Do you see people slouching over their desks, only to be out sick for back pain later?
Is one of your employees eating junk food every day and ends up having to leave early because of stomach pains?
Do employees sit at their desk all day and steadily increase in weight?
Does an employee end up on disability because of a work related injury that may have been prevented if they were in better shape?
Has an employee missed work because of a heart attack or other serious condition?
Now think about how that affects your profits.
For many employers, 20% of the workforce accounts for 80% of the health care claims. Heart disease, asthma, mental health disorders, cancer, and hypertension are the major drivers of health care costs. Besides requiring doctor visits, these conditions often require a great deal of daily medication. Karin Palmer, R.D., and co-creator of the EASEy Weigh program explains, “Some of the highest costs in healthcare claims come from prescription medications – your blood-pressure meds and cholesterol reducing meds like Lipitor and other designer medications. What makes this even more expensive is that you are often refilling them on a monthly basis, unlike periodic visits to the doctor.”
The Solution…
Many of the above conditions (and their costs) could be prevented with behavioral and environmental changes. By eating better, exercising, quitting smoking, reducing stress, and stopping substance abuse you can help reduce the incidence of these conditions and, in turn, help reduce health care claims. As an employer, you can help your employees turn things around and get back into health.
Employers can make a few workplace changes to create a healthy workplace culture. The process of eliminating unhealthy triggers and surrounding employees with healthy choices will help facilitate change. A wellness program should be centered on prevention, have a definite focus, and involve some sort of system to measure success. The following are some components to consider including:
Make healthy the only option…or at the very least, an option.
Too often, employers promote “workplace wellness sabotage” where donuts are strategically placed in the most visible office areas and where staff meeting refreshments consist of sodas and chips. Vending machines are stocked with sugary and fatty snacks. Instead, start serving fruit and stocking up on healthy snacks. If better food is accessible, people are more likely to eat it.
Make the office a place for fitness.
How convenient would it be to get in a workout on your lunch break or right before you leave for the day? Giving employees a place to work out will help them do it more.
Get up and go!
Get your employees up and moving. Encourage employees to take those few steps over to another office to ask a question instead of sending someone an email. Create a lunchtime walking group. To really get employees up and moving, hand out pedometers and offer a prize to the biggest stepper.
Policies on tobacco in and around the workplace vary, but one thing about tobacco use is universal – it does affect health and health care costs. If you are looking to do something in this area, consider offering tobacco cessation coaching to your employees. Create policies that prohibit smoking on the property or taking smoke breaks. A health insurance premium discount on non-tobacco using employees is very effective, but sometimes controversial. Be careful not to call it a penalty for smokers, which is a violation of ERISA.
Stress, poor mental health, and substance abuse can have a negative impact on employee health. Not only is mental health crucial to well being, it is also important for good physical health.
When instituting a wellness program, you should create a wellness committee to champion these changes. Ideally, this committee will have 3-5 people who represent the goals of the program and drive it forward. Try to get representation from as many departments as possible, so that they can have a positive effect on participation and input can be obtained from throughout the company.
Consider bringing in an on site weight management program. Chances are many of your employees already want to do something like this but don’t think they have the time. By bringing it into the workplace, employees are more likely to stick with it.
Some final tips…
Don’t expect to see changes overnight. Studies have shown that it takes three- to five-years for wellness programs to take effect.
Recognize that there are resources out there for you. Consider community resources that can help you implement some of these programs.
Sources:
Wellness Council of America. “Creating a Culture of Wellness: A WELCOA Quick Inventory.” 2009.
Sibson Consulting. “Results from Sibson’s Heath Enterprise Study.” 2011.
For many clients the deep experience of emotion has been blocked or repressed. Hypnotherapy has proven to be a valuable experiential technique to get those repressed emotions flowing. In other words, to help people to get back into their bodies so the negative physical energy can get moving out. Activating the energy in the body helps release any “shock” so the emotional energy can flow out. This may also release the body memories or cellular memories, that the individual may be holding onto.
Carl Jung, the famous psychologist, believed in a “collective unconscious”, referring to the information stored in an individual’s subconscious. Jung believed that the collective unconscious contained all the experiences of long term memory including the person’s emotions, behaviors and cognition, as well as the unconscious material of the parents, grandparents and the human species itself. These are referred to as archetypes. Once an individual is in a deeply relaxed state as is often produced in hypnosis, they can access the “unconscious material” that may keep them stuck in fears, phobias, self-defeating patterns and numbing of feelings.
