The Tricky Business of Motivating Employees - Part 5

WAYS TO GET BACK ON TRACK

The emotional snowball will be harder to stop than it would
have been to address the work problem in the first place:

Addictive and compulsive behaviors must be addressed first.

As these are attempts to avoid and deny the original
problem, they will be in the way of getting back to the
underlying issue. Depending on which behaviors are present,
structured hospital or outpatient treatment may be
indicated, along with participation in twelve step or other
self-help groups. To locate these resources, the employee
can contact his/her Employee Assistance Program, health
insurance provider and the local branch of the National
Mental Health Association.

Psychotherapy may be indicated to begin unraveling the
emotional puzzle.

The first step will be to utlize either individual or
family psychotherapy to stabilize the individual's
situation at work and at home.

A "corrective action plan" will be needed at work (if not
already established), or plans to find other employment
must be made. Contracts with family members will be put in
place, so that the individual has some "breathing room" to
address conflicts while the family receives some initial
relief through basic agreements with their troubled family
member.

Then the work begins in earnest. What is the source of the
employee's work dilemma? A very careful history of the
problem is taken, to determine this. There are many
possibilities.

It could be uncovered that the employee has difficulties
taking direction from authority figures, which leads to job
dissatisfaction. Conversely, he/she could be struggling
with a position which requires more independent work and
less structure than the person can handle. Other types of
"personality conflicts" may indicate that there are people
in the workplace that remind the individual of unfinished
business with people from his/her past.

Then there are those that "do themselves in" because they
maintain unhealthy beliefs that interfere with
communication and negotiation. Here are some examples:
Those who do not assert themselves may either believe that
they have "no right" to comment on the ways they feel about
their assignments, or fear retaliation for their feedback
to management. Others may believe that "nothing ever works
out for them" and so fall into unhappy acquiescence in the
workplace. Naturally, few individuals with any of these
beliefs have worked much on developing the critical skills
of healthy assertive communication and negotiation.

For these and other similar emotional dilemmas, the work of
psychotherapy may reap benefits that resolve workplace
concerns and those beyond. To feel that one is reaching
their life goals, one must be emotionally "freed up" to
reach for them. A shift in behavior related to authority
figures, for instance, might result in an employee being
more receptive to management's requests and make him more
willing to be his son's parent (i.e. authority figure),
instead of friend. This might also result in a better
atmosphere at home, which is not marked by daily struggles
with the adolescent member of the family.

Sometimes, workshops and readings on assertiveness,
communication skills, self-esteem and the like are
recommended to complement psychotherapy. Once the
employee has a clear view of where the problems lie,
he/she will be able to continue working on them well beyond the
termination of therapy.

Career counseling also may be an option.

Sometimes, during the course of counseling, it becomes
clear that the employee has never found their vocational
niche. While this may be a problem related to the emotional
conflicts discussed above (such as an individual choosing
the same career as his father, but not one that fits his
talents or interests), career counseling may be recommended
to help the employee identify their aptitudes, interests
and preferred work setting. Career counseling also is
extremely valuable in insuring that the individual is
creating a career plan that is possible to successfully
pursue in the current economic climate and at the person's
given stage in life. For example, there is less and less
work for those who want to repair the office machines of
yesterday and it may not be the best plan to begin training
to be an astronaut at age 50.

IN CONCLUSION

The precise course of action needed to remedy any given
employee's job dissatisfaction will of course have to be
uniquely tailored for him/her. However, the information
presented in this article will hopefully provide enough
"food for thought" for employees to consider "working" more
deliberately "toward reaching their life goals" -- at work
and at home. It's also rewarding to know, that the more
satisfying life is, the more likely life span will increase
(refer again to the Health Trap section of this article),
giving more time to enjoy the outcome of this therapeutic
work.