Kay Gimmestad - NYC Area Workplace Performance Issues
 
  • Home
  • Biography
  • Workplace Performance
  • Short-Term Solution Focused Counseling
  • Organizational and Community Trauma
  • Substance Abuse & Addictions
  • Blog
  • Client Profiles
  • Contact
  • Resources

When A Manager Has a Right to be Fearful

9/8/2015

0 Comments

 
As an experienced business coach and clinician, I am often presented with a variety of  challenging but manageable employee relations cases. At times, however, I encounter employees who pose serious threats and dangers to the workplace. Enter an impeccably dressed employee, with an unnerving and piercing stare carrying a camera and tripod. 

Rather than putting his equipment off to the side and taking a seat, he began to engage in some very odd behavior. 

He clicked the tripod into place, set up the camera and aimed it right at me. When I inquired what he was doing, he said he needed to record our session for his own edification. When I pressed him to explain why, he snapped back at me and became agitated. His aggressive stance had put me on high alert. 

When I discouraged him from doing this, he became very insistent that he be allowed to “film the process.” He also appeared concerned and fearful that his manager had referred him to health services, believing that he was being unfairly targeted.  I tried to explain the process, but he refused to dismantle his equipment.

After a few more attempts to reason with him, I recognized that this was not going to be a productive situation. There were several warning signs telling me that this man was a genuine threat.

  1. Refusal to comply with reasonable requests. 
  2. Paranoia and feelings of persecution.
  3. Distorted thinking
  4. Displaying excessive irritability
Here are some additional warning signs to be aware of:
  1. Inappropriate communication to coworkers or supervisors such as responding to
constructive criticism with several pages of justification.
  1. Filing unreasonable grievances or lawsuits
  2. Any dramatic change in an employee’s appearance or behavior should be cause for concern.
When an employee exhibits any of these signs, the manager and human resources can have a meeting with the employee, but usually someone who exhibits this type of behavior needs to be referred out of the organization to a private psychiatrist who specializes in fitness for duty evaluations and workplace issues/threats of violence. 

Security and Human Resources should work closely together to ensure that safety measures are in place should an employee become threatening. 

Some employees will follow through with the recommendations. In this case, the employee did see the psychiatrist, but refused the medication regimen that was recommended. Over time, it was determined that he could not be at work without medication, and he went out on disability retirement. 

If an employee like this follows a psychiatrist’s recommendation, there is still no guarantee that the employee can be in the workplace, but attempting to comply with the recommendation at least gives him a chance to succeed. 
Given the recent prevalence of workplace violence, every workplace should have procedures in place not only for handling such incidents, but also for making fair determinations about an employee’s fitness for work. Companies should not hesitate to refer to outside mental health providers who specialize in fitness-for-duty evaluations.
0 Comments

    If You Have a Problem Employee or an Employee with a Problem...

    Author Kay Gimmestad is a Business Coach and Clinician with 20 years of experience working in the profit and not for profit sectors of Human Resources, Health and Human Services. In this blog, she shares case studies and other observations from her decades in the field. 

    Archives

    July 2024
    May 2024
    April 2024
    February 2024
    January 2024
    November 2023
    September 2023
    July 2023
    May 2023
    March 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    October 2022
    August 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    March 2022
    January 2022
    November 2021
    September 2021
    July 2021
    May 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    December 2020
    October 2020
    August 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    March 2020
    January 2020
    November 2019
    September 2019
    July 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.