{"id":839675,"date":"2026-09-07T17:02:16","date_gmt":"2026-09-07T17:02:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/839675\/"},"modified":"2026-09-07T17:02:16","modified_gmt":"2026-09-07T17:02:16","slug":"back-to-school-stress-follows-employees-to-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/839675\/","title":{"rendered":"Back-to-school stress follows employees to work"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Back-to-school season increases workplace stress for nearly a third of workers in Canada, an ADP survey finds.bluecinema\/iStockPhoto \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n

This is the weekly Work Life newsletter. If you are interested in more careers-related content, sign up<\/a> to receive it in your inbox.<\/p>\n

September brings new schedules, new routines and new responsibilities for millions of Canadians. Those changes don\u2019t disappear when parents arrive at work.<\/p>\n

ADP Canada\u2019s latest Happiness@Work Index<\/a> finds that back-to-school season increases workplace stress for nearly a third of workers in Canada.<\/p>\n

Among those affected by the season, 24 per cent report increased workloads and responsibilities, while 21 per cent point to changes in their daily commutes or routines and 18 per cent cite higher financial expenses.<\/p>\n

For employers, that makes back-to-school more than a personal or family issue. It\u2019s a predictable workplace transition that managers can plan for, says Vergia Davidson, an Ottawa-based registered psychotherapist and founder of workplace mental health consultancy Strive Mental Health, Wellness & Empowerment Inc.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really important to know that when we\u2019re talking about change management, it\u2019s helping to navigate transitions and being proactive around that,\u201d she says. \u201cSo employers or managers might think, \u2018Oh, this is a family thing,\u2019 but it follows workers within the work environment.\u201d<\/p>\n

The challenge is partly the sheer number of new, personal demands competing for an employee\u2019s attention, which includes visible and invisible work. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe invisible work is remembering, it\u2019s anticipating, making decisions, the adjustment piece,\u201d Ms. Davidson says. \u201cThen there\u2019s the visible work, the transportation, the childcare, there\u2019s filling out the forms on top of your regular work.\u201d<\/p>\n

That can result in stress, distraction and difficulty focusing. <\/p>\n

Ms. Davidson says managers can reduce some of the pressure by making work itself more predictable. That can mean clearly identifying the top three priorities for the week, explaining what can wait, communicating consistently and giving employees an early warning when plans change.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you don\u2019t give people time to process and clear expectations, naturally there\u2019s going to be a lot of miscommunication,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Small temporary changes can help, too. A manager might adjust an employee\u2019s start time, move a 9 a.m. meeting later or offer some flexibility around school drop-off and pickup. <\/p>\n

And because September arrives every year, employers don\u2019t have to wait for employees to struggle before responding. Ms. Davidson suggests managers begin conversations about what their teams may need during the first few weeks of the transition \u2013 but it\u2019s not too late to start right now. <\/p>\n

It doesn\u2019t require a new corporate program. Sometimes, planning around a predictable disruption is enough.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople remember when you think about them,\u201d Ms. Davidson says, \u201cand it definitely builds trust for future things that you need their buy-in for.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fast factSchool schedules <\/p>\n

29 per cent<\/p>\n

That\u2019s how many Canadian workers say flexible working hours would be the most helpful accommodation during the back-to-school season, according to ADP Canada\u2019s latest Happiness@Work Index. <\/p>\n

Read more<\/a><\/p>\n

Career guidanceMath matters <\/p>\n

As artificial intelligence gets better at math, it may be tempting to hand the number-crunching over to machines \u2013 but that doesn\u2019t mean humans can stop thinking about math. <\/p>\n

In this Harvard Business Review article, Harsha V. Misra argues that strong decision-making depends on understanding the math behind it. As AI takes on more of the calculations, workers still need to keep their skills sharp so they can sanity-check models, make reasonable estimates and think in probabilities when problems are messy or uncertain. <\/p>\n

Read more<\/a><\/p>\n

QuotedChildhood clues <\/p>\n

\u201cWhat if your present-day leadership limitations aren\u2019t a result of a lack of critical thinking skills, knowledge or experience? What if your inability as a leader to connect with others lies in your past? What if what you learned and practiced as a child has a much deeper influence on you than you realize?\u201d <\/p>\n

In this Globe article, Harvey Schachter pulls insights from executive coach and organizational psychologist Pam Manfredo Curtis\u2019s book The Origin of a Leader. <\/p>\n

Read more<\/a><\/p>\n

On our radarPurpose problem <\/p>\n

What is burnout, really? This article in Fast Company puts a spotlight on how burnout is increasingly less about the sheer volume of work and more about a lack of meaning and purpose, especially for younger workers. <\/p>\n

Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Back-to-school season increases workplace stress for nearly a third of workers in Canada,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":839676,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[60],"tags":[524,33288,33289,33285,33284,14093,33290,97,134,259,260,4910,24296,33287,22143,33286],"class_list":["post-839675","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mental-health","tag-career-advice","tag-career-leadership","tag-careers-globe-and-mail","tag-careers-newsletter","tag-careersnewsletter","tag-future-of-work","tag-globe-and-mail-newsletter","tag-health","tag-jobs","tag-mental-health","tag-mentalhealth","tag-newsletter","tag-noastack","tag-thought-leadership","tag-workplace-culture","tag-your-life-at-work"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/839675","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=839675"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/839675\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/839676"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=839675"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=839675"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=839675"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}