Offering Help to a Troubled Colleague
Q. One of your co-workers has been acting strangely for a while, and you’re beginning to suspect that something may be seriously wrong — perhaps problems at home, mental health issues or substance abuse. What kind of behavior could point to a problem like this?
A. Any sustained change in someone’s normal behavior can signal a problem. Examples may include angry outbursts or forgetfulness, being late or frequently absent or missing deadlines. Diana Gregory, a senior human resources specialist at Administaff in San Francisco, says that this situation has become more common recently, with so many people facing home foreclosures and other financial crises.
Yet just because you notice a change in someone’s behavior doesn’t mean that you are qualified to determine what is causing it.
“You never want to be a diagnostician in the workplace,” says Richard Chaifetz, chairman and chief executive of the ComPsych Corporation, a Chicago-based provider of employee assistance programs…
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