How to Identify Trauma: Social Effects

According to Dr. Resmaa Menakem, a traumatic event can be succinctly defined as “A thing or things that happened either too much, too soon, too fast, or too long without something being attended to by something reparative or healing.” After a dangerous workplace incident, trauma can appear in many forms. From stomachaches to a change in work habits, it may be difficult to tell what a change in an employee’s behavior is showing about their psyche. If a trauma-inducing workplace incident has occurred, here are a few social changes that supervisors and coworkers can look out for in their fellow employees to ensure they get the help they need.

What is a Social Trauma Response?

A social trauma response is one that changes the way that the traumatized individual interacts with the people in their life, and these are typically easier for others to pick up on. The employee may begin to self-isolate, with their coworkers noticing that they distance themselves emotionally or physically from the group. Oppositely, they may begin to treat their coworkers with increased protectiveness, possibly leading to them becoming angry or volatile over mistakes. Both changes in behavior are signs of unresolved trauma, and should alert those working alongside them to direct the traumatized employee to appropriate support.

They also may, if the traumatic event happened to a group of employees, show signs of trauma bonding. Trauma bonding refers to a rapidly developed closeness between employees after a traumatic event, which can initiate a cautious balance between exclusion and protection. The group may respond adversely to new employees being added to their group, either excluding them for “not understanding” the depth and danger of the traumatic event or being overly protective of them to shelter them from any future trauma. This can cause tensions between employee groups, and is one of the reasons workplace trauma is linked to increased bullying and harassment.

Signs for Supervisors

Empathetic leadership can significantly impact the effect of a traumatic event on a supervisor’s workforce. When a workplace shows trauma signs, it may appear to a supervisor that employees are being “lazy,” leading them to withdraw their support when their support is most necessary. Social trauma signs for supervisors may look like the following:

• Lowered productivity caused by increased mental weight and difficulty with cooperation.
• Deterioration of team culture caused by a mixture of fear, aggression, self-isolation, and trauma bonding in the face of an incident.
• Increased errors, lower quality work caused by both a fear of making future mistakes and the onset of executive dysfunction.
• Higher staff turnover caused by discomfort in the workplace after the traumatic event, as well as the failure of management to provide the proper support.

Solutions

With socially focused trauma responses, the most important thing an employee can do is act. When trauma is noticed, it can be addressed in a healthy and productive manner, moving the individual from fear to resilience. Connecting the employee to the necessary resources, whether that be therapy, peer support groups, or an empathetic supervisor can mean the difference between life and death for that person, and protect the workplace from further traumatizing incidents.

If you would like to become a psychologically safe workplace, check out Barb Carr’s Psychology of Improvement Track at the 2025 TapRooT® Summit.

For more information about traumatic incidents in the workplace, check out our podcast video, How Near Misses Impact Workers Emotionally.

To know how to develop a more trauma-informed environment, visit Whitney Marris’ Workplace Toolkit.

To read more about how workplace incidents impact employee psychology, read our blog on The Psychological Impact of Near Misses.