 |
 |
|
      
|
Summer Postponed at HR Manager’s RequestAs if anybody needed reminding, summertime plays havoc with business. Meetings are delayed, decisions postponed, and the tempo of the day slows. Strangely, summertime can increase stress among employees. Children are home from school, and require alternate forms of care. Finding these services can strain family life. Just seeing to the needs of children in camp often changes the daily routine of employees. Meanwhile, the vacation schedule changes work assignments and requires employees to support and align with co-workers in different patterns. Each change, even if it’s sought after, adds to emotions with which employees must contend. Fun activities, family gatherings, picnics and vacations contribute their own share of worries, emotions and intense feelings. Vacations are now more important than ever. The tremendous pressures on employees (the unceasing pace of change, information flow and international trade to name a few) put a strain on everyone. While the firm’s culture may reward, or even require, long hours, without relief, these obligations impair the firm's ability to manage daily decisions and weaken its crisis response potential. Employees need opportunities for release, relaxation and renewal. HR can facilitate this by insisting that everyone take an extended vacation. Long weekends, as significant as they are, cannot replace the benefits of weeks away from the workplace. Returning employees bring renewed enthusiasm as well as good memories. Vacations also help identify faults in an organization. Under non-critical conditions, these can be reinforced, whether through cross training, out-sourcing or organizational change. So what’s so great about summer for HR folks? They have the best challenges of all— their own vacations!
Teamwork: Non-sense in the NinetiesWhy preach teamwork in an environment of downsizing, high internal and external competition and fierce financial forces? Because there are increasing demands for it. Innovation frequently calls for knowledge beyond the capacity of any one person. Teams can accomplish more than the sum of their members. Teams are a reality of the workplace. While management may support teamwork, the forces arrayed against real teamwork in the organization are significant. Employees are competing for positions. Almost everyone has experienced corporate musical chairs. One of the most pressing questions is, "Who will gain from the team’s work?" Among equals, an issue often emerges: who is the leader of the team? If the "captain" comes from above, why work for her/him? Who set the goals for the team? Is the goal a process goal: solve the newly competitive problems for the organization, or a task goal: fix the problem? Does the team have anything in common? Can the chief be trusted to accomplish the goals set for the team? Can the team choose its own members, or are employees assigned? Can a team fire a member? HR can help the managers answer these tough questions. For a further examination of this topic by Fauecast, request the gray paper on teamwork.
EAP Concerns: Warm Weather ExcusesCan anything top the pure pleasure of a cold brew on a hot day? How about sipping gin and tonic on the aft deck of a cruise ship? Warm weather gives you a chance to relax and take a well-deserved vacation. It does not give you an excuse for irresponsibility when it comes to alcohol. Abstinence is not a goal for EAPs, but responsible use of alcohol is. Enjoy the beer at a backyard barbecue or the champagne at a summer wedding. But use the designated driver, taxi or a ride home. Children learn from their parents how to use and enjoy alcohol, or how to abuse it. If your kids are young, you can save yourself a lot of heartache later by demonstrating appropriate use of alcohol now. If a word is needed to be said about illegal drugs, that word is Don’t. There is no occasion in any season that gives you an excuse for drugs.
Downsizing Survivor’s Workshop: Anger Among EmployeesSurvivors of corporate downsizing are grateful for their jobs, but harbor anger, fear and resentment. Is this news? Survivors often need help. Fauecast, at the request of a client, organized a series of workshops for employees who survived. Using the findings of David Noer, as published in his Healing the Wounds, Fauecast consultants created and presented workshops directed at helping employees uncover these often repressed emotions and develop alternative strategies to deal effectively with them. In offering these workshops, Fauecast seeks to help employees make the adjustments required to "get on" with business after a traumatic event in their lives. For employees who have lived through the process more than once, the recurrence of these feelings, often repressed in the first instance, can be magnified and have a dramatic effect on personal lives and professional performance. For the organization the presence of employees with intense feelings represents a danger to: 1) their future existence, 2) the objectives of the downsized plan and 3) their employees. To address these dangers, the organization must deal with both the intellectual challenge and the affective state of the employee. To discuss how your organization is doing with its plans for change, call Fauecast.
Depression Costs the U.S. $43.7 BillionHelp is available by phone: To augment existing EAP services, employers can subscribe to an anonymous, low cost interactive computerized system, Employee Telephone Access Program (ETAP). For information, call the National Depression Screening Project at 617-239-0071. This program reaches its intended audience: 70% of callers scored positive for depression, with 90% not in treatment.
Puzzling Out Human Behavior: Does the Logo Match RealityAs you look at the four puzzle piece logo, you may observe that the pieces, while almost fitting, don’t quite go together. It was designed that way. There is a parallel with human behavior. Beyond being maddeningly illogical at times, most "good" solutions to people in organizations problems are approximations. Unlike physics, for example, how things are done when people are involved matters a great deal. One of the difficulties is that who is doing the work may matter more than what they are doing. While limiting, this fact intensifies the purpose of Fauecast. Having great "touch" is what makes us both unique and highly valuable. Achieving the best fit among employees and their organizations, accommodating peculiarities, policy subtleties and cultural norms, is what takes high levels of skill. It makes the work infinitely interesting and especially challenging. Like to join us in a good puzzle?
Guest AppearancesThat Old Feeling: Stress in the Workplace: Presented to New Jersey Utility Association. The program captured the stress felt by employees as the industry transforms itself from regulated monopoly to competitive business. How do old friends, who once shared practices and trade secrets, adjust to the new competitive world? What’s it like for employees to go from secure employment to free agency? In a quick overview, attendees grasped the need for balance among factors in their lives. Four strategies for stress reduction were presented. Relaxation was demonstrated. Speaking engagements on a variety of topics my be arranged directly with Jeff Faue.
Return to Newsletter Directory Subscribe to the newsletter in hard copy
|
|
This web site developed and maintained by Impact Associates http://www.impacta.com |
