Mark Gorkin – Workforce

January 12, 2004July 10, 2018

Clone of Seven Tactics for Coaching an Exec

Working with an executive means being able to understand his or her work world and psyche as well as being able to speak this leader’s language. With these considerations in mind, here are seven key tips, tactics and things to remember when coaching an executive:

1. Lonely at the Top. Executives often have assistants and consultants as sounding boards and idea people. However, even with insiders, some executives are careful about what data or psychological angst is shared. Having an objective voice–a person that the exec can share with on a more personal, intimate level–is invaluable. In addition, executives often appreciate a coach who can also interact with and discreetly take the pulse of the frontline troops and officers.

2. Having to Preserve a Persona. A related dynamic involves the executive’s feeling that he or she may have to present a very confident and “in control” image. A coach must not just be a good listener, but must also create a level of trust in the relationship that allows the executive to feel it’s safe to open up a Pandora’s box.

3. Arrogance, Narcissism and Denial. Some execs take their successes too much to heart and head; praise and flattery confirm their uncommon stature. While the emperor may have some clothes, he still may need a coach who can empathetically yet strategically dress him down. While big egos don’t take well to being totally undressed, many leaders appreciate the coach who won’t back down in the face of an aggressive manner or self-defeating attitude. A haughty State Department executive once challenged me at a retreat: “What do you call it if you don’t have any stress?” My immediate reply, with a twinkle in my eye: “Denial!” His laughter broke the ice between us.

4. Helping a Leader Ask for Help. For many executives, asking for help connotes weakness or perhaps is seen as a negative reflection on their competency, experience or leadership qualities. Helping a leader understand the toll he or she is taking by not seeking some outside support is critical. Surely, a coach wants to reinforce the areas of expertise of the executive. At the same time, the coach must help an executive understand, for example, that certain kinds of interpersonal tensions or team dynamics or morale (if not productivity) issues after a downsizing or reorganization often require a sophisticated intervention by a coach with expertise in group grieving, team conflict and EAP referral.

5. Seeking the Right Kind of Intervention. Once, a department executive finally admitted that the level of interpersonal dysfunction in his shop was beyond his comprehension. He went to his superior and asked permission to hire a conflict and team-building coach/consultant. The entire organization had recently started classroom “Covey Training.” This superior suggested holding off bringing in a consultant, advising the executive to give the Covey Training a chance. This was a serious mistake, as the level of dysfunction required hands-on organizational-development intervention by a conflict specialist. I was finally brought in after charges of mental abuse and sexual harassment forced top management’s hand.

6. Using Peer Intervention. Sometimes the executive coach also must possess humility; that is, he or she must call on others for help. A coach may have to call on the peers of the executive for a small-group intervention. Some executives have to be supported and/or confronted by fellow executives or friends before they “get it.” Clearly, this high-level intervention method must be used with real discretion. And, of course, a coach who can also ask for assistance is acting as a role model for that rigidly independent executive.

7. Coach as Systems Observer/Player. Unless the relationship must be kept under wraps, a coach should attend at least one executive committee, staff or “all hands” meeting. First, this helps the coach get an up-close look at how the executive interacts with his or her personnel. Second, a coach may also want to share some observations on content issues and, especially, on the group dynamics of the meeting. This gives other group members an opportunity to evaluate the personality and competency of the coach. People want to know that the coach is not a Svengali, manipulating or controlling their leader. Along this line, an executive coach might consider brief one-on-one meetings with management, supervisory and/or department personnel. This step helps folks get to know the coach and may also dispel some concerns regarding mission and motivation.

December 1, 2003July 10, 2018

Seven Tactics for Coaching an Exec

March 19, 2001July 10, 2018

Signs of Instability

We have a longtime employee that was here before the business relocated during a change of ownership several years ago. During the past two years, this employee has shown signs of instability and appears to be testing to see how much he can get away with.</b></P><br />

Despite written and verbal warnings, the problem persists. I feel it is time to release him, but his supervisor wants to give him another chance. What should we do?

