Ten Excuses in Reasonable Suspicion Confrontation

There are ten commonly heard excuses employees give when confronted with a request to take a drug test based upon reasonable suspicion of being under the influence of drugs or alcohol. Let's go through these "David Letterman" style.

#10: “I haven’t had a drink since last night!”

In the heat of the moment, this excuse can seem quite reasonable, especially for those of us who have had a few late nights ourselves. Here’s something you probably won’t consider in the heat of the moment—just how long ago was “last night”?

Depending on when your employee stopped drinking, it can be as few as 3-4 of hours. Knocking off at 4am and catching a couple hours of sleep before work may fool your employee into thinking it’s a new day, but he can’t fool his body. Sleeping doesn’t metabolize alcohol and sober you up any faster than if you were awake.

But isn’t even 4 hours long enough to sober up? Not necessarily. Don’t make the mistake of projecting your own consumption habits onto your employee. He may have consumed an amount that far exceeds your own capacity. If your employee has a substance abuse problem, it’s far more likely that he’s been engaging in binge drinking. Having 10 or more drinks in one sitting is not unheard of.

Employees who have a high tolerance to alcohol could have their last drink late at night and still be under the influence well after sunrise. They don’t have to drink just before coming to work or first thing in the morning to be under the influence. Don’t let this statement convince you that a test is unnecessary.

Manager Skills: Giving Feedback to Employees Is Hard for Me

Is it difficult for you to give feedback to employees about their work performance? Perhaps you think that they will take it personally? Maybe you are afraid of their defensiveness or perhaps ignore you and leave you in the difficult position of confronting them again or deciding to forget the whole matter.

Well, you're not alone in your concern about giving feedback. To make manager skills easier, try what is known as the "sandwiching technique." You won't find too manager supervisor training course modules that teach it.

This technique of providing constructive feedback or correction of an employee's performance allows the message your sending to be received more easily by "sandwiching" the unfavorable comments between favorable comments. For example, say: "Nancy, I've been pleased with the way you've stepped up the speed of assembling the monthly reports. You've made real improvement there. I am concerned, however, about the quality. There are frequently mistakes in the charts that need to be corrected. I hope you'll work to improve the quality as well as speed. I feel good about your attitude toward the schedule we are trying to keep, so I know you'll do fine." Notice how the message you wanted to communicate was placed between two true but positive statements. This technique reduces defensiveness and makes your feedback more acceptable, particularly with employees who are more sensitive toward constructive criticism. This manager skill will serve you well and reduce your stress

Granting or Zapping the "I-Want-A-Raise" Question

You know how it is. Your employee comes to you and wants a raise. You say no, and the employee goes away mad. Your relationship is tarnished and both of you lose. You know there is no way for the employee to get a raise, but the employee is not seeing it your way.

Let's help the employee be a bit more effective and mature in their request, even if there is no chance of getting a raise. Then you can address the request in writing and call it a day.

No employee should be verbally requesting a raise. This is simply inappropriate. A raise is money. Nowhere do we ask for more money on this planet without putting it in writing and giving to the person who then decides whether to give it to us. Somehow along the way, many employees decided that this is a function of an oral request. So, ask the employee to do the following.

I guarantee that if the raise is not warranted, the employee will figure it out as they write up the request. A certain number of employees will never do it. And others will be much more likely to accept your rejection of the request. The bottom line is that you are going to reduce your stress and unwarranted requests by 85% with this approach.

In the end, you will get a better relationship.

Tell the employees, "There is no promise that I can get you a raise, but it is appropriate for such a request to be in writing. Here is the proper outline. Please submit it to me and I will review it:

1) Provide a statement of original duties and responsibilities for the position;

2) And than a statement of your present duties and responsibilities for the position;

and

3) identify each new duty and how it demonstrates increased responsibility, not workload. Responsibility means in this instance "liable for accountability to the work organization". Give this example to your employee orally,

"Imagine if your boss is director of the Sharpened Pencils Unit of the company and assigns you the task of sharpening 500 pencils. He or she is directing your work but is responsible for delivering the 500 pencils. The accountability for the work goal is the supervisor to the organization. You are the sharpener.

If your boss asks you to sharpen 600 pencils this is more work, but it does not increase your responsibility in the corporate sense anymore than being asked stay a half hour longer after work increases your responsibility for the work you accomplish during that half hour. Understand?"

