Staff and audience wellbeing

Staff and audience wellbeing relates to the risk of actions having a negative impact on staff, audience and users’ wellbeing.

Unsupportive work environment

Environment is unsupportive for engaging in potentially upsetting histories, and single members of staff are required to take part in upsetting conversations. Staff member feels overwhelmed, those participating do not feel they are able to engage deeply in content, situations escalate beyond the capacity of one staff member to manage. Performance and engagement breaks down or staff require unexpected time off as a result.

Mitigations for risk

  • Make sure staff engage in pairs or groups when entering discussions. Provide access to a trained person (e.g. HR reps, Inclusion Champions, Mental Health First Aiders, Councillors, and Mentors) who can be reached out to for extra guidance and support.
  • If working in a solo capacity, create distance between questions and responses, i.e. if working online ask for questions in advance or note that questions would be answered by a certain time, to allow space for seeking support or further research. If during an event, create question forms and ask the enquirer to write/share their question and contact information, and respond at a later date.

Lack of mental health support

Lack of effective managerial support on wellbeing and mental health in the workplace. In addition, there is a lack of awareness around the impact of working with potentially upsetting histories, and engaging in conversations around potentially upsetting histories with the public. Wellbeing and work performance suffers. See also Legal Obligations point 3 for related content.

Mitigations for risk

  • Commit to an ongoing review and assessment of mental health and wellbeing support tools in the workplace to meet the needs of evolving conversations and content, with continued awareness training included as part of Continued Professional Development. Provide clear, accessible HR guidelines on mental health support.
  • Put support in place from a mental health first aider or Manager, or an external professional wellbeing support provider.
  • Put procedures in place that enable staff to raise concerns with their line manager, or with nominated officers who have been appointed to advise on questions of inclusion, e.g. HR reps, Inclusion Champions, Mental Health First Aiders, Councillors, Mentors. Implement robust complaints procedures to help resolve disputes – including access to mediators.

Known risks are not mitigated

A member of staff identifies a risk but doesn’t feel equipped, confident or secure to speak on the risk and it goes unmitigated.

Mitigations for risk

  • Ensure clear communication channels are in place to identify risk and to assess them across multiple levels of seniority, with access to an independent nominated officer if impartiality is needed or wanted.
  • Foster a working culture that encourages critical engagement and discourse, working towards continued improvement and positive change.

Psychological harm

Psychological harm to staff and participants during potentially upsetting or difficult communication centred on narratives from the archives, which required emotional labour. This leads to staff feeling unsafe or unable to perform their role for short or long periods of time.

Mitigations for risk

  • Ensure barriers that prevent staff disclosing mental health and wellbeing issues with safety are identified and addressed by line management on an ongoing basis.
  • Commit to an ongoing review and assessment of mental health and wellbeing support tools in the workplace to meet the needs of evolving conversations and content, with continued awareness training included as part of Continued Professional Development. Provide clear, accessible HR guidelines on mental health support.
  • Write and share guidelines on how your service works towards positive learning environments and exchanges internally for staff and between staff and public. This should include the protection in place for staff and what action will be taken against unaccepted behaviours in person and online.

Staff affected by conversations with public

Upsetting histories effecting employees and staff by association. As representatives of the archive, staff are seen as contact points for the emotional responses to potentially upsetting histories, particularly if they act in a capacity as a consistent point of contact for users on an emotional journey. Employees and staff become distressed as a result of the archival content but users and the public’s response to the content.

Mitigations for risk

  • Provide HR and managerial support in managing potentially upsetting or difficult conversations. Ensure access to current definitions and research on the topic. Maintain up to date sources of referral.
  • Maintain clear security procedures on site for engagement in the workplace. Make sure security procedures are in place physically or online to remove abusive persons from situations to protect others, as well as awareness of procedures to report Hate Crimes.
  • Commit to an ongoing review and assessment of mental health and wellbeing support tools in the workplace to meet the needs of evolving conversations and content, with continued awareness training included as part of Continued Professional Development. Provide clear, accessible HR guidelines on mental health support.
  • Put support in place from a mental health first aider or Manager, or an external professional wellbeing support provider.

Difficulty managing emotions

Inconsistent confidence levels on inclusion work resulting in challenges between co-workers and stakeholders (across all levels) on best practice of communicating potentially upsetting histories. Managing emotions during these exchanges results in strain, emotional toil, or the potential for disagreement and risk of uncomfortable working environments.

Mitigations for risk

  • Ensure all staff receive the same training on best practice around inclusion and diversity, and are required to reinvest in this training as Continued Professional Development.
  • Managing emotions during best practice or the potential of having to correct others is framed within Continuous Professional Development (CPD) Training, including conflict resolution.
  • Make sure best practice is communicated from most senior positions in organisation as well as sharing good practice undertaken by teams.

Ongoing exposure to upsetting histories

Ongoing exposure to potentially upsetting histories occurs for staff and participants, resulting in desensitisation to their impact. As the capacity to fully appreciate the emotional reaction to a collection decreases, the risk in using the archival collection increases due to possible reduced empathy.