— President, transportation company, Oil City, Pennsylvania.

Dear Pennsylvania President:

Basically, the business owner or chief operating officer and the supervisorneed to reach consensus. Because of the nature of this employee's longstandingproblematic behavior patterns (some that may be intimidating to others in theworkplace), I would mandate he go for Employee Assistance Program counseling (the company has an EAP).

If not, the company should establish a consulting relationship with a licensed social worker or psychologist who has experience with work stress/performance and personnel-related issues. If this person wants to continue to have a job he should be required to attend counseling sessions. And he must improve his performance to satisfactory levels even if in counseling.

This individual may even need to have a fitness-for-duty evaluation with a psychiatrist. He may have an anxiety condition, depressed mood or a personality disorder that might respond to counseling and medication. This employee seems not to have adjusted well to, and has been regressing, since the major transition of selling the business five years ago.

SOURCE: Mark Gorkin, LICSW, The Stress Doc and America Online's Online Psychohumorist,Washington, D.C., March 19, 2001

LEARN MORE: For additional insight into dealing with problematic situations.
The information contained in this article is intended to provide useful information on the topic covered, but should not be construed as legal advice or a legal opinion. Also remember that state laws may differ from the federal law.

March 3, 2001July 10, 2018

A Stress Survival Guide for HR Professionals

In today’s 24/7, merging, consolidating, “do more with less” workenvironment, the letters “HR” could as easily stand for “Hub ofReorganization” as for “Human Resources.” In fact, it’s the intersectionof the two organizational dynamics, human exchange and systemic change, thataccounts for the challenge and performance pressure for the HR manager and otherhuman resources professionals.

A person, over time, is confronted by rapidly changing requirements andresponsibilities especially related to the welfare, safety and rights of others.He or she may lack sufficient control, authority or autonomy to deal with suchdemands. When this happens, the result is chronic stress.

Let’s begin with a list of HR-related stressors:

Availability and Accountability. While HR may be a separatedepartment, it is hardly an island on corporate waters. Company personnelbelieve they should have some representation through HR and that HR should be atthe beck and call of all employees. Beware of HR professionals who establish arescuer role and take every personnel problem home. Burnout is less a sign offailure and more sign of giving yourself away.
Objectivity. The challenge for an effective and widely accepted HRdepartment is to maintain some functional independence. The HR professional mustalso be somewhat detached from yet, also, be an objective and concerned advocatefor management and employees. Problem solving (not just numbers crunching) is animportant force in an organization.
Multiple Roles. The HR manager/professional often plays many roles –from coach and counselor to cop and confessor. And, if that’s not enough, heor she must also be the organizational or interpersonal safety net or back upwhen there are breakdowns. For example, manager-supervisor-employee relations,reorganization such as a downsizing, outdated or illegal policies andprejudicial procedures, etc.
Disgruntled Personnel. As outlined above, there are HR demands andresponsibilities aplenty. The proverbial icing on the cake is negotiatingproblems with people who have grievances about a supervisor, pay, evaluation andpromotion/termination issues. Certainly it can be emotionally and professionallyrewarding to rectify a significant personnel problem. Still, chronicallyproviding service to angry customers can all too easily result in a case of”brain strain.”
Transitional Glue. Especially in times of rapid or volatile change -mergers, downsizing, rapid startup and growth – the HR manager becomes a companycheerleader (or that stress confessor). He or she often helps folks sustainmorale in the face of an uncertain and vulnerable future. The HR goal is to notallow the company’s “esprit de corps” to regress into an”esprit de corpse.”

The HR Manager may become the messenger, helping employees and supervisorsinterpret reorganization pronouncements from the management mountaintop.Sometimes the HR leader must assume the Moses mantle while the employee tribeswander for a period in the transitional desert. Anyone for the training class on”Parting Really Large Bodies of Water?”
Crisis Management. The HR manager must realize that when certaincrises are outside his or her sphere of “hands on” influence, he orshe must resist the “solo savior syndrome” role. Believing you are thecenter of your corporate solar system is a potential danger because allorganizational life depends on your energy source.

