De Jong has a theory on how people react when faced with more than one crisis at a time – they react differently. He refers to this situation as a ‘polycrisis’, where a number of crises are stacked on top of each other.
“In a normal crisis, you go into the depth of the crisis, and then you climb out of it, and move through a reconstruction phase so that you are ready for when the next crisis hits,” he explains. “But with a polycrisis, we start to reconstruct but then fall into the next crisis. This affects human behaviour and decision-making, and how we work together.”
He admits that a polycrisis is not the happiest of topics, but then each of the constituent parts on their own are not good – inflation, threat of recession, war, energy price hikes, fears over the banking sector and the legacy of the pandemic. And overarching these is the climate crisis.
“Especially for the younger generations, climate anxiety is real,” he says. “For the older generations, the climate crisis did not take hold until after our formative years. But for those in their teens, it has a big impact on your outlook on life.”
This leads neatly on to his second observation, which he will also address at the ACT conference – mental health. “A mental health crisis started during the COVID-19 pandemic, and all the indicators are pointing in the wrong direction,” he says. “And this is having an effect on the social unrest that we are seeing – strikes in the UK, riots in France, and in the Netherlands we have just seen the electoral success of the [populist] Farmers’ Party.”
He argues that it is easy to forget that when people are anxious they are not in the best mental place to deal with an uncertain future. “Young people say the future is a scary place, it is loaded with negativity.”
And this frequently reveals itself in the workplace. “Business leaders need to understand that the younger generation is different, they have been raised differently. When we look at mental health data, the group that is doing best is aged between 40 and 55, which is leading the group that is doing the worst.
“The leaders believe that if everyone works hard, and stays optimistic, we will get through this. But we are now in a polycrisis, so it is different.”
De Jong does, however, see a ray of optimism. “We are now beginning to talk about mental health much more openly. If we break a leg, we will talk about it, and we are now seeing a paradigm shift where mental health is no different.”
Technology is also a contributing factor to heightened anxiety, de Jong says. “Will we be replaced by technology? How will we deal with this? In a polycrisis, people are reluctant to change as we become numb and tired.” And yet, he believes technology will improve the world of work, and he is optimistic that experiments such as the four-day week will improve productivity. “Like professional athletes, we need to rest to perform well. If we take care of ourselves, then we can take care of others and build up our mental energy.”
And that could be the key to surviving the current polycrisis – greater mental energy will build resilience and allow a better response to the combined crises.
Thimon de Jong will be the keynote speaker at this year’s ACT Annual Conference, 16-17 May, at the ICC Wales, Newport, UK. For information about the event, click here.
Philip Smith is editor of The Treasurer