Please provide me with this document whenever you like.

Note how your employee producing this document and giving it to you will permit a more logical discussion and make your life easier, teach the employee a valuable lesson, and more likely help you preserve an effective relationship. The employee may still be mad, but he or she will know down inside that you are teaching a lesson and managing his or her request fairly. Find a supervisor training course that gives you helpful and practical tips like this at www.supervisortools.com

Reducing the Risk of Violence with Better Relational Skills with Your Employees

In the workplace drug and alcohol use is the primary cause of violence, from fistfights to rape. About 15 people are murdered on the job each week. Surprised? They aren't all as sensational as Fort Hood, but hundreds of murders occur in the workplace each year.

Only exceptional cases make it to the national news, and certainly every one makes the local press. As a supervisor or manager, you want to ensure that you do not become famous in this particular way, so here are a few tips with regard to the relationship that you have with your employees. The most important is to listen, detect, and pay attention to their complaints.

Come down hard on employees who bully others, tease an employee for the behavior, ethnic background, funny looks, or odd poorly-formed social skills. Listen more to employees who are airing complaints. Give positive comments to employees and deal with any personal issues you have that interfere with your ability to demonstrate warmth and positive regard to employees.

Follow up more after an employee is terminated. Of course, this is usually a human resource function, and even HR may have a hard time doing.

Resistance to dealing with the employee's anguish makes this a tough assignment, but you must figure out how to insert support into the larger picture and not simply decide that the employee needs to lump it. Well, you can, but there are certain profiles of employee that present extraordinary risk if you decide to go this route.

The bells should go off if your employees is male, an historically poor performer or loner, has any fascination with guns, has previously threatened to act violently, has been working for the company for about five years, or is an ostracized, socially awkward, or bullied employee.

You know right now which employees in your organization are picked on, teased, held up to ridicule, or otherwise abused. These are ticking time-bombs.

So what if you terminate an employee along with HR helping you do it. Phoning the employee ain't likely. After all, the employee may hate your guts. So what's the answer.

Use your company's employee assistance program or EAP, and DO NOT involve them in the terminations, less they become "contaminated". They will not be able to provide support in the form of a listening ear later if you force the EAP into doing this. It is also arguable, inappropriate and unethical to surprise an employee with the EAP sitting in the termination interview. (Why? It violates the doctrine of client self-determination of asking for help, and not have the helper go to the employee. This doctrine applies to all helping professions. This is why psychologist don't knock on your front door or phone you to ask whether you need services.)

Long before ever having to terminate employee, make liberal use of the program as a referral source for dealing with troubled employees. That includes the following: Those with poor performance, victims of accidents or incidents, recipients of disciplinary actions, coworkers in conflict, employees with garnished wages or who come to your attention by way of media incidents, legal problems, or other behaviors, employees who tell you first about a personal problem affecting the lives or performance.

A newsletter to help your supervisor develop better relational skills with subordinates is FrontLine Supervisor. You can get a free trial subscription here. There is lower rate for any company with fewer than 100 employees. Ask about it. Or you can learn all about this publication here.

How to Turn Away, Not Turn Off A Troubled Employee

You don't want troubled employees lining up at your door to discuss all the personal problems they experience in their lives. Unfortunately, I have seen things get almost this bad with some supervisors play an almost mother hen role with subordinates.

The trick is getting your employee, who may be incline to process personal problems until the cows come home, to turn to other resources available to them that are more effective than you. (I hope that didn't sound insulting, but only like a rat tail snap in the butt!)

If you are good listener, you have a double-edged sword working for and against you. It's difficult to turn away an employee who approaches you to discuss a personal problem. However, if your employees do come to share, it may be difficult to ask them to go somewhere else.

Appearing as though you are disinterested or too busy to care may be your biggest concern. Still, a counselor, doctor, mental health pro, or EAP is the better choice. To make your referral task easier, while minimizing the likelihood that your employee will feel rejected and stomp off, try the following:

1. Appear interested and listen to the problem presented by your employee. (No problem with that.)
2. Demonstrate empathy by acknowledging your employee's stress or anxiety. This helps the employee feel accepted and increases motivation for further problem solving.
3. Tell the employee that you are glad he or she feels comfortable approaching you with an important personal problem.
4. State that although you are concerned, you believe a better source of help would be_______. Hopefully your company has provided service or recommended statement to use when employees bring personal problems. Even if a company does not have an EAP, there should be some policy that essentially offers an officially sanctioned statement of referral to some community resource.
5. Assist the employee in making contact with the recognized source of help by providing the phone number or inviting the employee to call from your office for an appointment. (Very effective.)

