.
Andy Povey: I think that's the big thing I'm taking from all of this conversation is that there is no one answer. We're all different and everybody needs a different approach. So the Wellness Council, are you looking at resources to help employers help their team or are you looking at things for individuals who are seeking help themselves?
Emma Newell: Interestingly, the wellness survey that went out last year, there were number of respondents, 91 in total. And we don't remember that. That's a small population of people. Yeah, we understand that. Yeah. From a data perspective, but of that data, more than 50% of the respondents said that they were struggling with stress. Struggling or just surviving when it came to stress. Right. 50% of respondents over that said that from the ability to switch off from work that they were struggling or just surviving with their ability to switch off from work. So there is definitely a piece here around the individuals themselves. And we have a virtual wellness event on the 13th of March and it's on the topic of boundaries and personal boundaries from a management perspective. Over 50% of managers have said that they are lost about what to do with their team.
Emma Newell: Teams just don't know what to do. Like they see it, like they understand it. They're burnt out themselves, they've just lost about what to do. So I'm working with the council, we meet every two months about what we can do specifically to separate those people that want to look at it from an individual perspective and what we can do for leaders. Because I mentioned before that a lot of the companies within themed entertainment industry, often smaller companies, so it's not like they've got huge leadership programs and massive budgets to be able to do anything. You know, some of them are three or four people, 15 people, less than 200 people. I've mentioned before about the volatility of revenue. Well, you know, it can be really tough to know what to do. So yes, we are going to come up with some practical advice.
Emma Newell: So that will come up both through the website. We'll also have a special virtual wellness event as well, helping to support managers to try to get out of the cycle. Right. But what I would say if you're a leader right now and you're listening, I would say listen to yourself first because as a leader you cannot support other people when you are burnt out yourself.
Andy Povey: Very true. And there's also that leading by example. You need to demonstrate, don't you, that it is appropriate.
Emma Newell: Yeah, it's a fine balance because you want to lead by example, by making sure you log off and making sure you take holidays and you're going to the gym or whatever it is means to you. But if you've got a team of people working 80 hour weeks, it can look very selfish. Right. Very tough balance. But there, if there's one phrase I love, is that self care isn't selfish. You often think, oh, you know, it's self indulgent to look after ourselves, but we mustn't forget all the other people that get to benefit when you are healthy, when you are switched on, when you are in your window of tolerance. Yeah. Who else gets to benefit? Well, if you're a leader Then all your direct reports get to benefit.
Emma Newell: And let's also not forget as a leader, that burnt out employees do create more errors. They reduce customer service, your innovation is reduced as well and ultimately your profits are reduced. So I sat there as an HR director once trying to present wellness initiatives and why it was important. And in the end I just had to hit the bottom line that, you know, companies can earn up to 18% more profit in a year by having a healthy workforce. And there's numerous statistics that will support that. And so you tell a financial controller that or a financial director that you can make more money if we stop burning everybody out when they're bigger to listen, it's a shame you have to come in on the profit line, but sometimes you've got to do what you've got to do.
Andy Povey: Absolutely. Well, I mean, it's the whole person, isn't it? It's the whole body, the whole entity. So there are different, we all have different triggers, we all have different things that we, that fire our buttons and make us sit and understand. So what's the long term vision for wellness within TEA and what do you see going off in the industry more broadly around the world? That's agenda.
Emma Newell: Yeah, it's a great question. Somebody asked me, do you think you could change the industry? I said no, like I don't think a group of 12 volunteers at TEA can change the industry. And the industry isn't changing. All right? I can't see a way in which suddenly revenue stabilizes, that suddenly projects don't go wrong that suddenly we are, you know, time zones have somehow magically disappeared. So the industry isn't changing. All we can do is change our response to the stimulus, which is the industry. Okay, okay, yeah. So examples can be, so you and I will have a different level of response to different stimulus. And again, window of tolerance could make a really big difference. So I might look at 100 emails and have a moment where I can't do this anymore. All this I'm on, I'm drowning.
Emma Newell: And you might look at 100 emails and go, right, well I'll work through them and prioritise them and I'll get back to the people that I can't, you know, can't properly get back today. And I'm sure it's all going to be fine. Right. The same comes to like any kind of like crisis that might be happening around. You know, some people will naturally lean into a crisis and be like, right, well come on then. We'll work it out. The world won't end and other people will see it in a slightly different way. So what? All I can say is the industry is never going to change around us. Outside of the industry, the world has got some challenges going on. It's all about perception. And that's what the body needs to understand, is that the perception of danger is low.
Emma Newell: And when we begin to understand more about something called the autonomic nervous system ans and there are two branches to that nervous system. The first one is sympathetic and the second one is parasympathetic. Sympathetic is our fight or flight. It's the production of adrenaline, it's the production of cortisol. It's an absolutely essential part of our nervous system that helps us get up in the morning, keeps us motivated, keeps our brain sharp. This is great. We love the sympathetic nervous system, but like anything else, any strength overused eventually becomes a weakness. And what we find as humans is we're spending way too much time in this sympathetic stage and not enough time in something called parasympathetic. Now, parasympathetic is our rest and digest state. And we're actually, our bodies need to be encouraged to move into rest and digest.
