By Patrick Gaul

By now, you have probably seen that Cleveland topped this year’s Forbes Magazine list of America’s most miserable cities.  As a Cleveland Area native and life-long resident, I am used to reading things like this and am even able to find humor in it.  Heck, I even posted it to my Facebook page.  If we can’t laugh at ourselves we’ll cry, right? 

Let’s look closer at what Forbes was measuring. 

The Weather: Originally I thought this entire rating was based on weather and that really had me confused.  As I read the original article, I now realize that weather was just one of 10 factors considered.  Sure, the weather isn’t good here in winter, but it’s not the worst in America.  A bad snow storm here is 12 inches.  In Buffalo they call those flurries.  In Cleveland we break out the winter coat, hat and gloves when it falls into the 20’s.  In Minneapolis that’s a day at the beach. 

This past Valentines Day, Ease@Work’s parent company the Center for Families and Children (CFC) hosted a race called the Run with Your Heart Trail Challenge.  A race in winter in Cleveland, it must be indoors, right?  Nope, note the word Trail in the title.  We didn’t even use paved roads for this event!  Was it a 5k / 10k?  Heck no, it was an 8k / 15k!  CFC decided to embrace the Cleveland winter and see if Clevelanders would rise up to a challenge and we did.  This was a sold out race with 200 runners.  I was one of those runners and I had a great time.  Was I miserable?  Not at all. 

Most Clevelanders I know love the seasons.  If you want a better appreciation for Cleveland winters, get outside into the Metroparks in the winter when everything is covered in a blanket of snow.  It’s amazing because everything seems to be asleep until you look down and see animal tracks everywhere, proving that things are not always as they appear. 

While the contributors to the Forbes article judge that our weather is something that should make us miserable, they are not in our heads.  I invite Forbes magazine to come to the 2^nd annual “Run with Your Heart Challenge” on February 13, 2011 and see for themselves that Cleveland winters do not make us miserable.

Corruption by Public Officials: This was one of the factors I believe propelled us to #1.  I can’t speak for other Clevelanders, but this one does bum me out.  Am I miserable over it?  No, but I hate that many voters in my suburb have decided not to support our school system because a former board member (whom I will not name) was prominently featured in the FBI corruption investigation.  What’s the bright side?  Addition by subtraction for one thing.  We now have a better school board because the FBI is doing their job.  I just wish the voters would rebel against politicians at the polls rather than against our youngest residents. 

The Economy: This was the first thing listed in the Forbes article when they were explaining why Cleveland topped the list this year. 

“Cleveland secured the position thanks to its high unemployment, high taxes, lousy weather, corruption by public officials and crummy sports teams (Cavaliers of the NBA excepted).”

Let’s explore this a little more closely.  Yes, the economy has dealt more than its fair share of damage to the Cleveland Area and we have lost jobs because of it.  I heard an interesting presentation at the Cleveland SHRM Chapter meeting this week.  Carin Rockind from TeamNEO addressed the many misperceptions about the Cleveland + Region (Cleveland + Akron + Canton + Youngstown).  The thing that I was most impressed with was the fact that this region’s Gross Regional Product (GRP) grew 30% during a recent 15 year period.  Coupled with job loss, this means that this region is far more productive than it was 15 years ago.  Sure, much of that can be explained by technology advances, but there is no question that we are asking for more productivity out of less employees today than we were even a few years ago. 

Ok, so I’m being Mr. Brightside again with my rose-colored glasses on, but there is something to be said for a region that responds to adversity by working a little harder.  When it snows, we sell out trailruns; at the same time people down south were shutting everything down due to a few inches of snow.  When our co-workers get laid off, we mourn their loss and roll up our sleeves and do the work of two for the same money.  The Cleveland area is certainly enduring an extended period of adversity, but we are rising to the challenge. Before we can expect the rest of the country to take note, we need to become aware of the positives all around us.

What can be done?  You didn’t expect me to end this without a plug for Employee Assistance did you?  If your business is one that is demanding more production out of fewer employees, you must be sure that they have access to a GOOD EAP.  Not the free EAP that comes with something else that your company is buying.  It’s worth $2 per employee, per month, to make sure your employees can get the help they need to deal with the pressures they are faced with. 

Here are a few good tests of your current program:

• The next time an employee shares some information with you indicating they might have a personal problem, suggest they call the EAP.  Make sure they know it’s voluntary and that they don’t have to give you any details, but let them know you are genuinely interested in whether the EAP was able to help them. 
• The next time you have an issue with an employee’s decrease in productivity, whether it’s an employee who reports directly to you or reports to somebody else, consider sending them to the EAP for an assessment prior to disciplining them.  It might be the case that they are having a personal issue they don’t want you to know about, which is affecting their work.   
• Check your utilization report.  If you think your organization does not have employees with personal problems, you are wrong.  Any true independent EAP can expect a utilization level of at least 4% if it is properly promoted.  With an add-on program, you will not be likely to see even 1% utilization.   

While a lack of employee complaints might be a sign that other benefits are performing properly such as not receiving complaints about insurance benefits – this is not the case with EAP benefits. Employees are highly unlikely to disclose when an EAP is not responsive to them because in filing that complaint with human resources or a manager, the employee is in fact revealing information they would prefer be kept confidential. So, what happens more often than not is that employees do not receive the assistance they need and EAP use is essentially non-existent, making it appear as if your employees are trouble-free.

Your EAP must be engaged in order to function properly.  It is well worth the effort to develop relationships with your EAP account representative – see what can be done to promote the services in the workplace, find out how management consultations are helpful in addressing difficult or sensitive workplace situations, talk about how management referrals can save a company from replacing a good worker who may just be going through a rough spot. 

Having an engaged EAP supporting your organization is one easy, inexpensive, action you can take to counter the effects that the weather, economy and politicians are having on your employees. Who knows, it might even bump Cleveland from that #1 spot!