Researchers, such as Rossi, Janov and Candace Pert have concluded that a person who learns a task or creates a memory while under a particular emotional state will repeat the task or recall the memory while under the influence of the same emotional state. In other words, if when I was seven years old, I was comforted by being given something to eat when I was sad or tired, I may have concluded in that child state that the best way to comfort myself is to eat when sad and tired. Obviously, this can have many negative consequences on my overall health and well-being. Using hypnotherapy, we can help a person to go back to the memory where that behavior was created and change the belief in the ego state in which it was created. By doing this a person can use the wise adult part of themselves to create new and healthier behaviors of comfort that are unrelated to food or other unwanted behaviors in the present. You can see by this example, the many practical possibilities for improving our coping skills and living more effectively through the use of hypnotherapy. For more information, contact Tom Gigliotti, LISW, certified hypnotherapist.
Family Behavioral Health is a counseling practice near Cleveland that Ease@Work has utilized for many years. This entry was reproduced from an entry by Tom Gigliotti on February 2, 2011 at blog.fbhsllc.com
For most of us, the holiday season is filled with family…and food. Unfortunately, the edibles aren’t always the healthiest, as we munch on cookies and pies, and we sip eggnog, cocktails and other high calorie and high fat options. The key word is options – and you do have them. You can choose to make, purchase and eat healthier treats.
Here are a few suggestions:
When mixing your favorite beverage, use low-calorie mixers, seltzer, and low-fat milk or evaporated milk versus cream or half-and-half.
When baking cookies or other desserts, use lower-calorie, more natural substitutes such as low-fat plain yogurt in place of oil, and brown rice syrup instead of sugar. Use neufchatel cheese (light cream cheese) versus the full fat type. Cinnamon also gives a sweeter taste, so you can reduce sugar and use this for added flavor in many dishes.
Swap out higher-calorie choices for similar goodies. For example, instead of a slice of pumpkin pie, try this extremely quick and easy pudding:
Pumpkin Pudding
Combine 1 cup canned pumpkin with 1 sugar free or fat free vanilla pudding pack. Add pumpkin pie spice (or sprinkle on cinnamon and clove) to taste. This recipe is so easy, you can make as little or as much as you need, without difficult calculations.
Visit www.cookinglight.com or www.epicurious.com for other healthy holiday recipes and tips.
You are capable of getting through the season without guilt! Be sure to compare labels and look for the lower sugar and lower fat choices.
The word “domestic” might lead some business leaders to believe domestic violence (DV) is a personal issue that does not affect their workplace. DV Awareness Month provides an opportunity to shed light on some stark realities.
Standing Firm is an organization based in Pittsburgh PA. Their mission is to “engage a critical mass of employers in southwestern PA in addressing partner violence as a workplace and workforce issue.” Their mission might be directed toward employers in southwestern PA, but their message applies to businesses worldwide. Here are a few facts from their website www.standingfirmswpa.com:
One quarter (25 percent) of all workplace violence events in the U.S. each year are related to partner violence.
When a victim of partner violence leaves the abusive partner, the one place the batterer knows the victim can be found is at work.
Batterers come to work to harass, harm or kill their victims. Not only is the victim in danger, but so are the victims’ coworkers, your customers, and others in the building.
Ninety four percent of corporate security directors rank partner violence as a high security problem.
Domestic violence should be considered a direct concern in every workplace.
Another agency with excellent domestic violence resources is the Corporate Alliance to End Partner Violence (CAEPV). Their mission is to “aid in the prevention of partner violence by leveraging the strength and resources of the corporate community.” I added their Facebook page as a favorite on our Ease@Work Facebook page. Feel free to visit and “like” both. Their most recent blog entry lists 10 things you can do about domestic violence. Here are a few but see their page for the rest.
Remember and share the National Domestic Violence Hotline number 800-799-7233 (SAFE) or www.thehotline.org.
Visit www.loveisnotabuse.com for tips on speaking to children about healthy relationships.
