Psychological Resilience at work

Dr. Nadia Buhannad

In psychology, resilience is the ability to adapt and quickly recover from traumatic events, stress, or situations that rises a person’s stress level. It is considered a person’s psychological immunity that strengthens him/her from within.

Resilience is consistently being positive. It is the ability to easily deal with difficult situations, in addition to not showing excessive negative emotions during difficult times.

At work, flexibility helps the employee to recover from the difficult experiences he/she may go through, as well as it  contributes to employees growth and development. Some studies indicated that the employee who is resilient in a difficult situation becomes prepared to deal with more difficult situations in the future.

Why resilience is important?

In addition to being able to work, resiliency contributes to  creating opportunities for growth and self-learning that comes with change and makes the employee more active. Research also shows that resilience can be a buffer against problems in the organization, enabling organizations to remain profitable and competitive even during troubled times. One study indicated that employee’s resiliency is associated with lower stress and that people with low resiliency are four times more likely to experience exhaustion and stress. Resiliency is also associated with increased work participation, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment.

Research also shows that resilient employees have certain behavior that help them stay optimistic despite setbacks or uncertainty. These behaviors are:

1. Emotional regulation: It is the ability to identify and respond to one’s own emotions effectively.
2. Self-compassion: It is the ability to be kind to oneself in difficult situations, and not resort to self-criticism and self-flagellation.
3. Cognitive regulation: It is the ability to be aware of one’s own thoughts, whether they are positive or negative, with the ability to change negative thoughts into positive ones. An optimistic person is six times more resilient than others.
4. Positive self-talk: It means a person’s awareness of the nature of his resiliency, whether it is strong, normal, or low needs improvement

Developing resiliency is not difficult, it requires continuous training and patience as it not only contributes to employee’s performance development but also becomes part of his/her personality. Resilience is an important factor in a person’s psychological and mental health.