- 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. If an EAP referral is not a punitive program, why do employees become resistant to formal supervisor referral for job performance issues?
A. Although education and awareness about the EAP reduces the stigma associated with seeking help, understanding how employees react to constructive confrontations and referrals can help supervisors better manage resistance. When you confront an employee about job performance issues, a natural reaction is to deny or minimize the validity of your complaint. The complaint is viewed as criticism, and defensiveness is the response. Accepting the EAP referral is tantamount to agreeing with your complaint. Hence, the resistance. Employees may be defensive for other reasons, of course. These include fear that the program won’t be confidential, fear of a permanent record of their participation, stigma, and experiencing anxiety over anticipated disclosure of a personal problem that the employee feels he or she can still resolve (alcoholism, etc.) To reduce defensiveness, discuss these issues early in your meeting. Like a salesperson, address the resistance issues up front in order to make the “sale.”
Q. I am not sure I buy the argument that the opioid addiction epidemic is strictly due to so much supply by pharmaceutical companies. Opioid addicts I’ve known (at least a couple of employees over the years) were also alcoholics. What’s the connection, and why don’t we hear more about this?
A. Dependency on opioids can be rapid depending on dose and type, even for nonalcoholic persons. Following instructions is crucial. This is the crucial message about opioids that serves the public. That said, alcoholics who become dependent on opioids may struggle more with drug cessation. Why? Remember, alcoholism isn’t simply alcohol dependency, per se. Alcoholism is a disease process that eventually results in impaired social and/or occupational functioning, and pathologic organ changes like damage to the liver, heart, and nervous system. Decades of enabling by others may also accompany it. The life problems alcoholics experience exacerbate their illness, but if they also become addicted to opioids, the compounding effect of crises can be severe. These circumstances may explain what you have observed, but millions of people from all walks of life become dependent on opioids. Knowledgeable physicians resist prescribing opioids to alcoholics, but the real challenge is people with family addiction histories or those in very early-stages of alcoholism being at higher risk for opioid addiction, and not knowing it.
Q. I supervise a diverse group of workers from around the world. Many, I think, would not visit the EAP for counseling help. How can I better motivate these workers, whose culture may discourage sharing personal problems with others, to consider using the EAP?
A. When correcting performance issues of employees or helping them resolve workplace problems that interfere with productivity, view the EAP as a resource, but avoid discussing clinical aspects of the EAP. Certainly, EAPs assess and may counsel on personal problems, but the business rationale for the program is not based on counseling. It is based on improving productivity and preserving human resources. Likewise, supervisor referrals are based on performance issues. So it is appropriate to focus on EAP strictly as a performance-enhancing resource. This will help resistant employees see the EAP as a more attractive resource. Ironically, this view of the EAP as a “productivity improvement program” may yield more referrals and help for “at-risk” employees. It’s natural for employees to hesitate sharing personal information, but EAP professionals are experts at working with clients at their pace and avoiding pressuring clients to disclose information they aren’t ready to share.
Q. I have two very smart employees who are constantly in conflict with each other. I hesitate to refer them to the EAP to resolve their issues because I think they will manipulate the EA professional, who may not be a match for their ability to manipulate. Should I refer anyway?
A. Your employees may not be motivated to resolve their differences, at least not yet. Their sense of urgency to deal with the issues between them will not be greater than a consequence for remaining in conflict and interfering with workplace productivity. Like many supervisors, you hold significant leverage and the ability to influence them toward the goal all three of you share. The question is, how long will you continue to tolerate the problems between them? It is easy to unwittingly reinforce this sort of dysfunction between workers by asking for change, pleading, coaxing, and meeting in private to “get serious” but without truly holding workers to account. So without taking a stand and deciding on an effective consequence, you can expect the problems they are experiencing to continue indefinitely. Start by meeting with the EAP alone, and decide on a plan you can live with, then refer.
Q. Can supervisors consult with the EAP about other things related to our role as a supervisor, even if the subject has nothing to do with managing a troubled employee?
A. Like any employee, the EAP is available to discuss and resolve problems you experience. This includes issues of supervision, your role, management principles, etc. If the EAP can’t assist you because of a lack of its direct experience with the issue you bring to the program, it can still research and what resources can assist you. Note that all of us have manifest problems that appear in our lives. These roadblocks to other goals may be difficult to surmount because of our psychological issues, scripts, self esteem problems, etc. These are the less visible but latent issues the EAP may help you spot and troubleshoot in your pursuit of the ultimate goal.
Q. My employee was slightly injured in a water-skiing accident over the weekend. I hear it was pretty scary—a close call that could have been something worse. Reportedly, she was drunk when it happened. The employee is returning to work today, and there are no job issues. So I assume I can’t intervene or refer her to the EAP, right?
