Archived Frontline Supervisor Articles

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Archived Frontline Supervisor July 2010

My fellow managers and I are seeing an increasing number of employees having family problems at home. I am worried about layoffs, possibly next year, and the impact they could have on already stressed employees. The EAP is great, but is there anything more that managers can do?	Meet with the EAP and discuss the issues that are affecting your employees. The employee assistance professional will listen and may offer suggestions that are appropriate for your role in supporting employees. Unfortunately, you can’t address the problems employees face at home, but that does not mean you can’t’ make a significant impact. Employees always feel better about work when they are respected and valued as individuals, and you can energize them by reducing monotony. These factors are key to improved morale. Examples can range from something as simple as holding a staff meeting outside on a nice day to giving employees ownership of their work by leaving some of the decisions regarding assignments up to them. Don’t hesitate to meet with employees individually to field questions about what would bring positivity to the workplace and relieve stress generally. You’ll discover that employees often have the best and most implementable ideas for how you can support them.
A few employees were in the break room telling “blonde” jokes. No other employees were there, but I felt uncomfortable with the banter, so I asked them to change the subject. Did I overreact? One employee always seems to be the instigator in these kinds of exchanges.	You aren’t overreacting. It was a smart move to interrupt. It would have been a mistake to do so only if other employees were in the proximity of this discussion. The workplace requires employees to be more self-aware and careful of their behavior at work than outside of work. Laws and penalties have grown increasingly severe for employers when work environments are proven to be hostile or offensive. A pattern of these types of exchanges makes that easy to prove, and a case against the employer hardens when supervisors don’t step in to stop it. It’s even worse if they are participants. As employees become more friendly and familiar with each other, it is natural for boundaries to loosen up, but it requires prudent supervision to step in when necessary. If one of your employees has more difficulty than others in demonstrating appropriate behavior, consider your options for correcting it. The EAP is a resource to assist employees in this regard.
I know that managers are not “born,” they’re made, but isn’t it true that some managers easily attract employees to their way of thinking with magnetic traits that can’t be taught? Can the EAP help me be a better leader?	The skills of leadership are learned, but some people do possess personalities with more personal charm and “magnetism” than others do. This is called charisma. Certainly not all great leaders are charismatic, however. And not all charismatic people are good leaders. This makes leadership skills more important. Leadership is intensely studied. There are leadership schools, courses, training, recognized styles of leadership, theories, research, and accepted practices that are universally taught. Nearly anyone can learn to apply effective leadership skills. How you speak to employees, the logic used to convey direction and inspiration, and the techniques for enlisting contributions from others in pursuit of a goal constitute leadership. Your organization may have resources to support your leadership education goals, but the EAP may be useful in helping you troubleshoot personal roadblocks that sometimes interfere with leadership skills, such as a need to learn assertiveness, effective listening, empathic reasoning, self-awareness, and more.
Is there more stress now than 25 or 30 years ago? I don’t think employees cope with stress as well as past generations did. Is this true?	The acceleration of technology, rapid communications, competition for resources, greater degrees of financial and retirement insecurity, and breakdown of family compared to decades ago has contributed to a “stress epidemic.” It’s a misconception that people can’t handle stress as well as they once did, and as a result, they complain about it more. There will always be people who can cope with stress more effectively and demonstrate resilience, but the stress level in a society matches the pace of change society experiences. The pace of change is clearly accelerating, and it is also more unpredictable. EAPs play an important role in helping employees and business organizations not just to cope with stress but also to thrive in spite of it.
Are there any common myths about illicit/illegal drug use that interfere with supervisor referrals to the EAP?	The most common supervisory myth about illicit drug use is the belief that an employee who abuses drugs will “look like a drug user,” will appear to be an antiestablishment” type, or will have obvious drug-affected behavior on the job. This stereotype has continued for nearly 50 years. It is still a challenge to help supervisors get past it when training them to use an employee assistance program as a resource and tool to intervene with troubled employees. Modern-day EAPs emerged in the mid-1970s to help address these misconceptions by educating supervisors to stop looking for addicts or drug users and instead to start referring employees to the EAP based on performance- or attendance-related problems. Training focuses on doing this without regard to one’s suspicion regarding drug use. The result of this major shift in addressing alcohol problems in the workplace was an increase in referrals of alcoholics and, of course, drug-addicted employees so they could be diagnosed and helped.

