Dealing with employee who is always in crisis

Hi All,
We have an employee who has been with us for four years. She has very good work skills, however her personal life is a disaster and has been since she started. It impacts us because she is constantly on the phone dealing with one crisis after another. I sympathize with her on the problems she has, some that are out of her control. However, she is impacting moral because she works in an open team environment and everyone on the team has to listen to her. We have counseled her repeatedly about being on the phone during work time. She will get better for a short period and then be right back at it. I have recommended the EAP, but I don't think she is using it. At this point, we don't believe her behavior will change and are considering termination. That will add one more problem to her already big pile. Any suggestions??

Comments

  • 16 Comments sorted by Votes Date Added
  • What types or problems are these? Are any of them something that would allow her time under the FMLA? Without knowing the specifics, one option MAY be to place her on an LOA and inform her that she has XX period of time to get things straight in her personal life so that she can return to work and concentrate on her job. In addition, you can mandate that she see the EAP as her personal life is impacting her work performance. The LOA and EAP can be done concurrently.

    This is something we have done in the past with employees - sometimes it is successful and sometimes not. If she refuses either option then your only option is to focus on her performance and terminate accordingly.
  • Her first husband is trying get custody of their child. There is a restraining order against him due to some violence a couple of years ago, so they don't converse directly, but through the child. The child is getting of an age where he is playing the parents against each other. She is remarried and her current husband, in my opinion, is incapable of using the restroom without her assistance. He calls her constantly. He has two children. His son, who is 17, hit her son (typical sibling fight) and her first husband filed a complaint with the police. This sent her current husband into a tizzy and he called her here and was screaming at her on the phone. She, in turn, screamed back and could be heard in other areas of the building. She does all the transporting of children, his and hers, takes care of the home, works full-time and helps her current husband with his job. She really doesn't have any support with the exception of a victim's advocate she met because of the violence. I have stressed to her that she must take care of herself or she won't be able to take care of everyone else.
  • I agree w/Linda. We've made mandatory referrals to the EAP. Some with success, others without. You have to take care of this before she drags down the rest of the department. Once had a lady on staff that constantly yelled at her kids when they were home. And I mean yelled!!
    Went thru the same things you mentioned. She never did stop and we let her go. Won at UI hearing, too.
    Good luck.
  • Personally, I believe people choose to live at a certain level of chaos that they find comfortable. Its the only way I can explain how some people seem to live in constant turmoil. I think they consciously or unconsciously need it.

    If this has been her pattern for the past four years, I dont think its going to change.

    Even "fixing" a few of her problems might not solve anything. New problems will emerge soon enough to maintain the level of drama and noise that this employee seems to want.

    I would begin a process of discipline and clearly state that unless she changes her behavior in clear, observable, lasting ways, she will be terminated.
  • People who feel free to constantly make personal calls from work, who arrange their life from work, who try to raise their children from work, who network with friends or family from work, or solve issues on the phone from work are a problem. Do you see a pattern here. Personal calls really do not exist as a concept for these employees. Such people do not recognize the fact that they have sold that time to the employer for money. To quote one employee on personal calls, "I don't see it as personal calls, I see it as taking care of my children". Their need to make personal calls, in their minds, over rides the Employer's right for them to be productively employed during working hours.

    Since these people do not recognize the line of demarcation between their time and the Employer's time, they never will. Cut the employee loose and do not look back. You will be grateful in time.
  • I am always surprised at the number of forumites who recommend termination.

    If this employee has "very good work skills" you might want to reconsider. You don't want to look like the bad guy who kicked an employee when she was down. On the other hand, the calls and disruption has to stop.

    I would require the employee to use the EAP, and let her know why. However sympathetic you are, you cannot continue to have this kind of thing going on on company time. Then use progressive discipline for any mis-use of the phone. Other employees will appreciate your efforts, both in that you are protecting them from having to put up with it, and also in the knowledge that you will be fair and upfront with them.