Don’t ask “Why would that victim go back?” Ask “Why would a person hit or abuse someone they love?”
A Harris Poll was conducted for Johns Hopkins Research in which 46 percent of female victims of domestic violence contacted their employee assistance program (EAP) for help. Of this group of women who accessed their EAP because of domestic violence, 71 percent said their workplace performance improved.
Providing a safe environment where domestic violence can be discussed confidentially with a professional is the most obvious benefit to having a quality EAP. Besides providing a confidential professional to speak with, your EAP should also offer domestic violence training. Employees need to know what they should do if they are victims, coworkers, managers or supervisors of victims or perpetrators.
Most people believe that it is in a victim’s best interest to leave an abusive situation. Encouraging somebody to leave without an adequate safety plan is a bad idea because leaving is the most dangerous time for the victim. As I stated at the beginning of this post, it even puts the workplace at significant risk.
As the Public Service Announcement at the beginning of this post states, the Allstate Foundation is kicking off a campaign that is designed to encourage people to talk about domestic violence and end the taboo around this issue. For more information on this campaign, visit www.clicktoempower.org.
The fact that domestic violence is taboo helps to perpetuate it. We need to end the silence in order to end the violence. It must be done with special care though. Use your EAP and the other resources listed in this post to reduce the risk of domestic violence in your workplace.
We’re paying more these days at the grocery store, with many factors affecting the rise in food costs. Higher costs can be blamed on rising fuel prices - making it more expensive to grow, harvest, transport and package food; poor crop yield; and/or the economy in general.
As a dietitian, many of my clients ask how to save money when they’re food shopping without sacrificing nutrition. One tip I always suggest to them…buy produce in season. Check the food section in your newspaper to find the best buys for the week, which are usually based on the fresh produce in season for your geographic area.
Food in season is usually priced to sell. For example, during the summer, corn can cost as little as 15 cents per ear; out of season, it may cost 10 times as much.
If you live in Ohio, log onto http://ourohio.org/index.php?page=whats-in-season for a calendar of Ohio’s fresh produce. In this geographic area, August offers an abundance of produce including corn, eggplant, tomatoes, green beans, peaches, raspberries and plums.
Support your local famer’s markets for great deals on local produce. To find a local farmer’s market log onto http://ourohio.org/map/ohfb_map_content.html . Click your county and search for “What’s in Season,” “Buying Local,” or “Local Dining.”
Karin Palmer is one of the dietitians contracted with Ease@Work to provide nutritional coaching through the wellness segment of our employee assistance program. Karin is a licensed and registered dietitian; she is also a certified diabetes educator.
Several weeks ago, Ease@Work was asked to participate in a diabetes education program at one of our client organizations. At first, we thought it was because Ease could offer consultation with a certified diabetes educator through the nutritional coaching feature of our services. However, we were surprised to learn that we were being requested to focus on depression as associated with diabetes.
The group conducting this program had taken a survey of employees attending the sessions, asking pertinent questions about their actual diabetes care program, but also included in the survey were questions about depression, such as:
• How often do you feel blue or depressed?
• How long do these episodes of feeling down last?
• Does feeling down make you feel isolated or unable to enjoy things you used to enjoy? Etc.
Almost 50 percent of those who took the survey gave responses that indicated some level of depression.
Those in diabetes education are very familiar with the link between depression and diabetes. However, we found that link between mental health and diabetes is not as well-known in the general medical community or even by those who have lived with diabetes for years.
• People with diabetes are at greater risk for depression
• Poor diabetes control can cause symptoms that look like depression
(high or low blood sugar during the day may make you feel tired or anxious; low blood sugar levels can lead to hunger and eating too much; low blood sugar at night can disturb your sleep; high blood sugar at night may make you get up often to urinate and in turn leave you feeling tired during the day)
The ADA goes on to say that there are no easy answers about why those with diabetes have a greater risk for depression, but they suspect a variety of reasons contribute to the likelihood, including:
• The stress of daily diabetes management
• The feeling of being set apart from family or friends due to the extra work of managing diet
• Other health complications from diabetes
• Feeling of losing control due to trouble or inability to keep blood sugar levels where you want them
• Tensions between family members, friends, doctors and other medical providers involved in diabetes care
• A vicious cycle of depression and low energy can lead to poor blood sugar testing/monitoring, which in turn exacerbates the situation; or anxiety may make it hard to maintain a good diet, or lead to skipping meals, which again, will cause blood sugar levels to get out of control.
