- EAN staff is available when our office is closed to help you manage personal crisis or traumatic events in the workplace. Call our office at 828-252-5725 and press ‘0’ to reach our crisis management team member by phone.
This is an ongoing content series on the current EAN website. We have set it up again here so you can continue to use it (if you like.)
Q. I have wondered about the EAP experience and employees getting attached to the counselor at the program but then perhaps not wanting to establish another relationship with the mental health professional to whom they are referred. Can you comment on this?
A. EAP employee-clients are assessed with “the end” in mind. This means assessing an employee to understand fully the nature of a problem, if any, contributing to job performance issues but not bonding with the client so thoroughly that referral to a specialist would be resisted and difficult. Trust is important, and so is the client’s willingness to disclose information, so a limited therapeutic engagement is important. This is another key professional skill important to well-functioning EAPs. Clients may be told directly that the goal is to understand the nature of the issues at hand and then get them to the right resource. This often has the intended effect of helping the client prepare for a resource referral without bonding with the EAP. The need to have several interviews in order to accurately gauge the client’s needs makes referral resistance more likely, but it is the skill of the EA professional that helps the employee get to the right resource.
Q. If an employee comes to the EAP with general complaints indicating they are depressed, I imagine such employees are referred to a medical doctor like a psychiatrist for further assessment. What else does the EAP do beyond determining the need to refer?
A. When an employee visits the EAP for symptoms of depression, much more happens than a routine depression screening. Typically, the EA professional will assess psychosocial or environmental/lifestyle issues that are either symptoms of the depression or distinct from, yet exacerbating the primary condition. These issues must be addressed or they risk undermining the work of the psychiatrist to whom the employee is referred. Many psychiatrists manage medications extremely well, but they often resist spending copious amounts of time helping the worker address the nonclinical issues. It’s a team approach that ultimately helps employees with these chronic disease conditions that can’t be treated without attention to the factors that may undermine medical care.
Q. EAPs don’t provide legal advice, of course, but I hear they can reduce legal exposure with regard to managing difficult employees. How does this happen if there are no lawyers on the EAP team?
A. Frequently, lawsuits arise out of an employee’s belief that he or she is not being treated fairly in some way. Negative interactions with supervisor soften contribute to motivation to eventually take action against the employer. Preventively, EAPs train supervisors, encourage early referrals, and engage employees in commonsense actions to raise their productivity and address personal problems. This constructive engagement often occurs long before tension and dysfunctional relationships on the job create risk where problems would ultimately have to be resolved by management actions. Although
EA professionals don’t profess to be completely knowledgeable about anti-discrimination, anti-harassment, and anti-retaliation laws in the same way a legal counsel might, the natural role they play obviously touches on many aspects of the supervisor-employee relationship that are reflected in these laws.
Q. What is a key method to keep an employee from becoming defensive when confronted with ongoing work quality, conduct, or attendance problems?
A. There are many aspects of the corrective interview that can lead to an employee’s unfavorable reaction to being confronted with poor performance, but one overlooked approach is the use of the supervisor’s prior documentation in the history of addressing the performance problem. Prior documentation, known to the employee and may have also been acknowledged with a signature, is one of the most certain ways to gain cooperation. Without it, the supervisor is forced to rehash prior discussions from memory, and these stories may be less accurate when recalled than the notes and documentation that have been previously accepted and agreed to.
Q. I know how to formally refer an employee to the EAP, no problem. However, is it helpful to speak to the EAP anyway before I make a formal referral?
A. Although there is no fast rule regarding consulting with the EAP beforehand regarding a formal referral, there are advantages to doing so. Even if you know how to help arrange a referral, use documentation effectively, and communicate later when following up, every referral to an EAP involves an employee whose issues are unique. Employee assistance professionals are extremely attuned to performance issues and the nuances of how they present themselves in the workplace. This is where the art of the interview exists. Based on patterns you experience with an employee, an EA professional will make decisions about what interviewing techniques to employ. If you phone the EAP to inform the program about a pending referral and speak with a staff member about issues such as the type of interactions you have with your employee, prior cooperation, patterns of performance problems, environmental influences, and history of other concerns not relevant to the current matter, this may help the EA professional consider the assessment approach that will ultimately make the referral more successful.