A. You will be engaging with your employee when she returns to work. It’s appropriate to ask how she’s doing and show concern since the incident is common knowledge. Having this conversation in private may lead to her disclosing alcohol’s role in the incident. You obviously can’t diagnose your employee, and this incident happened on personal time, but showing concern and empathy and not behaving judgmentally may facilitate a suggestion regarding the use of the EAP for an assessment. Close calls and near misses are windows of opportunity for those with alcohol or drug problems; they occur regularly as the disease progresses. Addicts and alcoholics make moves toward treatment at these times, but the motivation period is short. Your suggestion has a better chance of being accepted this close in time to the incident, but the key is to avoid enabling her by minimizing the incident. When persons with influence or leverage in an alcoholic’s life do not enable someone at these moments, follow-through that results in the person who needs it getting help often happens.
Q. I formally referred my employee to the EAP, but it was on the Friday before the employee took a two-week vacation. Should I have waited? And should I meet with the employee again when he returns, contact the EAP, or just expect that follow-through will happen? I formally referred my employee to the EAP, but it was on the Friday before the employee took a two-week vacation. Should I have waited? And should I meet with the employee again when he returns, contact the EAP, or just expect that follow-through will happen?
A. You’ve made the formal referral, but in the interest of good communication and to ensure follow-through, meet with your employee upon his return from vacation and inquire about the status of the referral. Presumably, you had contact with the EAP in the process of making the referral, so you could also start by inquiring whether a release has been signed and confirming his participation. Generally, when a formal referral to an EAP is needed and appropriate, making it in a timely manner is important. True, your timing in this instance is not advantageous for follow-through, but you did the right thing, as waiting allows a potentially serious problem to get worse and increases risks to others and the organization. Also in this case, waiting a couple weeks could have allowed your own sense of the importance of the referral to diminish, which would also be just as problematic. Following up now to ensure follow-through takes place is what’s important here.
Q. Documenting an employee’s performance issues is sometimes difficult for me because I am a supervisor who addresses problems when I see them, gets a situation fixed, and then moves on. So, documentation seems unnecessary and a hassle. What am I missing?
A. Not every performance issue has to be documented. But there are risks associated with not creating documentation frequently enough. One risk is not developing an aptitude for knowing when something is important enough to be documented. Poor quality of documentation is another. Supervisors who don’t document effectively can also undermine the work of human resource managers who are attempting to execute job actions requiring written justification. Documentation is a learned skill. You can get rusty at it. A serious matter to which some supervisors fall victim is suddenly discovering the need for documentation that does not exist, prompting them to quickly attempt to produce it from memory. This is sometimes called “papering the file.” When documentation that should have been produced weeks, months, or years ago is suddenly generated for a disciplinary purpose, it can create liability when it is not viewed as being “contemporaneous.” Accusations of retaliation or employment claims can then follow, undermining supervisor credibility. Do you need to brush up on documentation skills? Contact the EAP—the professionals there can help you.
Q. What does it mean when EAPs are described as “non-disciplinary”? Does this simply mean the EAP does not institute disciplinary actions?
A. Non-disciplinary means that the EAP is not used by the organization for disciplinary purposes; referral to it is not a punitive step. It also means that participation in the EAP can’t stain an employee’s performance record or be used against him or her in promotion, hiring, or decisions regarding work assignments. These are all foundational principles of EAP application within work organizations. Non-disciplinary also means that EAPs do not recommend for or against disciplinary actions, or interfere with or thwart management’s deliberations on how to manage job actions with troubled employees. On another note, EAPs don’t protect employees from disciplinary actions by way of their participation; an employee can’t claim “safe harbor” as a way to block disciplinary actions.
Q. My employee’s husband showed at work and engaged in a shouting match with her in the lobby. It lasted about 30 seconds, but it shook everyone up. I made a formal referral to the EAP based upon this disruption. Did I do the right thing? This was not a performance issue, but it must not happen again.
A. Yes, you did the right thing, and based your referral on the disruption everyone witnessed. This is a domestic violence incident spilling into the workplace. Your employee could be a domestic violence victim, or conceivably, the perpetrator of domestic violence. We don’t really know. However, the EAP will assess the situation and make a determination regarding how to proceed. This will include an assessment of the risk to the employee and the organization, and if need be, communication with a signed release so you can feel assured that any issues regarding this situation are being properly handled. Remember, a formal referral to the EAP is not a punitive measure, and helping her participate in the program by making a formal referral was a smart move. Domestic violence cases can spill into the workplace, and many historical accounts have included injury and death of fellow workers.