When downsizing trauma evokedracial tension and threats in a federal government division – pulling a KKK Website off the Internet and playing a Louis Farrakhan tape in public – HR calledme in. As a critical incident specialist, my role is clear: to stop the viciouscycle before it turns violent and to lay the groundwork for productive conflictresolution and team building.
Privacy Requirements. An ongoing challenge for the HRprofessional interfacing with numerous individuals, departments and seniormanagers is sharing critical information and upholding employees’ privacyrights.

A specific stressor came to my attention recently: confidentiality. Oneparticular incident involved an HR manager who was unsure of how to respond to asupervisor’s breach.

This supervisor unprofessionally, if not illegally, shared with her employeesthat a colleague had been hospitalized for mental health reasons. Such a breachis like a computer virus that can contaminate everyone’s operating system andsecurity. The HR manager’s standing as a leader was on the line, not just thesupervisor’s.
Ever-changing Technology and Policy. Like other corporate entities,the HR department must keep up with new software and data processing systems.Having an internal website to share key information with employees is critical.And invariably, getting started technologically takes longer than anticipated.Glitch happens!

With policy, there are always ever-changing requirements or culturaldiversity/gender issues mandated by the likes of Congress or the EPA. But let’snot overlook the rapidly changing constrictions from the corporate headquartersto field operations. All these systemic forces can undermine a sense of controlfor the everyday HR functioning.
Training Demands. The HR team cannot possibly provide individualemployee handholding for all personnel issues. Depending on company size, HRshould have enough time and staff to provide classroom orientation on HR-relatedmatters. HR managers often need to delegate the training function tosubordinates. Individuals must be encouraged to do reasonable data gathering orresearch or else HR will be enabling inefficient, if not dysfunctional,dependence.
Office Space Time. Finally, the HR manager/department must discoverthe elusive balance between physical access and protected space needed forproductive energy. Feng Shui rules even in Corporate America. Feng Shui(“fung shway” = wind and water) is the study of environmentalbalance. The system studies people’s relationships to their environment inorder to achieve maximum harmony with spiritual forces, which influence allplaces.

Departments without “closed door” time and closed meeting spacefor the HR team invites both productivity and morale problems, which may lead toprivacy violations and anxieties amongst employees.

Here are five survival strategies:

Balance Interdependence and Autonomy. The HR manager and departmentmust project an image of operational objectivity and privacy defender whileperforming their overall management function. The HR professional must alsodevelop a capacity for “detached involvement,” that is, beingsensitive to personnel issues and individual employee concerns while resistingthe rescuer role. If you’re always taking work home – literally or emotionally- your personal/personnel boundary will start to erode.
Reach Out to Specialists and Consultants. Resist the urge to be Ramboor Rambette. This involves taking things too personally, processing asignificant downsizing or upgrading a computer system by yourself. Reach out forexpert support such as an Employee Assistance Program counselor, especially withseriously disgruntled or dysfunctional employees. For widespread departmenttension consider using a corporate change/critical intervention consultant.
Balance Administrative Work and Human Relating. Beware of becoming asolitary HR number cruncher who’s sequestered in an IT fortress. Don’t losethe human touch. Periodically, walk around your shop and swap stories with folkson the work floor. Bridge the gap between management and employees. Rotatingdifferent hats will also help you follow my maxim, “Fireproof your lifewith variety!”
Encourage Independence by Setting Boundaries. These threeboundary-setting strategies will enable the HR manager to successfully jugglevarious roles and responsibilities:
1. Delegation. Monitoring (not micromanaging) employee performance isvital. Balance the Triple A, – Authority, Autonomy and Accountability – whichare critical management and stress tools.
2. Education. Help others not to be so dependent on your indispensableknowledge. Training for employees and supervisors on HR-related procedures, Website information negotiating and self-initiated employee data gathering, etc.,is vital in today’s time- and task-driven environment.
3. Separation. Generate the space-time dynamics for optimalperformance of HR. Balance accessibility and boundaries with “closeddoor” time; design a form and function office layout that allows for vitalinterdependence between HR and employees. One HR department installed adartboard on a back wall for stress relieving fun and friendly competition.Model the stress management mantra, “Giving of yourself and giving toyourself!”
Maximize Team Meetings. Productive team meetings are essential toshare logistically and emotionally demanding workload for the HR manager and hisor her staff. Meetings should to be more than time and task-driven staffing;build in a 15-minute “wavelength” segment. Use this segment for thegroup to grapple with emotionally tough personnel issues – dealing with pinkslips, reorganization uncertainty, turf battles with other departments, culturaldiversity tensions, etc.