Emma Newell: So how do we encourage it to move into rest and digest? And when we're in that state, we are. You know, our body isn't. When we say rest, it's not doing nothing. Our body is regulating its blood pressure. Right. It's regenerating cells, it's regenerating your muscles, it's growing your bones, it's growing blood. There's lots and lots of things that are happening when we're in rest and digest. So how do we get there? Well, a half of it is going to be switching off from work, guaranteed. And now you might say, Emma, you don't know my emails, you don't know my inbox, you don't know my manager. I can't switch off. Well, you're going to have to try because the body needs you to. It really needs you to. There tends to be two ways you can switch off.
Emma Newell: The first one is to do something deeply relaxing, which is great for the body, but does the mind truly switch off? Don't know. The other way to be able to switch off is often to do something physical. Yeah. So whether it be gardening, going to the gym, going for a walk, something like that, something where you can distract yourself. I know some who suffer a huge amount of emotional stress in their daytime, but actually when they play squash in the evenings. They don't have time to think about their emails all flying around and, you know, all that kind of stuff. So, yeah, so it's about how you distract yourself. And I do have some good reading recommendations should anybody be interested. I'll be very happy to share that.
Andy Povey: We'll absolutely take those and put those in the show. Notes, notes. Thank you, Emma. Interesting. You talk about email and the volume of emails. I had a colleague many years ago who on return from a holiday, first thing he'd always do would be delete the entire contents of his inbox to remove the stress of having huge number of emails to run through every year, every time he returned from holiday.
Emma Newell: Yeah, I have heard that technique. It doesn't necessarily work for the person who says sent the email.
Andy Povey: No, no, absolutely doesn't. Murray wasn't that concerned about them at that point. Murray, if you're listening, sorry.
Emma Newell: I say, 20 years in HR, like, you know, you'd be sending these emails to managers who are then ignoring it anyway. They come back from holiday and you're like, oh, so yeah, for the, the rest of us who are have a list of people to chase, then we end up resending the email. But yeah, I mean it is certainly the way in which you reintroduce yourself back to your workload that, I mean, that's the key to what you're saying, right? Like, and being able out and saying, do you know what? I'm going to relax, put on a candle, little bit of nice music, spend two hours calmly going through my emails.
Andy Povey: So to summarise or to bring this all to a close for any of our listeners who are feeling a little overwhelmed at the moment, what piece of advice would you give them right now?
Emma Newell: Well, as I move away from advice, so to speak, what I would say is consider where you are living in the world right now. If you're in northern hemisphere and winter, then this is the time to slow down. Without a doubt. If you are in the southern hemisphere and you're in your summer, then you might just be running at 100 miles an hour. Slowing down is essential. What I would say is that whilst I talk about emotional health and physical health, I tend to not move into the topic of mental health. And do not underestimate that if you are concerned about your mental health to seek a professional advice. I think that's really important to do it early, almost like housekeeping, rather than necessarily waiting for it to get too far.
Emma Newell: So emotional health is probably the biggest challenge we're going to have in January. So final things I'll say that I to tend. I tend to do so. I love walking around barefoot, but in the winter I'm not going to do that in my garden. I have a grounding mat under my desk as I'm sitting right here right now, which actually creates this sort of neutral energy that's running through my body. So that's kind of recreating the energy I might feel. I have a sad lamp by my desk that I often use and I genuinely feel much better about that kind of produces the serotonin in the body. The body is absolutely convinced it's getting some sunlight in there. I'm completely ramping up on all my nutritious food because actually, you know, my, you know, my brain health, it needs to be invested in.
Emma Newell: There's lots of research on different nutrients that are really powerful for us. I'm not pushing my body physically too hard as well, but also I am prioritising rest and that is the key to it. And you know what? Sometimes I am tired at 8 o' clock at night and I think to myself, I'm going to read a book and I'm going to get an early night. And it's as simple as that. And I make no apologies for prioritising rest. So that's a few of the things that I do. But I'm sure that you and your listeners will automatically, if you take a moment, you know, which activities make you feel better.
Andy Povey: Listen to yourselves.
Emma Newell: Yeah. Do you have any, Andy, is there any that you think that, you know, makes you know, you. Makes you feel better after.
Andy Povey: A couple of years ago, I spent a lot of time walking every morning, first hour of the day, something like that, maybe even two hours. It's obviously a lot easier when the sun's out, but I've listened. Never. I'm going out for a stroll.
Today's episode was written by Sami Entwistle, edited by Steve Folland and produced by Emily Burrows and Sami Entwistle from Plaster, as well as Wenalyn from Skip the Queue HQ.
If you enjoyed today's episode, please, like, share and even comment on the episode in your podcast app. It all helps to spread the word. Once again, thank you for listening. I've been your host, Andy Povey. See you next time.