Mitigations for risk

  • Build a peer network or colleague support into the process to ensure, where possible, multiple viewpoints are present to identify potentially upsetting content.
  • Continued Professional Development recognises the potential of desensitisation and reflects on training or references to identify this.
  • Implement a rotation of duties and/or projects where possible, so that long term exposure to potentially upsetting histories is either interrupted or not continuous.
  • Make sure time and space are provided for stakeholders to process the emotional impact from collections, and to recognise if any emotion is being supressed.

Inadequate data protection

Adequate protection is not considered for service users referenced within archival collections. Material is shared, reinterpreted or used by archival professionals that contains personal details of those still living or with family members still living. This causes distress. In addition, descendants may be directly affected by the archival choices made during communication.

Mitigations for risk

  • Follow guidance in our Data Protection toolkit, including details of exemptions and responsibilities for archives with data protection laws.
  • Consider in advance what can be shared legally, what can be licenced from the collection digitally, or what is allowed to go offsite physically. Communicate clearly and in advance to other staff and stakeholders.
  • Discuss the archival material with colleagues or peer networks in advance, giving a wide scope of professional opinion responding to the contents.
  • Consider the impact of using material in advance, as this will inform decisions around progression. Examples include outing an individual historical figure as LGBTQ, and/or having mental health challenges, and/or a criminal record. Take time and maintain sensitivity when considering if use has repercussions on living members of the community.
  • Hostile public reaction

Possible escalations as a reaction to potentially upsetting histories. These escalations could result in physical harm to employees, staff and collections, or verbal abuse from staff or service users, leading to a suspension of service access. Demonstrations could potentially block access to collections or inhibit staff in their role and performance.

Mitigations for risk

  • Ensure on site security procedures are clear about engagement in the workplace. Make sure security procedures are in place physically or online to remove abusive persons from situations in order to protect others. In addition, make sure there is an awareness of how to report Hate Crimes.
  • Ensure ability to meet safety regulations for all onsite personnel

Lack of private spaces

Readers have emotional and/or physical reactions to potentially upsetting histories (such as end of life narratives or identity disclosure of individuals who may be living or have living family members) but are not supported by resources available, including physical space, to process reactions privately. For example, a member of staff, participant or service user requests a space for privacy during an emotional reaction, and the archive space does not offer this, resulting in additional distress.

Mitigations for risk

  • Consider the service layout in advance. Consider also what resources are in place to support someone during, for example, experiences of grief or anger, and accommodate independent access to these resources.
  • Think about how space is used, including how spaces could be reframed as quiet spaces, prayer space, or private space to facilitate periods of reflection or breast feeding, for example.

Upsetting imagery

Use of images relating to potentially upsetting histories in events, displays, marketing, lectures, presentations and online sharing could directly impact on the wellbeing of employees, staff and service users. The archival material becomes a barrier to access without clearly defined ethical consideration of its use. Safeguarding is compromised by communications around potentially upsetting histories.

Mitigations for risk

  • Only show potentially upsetting images (identified by exploration of what a potentially upsetting history might be) if it’s essential or requested, and an appropriate content warning can be shared in advance.
  • Support conversations with adequate referral sources for the employee to a relevant professional body or charity.
  • Remember that safeguarding considers on site collection use and online collection use separately; recognise that each has distinct risks associated and mitigation needed.
  • Ensure all images and their use are subject to ethical consideration first, with a clearly defined purpose.
  • Provide clear notice on the content and context before the images are encountered.

Profiling and unconscious bias

Profiling, assumed identities and unconscious bias negatively impacting on or instigate uncomfortable and potentially upsetting communication in the workplace. Engagement, communication and work-based performance are compromised.

Mitigations for risk

  • Do not objectify service users, staff, or persons to whom records relate, based only on elements of their identity. Focus communication less on person’s identities and more on themes, or moments in time.
  • Define protocol on recognising and acting upon micro and macroaggressions in the workplace.
  • Protect confidentiality of staff by non-disclosure of identity or personal information. Follow Data Protection guidance.
  • Provide training and resources which highlight the risk of unconscious bias and the negative implication of stereotypes.
  • Ensure continued access to updated resources and information that explicitly contains shared lived experience on this topic.

Objectification of personal histories

Service users, participants or staff offer information on personal trauma in response to collections which is then used to promote a project. (Seen for example in social media content or a publicised quote). This has the potential to alienate those involved; they feel objectified, reduce their wellbeing or re-traumatise.

Mitigations for risk

  • Share only for a clear ethical purpose and with explicit consent provided.
  • Safely destroy any unused responses or sharing that speaks of personal trauma that isn’t archived.
  • Gather more than one staff member or a working group to consider material before use, to offer additional perspective.
  • Protect confidentiality of all by non-disclosure of identity or personal information. Follow Data Protection guidance.
  • Ensure a HR policy is in place to enable checking in with staff at all times to see if they feel comfortable with sharing information on personal trauma and/or lived-experience with public. Consider that adding authenticity creates a risk of emotional labour or feeling of exploitation in employees and staff.
  • Notify participants about topics in advance of participation so informed decisions can be made about potential triggers and the emotional labour likely during exchange.
  • If asking a staff member to talk about trauma, mitigate the situation by having a HR point of contact available, and be very clear that the individual can define their boundaries.