Let a staff member acknowledge sources of work pressure. As a group, assessthe strengths and roadblocks affecting solid team coordination and cooperation.Perhaps even rotate the leadership of these meetings amongst your HR staff.Learn to wear both the team member and manager hats.

Recognizing these ten stressors and five strategic interventions will lightenthe personal load while strengthening leadership hold.

November 1, 1999July 10, 2018

Five Strategies and Structures for Reducing Workplace Violence

The following list brings together some traditional or seemingly obvious education-interventions. It also provides steps that illustrate my personal experience in the fields of stress management and clinical therapy along with organizational violence prevention, conflict resolution and critical intervention.

Clear Management Policy Plus Independent and Confidential Climate. The two pillars of a violence prevention program are:
a) clear communication from all levels of management that violence will not be tolerated (including emotional and verbal harassment). Most important, the managers themselves must model this policy; they must be able to walk the talk, not just mouth the right words, and
b) threats or abuse are to be reported to an anonymous call-in service. And threats don’t just have to be death threats. Bantering that’s crossing the taunting and harassment lines (or even bordering that line) needs to be designated off company limits. In Columbine fashion, I’ve experienced too many verbal taunting scenarios evolving into a vicious and destructive cycle.

Both perpetrators and targets can “lose it.” It was like the case of a couple of postal employees continuously razzing two perceived “slackers” as management turned a deaf ear. (I suspect the manager was allowing these abusive workers to act out his frustration with “the slackers.”) One of the harassers, so caught up in his anger toward his “lazy” colleagues, was removed from the Service after making death threats to his psychiatrist.

With reporting, especially in large organizations like the Postal Service, a complainant should have the opportunity to speak directly to an independent investigative body, such as the Postal Inspectors. Other reporting venues can be Human Resources, Equal Employment Opportunity Office, Cultural Diversity Office, etc. These bodies, of course, must not simply be management tools. Yet, don’t assume these bodies will be reflexively anti-management. For example, recently, I led a workshop with EEO Counselors for the Department of Defense. Their job stress had as much to do with confronting employees who really didn’t have legitimate EEO beefs as it did tangling with a management system allowing or encouraging harassment, bias or unfairness.

Independence is also essential not just in the reporting phase but also in the investigative process. Again, the integrity of this expert is critical. While some will be dismissive if the expert lacks in-depth in-house knowledge or experience, more people will feel there’s greater likelihood for independence and objectivity. Clearly, this consultant needs to assert his or her own autonomy and professionalism. He or she must model objective and understanding listening with all parties and be a conflict-resolving and problem-solving catalyst. In addition, an outside expert should not be a defender of upper management or the organization. However, what can be affirmed is that management, at some level, is: a) investing substantial time and money in defusing or removing destructive workplace conditions and interpersonal tension, b) attempting to repair a sense of order and trust while c) opening up genuine grievance and communication channels.

