Managing employee emotions when they're under pressure

Recently, we received a call from a customer about a really productive employee who’d been with the organisation for years, and was highly valued by his boss and peers. Suddenly, though, he’d started having angry outbursts at work, swearing in a meeting before walking out and slamming the door. He had also been short-tempered with colleagues on a project. Naturally, the HR manager was concerned.

When we dug a little deeper, it transpired that this very valued worker was going through an ugly divorce and was dealing with child custody issues. While it doesn’t excuse poor conduct in the workplace, it did help explain the out of character behaviour. Personal problems affect even the highest performers, and it’s not always possible to ‘leave it at the door’ and prevent them from impacting on work.

When an employee displays anger at work, it has to be taken seriously; employers have a duty to provide a safe and healthy workplace for all. In this case it was a disciplinary problem, and the manager needed to act, as the employee was in clear violation of policy. Usually a violation like this would include some type of disciplinary action, possibly even including termination of employment; the alternative, however, was to make a formal management referral to the EAP. This would mean that the employee would be required to contact a consultant from the EAP team as a continued condition of employment. Because the employee was highly valued, and the behaviour had never happened before, the HR manager felt the EAP management referral was the best first approach to take.

The employee contacted us immediately. The initial consult included discussing ways to manage stress and anger, and went on to coaching on how to recognise when pressure is building, and how to release feelings of anger and stress in a healthy way, without taking it out on others. The employee was also referred for face-to-face counseling to address managing his anger and the emotional issues related to his divorce.

The process was really helpful for him - the employee’s back at work and doing well, and his manager’s much happier too. Replacing the employee would have been costly and time-consuming, not to mention the loss of productivity while the company was trying to fill the open position. Instead, we managed to save the job of a valuable employee.

EAP specialists need to listen, assess the problem, and then look for solutions. These kinds of issues, involving anger in the workplace, are among the most common calls companies lke ours get. A good EAP can be highly effective in resolving issues like these. All it takes is an HR manager or manager to notice the problem, pick up the phone and ask for help.

*The details of this story have been changed to protect the privacy of the employee.

This article was provided by Lifeworks.