Dealing with Employees Troubled due to Trauma

 

Overview

 

Santa Barbarans are moving into the recovery phase of the Tea Fire. Recovery is hardly a return to normal. Consider the ways we’ve been affected:

 

1.     Many of us have lost our homes in total or in part. We don’t know yet how much damage we sustained, and what it will cost to repair or replace.

2.     Many of us have lost our pets.

3.     We have friends or families who have lost their homes. They are experiencing emotional reactions, including a feeling of helplessness, or possibly denial or resentment

4.     We may not have experienced a direct impact; however, we may be feeling fearful or sad for others in our community. .

5.     Or, we may have diverted disaster to the degree that we don’t understand why others are so upset.

 

What does this mean for you as an employer? You have:

1.     Employees directly affected who cannot get to work, no roof over their head, no clothing of their own, and for all practical purposes, have lost everything?

2.     Employees who have family members directly affected who are relying on your employee to help them, and therefore causing them to miss work? Or who if they’re at work, they’re distracted and cannot perform at optimal levels?

 

What are you doing about?

1)    Helping them cope so they can concentrate on key work tasks—if they’re able to work?

2)    Absences: paid for time unable to work?

a.     Pay regular pay for X number of days?

b.     Have them take vacation pay?

c.     Let them use Sick Leave?

d.     Allow other employees to donate sick leave or vacation pay?

3)    Compassionate Leave?

4)    Pay advances?

5)    Employee emergency loans?

6)    Other employees who want to take up collections, arrange for donated clothing, a place to stay. Will you allow for special collections?

 

 

Signs of Performance Problems (From “Leading People Through Disasters”)

 

What about employees affected with emotional problems? What will you do? The behavioral problems listed below are warning signals that managers need to confront and document, but before you leap into progressive discipline, Consider Critical Incident Stress Debriefings to help employees deal with:

1. Absenteeism, including:
1. Unauthorized leave
2. Excessive sick leave
3. Monday absences, Friday absences, or Monday and Friday absences (could be related to increased alcohol or drug usage)
4. Repeated absences of 2 to 4 days
5. More than one absences of 1 to 2 weeks (5 to 10 days)
6. Excessive tardiness, especially on Monday mornings or when returning from lunch (again, may be substance abuse)
7. Often leaving work early
8. Peculiar and increasingly improbable excuses for absences
9. Higher absenteeism rate than other employees for colds, flu, gastritis, and so forth (and consequently more claims on health insurance).

2.     “On-the-job absenteeism,” for example:

1. Is continually absent from work station more than the job requires.
2. Makes frequent trips to water fountain or bathroom
3. Takes long coffee breaks
4. Is physically ill on job.

3.     High accident rate, including:

1. Accidents on the job
2. Frequent trips to nurse’s office
3. Accidents off the job but affecting job performance.

4.     Difficulty concentrating, for example:

a.     Work seems to require a greater effort

b.     Jobs take more time

c.     Hand tremor occurs when concentrating.

5.     Confusion, for example:

1. Has difficulty in recalling instructions and details of work assignments
2. Has increasing difficulty in dealing with complex assignments
3. Has difficulty recalling own mistakes.

6.     Spasmodic work patterns, for instance alternate periods of very high and low productivity.

7.     Inflexibility—does not change easily. Your requests for change may present a threat because the employee’s control of his or her present job duties and responsibilities allows him or her to hide low job performance. The inability to make routine changes could also indicate a high tension level or another serious problem.

8.     Coming or returning to work in an obviously atypical condition, which may indicate a substance abuse problem.

9.     Generally lowered job efficiency, for example:

a.     Misses deadlines

b.     Makes mistakes due to inattention or poor judgment

c.     Wastes more material

d.     Makes bad decisions

e.     Receives complaints from customers

f.      Has improbable excuses for poor job performance.

10.  Poor personal relationships on the job.

11.  Friction in employee relationships, usually resulting in decreased job performance and efficiency.

12.  Possible alcoholism or drug addition, as indicated by the following behavior:

a.     Overreacts to real or imagined criticism

b.     Exhibits wide swings in morale

c.     Borrows money from coworkers

d.     Compiles complaints from coworkers

e.     Has unreasonable resentments

f.      Begins to avoid associates.

 

Coaching Managers in Dealing with Unusual Behavior

 

In today’s situation, you need to provide coaching to managers on how to recognize these changes, and then how to deal with them. Consider adding in mandatory visits to EAP counselors as part of your progressive discipline approach. The employee is behaving strangely due to stress, perhaps, but let the counselor make that call. Don’t assume the employee is in control of his/her actions.

 

Guidelines for a meeting with an employee who is having trouble. Meeting with an employee face-to-face to discuss a problem is never an easy task. You may be tempted to put off confronting someone who is troubled. Or you will meet with the person but hesitate to recommend counseling. Despite the initial reaction, an employee who is in trouble usually knows it and is often relieved to have the problem out in the open so it can be dealt with.

1)    If you notice any of the above behaviors, or your employee’s performance is declining, intervene quickly to determine the key issue(s).

2)    Meet with your employee in his or her work station or office if privacy is adequate. Come prepared with a clear sense of the job criteria and the facts that you wish to address—for example, in the case of excessive absenteeism, have the dates in front of you.

3)    Focus on specific job performance issues or behavior, not on vague personality or attitude problems, which can easily be denied. Indicate the effect that the worker’s problem is having on you, the workload, and the other workers in your unit.

4)    Hold an unhurried discussion and maintain sensitivity to the employee’s feelings and needs. The manner in which you address your employee in this first meeting will be critical in reducing defensiveness and creating a comfortable environment for communication.

5)    Listen carefully to what the employee says. Be empathetic. Avoid minimizing what he or she is feeling or saying. Your tone should be calm, supportive, and positive. Continue to gently ask questions and listen until you understand fully the nature of the problem, including how it may relate to the disaster that recently occurred.

6)    Be careful not to over-emotionalize what is said. Communicate the facts and discuss the issues. Do not diagnose the problem; ask the employee to make an appointment with Employee Assistance or other behavioral health providers, or offer to schedule an appointment for him or her.

7)    Continue to be supportive but firm in the message that his or her performance must return to a satisfactory level. Remain calm and firm, always bringing the conversation back to specific on-the-job problems, despite your employee’s excuses, defensiveness, or hostility.

8)    Avoid any diagnosis or labeling of the employee’s problem. Stress that whatever the trouble is, it is the employee’s responsibility to do whatever is necessary—for instance, by using a behavioral health provider—to perform adequately.

9)     Keep an open door and follow up to ensure that the employee meets with a trained counselor, such as the EAP.

10) Emphasize exactly what you expect in order to resolve the problem. Be sure that the employee understands, then get a commitment and monitor it.

11) Set a definite date—a month from now, perhaps—for your next meeting, at which time you expect marked improvement.

12) End the interview on a positive note, with your expectation that given the resources available, the employee will start to deal with the problem and work productivity will improve.

 

If you see any of these issues arising, take action to help both the employee and the manager. More detailed information on the impacts of disasters on employees can be found in the book “Leading People Through Disasters” available at Borders Books and on www.amazon.com. Contact Kathryn McKee at kmckee 3730@cox.net with questions you may have.

 

 

 

 

Kathryn McKee and Liz Guthridge

Co-Authors