Sometimes dramatic organizational signals and statements are needed. After a period of gun violence culminating in shooting deaths in separate states in one day, the Postal Service took aggressive preventive (if not belated) action. A number of stress management and violence prevention consultants were hired to run national focus groups at various processing plants and individual stations. (My territory was the Mid-Atlantic Region.) The key questions: what are the factors contributing to stress and workplace violence and what can be done to reverse the destructive trend?

In the aftermath of a focus group, a Plant Manager of a large Postal Processing and Distribution Plant asked if I’d come on board as a consultant to help the organization—management and employees—grapple with stress and conflict levels. And a closing thought before outlining our uncommon organizational experiment. Management, if so motivated, can send a message: abuse and violence are no longer business as usual!

Stress Management by Wandering Around. Many organizations assume that: a) having an independent body/office for the reporting and investigating of violent incidents, b) providing sexual harassment and cultural diversity training, c) doing careful pre-hiring screening and d) having an EAP (Employee Assistance Program) means management has taken the necessary and legal steps to deal with the workplace violence issue. Based on the above-mentioned Processing and Distribution Plant experience, the above steps are necessary but may not be a sufficient deterrent to violence, especially in large organizations. Also, these steps may lag if violence prevention, not just critical intervention, is the goal.

EAP Presence: Visible and Confidential. While Stress Management by Wandering Around (SMBWA) makes an uncommon contribution, this method is an EAP complement. Though not the main course for defusing conflict or preventing violence, still, some of the key concepts of SMBWA should be integrated into the EAP operation. (Help, call the Initials/Acronym Hotline … I’m having an alphabetaholics attack.)

First, EAP operations need to establish or, more likely, regain the trust of supervisors and employees. Organizational mistrust or indifference can arise when: a) some employees have experienced or perceive their confidentiality being compromised, b) significant numbers view the EAP more as a management-inspired punishment tool rather than a supportive resource, c) the EAP has been staffed by (good-intentioned) individuals who were not mental health professionals and d) the EAP was or is more a paper program than a management supported and marketed one with an active, visible presence.

There needs to be an EAP orientation, in fairly small groupings—even mixing managers, supervisors and employees—that provides all levels of the organization the opportunity to raise questions, concerns, fears, etc., about the past and present purpose, procedures and performance of the EAP. Once the trust issues have surfaced and employees perceive management and the EAP staff handling people’s concerns and objections in a non-defensive, non-retaliatory fashion, then “How to Use the EAP” training can begin in earnest. Remember: when dealing with an emotionally charged learning curve, venting and confrontation must precede procedural training and education.

Clearly, a critical training component is helping supervisors integrate the EAP referral as a useful management option, both for their employees and for themselves. For example, a recent Johns Hopkins University study affirmed that depression shadows a significant number of employees in the American workplace. And, this psychological and biochemical condition and/or illness adversely impacts productivity—through mistakes, lateness, absenteeism, etc. Helping supervisors more quickly recognize signs of employee depression or other stress-related conditions would clearly be prophylactic. Alas, only sporadically comes a lone workshop testimonial from a supervisor who thankfully asked for EAP help with handling an employee exhibiting a pattern of dysfunctional psychological and/or behavioral warning signs.

Finally, EAP visibility requires more than an initial training session and a spiffy flier. In-house EAP marketing needs to be ongoing, including a connection with the consultant wandering around, an ongoing dialogue with supervisors and brown bag lunches or health and wellness workshops for all personnel.

Clearly, to meet this expansive mission, the company EAP needs to be adequately staffed and funded. Still it’s a wise bottom-line move. Research shows that a competent EAP is a sound investment not just for curbing violence, but for reducing grievances and health insurance costs. It’s a business and human relations tool for enhancing productivity and employee morale.