As a comprehensive employee assistance program (EAP), we could offer assistance to a diabetic employee/or a family member in a collaborative manner on a number of levels:
• Consultation with a registered dietitian certified in diabetes education (CDE). A CDE could help the individual with menu planning, provide information on healthy food choices, discussion of any particular blood sugar control questions and more.
• Consultation with a counselorexperienced with depression as associated with medical conditions, such as diabetes. A clinician could help the individual/or family member address stressors, anxiety, feelings about not being in control, how to recognize/deal with depression, etc…
• Consultation with a fitness coach. Getting proper exercise is also a factor in managing diabetes effectively. Physical activity is also known to boost the “feel good” hormones produced by the body, which can alleviate some forms of depression.
On a personal note: A couple weeks after Ease’s participation in the diabetes education program, I happened to be talking with a longtime friend who is a diabetic. He was struggling emotionally and said he really didn’t feel like talking with me or anyone else…not to take it personally, but he just felt completely spent and down. I also knew he had been having trouble recently keeping his blood sugar levels in check.
When I asked him if he was aware of the connection between depression and diabetes, he was completely unaware…and this from a person who has been managing diabetes for over 25 years.
After talking with him a little longer, it was as if a light bulb went on for him – the connection between certain events and situations in his life seemed to make more sense when paired with the role depression may have played in them. I offered him some reading resources, and while I did not expect to remedy his situation, at least I know he has more awareness about the link between diabetes and depression, and that he is open to addressing the issue with a professional.
If you are diabetic, make an effort to monitor your mood as well as your blood sugar. If you find yourself struggling, call your EAP and speak to a counselor. If you know somebody who is diabetic, do not assume that they know of this connection. Chances are, they are not aware of it and they might be more likely to take action to get help if they understand the biological link to this common mental health issue.
By Stephanie Patek, Ease Account Manager and Fitness Coaching Supervisor
It is quite unlikely for an untrained, although somewhat active person, to step out on the pavement and complete a half-marathon (13.1 miles), especially without pain or injury. It is similarly unlikely for a sedentary individual to complete a shorter distance, such as a 5K (3.1 miles) without following a structured training program.
I’ve seen all too many individuals who intend to tackle a goal, and end up backing out of a race because they failed to follow a progression plan. Perhaps they became too insecure about crossing the finish line, or fell to injury because they detoured from their program and pushed themselves too hard at the beginning.
Like the progressive nature of successful running programs, the same philosophy can be applied to workplace wellness challenges.
Progression is key.
Behavior change usually requires a lengthy process of breaking a bad habit – 21 days according to most research. Change also requires the persistence to adopt or expand upon a healthy habit – yet another 21 days. It is critical when designing a wellness challenge that the challenge is designed to indicate a level of improvement over time.
A “progressive” set of goals can be the fulcrum of change, and capture an audience that needs some time to adjust to a “fit” lifestyle.
As an example of this process, during a recent challenge facilitated at the Center for Families and Children over the course of 8-weeks, participants were asked to increase their level of exercise from 90 minutes a week (for weeks one, two and three) to 120 minutes a week (for weeks four, five and six), ending with 150 minutes per week (for weeks seven and eight.) Twenty-percent of the employees who participated in the challenge successfully progressed through the full progression of increased activity. And, although the results appear to be low, in actuality those employees who met the challenge increased their minutes of exercise by 40%.
Similar, tougher challenges – facilitated in a progressive nature – can offer immediate post-challenge insight on health improvement. Not simply that the employees completed a challenge and finished, but that they did make measurable improvement in their fitness over a course of time.
Tracking healthy outcomes through workplace wellness programs can be challenging. We often hear statements from both vendors and employers commenting that the success of wellness programs is “tough to measure.”
By implementing a progressive format in your workplace wellness challenge, your organization can immediately pinpoint those employees who have successfully “trained” to improve their health. In as little as eight weeks, a significant impact can be made to the physical capabilities of employees completing challenge.
I encourage those dedicated to wellness in the workplace to think past the minimum basic health standards set by health agencies; to encourage staff to go beyond the minimum amount of exercise needed, and present a training challenge that will actually make a significant healthful impact for each individual who participates.