Q. I made my employee an assistant supervisor, but I see him struggling in the leadership role. He isn’t very proactive, doesn’t speak with authority, and is not decisive. Can the EAP help? Or would it be better to suggest workshops or other supervisor training where skills can be taught?
A. Assuming you have discussed with your employee the need to demonstrate better leadership skills and then not seen any results, you can’t assume the difficulty your employee faces is only a lack of knowledge and know-how. The dynamic you describe is a continuing problem despite your effort as a manager to correct it, so an EAP referral is a good starting point. This does not rule out continuing education the EAP may suggest to the employee. The EAP will discuss the difficulties he is experiencing in the position, the work climate, and the employee’s understanding of what underlies the problem. There are many issues that can interfere with performance beyond the educational piece, but it is likely the EAP will identify what they are. Expect that a release will be signed with the employee’s permission. The EAP may inquire about your experiences during and after your attempts to guide the employee to improve his performance, which can offer the EAP professional greater insight.
Q. What is meant by an employee having a “growth mindset”?
A. A growth mindset is a term first coined by Carol Susan Dweck, Ph.D., a Stanford University psychologist. She was famous for her studies of mindset, temperament, and personality. Growth mindset refers to the way employees approach the world of challenges and obstacles with optimism, a sense of opportunity, resourcefulness, positivity, and resilience. This contrasts with employees who may have a “fixed mindset” and resist learning something new, give up easily when faced with obstacles, feel anxious about others’ successes, and shy away from negative feedback. Consider researching “growth mindset” online to identify articulable descriptions of positive behaviors associated with the mindset. Then you can reward and affirm these behaviors while also helping struggling employees by guiding them in performance reviews to adopt the behaviors and work attributes that support productivity and help demonstrate outstanding performance. You also can use the EAP to help employees overcome patterns of ineffective approaches to work struggles.
Q. What is “brain fog,” and what might a supervisor observe in an employee struggling with this condition?
A. Brain fog is a descriptive term for a set of symptoms that interfere with a person’s ability to think. But it is not a recognized medical diagnosis. Recently, brain fog has received public awareness in the media as it pertains to a constellation of complaints experienced by those who contract COVID-19. Symptoms include difficulty in expressing one’s thoughts, inability to mentally calculate things quickly, feeling disorganized, dizziness, and struggles with memory. Causes of brain fog can be attributed to not just COVID-19 but also other issues like lack of sleep, stress, pollution, poor diet, and anxiety. At work, any of the above may be blamed for performance issues. So, diagnosing something as brain fog or dismissing symptoms as such can have serious consequences, since other medical problems may be related to an employee’s condition. Refer employees to approved health, wellness, or EAP resources for assistance, assessment, or further referral.
Q. Most of the employees in our office, including me, wander into work late by 10–15 minutes every day. One employee has started coming to work 45–60 minutes late. All of this has to stop, so how do I “push the reset button”? Should I have a meeting and lay down the law?
A. The near-universal problem of tardiness coming to work that you describe has its origins in the permissibility you have shown by your own example. So the starting point is changing your behavior first, both to model a new standard and to set the stage for something new. You then can have a meeting, but going forward, deal with your employees individually rather than as a group regarding this issue, because it is personal responsibility, not a team effort, that will be required to make the changes needed. One employee is coming in extraordinarily late. Anticipate this person coming in on time when the new standard is set, but later, coming late again would not be unusual if a personal problem of some sort exists. Consider use of the EAP if this pattern resumes.
Q. I have been a manager for 20 years. Although I have given advice to other supervisors on confronting difficult employees, it still seems more like an art than a science to get changes from an employee. What are the best tips for confronting difficult employees to keep and pass along?
A. Although each of the following could be divided into additional steps, they represent some of the best tips in correcting behavior or performance. 1)Don’t delay in dealing with a problem. As time passes, it generally becomes more difficult to correct. 2) Prepare to be surprised by an employee’s explanation for the behavior or issue. Be open-minded about what to do next. 3)Don’t be long-winded, lecturing, or parental. It triggers resistance. 4)Employees are your most valuable resource. Keep this in mind and you will use the right tone. 5) Don’t be angry with employees to the degree that you omit reminding them what they do well. Doing so generates motivation to cooperate with you. 6) Bring notes or an outline. It helps you and helps the employees take you seriously. 7) Meet in a nonsocial, business setting to convey importance. 8) Mention the EAP as a resource for employees to use if they experience difficulty making the changes requested.
