Compassion comes naturally to most remodelers, but there’s a point at which being understanding about an employee’s personal struggles — financial straits, marital troubles, substance abuse, depression, bereavement, caregiving challenges, legal matters, etc. — can have a detrimental effect on not just that person’s job performance, but on the entire company’s cohesiveness, productivity, and profitability.
Consider remodeler “A.”
Being a supportive boss who also appreciates the scarcity of skilled craftspeople, he valued this lead carpenter, one of those wood-whisperer types whom clients adored. But he found himself the unwilling therapist when the carpenter’s marriage hit the rocks.
“He would come into my office to talk about his wife, and when I said I didn’t want to have these talks during work, he started sending me e-mails and wanting to get together after work,” A says.
Photo Credit: Michael Austin
As the carpenter tried to patch things up at home, he let things go at work — last to arrive, first to leave, long lunches — forcing his resentful co-workers to pick up the slack. “They wanted me to make him do more or get rid of him,” A says.
“Then his wife started to call me, asking why he wasn’t making more money and coming home earlier.”
It wasn’t too long after this that A dissolved the company (he later formed another, with fewer employees). Among other reasons, he says, “I was tired of feeling like a den mother.”
Or take remodeler “B.”
Described by a colleague as “driven by being nice,” B admits that “we have done a lot of stupid things to help our people out.” When a helper got a D.U.I. and lost his license, B appointed a driver to take him to jobsites, where he did his job and then often idled on the clock while waiting for his next ride.
When another employee needed a car, B bought him “a little one” for commuting. “He started calling in sick, saying he couldn’t make it,” B says. “We finally learned he was letting his daughter use the car so she could get to work.”
Remorse? Contrition? Actually, remodeler B recalls, when caught, the employee said, “Just get me another car.”
That was B’s moment of truth. His staff had come to expect him to bail them out of their troubles. When they took him for granted, he lost money. He subsequently tightened up the rules — no more drivers, for one, and loans are now documented — but he still struggles.
“You’ve invested all that time into a person,” he says. “It seems worthwhile to do what you can to keep them.”
It’s equally worthwhile, he implicitly understands as a business owner, to give priority to the company over any one individual, no matter how sympathetic their cause.
Easier said than done.
Silent Permissions
Remodelers A and B are in good company in being burned by their own best intentions when it comes to helping employees in need.
“It’s a can of worms,” says Penny Braun, a business development coach who works with several remodeling companies. Life is messy, and like it or not, staff — and trade contractors as well — will bring their messy lives to work and into clients’ homes. The impact can be acute in small companies when the owner or key managers fail to define and/or abide by clear policies for addressing them. These are “silent permissions,” Braun says, and they can passively perpetuate performance problems.
That doesn’t mean firing somebody for being human. “I tell small-business owners to give their employees a chance,” says Susan Swan, vice president of Reach-EAP, an employee assistance program that provides counseling services to employees of 350 companies around the U.S. (See “Employee Assistance Programs” on page 35 for more about EAPs). “I think it’s the employer’s responsibility to give an employee a chance rather than terminate him [and consequently] have a hole where an employee used to be and maybe send him to your rival down the street.”
In fact, Swan notes, the weak economy can make it all but impossible to barricade personal concerns during working hours. She estimates that financial problems are the No. 3 root cause of employee distress these days, behind anxiety, which is gaining fast on depression. All are related, and all can exacerbate existing issues, such as marital tension or alcoholism. These, in turn, perpetuate the vicious cycle by playing out in ways such as irritability, safety violations, or chronic absenteeism — sometimes physically, sometimes just mentally.
And any of those behaviors can jeopardize the company as a whole.
Constructive Confrontations
One remodeler who has confronted the issue constructively is Craig Deimler of Deimler & Sons Construction, in Harrisburg, Pa. “We recognize that people will face issues,” he says. “But we also recognize that if they abandon the responsibilities that provide their livelihood, we cannot be expected to be a welfare system.”
Deimler reached this conclusion the hard way, when an employee’s personal struggles dragged on so long that the company was badly affected. His policy now is this: “When we are made aware of the situation, we offer our support by helping [employees] get the counseling that they and/or their family needs. We offer a willing ear when they want it.” He then works with the employee to review the goals that were established in his or her annual review, identifying what can be reassigned or delayed and what must get done, by when.
Photo Credit: Michael Austin
They then set clear objectives, with cut-off dates, of what the employee must accomplish in order to remain employed.
“As much as I feel bad for the individual, I’ve got 28 families that depend on me,” Deimler says. More to the point, they depend on every employee carrying his or her share of the weight.
Here are some tips for balancing supportiveness and profitability:
Start at the top. Clearly spell out the company’s performance expectations and policies, and discuss company culture and values often with staff. Get buy-in on the notion that every act affects the reputation and profitability of the company as a whole, regardless of extenuating circumstances,
“Be as meticulous as humanly possible,” Braun says; ideally, many performance issues will “go straight to a rule.” At D/R Services Unlimited, in Chicago, for instance, employees who lose their driver’s license are effectively laid off until they regain driving privileges, president Ron Cowgill says.
At Newday Development, of Encino, Calif., president Louis Krokover got so tired of no-shows/no-calls on Mondays (rationalized on Tuesdays as the aftermaths of “a really bad weekend”) that he tells job candidates they’ll be fired after three unexcused absences.
