Employee Assistance Programs - Essay Example

? An Employee Assistance Counselor's Dilemma An Employee Assistance Counselor's Dilemma Employee assistance programs have been devised in order to support those employees who have trouble with their work load or have issues of their own, personal or any other. The basic idea behind it is to make the employee feel self-confident and provide them the support that they are either lacking or trying to obtain. Mostly these programs are for employee problems on job, but if their performance at work is affected by personal issues, then they can be helped out with too as well. It is necessary for the employee’s mind set to be positive in order to increase productivity along with their self-esteem and morale. (employee assistance program (EAP), 2013) Having been a counsellor and assigned Elena’s case, it is okay to say that counsellor does also have a dilemma to face and tackle on a daily basis. However, Elena’s situation can be projected as a little more complicated than the usual. In such a scenario, my client is at the lowest point of self-esteem and is looking for redemption. She is working to keep her life afloat, financially as well as for mental peace as well. She wants to stay busy in order to divert her mind from thinking about her personal issues with her husband. As an element of this society and a woman, Elena is faced by demons of loneliness and she lacks a sense of security. Thus she is always scared and this fear can easily be seen in her work and her approach towards it as well. As a counselor, it is solely my responsibility to help Elena overcomer her fears and lack of confidence. I want to help her way through this procedure of finding her inner talents and her long lost confidence. She needs to realize that her personal issues should not affect who she is and how she plans to live her life. Being a counselor it is extremely important for me to help my client; and helping them means not just getting them good at their job but to improve their perceptions about themselves and their abilities. In this case, my client Elena is at the lowest point of her life as well as career. She has been assigned a job at her office and she has been working on it for two years. She feels that her supervisor did not do a good job in instructing her and clarifying the instructions as to how to go about the task. She feels that she lacks the outline and support to carry out this major task of creating a database. Her fear of taking chances clouds her vision completely and she is of the view that her supervisor will terminate Elena on her poor performance. With her job in jeopardy and personal life hanging by a thread, Elena is finding it extremely difficult to juggle both situations and address them differently. Her emotional outburst in the office is a clear evidence of the fact that she is mentally shattered, and being terminated from the job will only add fuel to the fire. My profession asks me of my full sincerity to clients. They need help and they trust me with their problems as well as confidential things, I want to try and help them in the best way possible without having to disrupt my client’s trust. There is nothing more important to me than my client’s trust and honesty. I take great pride in my work and work harder every time to make things better, not just for the client but hopefully their families too. As far as Elena’s emotional state is concerned, she needs a confidante to confide in with. I am more than willing to provide her with that source of comfort; however my area of concern is a little deeper. I feel like her ways of handling her work stress has collided with that of her personal problems which has caused her to think that she might lose her job. She is not doing so well currently in her job, I feel like I might need the assistance of the supervisor on this matter. She can give me a better perspective as to how flexible can they be with Elena’s on job errors as part of her recovery? However, if I discuss this matter so openly with the supervisor it might cost Elena her job as a whole. They might not want to keep a worker who is so emotionally damaged, and cannot take the regular work stress. Giving Elena the extra space to counter her problems and help her motivation levels can also disrupt the discipline at the office. Other workers might find this highly unnecessary and demand extra care on the account of their own personal problems as well. My course of action needs to be rewarding and fulfilling. My employer seeks absolute satisfaction from our respective clients. It will be damaging to my reputation if I end up getting Elena fired from her job. My help can actually be the root cause of her termination. This case goes beyond the seriousness of any other case and its complications. Elena’s fragile state can be set off with even a slight amount of failure, and losing this job could be highly damaging. For a starter, I would like to take Elena into my confidence. As her counselor I want her to know and realize that all courses of my actions are in her best interest. There is no way that I am an additional problem in her already unsatisfactory life. She needs to understand the depth of the problem she has and how to counter it. She needs to bring a totally positive mindset into the work place with certain goals and targets to achieve. She needs to interact more and stop fearing things and people. The office has taken a big step by asking me to help her, thus she should realize her part too and put some effort into it. They know she has potential and they want to explore it to her abilities. As far as the supervisor is concerned, she should know that Elena is an extraordinary employee and can do the business a great favor by unleashing her talents in it. The supervisor needs to keep her business thinking for a more long term purpose and see the extra effort for Elena as a long term investment. By playing along with her, Elena is more likely to gain her self-confidence back, it will be a great help and prove to be a great morale booster to her. Easily, my job conflicts with the best of my client’s and employer’s interests. I am working hard on trying to get Elena on her feet and start believing in her again, but this will easily halt the productivity levels and that would make my respective employers unhappy. The best way to deal with this is to take both, Elena and supervisor into confidence and work as a team. This helps in clearing out all the misunderstandings that Elena has about her boss, be it true or false. Respective clarification will help ease the situation and it will definitely clear my client’s head in order to focus at her work. (Related articles, 2013) This problem is highly common nowadays. People find it extremely difficult to manage their work stress apart from their personal problems. When you don’t have a clear, positive mind set, you will never be able to work properly, its human nature. Moreover, sometime, pressures from society mount to problems that we already have. The pressure of meeting with expectations, the pressure of doing the best all the time, it can actually frustrate a person and cause great damage to their self-esteem. As a counselor I advise that office environments be such that employees have no problems in confronting their bosses with whatever problems they have. The environment need not be homely, but the relation amongst workers should be cordial. Also, work stress should not be multiplied with the sword of termination hanging on your head. It will only worsen a person’s performance. No good can come out of fear. Targets and deadlines will be enough reason for a good, sincere employee to work hard. It should not be a problem. Elena’s case for me was a bit of struggle. More like trying to connect two wrong pieces of a puzzle together. But somehow, it did work out. Elena was provided an assurance of her job, while she worked on her emotional state, whereas her supervisor got the incentive of a better business in the future when Elena got better. It became a win win situation and I almost dodged a bullet. The clash of both people’s interests got the best of me, but that is what counsellors are for. Analysis of the situation by a neutral person is extremely important in such cases and can prove to be rather fruitful. Hence, it is rather important that such counseling sessions be done in order for the betterment of everyone. (Work Place Counselling?, 2013) Works Cited employee assistance program (EAP). (2013). Retrieved from What is ?: http://searchcio.techtarget.com/definition/employee-assistance-program Related articles. (2013). Retrieved from Therapy Today: http://www.therapytoday.net/article/show/2238/ Work Place Counselling? (2013). Retrieved from Work Place Counselling?: http://www.counselling-directory.org.uk/counsellor-articles/work-place-counselling Read More