Ease@Work improves workplace wellness as both a benefit to employees requiring individualized assistance with nutrition, fitness, smoking cessation, stress, etc., but also as a tool for management. We assist management with the establishment of wellness committees and the implementation of wellness programming and even challenges like the one outlined above. For more information visit our website or click contact us above. Your message won’t get lost in cyber-space, we promise.
Did you know that tobacco use still leads the pack in being the number one preventable cause of death? Yes it’s true – despite all that we’ve learned about the ill effects of tobacco use, people continue to smoke and use other tobacco products.
According to the American Lung Association’s (ALA) Freedom From Smoking ® program, about one out of every five deaths is tied to tobacco; and for every person who dies of a smoking attributable disease, there are 20 more people suffering from a serious illness related to smoking.
As a human resource professional, benefits manager, company owner or CEO, how can you help but wonder what smoking and tobacco use is costing your organization in terms of insurance premiums, absenteeism/sick days, loss of productivity and ultimately the possible death of an employee?
I recently had the privilege of attending and completing an ALA workshop conducted by Gloria Ayres, ALA Program Director, to become certified as a Freedom From Smoking ® facilitator. Our group included individuals from wellness organizations, hospitals, the insurance and employee assistance program (EAP) industries – all of us looking to help customers, co-workers and others in the community who want to quit smoking.
In preparing for the class, I thought about my motivations for wanting to become certified to teach smoking cessation classes. Of course, I want to help our EAP customers when they request smoking cessation classes for their employees and the ALA’s Freedom From Smoking® is a premiere program. But I also realized I had other motivations.
As a former smoker, I understand what your smoking employees may be struggling with…how hard it is to quit smoking and break that habit (or dependence) on tobacco. I smoked for over 20 years (if you count when I started sneaking smokes as a teen); I have now been smoke-free for 12 years. When I was smoking, I never really believed I could be successful at quitting…but I figure if I could stop smoking and stay smoke-free for this long, so can other people.
I know how it feels to wake up with smoker’s cough…and I know how good it feels when you realize, “Gee, I’m not coughing anymore!” I know how dirty my fingers would feel when I was digging through an ashtray for a longer butt to smoke when I was out of cigarettes and desperate for one; I don’t miss that. I also don’t miss spending my hard-earned money on packs of cigarettes – at over $5 a pack now, that would have been almost a $20-a-day habit for me. Who can afford that?
But more than that – who can afford what tobacco use does to the body?
More than 4,800 chemical compounds have been identified in tobacco smoke; at least 69 of these are known to cause cancer
Non-tobacco materials found in cigarettes include insecticides, herbicides, fungicides, rodenticides and pesticides…not so funny that the suffix “cide” means “to kill.”
Every puff of a cigarette increases heart and breathing rates, constricts blood vessels and decreases the amount of oxygen blood can carry through the body.
Lung cancer is not the only cancer tobacco users need to fear…how about laryngeal cancer, oral cancer, esophageal cancer, pancreatic cancer and renal cancer?
Let’s not forget other health issues associated with smoking – chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, emphysema, chronic bronchitis and other cardiovascular diseases.
When I quit smoking, I didn’t have access to a program such as Freedom From Smoking ®; I also didn’t know about EAP’s or that an EAP could help with smoking cessation by providing counseling and behavioral change support. Had I been armed with these tools, I may have been successful in quitting earlier – or at least felt more prepared to quit – not as overwhelmed.
If your worksite is going (or has gone smoke-free) and you know a number of employees are still smoking;
If your organization has wellness initiatives;
If your benefits program distinguishes between smokers and non-smokers (either with penalties for smoking/rewards for not smoking)…
…consider offering the Freedom From Smoking ® program to your employees.
Your employees will progress through the sessions, gaining the confidence and skills needed to quit tobacco. They will make real progress in setting a quit date and having the support to see them through those difficult initial days and weeks. They will learn the coping techniques needed to stay smoke-free.
Talk with your EAP representative about smoking cessation programs and how your EAP can support employees who are trying to quit smoking. Along with addictions or behavioral change counseling, a comprehensive EAP, such as EASE@Work, offers nutritional and fitness coaching – which can also help employees maintain a healthy weight while quitting.
