Good to Bad

The guest speaker accepted the thanks of the luncheon chairman, and as the applause died away I rose from my seat. “A lot to think about, eh?” I said to my boss, Fred Wilson, the general manager of our company’s downtown branch. He nodded to me and got up from the table with the other guests we had brought for the occasion: Bob Davies, co-owner of a successful midtown brokerage, Al, who ran a highly automated office located in a small town about an hour and a half from the city, and Bridget, an industrial psychologist I had known since university. I had invited her because the speaker was the well known president of a major executive-search company, and I knew she would be interested in the topic.

The occasion was one in a series of “famous speakers” presentations. Today’s topic had been “how well do you know your staff?” and as the company’s senior marketing representative I had invited Bridget and my two broker friends to sit at the table our company had sponsored for the luncheon event. “Well folks: are you all charged up and ready to tackle those festering staff problems after hearing that good advice?” Fred asked cheerfully. “She certainly made some very good points about understanding the people who work for you,” Bob said. “I thought her suggestion that you do an audit of your staff on a regular basis, to rate their strengths and weaknesses, is a good one.”

“Yes, it was,” I agreed, “and she said she wasn’t talking about the annual performance evaluation we do on all staff, because that is pretty job-specific. She meant an audit of their personalities, how they respond to challenge, to difficulties, to making mistakes, meeting outsiders, dealing with new situations – that sort of thing.” Beside me, Al nodded his head. “I must admit I haven’t ever done that. So I guess I’m one of those employers she said could be guilty of taking staff for granted. Most of them have been with me for a long time, so maybe I do.”

Bridget gave him a quick smile. “You’d be in good company, Al. I think we all tend to take good staff people for granted because they tend to be low maintenance. They come to work on time, they do their work efficiently, and they rarely complain.” I interjected with a laugh, “wow – are you talking about me?” I quickly got a poke in the ribs from all three.

We had now slowly made our way out of the convention hall and we began to walk together to the cloakroom to collect our topcoats. “Speaking of long-time employees,” Bob Davies said quietly, “what do you do when a good one suddenly seems to lose it? You know what I mean. They start to come in late, they book off sick more often, they’re more irritable, and they suddenly seem to get into more arguments with other members of staff.”

I saw Bridget’s head come up quickly as he spoke. She looked across at Bob and pointed a finger at him. “Let me ask you this, has this person in your office just been given added, or new, job responsibilities?” Bob nodded. “Yes, as a matter of fact, she has. Because she has always been so capable, I made her my senior CSR when the previous one left on pregnancy leave. She seemed to take to her new responsibilities with ease and was fine for a few months, but lately she looks and acts like everything’s a struggle. She looks downright glum a lot of the time, and doesn’t joke around with the rest of the staff any more.”

Bridget nodded her head as Bob recounted this story. “Well,” she said when he finished. “It sounds to me like a classic case of job burnout.” She let that thought sink in for a moment, and then continued. “Unfortunately, the staff most susceptible to job burnout are your best people. They’re highly motivated, they set very high standards for themselves, and they tend to be perfectionists. That combination can be deadly if they find that new or expanded job responsibilities seem to be beyond their capabilities.” Al stopped in his tracks for a second. “Hold on. I know what you’re saying, Bridget, but we’re talking here about one of Bob’s top performers, a classic self-starter. Wouldn’t this highly motivated individual quickly recognize that they’re not coping?”

Bridget shook her head and as she spoke our little group began to move again down the hallway. “That’s the common assumption most people have, Al. But in the real world, they just don’t. The fact is that this type of employee is usually the last to recognize that they’re in over their head.” Fred Wilson asked with a slight frown, “so how do they cope with the problem?” Bridget sighed as we reached the cloakroom and joined the lineup to reclaim our winter clothes. “Their response is predictable. They feel that if they work harder and longer at the job they’ll get on top of it. I’ve dealt with cases where dedicated employees literally spent their whole waking hours on the job. They start coming in earlier and earlier, and work later and later, trying to kill the job dragon they face. They tell themselves that those two extra hours before eight in the morning, before the phones start to ring and before people need them to perform, will make them better prepared and will give them a jumpstart on all those problems and challenges they’re going to be facing. And in some cases they suddenly just collapse because they exceed the stress limit their bodies can handle.”

We collected our coats and began to walk toward the hotel’s underground parking garage. It was Al who spoke up next. “I can understand all that,” he said, “but couldn’t the behavior of Bob’s senior CSR be put down to other factors, like family problems with husband or kids, a personality conflict with other people in the office, alcohol, or just plain ill health of some kind?”

Bridget spread her hands apart. “Yes, of course, it could be any one of those things. Only a counseling session is going to uncover the real cause of her declining performance and her unhappiness. But in my experience the most likely cause is a job that she can’t quite handle. And for a high-performance person like her, it eats her up mentally and physically.” Bob Davies grunted in agreement. “As a matter of fact, she’s been sick a lot more than usual. And before I put her in charge of all my CSRs I can hardly recall her taking a sick day.”

“Haven’t I read that increased and prolonged stress can literally make you physically ill?” I interjected, and Bridget nodded her head emphatically. “Absolutely, Dave! Clinical studies show that staff under abnormal stress are three times more likely to undergo physical illness. Their bodies are simply saying ‘enough! I can’t take this any more’.” We reached the elevator bank and Fred pushed the button. “Isn’t it ironic,” he said, “that our best people are usually the ones we spend the least time with. They’re our low maintenance workers, the highly dependable ones who get things done quickly and with a minimum of fuss – but it’s them we often neglect the most!”

