I had a reader send me a suggestion for a blog post a little over a month ago. It said:
“With the terrible shooting in VA yesterday, maybe an article on how HR can better handle identifying, coaching, counseling & later termination of disgruntled employees if coaching is not effective. I am sure HR departments are concerned about their own employees. Just thoughts.”
With all our content written for the month, I told him I’d add it to the roster even though this shooting would be old news. The sad thing, though, is that I silently thought there will be something else like this happen again before I get ready to post something. And course, the news has covered other shootings since then.
In thinking about how to address this topic, I kept trying to avoid talking about a very personal encounter I’ve experienced with this issue. However, I just kept coming back to it. Our marketing guru told me I needed to write about it in order to more effectively and personally address this topic, so here it goes.
To make a long story short, a former pastor at our church upon leaving our congregation for another church (in the Methodist church pastors are moved by the conference, they aren’t hired by the congregation), shot and killed his wife, attempted to kill his daughter, and tried to kill himself. If you live close to where I live, you are familiar with this story, even though it has been a while since it happened. He was found not guilty by reason of mental defect and is in a psychiatric hospital.
I could have told you ten years before this happened that he had mental health issues. Serious ones. Through some personal dealings with my family and then similar stories that came to light through others, it is obvious he needed help.
His actions led to much anxiety, bitterness, anger and resentment for me and my family. Our first reaction was not to help the man who had hurt us so much. We talked to some people about the issues, but he had another side that many people saw and loved. Through this, I believe he was able to mask some of the issues. It also led people to dismiss others who saw the issues and tried to bring them to light. So, we stopped trying to bring them to light and just retreated.
Ultimately I believe the lack of confrontation with these difficult issues on the part of all of us including our church congregation and our United Methodist Conference led to the loss of life.
From this personal example, here is a list of advice in dealing with mental health issues in the workplace:
1. Don’t avoid
Listen to people when they bring issues to light. Don’t dismiss them. Often there are many yellow flags before the red flag appears.
Talk first hand and immediately with the employee who is disgruntled, having anger management issues, or acting suspicious on the job. Give them specific, behavioral based feedback and specifically state the consequences of what will happen if the behavior continues.
Make sure you have a process in place to hear both sides of the story.
Do an investigation if needed.
Terminate employment if issues don’t stop and/or one issue is large enough to put others at risk. Have a specific process for doing so (some of the other tips below may help you think through this process).
2. Put systems and structures in place to bring issues to light
This is only possible when employees are comfortable coming to their boss and/or HR with issues; creating an open door environment is critical. Knowing your employees and caring about them is the best way to keep a pulse on difficult issues and to mitigate them before they become a problem.
Have a confidential reporting mechanism in place for people.
3. Protect yourself
Document everything.
Always have someone else present when speaking with a disgruntled employee. If the person is a member of the opposite sex, have someone of the same sex as the employee present with you.
4. Get people the help they need
Although the person may not see it like this at the time, unacceptable behavior on the job may be a cry for help, make sure you have referral sources (EAP, mental health agencies, your occupational health provider, etc.) to provide more in-depth help and support when it is needed.
Don’t let HR take on the role of clinical counseling.
5. Fund and get involved with agencies and causes that combat mental health issues on a broader scale.
Ultimately, we never know when a genetic predisposition and/or life experiences could put any one of us down a road of mental instability. It is time we all move away from the stigma of mental health, especially HR professionals, by getting to know and care for others. The first step to truly caring for others is realizing that we’ve got to confront the issue head on. It’s a matter of life and death, literally.
In my personal example, the situation, at times, made me and my family want to loose our religion. Dealing with this inside the church was difficult. However, I firmly believe, at the risk of some people discounting the post, that we can find more answers and solutions to mental health issues inside the walls of the church than out. For an honest and very personal view on what I think the world needs to combat mental health tragedies in our workplace and in our world download this podcast. Come, Holy Spirit, come.