Archived Frontline Supervisor June 2010

My employee does not drink on the job, but I know by appearance this person is suffering from a hangover a couple of times a month. I cannot say that job performance is affected, but there must be something I can do to intervene formally. What approach should I use?	Talk to the EAP first. But you are having difficulty identifying performance issues associated with what appears to be a hangover, a consult is warranted. A confidential discussion with the EA professional will make it easier to develop a plan or approach that includes specific performance issues you could be overlooking. On the other hand, you may need tips on how to better spot these issues as they occur. The goal is to help you make an effective supervisor referral. Employees with hangovers do not function at optimal levels, and spotting these work-related deficiencies is therefore the key. Some of them will be obvious, but others will be more subtle. What most people don’t realize is that many symptoms of hangovers create cognitive and psychomotor dysfunction as much as intoxication does, so helping your employee stop this behavior is a safety issue as much as it is a productivity concern.
Is there any new research about exercise and stress to help employees who are survivors of layoff? Some of my employees have recently formed an exercise support group, and I am encouraged with their improved morale.	Research associated with stress, the recession, layoffs, and their effects are continually released. In March 2010, researchers from the University of Rochester Medical Center announced their findings from a study of 2,800 employees who were survivors of layoffs. The report showed that chronic stress is strongly associated with an increase in being overweight or obese. Healthy dieting did virtually nothing to help change these conditions. Instead, the key to reducing weight—directly attributable to stress—was exercise. The results of this study strongly suggest that chronic stress, especially for sedentary workers, contributes to weight gain and that exercise is an essential part of an effective stress-reduction program. (Source: www.urmc.rochester.edu, Search: Rochester Study Connects Workplace Turmoil, Stress and Obesity, March 24, 2010)
I think social media Web sites like Facebook are consuming time and hampering the productivity of some employees. We don’t have a policy against their use, but one of my employees can’t stay away from these Web sites, even after I insist. Performance is affected. Is this a real addiction?	Although it is hotly debated, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders will not include “Internet Addiction Disorder (IAD) in 2013 when it is next revised and published. This has no bearing, of course, on your task of managing the problematic use of the computer by your employee. Meet with your employee, and with your documentation in hand, make a supervisor referral to the EAP. Even though IAD is not officially a mental disorder that does not mean that it is not treatable. Help from the EAP will include assessment, referral to help, support, follow-up, and a program of recovery to help maintain abstinence from compulsive Internet use.
When being confronted on a specific matter, my employee glared saying, “You know, I am really about to get into someone’s face!” The employee stormed off. This employee often has a hostile tone, but my supervisor and I debated whether this was a threat. What do you think?	There is an old saying that goes, “The meaning of your communication is the response that you get.” In this instance, at least one of you perceived this statement as a threat. Most employees know that they can’t openly make threats at work. So what you may be witnessing is belligerence cloaked with an offhand, cryptic expression. You got the message this employee intended to send. You do not need to split hairs and debate what was meant, or the precise meaning of his or her statement. Feeling threatened is enough to confront and correct this behavior. Your employee may have issues with boundaries, anger management, self-control, and respect. Behavior of this sort tends to get worse and is reinforced by those who experience it, minimize its meaning, and then do not take steps to address it.
We have a very diverse workplace, and I sometimes correct employees when I see them demonstrating poor tolerance of co-worker’s differences. I am not an expert on tolerance and bias, so can you offer some language, tips, or “phrases” helpful in educating employees?	Education does help alter bias, but the bottom line is that employee behavior must conform to what is civil and supportive of your organization’s work goals. Let employees know that the goal of tolerance is a respectful workplace and that without it; the interests of the work organization are not served. When correcting employee behavior in the context of supervisory meetings, your goal should be to educate, not counsel or investigate the psychological influences of employee bias. Given that, the following can help your discussions be more effective. Key tolerance principles: 1) Look past differences of opinion, orientation, ethnic, or racial backgrounds and instead, focus on understanding a colleague’s views and perspective. 2) Avoid the trap of tuning out simply because someone talks or looks different. 3) Avoid labels. Monitor your speech patterns—and thinking style—to check whether you label others. 4) If you disagree with someone’s views, react with curiosity rather than defensiveness. Ask at least one earnest, non-threatening question to dig for more information. Be willing to change your mind and withhold judgment to expand your frame of reference. 5) Speak up when hurtful comments are overheard. 6) Reject intolerance when you see it demonstrated.

If you have these or other questions about supervising your employees, please feel free to contact the Employee Assistance Network at (828) 252-5725 or
800-454-1477.

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Information contained in The Frontline Supervisor is for general information purposes only and is not intended to be specific guidance for any particular supervisor or human resource management concern. For specific guidance on handling individual employee problems, consult with your Employee Assistance Professional. Copyright ©2010 by The Frontline Supervisor.