    A few years ago we had a marginal employee who lived in a constant crisis state. The employees gathered around her and supported her, but eventually got burned out on all the trauma. We made the rules clear and then gave her enough rope to hang herself. Of course the other employees felt bad for her when she terminated, but no one held us to blame and moral was improved.

    I don't envy you your situation. Good luck!

    Nae
  • Please note that I did not focus on the crisis but more on the phone calls and disruption. If an employee is constantly taking personal calls and does not see it as a problem, what is an employer to do? I have seen the issue played out before and that particular behavior is nearly impossible to change. Try to change it if you wish and try to be the "good guy". However, from a distance, it is my opinion that you will have to terminate eventually anyway. The only question if this is so, is how much money you will throw away on wages and benefits on a non-productive employee while you either document your file to make discharge bullet proof or engage in feel good activities to stave off the inevitable.
  • After reading the other responses, I guess I am a voice crying in the wilderness.

    As to her work performance, I would suggest you begin to address it without any mention of her crisis. Concentrate on her behaviors and how they are affecting her work adversely. You mention in your note that she has been spoken to several times. You do not mention documentation. Your next step should be a verbal warning and, of course, the first thing you do with a verbal warning is to reduce it to writing. In that verbal warning meeting and in the documentation, reference your progressive discipline policy and clearly list what behaviors are expected of her to avoid additional discipline.

    As to EAP, I am again a voice crying inn the wilderness. If you make a referral to EAP, you risk giving her the protection of the ADA. The referral could allow her to raise a case on the point that you regard her as disbled. I think you are better off to concentrate on the behaviors and your progressive discipline poklicy. Unless you make her change she will not change.


  • An EAP referral doesn't necessarily regard her as disabled. Our EAP deals with everything from kids to marriage to credit card debt. Having your personal life in turmoil doesn't make you diabled. We all have issues in our life but we have to learn to separate that from work. At a minimum, she should take these types of conversations off the floor.
  • I agree. Having emotional problems does not mean you qualify for ADA or have been treated as such. I can see a scenario where that might arise (severely depressed employee, for example), but not as the norm. In this case, the employee needs to take it out of the office, and that is what an EAP is for.

    Good luck!

    Nae
  • This one has me scratching my head. We only require mandatory EAP referrals based on objective job performance. How can that become a "regarded" situation?

    Now if you are willy, nilly sending people off because the ain't acting right, maybe I can see it. But surely none of us would do that.

    I believe that EAP referrals can be extremely helpful in some situations. If you do it correctly there should not be a problem.

    Bcolton, could you show us a case where this has happened?
  • Hi Frenchie

    Don't consider termination - if she hasn't considered it. Another way of saying this is, don't let it be a surprise. An employee that's "good for awhile" but then falls back into old routines is as much the employER's fault as the employEE's. The behavior has been tolerated by the company up to this point with only, at least it sounds like it, verbal warnings with no actionable consequences after it continued. The good news is that you can change this now by meeting with her and documenting the verbal warning on paper. When she falls back, then sock her with a written warning and should she fall back again, let her go.

    Of course, you could terminate her right now for her behavior and disruption to the staff, but why not give her the opportunity to change her behavior?

    Finally, everyone has problems - some are just more vocal than others - don't let one employee use the other employees as their own Xanax or Zoloft pills. EAP is a good suggestion - if it works - you can't force her & some people just like complaining about their issues - good luck!
  • It seems like we are all offering roughly the same advice...

    I hope you will let us know how you decide to handle this situation.
  • Thanks to all of you. I will keep you informed of the outcome.
  • It sounds like a lot of the issues are due to dealing with personal issues from the floor.
    We put a telephone in the lounge for our employees to make personal calls on their breaks. They can use their cell phones on break - in the lounge, smoking area, or off the floor. Maybe a little simplistic but it does help us manage the employees need to handle some personal business during work hours.
  • We also provide a telephone in the break room. In addition, we have one if the women's restroom/locker room. Our policy allows the use of cell phones during breaks and lunch. She just doesn't manage the calls. Thanks.
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