Q.  There is a common saying in management that employees don’t leave companies, they leave supervisors.  Obviously this means the quality of the supervisor-supervisee relationship is crucial.  Does the EAP have a role in helping managers keep good relationships with the employees?

A.  The phrase is oversimplified, but an employee’s relationship with the supervisor is the most important one.  Unless this relationship is constructive and positive, the risk of losing a worker to another employer or, worse, to a competitor will remain unacceptably high.  Kevin Sheridan, a business consultant specializing in talent management, reports in his new book, Building a Magnetic Culture (2012), that engaged employees are ten times more likely to feel their work is recognized, that their supervisors and top management care about them, and that they are getting useful regular feedback.  Such employees are four times less likely to leave.  Obviously the supervisor is a key influencer in helping employees get these needs met.  EAPS have a role to play because their skills and abilities can help supervisors enhance their relationships with employees.  The purview of EAP work is often the business of improving relationships; therefore the use of the EAP is an excellent strategy for increasing employee engagement and thus the improvement of business outcomes.

Q.  I believe everyone should contribute to and maintain a positive work culture.  How can I help my employees play this positive role?

A.  The first steps to building a positive work culture begin with the employer and flow down from the top where all levels of management practice behaviors that line staff below them model.  There are many components of a thriving positive work culture, but supervisory staff do have influence in helping their employees buy into positivity.  It’s been shown that positive work cultures tend to be easier to come by in flatter organizations where the up and down movement of information and ideas is not as slow or encumbered by bureaucracy.  This highlights a key strategy you can employ to influence your employees:  promote easier communication, faster communication, and the personal modeling of behaviors that support a positive work culture.

Q.  An employee died from a drug overdose.  Everyone was saddened and surprised.  The employee was one of our most loved.  I heard something about a drug problem years ago, but never since, and performance was excellent.  I am feeling guilty.  Did I miss symptoms?

A.  Your employee could have relapsed without any warning signs you could have spotted.  Drug addiction can be treated and abstinence achieved, and with a programmatic approach to maintaining abstinence, the illness is arrested.  Abstinent employees refer to themselves as “recovering” or in recovery.  Years of abstinence can pass, and achievements and performance may be outstanding, but the disease does not vanish.  Addiction is a chronic illness.  Experts in the addiction treatment field generally regard drug addiction as a progressive disease with no cure.  Every area of an addict’s life is affected and must be treated:  physical, emotional, and spiritual.  A recovering addict without an active and effective approach to recovery has a higher risk of relapse over those who have such an approach.  Consequences of any relapse are unpredictable, but death from a narcotic overdose for relapsed addicts is possible.  When addicts in recovery overdose and die, there may be great difficulty in comprehending why.  Treatment experts and members of the largest group of recovering people, Narcotics Anonymous, have observed that relapse usually occur in the absence of an adequate recovery program combined with a sudden or acute stressful life event or circumstance.

Q.  What am I supposed to do with an employee who is obviously smart but always showing off how much he “thinks” he knows about what’s legal for me to do as a supervisor, what the organization can’t do, etc.?  It is a bit intimidating.

A.  The employee you describe may have difficulty feeling responsible or subordinate to you, so controlling you by discussing or referencing legal matters to intimidate you is an effective way of feeling more in control.  A wide range of issues can contribute to this negative and problematic behavior, including anger, mental health issues, and more.  The behavior is inappropriate and disruptive to communication and building a working relationship, so it should be addressed.  Consult with the EAP for guidance on your approach.  Often, employee assistance professionals can spot tangential issues or consider underlying contributing factors to a problem like this one.  Let your supervisor or leadership staff be aware of the difficulty you are experiencing with this employee.  Doing so is prudent because issues of this nature are too important to ignore or manage in isolation.

Q.  How do EAPs save the organization money with regard to the use of employee mental health benefits?  Employees have to go to approved counselors associated with the benefit plans.  Where is the EAP role if the employee does not need referral?

A.  EAPs are usually aware of approved panel therapists in the community who have the expertise needed to treat a specific problem.  This knowledge can assist the employee in making an informed choice from a list of approved providers.  If a managed care referral is made to a therapist to treat a problem outside the therapist’s area of competence, the EAP may discover a problem in the client-therapist match during follow-up, and the EAP can consider how or whether to intervene to facilitate the employee’s finding a new treatment provider.  An EAP may also speak to the treating therapist with the employee’s permission to lend support or suggestions to the treatment plan.

Q.  The EAP presented a seminar on substance abuse to field supervisors.  There was a lively discussion and argument among participants concerning alcoholism, its definition, and signs and symptoms.  Are the defensive people at the meeting the ones with alcohol problems?