Quick and Decisive Intervention. The compelling case for rapid intervention, of course, is much easier made with hindsight. Still, a couple of times being burned by delay and denial may speed the development of foresight. I recall the plight of a new female supervisor in a large government agency harassed verbally and non-verbally by an experienced male employee. The latter, a mostly productive worker, was also known for his eccentricities and moodiness. The trigger eludes me. Maybe it was jealousy rearing its irritated ego with a colleague’s promotion to management status. Maybe resentment festered along with unrequited “romantic” obsessions. Initially, the supervisor’s management superiors downplayed what would now surely constitute harassing, if not overtly threatening, behavior. Perhaps these two higher ups (both males) minimized the increasing gravity and oddity of this employee’s behavior from having worked many years together. Maybe they learned to adapt somewhat to his provocative personality. And then the denial bubble burst when this troubled employee threatened the supervisor with a sharpened knife. At this point, of course, he was removed.

A Scary Hard Worker
Another brief example to clinch the decisive point. This one involves a hard-working, big and burly veteran warehouse worker known to have some psychiatric disorder. When the disorder was in relative remission, he mostly talked to himself. When under more stress or in some state of decompensation, his self-talk and voices got louder.

Periodically, he would yell and sometimes glare at a passerby. Management was slow to respond to fellow employee complaints both for selfish and seemingly compassionate reasons. Management did not want to lose his productivity and they also felt sorry for this troubled worker. Alas, this stance only breeds trouble for all concerned. Not surprisingly, word surfaced that a fight nearly broke out between this individual and other warehouse personnel.

By the time I was asked to intervene (along with a supportive supervisor) this individual was in a fairly delusional state. While initially denying his outbursts had increased, he eventually explained his yelling as a survival measure against the radioactive waves the police were beaming into his head. By empathizing with his stressful plight, without arguing the veracity of his explanation, I informed him that management was requiring an immediate fitness for duty psychiatric evaluation. The next day this fellow checked himself into the psychiatric hospital. And the day after his mother called his supervisor to thank us for motivating her son to get the help he had been refusing. Many lives were spared needless and potentially dangerous tension by this belated, yet decisive, encounter.

Allow for Grievance and Grieving. The complement to rapid and decisive critical intervention with a troubled employee is an intervention process that recognizes the broad impact of a major organizational restructuring. This intervention encourages people to experience and constructively express a variety of fairly predictable emotional states. Such workplace community intervention is especially vital when challenged by rapid and permanent change or an uncertain but chronically looming reorg coming down the pike. Emotions such as shock and denial, betrayal and rage, anxiety and panic and helplessness and depression are often components of a transition-inspired grief process. And these reactions are more pronounced when the loss is sudden and unexpected and/or the employee hasn’t evolved coping with change and restructuring skills, both in his personal and professional roles.

Perhaps the most critical part of the grief process is transforming vicious cycle fear and rage into vital anger. This transformation facilitates productive motivation and momentum, regaining a new focus and reaching a necessary level of acceptance regarding the loss and change experience. Venting and bonding ease the way and support cord cutting, letting go and moving onward. And, as indicated, there’s a need for expressing and channeling anger both in one-on-one and group forums.

Actually, my change consulting/training work has involved three types of transitional categories: a) an organization/workforce anticipating a restructuring or downsizing; the scenario is most hazardous when dull gray, LA smog-like uncertainty hangs in the organizational air, b) the “survivors” of a major restructuring or RIF (Reduction in Force) and c) folks who did not survive the reorganization, that is, employees who are now unemployed.

Anticipated Restructuring or Downsizing. For many this is the most stressful transitional period. Uncertainty and rumors run neck and neck. Especially when large numbers may become “RIF raff” the potential for major system tension and conflict, constructive advocacy and destructive sabotage increases. Also, don’t be misled by seeming passivity. These employees are agitated: “Damned if I do, damned if I don’t. Damned if I stay, damned if I leave.” Apparent feelings of helplessness and paralysis can quickly turn into a rageful state. And rage unchecked or unharnessed breeds violence.

