Much like the rest of the country, workers in Rhode Island’s offices, factories and stores huddled around radios and TV sets yesterday to find out the latest details about the terrorist attacks in New York City and Washington, D.C.
Although the day quickly drew comparisons to Pearl Harbor, it became clear that yesterday’s chain of events was unlike anything in U.S. history. And experts say the nature and magnitude of the attack makes it difficult to project how people’s emotions will play out.
“In many ways this is an unprecedented event in the life of this country,” said Donn Posner, Ph.D., a behavioral psychologist in anxiety disorders at Rhode Island Hospital’s Department of Psychiatry. “That makes it hard to gauge how people will react and how long it will last.”
For businesses, it might be difficult for owners and managers to decide what they should do, because reactions will vary greatly between individual employees, Posner said, adding that emotions yesterday ran the gamut, from anger and sadness to fear and anxiety.
Generally, businesses should allow employees to share their experiences among each other and should allow workers latitude in how the cope with the tragedy, he said.
“People’s ability to focus on their work after something like this is going to vary widely,” Posner said. “If workers feel like they need to talk about it or do something or whatever it is, by all means (employers) should, within reason, give them the opportunity to do that,” Posner said.
He also said employers should encourage workers to speak to counselors or use a company-sponsored employee-assistance program if one is available.
But the emotions stirred by yesterday’s events go beyond the sadness and grieving that typically follow big tragedies. Yesterday’s attacks left a palpable cloud of anxiety that could linger, Posner said.
“In many ways this is an ongoing situation. It’s not over,” Posner said. “People are still waiting to see what happens next, to find out who did this and how it happened. Until they have some of those answers, it seems to me that a lot of those emotions are going to run pretty high.”
Posner said the anxiety factor could be the most difficult feeling for people to overcome.
“We all walk around with this general sense of safety, and when something like this occurs, that’s stripped away,” he said. “It’s very hard to get that back.”