If you’d like more information about bringing Freedom From Smoking ® to your site, call me at 216.325.9323 or Contact Ease@Work for more information.
By Swan Khanna-Salehi, LISW, LICDC, CEAP, SAP, Ease@Work Clinical Manager
A drug-free workplace is an expectation of every organization and the right of every employee. The degree to which an organization makes efforts to assure a drug-free workplace varies significantly. In some cases, the organization assumes that their employees are not abusing drugs on the job and figures that their managers would be able to identify substance abusing employees. This is probably the most common reason that I hear from organizations that do not have a formal drug-free workplace program.
If this is the case in your organization, consider this question. Do you utilize hair testing for pre-employment drug testing? Wouldn’t a casual drug user stop using while job hunting? If they were smart they would. You hire smart employees don’t you? According to Omega Laboratories, Inc. the typical detection window for urine testing is 2-3 days. THC, the active drug in marijuana, is the one major exception which can be detected in urine for up to 20 days. How long is the average job search? Longer than 20 days? Even if you are utilizing pre-employment drug testing, only the more expensive hair test will detect illicit drug use for up to 90 days.
You want to be sure you do not hire substance abusers, but pre-employment testing is only one element in establishing a drug free workplace. It is also important to discourage the abuse of drugs and alcohol among your current employees with random drug testing. The less expensive option of urine testing is effective here because of the element of surprise.
Your EAP is a very important component of any drug free workplace and there are several ways your drug-free workplace program should be benefiting from your EAP. Even if you do not drug test at all, your EAP can help to reduce the incidence of substance abuse in the workplace in a number of ways.
Drug free workplace policy: Your EAP can review your drug free policy to ensure that it is effective and can help you to establish one if you do not currently have such a policy.
Employee education: Employees need to be told what substance abuse is and that the company does not allow it. The policy makes this official, but you should have your EAP spend at least an hour per year providing substance abuse education to your employees. Questions about prescription drugs are among the most common at these employee trainings. Can a prescription drug generate a legitimate positive drug test? Yes! An out-of-date prescription will not overturn a positive drug test. If an employee is prescribed a pain medication for an injury that resolves before the prescription is finished, they might keep the remainder “just in case.” Is it safe to take that medication several months later? Maybe, but maybe not. It is possible that this employee may have had changes in their diet or health that may cause a different reaction than what they experienced when the prescription was current. A more serious complication could be caused by an adverse drug interaction with a new prescription, over-the-counter drug or herbal remedy.
Supervisor education: According to the article “Bad habits on campus: how to deal with staff and faculty who are addicts , ” in the July 1, 2008 issue of University Business, “Issues of discrimination or retaliation will pop up when supervisors or managers act as unlicensed Psychiatrists.” According to Alan Cohn, LISW and director of faculty, staff and employee relations at the University of Virginia it is “a liability, a legal issue” for a supervisor to jump to the wrong conclusion about drug abuse. A well trained supervisor is better prepared to identify and deal with a substance abusing employee. They will also have more confidence when dealing with reasonable suspicion. One thing that supervisors learn from our supervisor education sessions is that they can call us at any time, 24/7 for a management consultation with a counselor to discuss a difficult employee issue whether it pertains to substance abuse, psychological change or any other employee behavioral issue.
A confidential, no-cost solution for employees: Perhaps the most important way your organization should be benefiting from an EAP is by giving your employees the means to get help on their own. Many substance abusers want to be freed from an addiction but do not know where to turn. Even if you have a “last chance agreement” policy, fear is still a significant barrier to approaching management about substance abuse. An EAP will make any workplace safer because of this feature, but a workplace with random drug testing will benefit in multiples from the EAP because the random testing provides significant additional motivation to seek help.