My inaugural work with the Postal Service provided insight into some of the dilemmas. The USPS in the early ’90s implemented a major restructuring. However, the USPS technically did not have a RIF or Reduction In Force. Instead, for example, at Washington, DC Headquarters they created a large transition center for folks bereft of job but still receiving a paycheck. Don’t be deceived. This place was more a leper colony than Paradise Island. After awhile, other workers shunned the folks relegated to the “7th Floor.” The purpose of the Center was to motivate applications for postal positions in less geographically staffed (or desirable) locations around the country. And another goal was to encourage (not pressure, of course) employees to update their resumes and to migrate from the Postal Service.

Toward this end, the USPS hired a hot shot outplacement firm from New York City to positively motivate and cheerlead the troops. Big surprise … very few participants were getting with the outplacement program. As one employee, previously on a management fast track, cried out: “I once had a career path. Then this boulder fell from the sky and crushed it!” You don’t think she was feeling betrayed, abandoned and enraged? This “rah rah,” shut down real feelings approach only added insult to injury. Finally someone from the EAP realized that “The Outplacement Emperor” had no clothes or clout. I was brought in to lead workshops dealing with the inevitable issues and emotions of loss and depression, fear and anger. As one participant said, “Why did we have to wait three months to get this program?” Better late than never … but why not sooner!

The Restructuring Survivors. For survivors of a downsizing or reorganization the most noxious message is simple: “Just be grateful you still have a job!” This can only be heard as, “Stuff your real feelings, I (the supervisor) or we (management), don’t want to deal with them.” People have lost close colleagues, may have been shifted to a strange department and/or must quickly take on new tasks or job descriptions. Not surprisingly, a person feels his or her mission, self-worth and sense of purpose has been downgraded. As a bank officer bemoaned after his bank had been submerged by a larger financial institution, “Around here it feels like a losing team locker room.”

Now, of course, there’s the anxiety and frustration of having “to do more with less” staff, resources, etc. All the above is a combustible formula for people swinging between helplessness and feeling “lean-and-MEAN!” Also, passive-aggressive inertia may be a byproduct of unresolved loss and conflict. This posture is a fairly predictable response when people perceive their freedom or sense of autonomy and control is being threatened. Many times, the most senior employees are the most resistant to change. They know better what the good old days were like. They have already carved out their niche of success and don’t want to rock the status quo. Frequently, the less senior folks are more willing to grapple with the dangers and opportunities in this amorphous new context. They don’t want to cruise toward retirement. And if senior management is also feeling overwhelmed or burnt out by prolonged transition and time pressures, lack of resources, wounds to the ego, etc., increasing entropy if not outright decay may hover like a dark cloud about a mountain top. As will be illustrated in the second strategy section, the key is sanctioning a group grief process and creating new interconnections and supportive problem-solving teams.

The Downsized, Right-Sized, Outsourced and Terminated. For the past eighteen months, under the aegis of the Fairfax County Government in Northern, VA, I’ve been leading twice/monthly stress and change workshops with white collar (and some blue) professionals who have lost their jobs for a variety of reasons. Realizing that their downsizing was due to larger economic forces often expedites the resolution of an individual’s grief process. For the “Multiply Downsized,” especially folks in the aerospace and computer fields, industries fraught with instability or rapid startup and crash down, this roller coaster proved double-edged. Some had career transition inoculation; they had the grief, anger, letting go and moving on sequence down pat. For others who had relocated, yet again, and then experienced the downsizing replay, the emotional wiring was pretty frayed.

Other categories of the outraged and bitter include individuals believing they were: a) bounced at the first sign of ill health and b) were forced out by a jealous and/or incompetent manager who feared the skill level of the employee and feared for their own position in the company. While I’m sure some of these hard luck stories are more fiction than fact, there were too many from reliable informants to dismiss the magnitude of the problem … and the potential for employee retribution. Trust me, in the workshop group psychological drawing exercises the violent imagery—bombs, swords, circling sharks, the devil with a whip in hand—is palpable.

