The HR Doctor Is In
Pain
Management
In public administration, as
in the practice of medicine, there are chronic issues which
sometimes defy a clear diagnosis and a safe, field-tested
treatment plan. Sometimes the best we can do in such cases is
administer palliative care and monitor the
situation.
Unfortunately, in public
administration we also find chronic cases of poor behavior and
poor performance. Despite all of the knowledge and skills of a
director, a supervisor or an HR advisor, it seems a small
percentage of cases, perhaps 5 percent-10 percent involve
employees who cannot or will not get it.
What these people dont get
is how their conduct (or lack thereof), performance (or lack
thereof), attendance (or lack thereof), unwillingness to
accept or act on counseling and mentoring get in the way of
the agencys mission. They also dont seem to get it when it
comes to understanding that when they fail to behave or
perform properly it has an unfortunate infectious impact on
their coworkers. Such a person is a carrier of the virus of
not being accountable or responsible. When such a person works
in an agency environment where the supervisors dont take
proper, respectful and assertive steps to interrupt this
cycle, the symptoms are going to grow and the virus described
above will be nurtured, take root and spread to other
people.
One of the major roles of any
supervisor is to be involved in infectious disease control
where the disease is arrogance or an unwillingness or
inability to accept responsibility.
Such difficult cases also
involve another manifestation of the illness. Despite what has
been described above, the person with these symptoms will be
among the loudest and most frequent to whine, complain,
threaten and, if allowed to go unchecked, will begin draining
the supervisor of her energy.
Sometimes this is a deliberate
strategy. If this person can be allowed to practice a conduct
similar to using sandpaper, or water torture, many supervisors
in a formal, rigid bureaucracy will abandon hope of being able
to have any impact on the person. They will determine it to be
easier on them and on their hopes for an early retirement to
just let this person remain in a persistent vegetative state,
collecting pay and benefits without being productive or a
valued colleague (see the HR Doctors article Rust in Peace
at www.hrdr.net).
Medically, and in public
administration, pain management may be the best available
treatment until science produces some radical breakthrough.
Even in modern medicine, antibiotics dont stop viruses and,
in some cases, they dont stop drug-resistant bacteria. Even
today there may be no better prescription for the treatment of
the flu than warm chicken soup, a day or two of uninterrupted
rest, and a dog at your feet looking up at you hoping you will
get better so you can go out and walk and play
together.
What are the best available
pain management approaches in human resources? Generally they
involve first recognizing the problem. In other words, the
supervisor who sees poor behavior and ineffective performance
or behavior should see it as a responsibility to take action.
Rephrased in the HR Doctors favorite way, the supervisor has
a duty not to walk by something wrong.
The supervisor should begin by
interrupting the poor behavior, counseling the employee to
make sure there is no doubt whatsoever about how the poor
performance is contrary to agency rules or requirements and
providing any needed training.
At the same time and in such a
problem interruption mode, the supervisor may determine that
there are underlying issues affecting the situation. These may
include domestic abuse, family dysfunction, serious health
problems, or a co-worker who is sexually harassing, using
racist language, or bullying. If any of these very significant
disclosures occur during counseling, the supervisor has a
particularly strong need and duty to take immediate action and
consultation with others, including HR and the director of the
agency. The supervisor is committing malpractice by doing
nothing, or pretending that the whole thing will go away after
the next 3-day weekend.
If, despite the intervention,
counseling and an expression of support offered by the
supervisor, the problem still persists, it is time to consult
a specialist.
As the supervisor, it is time
to disclose the problem and have the courage and confidence to
know when its time to get help. Hopefully, the agency has a
strong HR function, which can be a wonderful source of advice,
support and training for supervisors in dealing with chronic
employee difficulties. Hopefully, the agency has an employee
assistance program (EAP) with the capacity, training and
experience to work confidentially with the troubled employee
and to provide coaching for the supervisor.
In fact, the best EAPs are
also fully capable of assessing the dynamics of a work unit,
not just an individual. Even in the small work unit of three
or four employees there may be underlying behaviors,
demonstrated consciously or unconsciously (perhaps even by the
supervisor) which are causing unnecessary stress, costs and
liabilities to the organization. A proactive HR and EAP team
is likely to be the best form or help a manager can get to
address a chronic problem.
This powerful A-team of
proactive HR, EAP and a concerned, courageous supervisor may
have to walk down a path of disciplinary action and
termination. Even in a rather rigid traditional civil service
system, or a union contract, full of procedural requirements
and traps into which managers sometime fall, such as narrow
deadlines which may be missed, the supervisor and her circle
of support have a duty to represent the agency effectively and
to pursue the matter.
Even if a disciplinary action
may ultimately be turned back or a penalty reduced, there is
much that can be learned by reviewing what happened and by
continuing to work with the employee to avoid a future
disciplinary action. If that does not work, once again, the
next disciplinary action and even the one after that, built
upon a foundation of job-related causes and a history of the
positive efforts at correction, will have a positive effect
even though there will be costs to the agency in terms of
time, money and morale.
These are very sad and
unfortunate costs, they may stem in fact from poor selection
practices at the front end when Godzilla the employee was
initially hired. Were proper background checks and reference
verifications done in the first place? Was the probationary
period, during which the employee was at will, properly used
for counseling, and perhaps making a separation decision?
Instead, did the organization wait until the employee took
ownership of his or her job the morning after the probationary
period ended when disciplinary action is far more difficult?
Was there a proper orientation and clear statement of
expectations made up front and continually reinforced? Is
there a clear record of the training, counseling and policy
understanding by the employee?
Finally, and more
strategically, if the agencys policies are so rigid that
supervisors are handcuffed and unable to get the job done, the
agency should embark vigorously upon the difficult but
essential program of internal reform and process improvement.
This may sometime best be done with help from an outside
consultant, including the HR Doctor.
However the process is managed
locally, it is absolutely essential there be internal
champions for reforms. They would include directors, managers
and supervisors who have first-hand knowledge of the trouble
and cost to the agency of having to continually work with
employees who are not good examples of the best in public
service. They must join with a proactive HR program and HR
staff to speak loudly and consistently in favor of positive
change in the Civil Service rules or in the internal practices
of the organization. They must articulate to the chief
administrative officer, city manager, or elected official why
there is a need for change, and why continued ineffective
performance despite the best efforts of a supervisor/coach
alone will not change the fundamentals.
Put all these ingredients
together and an agency can have a pain management program that
helps supervisors, managers and even chronic employees who
under perform and poorly behave.
If we dont take these kinds
of steps, we will end up spending more money each year for
less production. We will create a work place that is to be
avoided by the best future applicants and from which the best
performing employees seek to flee. We will provide full
employment for plaintiffs attorneys. None of this need be the
case.
Pain management does not have
to involve drugs or constant trips to the chiropractor or
physical therapist. However, what it must involve is a
willingness to demand positive change in a malfunctioning
system and support for the courageous supervisors who step up
and say this is wrong, and lets work together to fix
it!
The HR Doctor hopes your pain
is always manageable!
All the best,
Phil Rosenberg
www.hrdr.net
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