Head Tale

My first boss had very personal reasons for being strongly anti-union.  But he was quite insightful when he said “I still think Unions are necessary because they protect employees from bad bosses.  And the biggest problem is that bad bosses don’t know they’re bad bosses.”

I heard something semi-related when talking to some union colleagues the other day.  Most organizations have some sort of Employee Family Assistance Plan where staff and their families can get mental health counselling, just like some of the other typical benefits to address physical issues – dental, eyewear, etc. – they might offer.

I didn’t realise this but the EFAP program at my current employer was apparently created when the employer did a major re-org that was going to be disruptive to the lives and working situations of numerous employees.

But now that we have an EFAP program, it’s also a bit of a running joke among some staff how the first thing a manager does when they have an employee struggling is to not turn the mirror inwards to see how they may have caused the problem or ask the employee what they need but to hand a pamphlet to the employee asking “Have you tried counselling?”  This often feels like it has a “blame the victim” mentality and doubly so when the mental health struggle is caused by the actions/decisions of the employer/boss/manager.  (Again, this literally is *why* we have EFAP at my current employer.)

Though of course managers may have problems and struggles of their own (physical, mental, emotional, etc.) and maybe even use EFAP for themselves and their family, they are also the most highly paid (the only ones making six figures at my employer are managers), are more likely to own a home than rent an apartment, own a car instead of take a bus, work 9-5pm instead of evenings and weekends (disruptive to family life) and also be less likely to witness or be directly involved with frontline traumatic incidents.

I mean, I work in a *library* and I can think of more than a dozen different people who’ve told me they’ve either cried at work, cried in their car in the parking lot, or cried before coming to work because of the actions or statements of managers and bosses.  (I include myself in that list though it’s been a couple years!) ;-).

At least we talk a lot more openly about mental health than we have in the past but I think our failure to meet employees with empathy, kindness and understanding is the real sickness here.

RPL Staff Day 2024