Anger Management for employee

mm in LA

We have an employee who is in need of anger management counseling. He has been employed over the past 4 years and in the last 2 years has exhibited issues including anger, cursing, and mostly insubordination of some type. We continue to councel him and every time he leaves the room all seems understood and agreed. Then 2 weeks later it is the same old issues again. Normally he is a mild mannered person however a few months ago he did bring up the subject himself that "he needed help." He is from Russia and does not have his work permit yet so he really cannot leave our employment yet or he'll have to begin his green card application. As a small business we are trying to wrok with him but as of late he exhibits the ide that he only needs to meet goals if there is a bonus involved.

Anyway...


As this is a very delicate issue through Human Resources, and as a small business, we certainly want to counsel him regarding acceptable behavior in the workplace however since he stated he "needed help" we would like to be able to give him a contact for counseling services. If we find free counseling and anger management services in the area can we give him the information without violation (since he made the statement about needing help?)

sonny

Yes. You can probably also make him go as a condition he keep employeed. Always better, IMHO if they want to go on their own. If you make him go, I would pay .

mm in LA

thanks so much; I really appreciate the feedback. We have tried everything over the past several years to counsel and follow the processes and it appears there is just something else going on here; some outside factor.

Again many thanks for your time and consideration.

sonny

You are welcome. Let us know how it works out. I would not let the situation continue tho.It sounds like you don't have an EAP, but your health insurance may have coverage for some mental health services.

LindaS

Keep in mind, also, that if you mandate his going to counseling as a condition of employment you will also have to pay for his time spent in counseling.

davids

I have dealt with employees with anger management issues many times (too many!). I usually start out by "recommending" anger management counseling; so it is the employee's choice. However, if the employee chooses not to seek help and the behavior continues, I do get to the point where we force the issue. We tell the employee that we are going to discipline or discharge him, but if he is willing to seek counseling we will hold the discharge in abeyance. His seeking counseling is his choice, so he pays for it. We also require the employee to sign an agreement that we get to approve the counselor, the employee will comply with all treatment recommendations, we can communicate with the counselor to provide the counselor with information regarding the employee's behavior, and the counselor can communicate with us just to confirm that the employee is participating in treatment.

We do have an employee assistance program (EAP) which provides the employee with 3 free visists. Although you may think it is too expensive a benefit to provide, it is worth every penny we spend on EAP. You might see if there is a larger company in your area or an employer consortium that will allow you to piggyback on their EAP contract.

GJohnson

We had a similar problem with a manager who exhibited anger to the point of destroying property.

We do not have an EAP and that type of coverage is not included with our health insurance.

We made anger management a requirement to keep his job. After the employee came back and said that he had looked into counseling and was too expensive, I contacted our local courts who recommended a low cost facility where they send people with that type of problem. I spoke with the company before we sent him over to talk about what would be considered a "minimum" number of sessions and advised that we would require proof of attendance. The employee paid for the sessions and provided us proof of attendance. He later thanked us for forcing the issue.

ACU Frank

What's wrong with taking him out back and beating the crap out of him?

ritaanz

Frank, Frank, Frank. It makes such a mess, with the blood and all. Why not just shoot 'em.

ACU Frank

Noise ordinances.

ritaanz

Oh, I didn't think about that. Good catch.

Ok, how about just having Paulie talk to him about his anger and how these issues bother God's children? That should get rid of the guy but it will be slow and painful.