A.  Not necessarily.  Although some employees affected by alcoholism may react defensively, employees with alcoholic family members or family histories of alcoholism may be just as adamant in their views about the illness.  Strong views about alcoholism may be held especially by those with personal traumas associated with alcohol.  Beliefs about alcoholism result from centuries-old cultural systems, belief systems, and worldviews.  Medicine, religion, psychology, and philosophy have all contributed heavily.  Rigid viewpoints, even if faulty, are not easily relinquished by people because they may be relied upon to reconcile or explain one’s past experience or present life circumstance.  Despite rigorous research, alcoholism is still frequently mistreated, mismanaged, and misunderstood.  Presenting to any group of employees on the topic of substance abuse generates a lot of disagreement and emotion.  Ultimately this is helpful in allowing people to gain an appreciation for the disease and a willingness to understand it.

Q.  Over the years, I have seen articles that reinforce the generally accepted principle that money is not a good long-term motivator for employees.  What works instead is praise, recognition, and commendation.  It sounds pretty simple.  Why don’t all supervisors understand this?

A.  A 2009 survey by McKinsey Quarterly asked which incentives were the most effective in motivating employees.  The top two responses were:  “Praise and commendation from my immediate manager” (67 percent) and “Attention from leaders” (62 percent).  This is strong evidence that development of praise and commendation skills can have an impact on the bottom line.  Of course, there is more to it than simply telling supervisors to praise employees more.  Giving praise comes easily for some supervisors but not others.  In most instances, it is not that supervisors don’t want to give effective praise; instead, the issue is that they don’t know how or don’t feel comfortable doing so.  Common statements heard from supervisors who struggle with giving praise are that it takes too much time, it feels insincere, or even that it doesn’t match their brusque personality.  These statements of resistance have solutions, and the EAP is an excellent resource for supervisors to discover those solutions.  Source:  tiny.cc/morale-boost.

Q.  I don’t want to diagnose employees, but I would like to know what behaviors strongly indicate that employees are too stressed.  I figure if I know the behavioral issues and spot them, I can then suggest use of the EAP based upon what I am seeing.  Make sense?

A.  You do have a role in maintaining a safe and healthful work environment, so keeping an eye open for behavior or conduct that interferes with productivity is a good idea.  These can be stress symptoms.  You’re right.  You should not diagnose employees, but you can be attuned to the obvious.  Visible behaviors or conduct issues may include anxiety, indecisiveness, irritability, complaints, forgetfulness, loss of self-confidence, customer conflicts, complaints of insomnia, sleeping on the job or coming back late from lunch because of oversleeping on breaks, argumentativeness, moodiness, crying and mood swings, and leaving early with complains of physical exhaustion.

 Q.  I think my employee is a passive-aggressive personality.  What are the signs and symptoms of this condition?  I see a lot of resistance to assignments and complaining about workload, coworkers, and management decisions.  Everything seems to be “wrong” all the time.

 A.  It is better to identify problematic behaviors that you are trying to change rather than the entire constellation of symptoms that constitute a personality disorder.  You don’t need a checklist for passive-aggressive personality to manage your employee and make a referral to the EAP.  Even a single, problematic behavior should be addressed if it interferes with productivity or your workplace.  Be specific about the behaviors your employee exhibits.  Do not use the term “passive-aggressive” in your documentation.  You may see passive-aggressive behavior but do not label it as such or try to diagnose this psychiatric condition.  Instead, document obstructionist behaviors, missing of deadlines, the impact of behavior on morale, forgetting, procrastination, or other behaviors that chronically interfere with productivity.

 Q.  Not all of our supervisors are “approachable” or easy to talk to.  It concerns me.  There is risk when employees don’t feel comfortable coming forward with problems or concerns that could potentially have serious consequences.  How can this problem be addressed? 

A.  Both supervisor and employee have roles to play in making communication work, but frequently a disproportionate burden of this responsibility is put on subordinates.  Outstanding work units require that employees bring issues to management unencumbered by second thoughts and anxiety.  It’s helpful to recognize that employees naturally respond differently to those in authority.  While some are intimidated, others are bold and direct.  Regardless, every supervisor should learn the skill of projecting approachability.  Approachability is not just being friendly or telling everyone in the room that there is an “open door policy.”  Instead, a supervisor uses his or her power of authority to help an individual fell important to that supervisor.  The natural response is an employee who feels safe.  This  causes the manager to appear approachable.  A manager can demonstrate approachability with listening, asking questions, sharing time, valuing the opinion of a subordinate, and being receptive to what he or she can learn from employees.  Many of these things are quickly communicated within minutes or seconds as a manager interacts with others during his or her day.