“That’s so true,” Al agreed. “Most of you know my office manager, Phil. He’s a bundle of energy. And his high-tech skills are outstanding. But he’s definitely high maintenance. He needs to be told at least once a week that he’s doing a terrific job. If I don’t make a point of telling him this, he’ll come into my office and tell me! Phil’s super-sensitive to criticism and I think if I ever barked at him in the office he’d have a total meltdown on the spot.”

Bob Davies agreed, “I know the type, they’re an essential cog in the office machinery, but you have to keep oiling that cog like crazy, or look out!” That brought a grunt from my boss. “And you know the problem with these high maintenance types?” Fred said. “Because they’re the way they are, you tend to treat them differently from the rest of your staff. I’ve dealt with those tightly-wound people before, and I found, when it was firmly pointed out to me by my personnel manager, that I had unwittingly created a double standard for my staff. I had one way of treating the quiet, productive low maintenance people and another very different way of treating the high maintenance individuals. She told me in no uncertain terms that she understood why I was doing it, but she still considered that it constituted playing favorites. And she was right.”

“So,” Bridget cut in quickly, “how did you resolve this problem?” My boss was silent for a moment, then shrugged his shoulders. “I’m afraid I never quite resolved this situation. And because there are no ‘cookie-cutter answers’ to every staff problem, my personnel manager and I eventually agreed that, whether we like it or not, you sometimes have to treat different people in different ways. One person is uncomfortable with praise. Another one craves it – demands it, even. Some people are natural self-starters. Others only do well once they’re shown how you want it done. So,” here he looked quizzically at Bridget, “I’ve decided it’s impractical to apply exactly the same treatment to each individual staff member. Rightly or wrongly, I’ll carry on tailoring the treatment to the personality I’m facing.”

The elevator doors opened and we got in for the ride to the hotel basement. It was then that Bridget spoke again. She turned to Bob Davies. “Have you any thoughts on how you’re going to solve the problem of your good ‘staffer’ who’s suddenly gone off the boil?” Bob sighed and scratched his ear thoughtfully. “Well, you’ve given me some ideas of what the problem might be, but I’d be interested in hearing how you see me solving it.”

It was Al who jumped in first. “I’d say your first task is to pinpoint if indeed it’s the bigger job that’s causing her all the stress and the burnout.” He looked over at Bridget. “I’m not trained to recognize or assess this condition, but surely you have to rule out the other things we mentioned earlier, like family problems, a personality conflict, etc.” Bridget smiled at him. “I think you’re on the right track, Al. I’d say you have to go about this task in logical steps. I’d probably start by getting together with this particular staff person in an informal, relaxed setting away from the office, and after office hours. Then quietly ask if she feels quite settled in to her new job responsibilities, if she’s happy with the way things are going, and if there are any areas of it she wants to discuss. If that doesn’t bring out her unhappiness in the way she’s coping with the job, I think you’ll probably have to do some gentle probing. Open-ended questions like, are you getting enough support in the office from me and the others? Are there any particular problems you’d like to discuss?” She paused for a second and frowned. “It’s unfortunate, but very often your high-end performers find it hard to believe for the longest time that any job is beyond them.”

We had now reached Fred’s car in the underground garage, and we climbed in for the drive to Bob’s midtown office, where the others had parked their cars. As we pulled away I voiced the question that was at the back of my mind. “Aren’t questions like that just likely to trigger defensive answers from Bob’s senior CSR lady? Won’t she see these as questioning her ability and her professionalism?” Bridget shook here head briefly. “Of course, it’s possible, Dave. But I’ve usually found that the truly capable and most professional workers are desperate to talk about a situation like this. They’re unhappy with the way things are going, and they’re intelligent enough to realize what’s at the root of it. Their pride often prevents them from making the first move – to come to you with their admission that the job is overwhelming them – but once given the opportunity to speak about it in a calm and non-threatening environment, it usually comes spilling out.” She gently touched Bob’s arm. “After all, they realize that it was you who put them in this job, and if you have developed a good, and open relationship in the past, then they should be able to speak frankly about what’s bothering them.”

“That’s all well and good,” Bob cut in, “but if she says the job is getting her down, do I just yank her out of there?” From behind the wheel of the car, Fred Wilson spoke up. “I think I’d ask her if she’d like a temporary break away from that responsibility, so she doesn’t see it as a major failure on her part, but a chance to get away from the pressure for a while and catch her breath.” Beside me I could see Al nodding. “Yes, that sounds reasonable to me.”

From the front seat, Bridget turned to face us. “I wouldn’t disagree with you,” she said. “If it is a case of job burnout because of too much job responsibility too soon, the good news is that it’s relatively easy to fix.” She gave us a high-wattage grin. “Now I know none of you nice gentlemen would ever do such a thing, but I have found on occasion that the capable and willing workers get more than their share of office workloads, simply because they’re fast, efficient and they tend not to complain. The less capable types get an easier ride because they moan over workloads, they complain about deadlines and they hate any kind of unusual pressure.” She paused for a second with one finger poised upright. “What happens in these cases is, you promote someone into a potential burnout job because they’re so darned good and quiet that you just expect them to cope. And sometimes they just can’t.”

“What you’re saying, Bridget,” I said, “is that good staff sometimes go bad simply because they’re so darned good!” She gave me a quick smile and nodded agreement. “That’s about it, Dave!” We turned into the small parking lot at Bob Davies’ office, and we all got out of the car to make our goodbyes. “That was a good lunch, a good discussion, and I think we all learned something today,” Fred Wilson said cheerfully. Bob Davies nodded. “I certainly have a better idea of how I’m going to approach my little office problem,” he said to Bridget. “Thanks for the advice. I’ll let you know how it all turns out.”