Another persistent problem: deadbeat dads fleeing child-care obligations in another state. Krokover inquires about child support during interviews, explaining that he’ll have to garnish an employee’s wages if he is contacted by enforcement authorities.
Identify policies that encourage good behavior and discourage bad behavior.
Krokover does not loan money to staff. “It’s bad business,” he says. He also cuts paychecks midweek instead of on Fridays, to encourage employees to manage their money rather than blowing it on the weekend.
Live a positive culture. Being hard and fast about rules isn’t always possible, of course. “Life isn’t black and white,” says Liz Wilder, co-owner of Anthony Wilder Design/Build, in Cabin John, Md. “Our policy is to help people out when we can, and to build a culture to be responsible to one another.”
So even though Wilder’s team has some flexibility in work hours, those who arrive later in the morning understand that they’ll stick around later to cover evening hours. This group accountability ethic even extends beyond the workday. When a carpenter’s wife became sick, colleagues cooked meals and purchased a restaurant gift card for him and his children. When another one was moving, Wilder paid a few guys — out of her own pocket, not the company’s — to help out.
Touch base and monitor. “Managers and supervisors will always be the first line of support or intervention,” and they must lead consistently and by example, Braun says.
Use annual or semi-annual performance reviews to catch up on life and family issues, and to coach the employee through needed improvements. Some problems, such as alcoholism, can exist for years before the employer is aware. “Often employers just can’t figure it out until the employee is too far along” or disaster strikes, Swan says. Hence, be alert to red flags such as production slowdowns, frequent tardiness, or a dramatic change for the worse in the employee’s dress or appearance.
Find time to talk. If the problem is acute, don’t wait for review time; invite the employee to meet privately with you and his/her direct supervisor, if appropriate. Close the door and be respectful.
“We’ll ask, ‘Is there something else going on that’s impacting your performance?’” Deimler says. “‘This is atypical, and we may be able to help you.’” He also maintains what he calls “a very open door policy,” telling everyone that they’re free to talk to him any time — unless, of course, the door is shut because he’s talking with someone else.
Krokover holds weekly meetings (separate from job-specific meetings) to address performance issues, good or bad, without singling anyone out. “If someone is really in the dumps, I’ll pull him in the office and talk about it privately,” he adds.
Not sure how to have these discussions? Sign up for sensitivity training, or get in touch with a consultant who specializes in management training.
Model vigilance. Since you can’t be everywhere, encourage supervisors and co-workers to be on the alert for signs that employees’ personal lives might be unraveling. Help them understand that they can share these observations without being identified or pulled into the discussion.
Confidentiality and trust are key, as is consistency. Braun suggests appointing a trusted point person as a repository for these concerns. “Having a protocol will give people a clearer path” to speaking out in confidence, she says.
One of Krokover’s managers, a recovering alcoholic himself, was the first to recognize another employee’s serious drinking problem. The two sat down with the man, who “admitted that he had a drinking problem and just didn’t have the strength to get through a program.” The manager mentored the man successfully through a 12-step program.
Draw boundaries, and refer out as needed. Many serious issues, such as severe depression and addiction, cannot (and should not) be resolved by even the most sensitive boss. Instead of washing your hands of the issue, however, point the employee toward help.
If you don’t have an EAP (read more about “Employee Assistance Programs,” at right), assemble a list of resources, such as Alcoholics Anonymous (www.aa.org) or Narcotics Anonymous (www.na.org) and trusted therapists.
“I can’t tell somebody how to fix their problems,” says Krokover, whose many degrees, ironically enough, include one in child and pre-adolescent psychology. He maintains a list of recommended attorneys and therapists who specialize in various issues, and tries to recommend at least three when appropriate.
“My job is to be a listener ... to say, ‘You will get through this, and we will try to help you,’” he says. To a reasonable degree and within certain parameters, that is.
Leah Thayer is a senior editor for Remodeling.
Employee Assistance Programs
Long used by Fortune 500 companies, employee assistance programs (EAPs) are making inroads with small businesses as a surprisingly cost-effective component of overall benefits programs.
In essence, EAPs are a one-stop provider of outsourced, confidential counseling by trained and certified professionals. Costs vary, but in many cases the employer prepays a per-capita annual fee that entitles each employee to a certain number of sessions, either over the phone or in person. Additional sessions may be covered by health insurance or other means.
The employer never knows what an employee discusses with his or her EA professional. “It’s like the doctor-patient relationship,” says Tony Sidiropoulous of the EA Professionals Association.
Bennett Contracting, in Albany, N.Y., recently began working with a local EAP and finds it “a wonderful resource,” says Paul Gutman, co-owner. He pays $35 per employee for up to three counseling sessions, per issue, each year. He doesn’t know the issues that have been broached, of course, but he does know that employees — and the company, in turn — have benefited.
There is a protocol for using EAPs, but often it’s no more involved than referring an employee to the EAP. Interestingly, although men tend to be less inclined to ask for help, they tend to be “great clients” once they click with a counselor and see that their heavy drinking, for instance, is affecting their relationships, says Susan Swan of Reach-EAP.
To learn more about EAPs, visit www.eapassn.org or www.easna.org. —Leah Thayer