BWC Discounts: According to Ease@Work Sales Manager Patrick Gaul, the majority of calls to Ease@Work for information about substance abuse related services used to be from businesses interested in discounts from the Ohio BWC. The BWC DFWP program was an especially good incentive when they used to encourage all businesses to participate in the program by offering discounts from 10-20% for establishing a Drug Free Workplace Program that met their standards. As of last year the Ohio BWC took this incentive away from thousands of Ohio companies by disqualifying those which already receive another discount, including a group rating. Apparently there are more changes in the works. According to an email update that Patrick received from Advocare, Inc., a Cleveland-based group health and workers’ compensation managed care organization, “It is very likely a new drug-free safety program will replace the existing Ohio Bureau of Workers Compensation’s (BWC) program by July 1, 2010.” The update went on to say that the potential changes are a mixture of good news and bad for DFWP companies. For example they are considering elimination of the stacking rule, but only for companies at the advanced level which requires random testing of 25% of the workforce. They are also considering elimination of the 5 year limit for the discount program, but the discounts will be reduced to 4-7%. If you would like to receive industry updates from Advocare, you can reach them at www.advocare-inc.com.
The Society for Human Resource Management recently published an article of offbeat or humorous stories related by HR Managers to SHRM Online. One example was a request by a Wiccan employee for time off work to celebrate the Winter Solstice. The request was granted and the Manager “received [an] education on maintaining an objective perspective and to not pass judgment.”
The article then went on to describe a few other anecdotes submitted to SHRM Online and ended with a story recounted by an HR Director describing a valuable employee who had requested that the company
“…somehow protect him from the alien rays that were shooting at him from his computer and slowly killing him”
At this point, my EAP filter kicked in and I immediately thought, “Great, a story about how the EAP saved the day. She’s going to get this guy some help, right?” Wrong. The article went on to describe the HR Director’s resolution.
“So I sent the office manager to a medical supply store and we purchased one of those large lead dental protectors and I convinced the employee that by putting that apron over his computer when he was not there would keep all ‘rays’ from coming through to him… Yup, he bought that and stayed with us for another few years”
I imagine many people reading the article found this funny. I can appreciate this type of humor, especially if it was in a movie like Office Space. In that movie, Milton clearly had some problems, but he is one of my all time favorite characters and I have no problem finding humor in his disturbed personality. What’s the difference? Milton is a character! I think that people today have a hard time understanding the difference between the way fictitious characters are treated and the way people should be treated in real life.
According to Ease@Work Counselor Sandra Lavelle, the employee fearing the alien rays “is likely to suffer from a serious and chronic mental illness and this company’s solution in reality is not that simplistic nor appropriate.” She went on to say this story “…speaks to the ignorance of mental illness by the general working public as well as management in Human Resources”
I know that these might sound like harsh words, but why is it that companies are more concerned about liability exposure presented by an employee requesting a non-traditional religious holiday than they are with getting proper treatment for an employee suffering from mental illness?
As I was preparing to write this post, I received an email from a friend who is a Special Education Teacher. She was thrilled because a parent had thanked her for being the “bright spot” in her disabled son’s life. Apparently this child is difficult to deal with because of his special needs and most people are not as patient with him as his teacher.
If we look around, there are many examples of people mistreating other people simply because they are different. For centuries racism and sexism were accepted and it wasn’t until very recently, in the context of history, that critical mass was reached with regard to the disapproval of blatant racism and sexism. In many respects we have a long way to go but at least the business community can no longer discriminate on the basis of a person’s race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy), national origin, age (40 or older), disability or genetic information.
I am not calling for prosecution of people who make fun of mental illness or people who are impatient with special needs children. I would like it though if people would begin to think like a professional when encountering interpersonal challenges. A special needs child should not rely on his teacher to be the one and only “bright spot” in his day just because he does not behave like the other children. An employee suffering from delusions should be able to get professional help when turning to his HR Director for help rather than being made fun of in a national forum for the HR industry.
So, the question remains: How would I expect the HR Director to respond to the employee fearing alien rays which were slowly killing him through his computer?
An evaluation by the EAP would have been a great start. According to Lavelle, “The recommendations of this evaluation would best meet his needs pharmacologically and may give him counseling resources for therapy to best assist him to manage his mental illness. This individual then has the best possible outcome to stay well and be a productive employee.”
And isn’t that what being in management is all about?
Most full-service EAP’s would be happy to provide an in-service for management on ways to deal with difficult employees by utilizing the services provided by the EAP. If your EAP will not do this, get a better EAP. It’s that simple. Finding a better EAP is much easier than replacing a manager, addressing legal fallout, or risking personal injury from an incident in which employee behavior was treated inappropriately.