Beyond coaching, disciplining and rooting out unprofessional managers and having consistent standards for satisfactory employee attendance and job performance, my recommendation before termination is simple: have a one-on-one grievance procedure. Allow folks to express their perceptions, biases, provide their case, hear your constraints and operational realities if you’ve decided to sever them from the company. Too often the procedure is cowardly: leaving a pink slip in the cubicle telling the employee to “Pack up. Your services are no longer needed. Thank you!” (And preventing an employee from retrieving their personal computer files only fuels the rageful fires.) Even contractors shouldn’t be dismissed without some notice. This kind of harsh and abrupt termination, unless truly an emergency, can too easily sow the seeds for future destruction.

November 1, 1999July 10, 2018

Key Components of a Dangerously Dysfunctional Work Environment

Key components of a dangerously dysfunctional work environment:

From TLC to TNC. Don’t support a work environment that’s driven by “time, numbers and crises,” and not by “tender loving care.” Beware a philosophy that extols customers as kings while treating employees as peasants; it’s a formula for revolt, inertia or sabotage.

Rapid and Unpredictable Change. This can happen during either a downsizing or expansionary mode. There is unstable leadership, and a workforce that’s adjusting to new personnel or loss of wisdom. Rules and procedures don’t appear to be operational; “the book” has lost some critical pages. There’s chronic uncertainty from lack of timely information or from communication not perceived as genuine or accurate.

Destructive Communication Style. This includes excessively aggressive, condescending, explosive or passive aggressive styles of communication, and excessive work-floor razzing or scapegoating. Managers talk over employees, and nobody truly listens. This is characterized by either defensive counterattacking or robotic groupthinking.

Authoritarian Leadership. There’s a rigid, militaristic mind-set of “superiors vs. subordinates.” Typical slogans include: “You don’t get paid to think,” or “My way or the highway.” Leaders blow up if they’re challenged, and break up any participatory decision-making or team-building efforts.

Defensive Attitude. There’s a dismissive attitude and atmosphere regarding feedback, and little interest in evaluation of people and policies. Only numbers count. It isn’t safe to give feedback; people are quick to feel disrespected or rejected. Yelling, intimidation or avoidance are the preferred ways of dealing with conflict.

Double Standard. There are different policies and procedures, bias in application, for management and employees, blue collar or white collar, racial or sexual discrimination. There’s a “work floor vs. tower” dichotomy. This double standard also manifests as management gets substantial training or support for dealing with change processes and employees get minimal orientation and ongoing support.

Unresolved Grievances. There are no mechanisms or only adversarial ones—”us vs. them”—to settle grievances. Or dysfunctional individuals are protected or ignored because of contractual provisions, red tape, an old boy network or union cover and so on.

Emotionally Troubled Personnel. Management isn’t actively assisting, in a timely manner, troubled employees to get needed help. It isn’t professionally engaging the troubled employee (or supervisor), which can create a tumor for the work team—characterized by scapegoating, loss of respect for leader, apathy and lowered morale.

Repetitive, Boring Work. This isn’t just assembly-line syndrome. Your niche of success becomes the ditch of excess and stagnation. There’s a lack of opportunity for job rotation, or not enough new blood coming into the system. (Also, see “Hazardous Setting.”)

Faulty Equipment/Deficient Training. This means equipment or procedures (or lack of) that don’t allow people to work effectively or efficiently. Then, workers are criticized for not being productive. Also, rapidly inundating people with new equipment and operational standards while not providing sufficient time and resources for successful startup.

Hazardous Setting. This includes disruptive ambient work conditions—temperature, air quality, repetitive motion issues, overcrowded space, problematic noise levels, excessive overtime, nocturnal schedule and interrupted sleep, etc. Personnel shortage causes a lack of backup, which results in potentially dangerous work expectations and conditions.

Culture of Violence. This environment has a culture or past history of individual and/or violence and abuse. There are violent or explosive role models, alcohol and drug abuse, and employees with lingering Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).