Is the Flu or Are You Being Scammed by the Employee Addict?

So, how would you know if something like the flu is what's really keeping your employee out of work for three or four days if they just got out of the hospital after treatment for alcoholism? Good question! Employees who return to work after receiving alcoholism or drug addiction treatment can certainly get sick later on with the flu or other illnesses anyone else might get. It can be helpful to require that the employee obtain a letter from a physician to explain further absenteeism, but acquiring such a letter is not a difficult task for a determined employee who has recently relapsed. A better alternative is to have your company employee assistance counselor (Hey there fella! Do you have one that works?) receive follow-up information from the treatment provider and then with proper consent forms signed by your employee, act a contact to discuss employee problems you might later encounter. The key of course is the treatment program following up on patient's it treats, and also sharing appropriate information with your company's EAP. Employees do get sick my friend. But those that are following through with their post-treatment, self-care recommendations will be less likely to drink or use again, necessitating their lying about work absences. You have only to consider whether the absenteeism pattern you are observing is reasonable like any other employee. Appropriate feedback from the EAP counselor or human resource manager who has knowledge of the treatment provider's follow-up record for your employee will be the best way to feel good about welcoming your employee back to work after the flu.

Confronting Your Employee--and He's In a Blackout!

Dealing with an employee you have previously reprimanded is difficult. Dealing with blackouts: when your employee doesn't remember being sent home drunk is even more complicated.

Disciplinary action is an unfortunate necessary responsibility of a supervisor. Well documented disciplinary action will focus on work performance and is the best way to make an uncomfortable situation bearable for both you and the employee.

Any employee who doesn’t remember being sent home drunk is likely going to try a variety of tactics to prove their innocence. They may make excuses; even provide possible scenarios that seem plausible to anyone who was not present at the time when they were sent home. Or they may try and relate the incident to another time they do remember, confusing the facts and diverting the situation. Diverting the issue is typical for someone who has blackouts and cannot remember specifics. You should be aware of and prepared for these behavior patterns. Make sure when you send an employee home drunk you have documented the event with a reliable witness and the employee’s signature. Even if the signature is difficult to read due to a loss of motor skills, there is no excuse to invalidate documentation. This will help prevent the feeling of being stranded in a Jerry Springer show entitled Blackouts: When Your Employee Doesn't Remember Being Sent Home Drunk.

In the case of blackouts: when your employee doesn't remember being sent home drunk you may find they will claim they didn’t know, or that “everyone is against them,” they may blame others or try gaining your pity for their personal situation. If they do no remember being sent home drunk they may try playing on your sympathy. Your best defense against this is a calm approach, keeping to the issues of work performance and conduct. A level head on your part will do more to diffuse the issue than anything. Even if the employee begins to get angry or breaks down into tears, you need to keep your focus on the matter of work. Do not try and moralize their situation or diagnose their problem. If the employee was sent home drunk, than the action taken was deemed appropriate at the time and your only course is to stand behind that decision.

The key to dealing with blackouts: when your employee doesn't remember being sent home drunk is to keep level headed and stick to the documentation.

A Web course for training supervisors in DOT Alcohol and Drug Training can be previewed free and without obligation by completing the form at DOT TRAINING OF SUPERVISORS. The web course is offered by WorkExcel.com and published by Daniel Feerst, LISW-CP. Dan Feerst, MSW, LISW. He began his employee assistance career in 1978 as a Social Science Officer for the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, Occupational Alcoholism Program in Langley, VA. Since then, he has served as a staff member or director for some of America's most well-known Employee Assistance and Counseling Programs, including the Kennecott Copper INSIGHT Employee Assistance Program, the U.S. Department of Agriculture 22 Agency EAP Consortium, and Arlington County Government and Public Schools EAP in Arlington, VA. He has consulted with hundreds of small businesses on helping employees, intervening with substance addicted workers, and how to develop effective alcohol and drug-policies.

Obtain and view a DOT Alcohol and Drug Education web course with the features discussed above at WorkExcel.info. The company permits a full full review of the course on a CD that plays on your computer just like it would on you your web site.