Case study no. 4: Kathy (age 41) Financial Director in a company employing about 100 people
I was already totally exhausted; I was sleeping the whole weekends and started to be ill. After one month’s absence I was in a good shape but within four days at work everything returned…
SYMPTOMS:
- working overtime
- lack of free time, untidiness in the house
- no vacation
- no sense of self-worth, efficacy
- reluctance towards management
- need to convince others about her skills
- taking on new tasks and activities without seeing the need to hire additional employees
- failure to meet personal commitments
- problems with sleeping
- heath problems: total helplessness, lack of energy and motivation to act, inability to think clearly.
CONDITIONS AT WORK:
- conducting periodic evaluation using unknown criteria
- not taking into consideration the need to hire additional employees
- requires working overtime ( parent company in the USA active during Polish evening hours)
- call regarding business at any time of the day or week
- time pressure – requiring immediate action without taking into consideration employees free time or needs
- an employee forced the management to show the evaluation criteria and discovered that she met all of them and even exceeded in some, yet received a mediocre score. (Hence the decrease in self-worth and in the ability to evaluate own achievements)
APPROACH TOWARDS EMPLOYEES:
- need to prove oneself and gain acceptance from others
- taking on tasks at the expense of her own free time
- protecting employees – taking on more responsibilities
- believing that only hard work can give her success
- cancelling private meetings when the company gave additional tasks
- stopped taking care of herself yet cared strongly about company business
RESCUE MECHANISMS:
- taking up sports
- sleeping the whole weekend
- taking up a hobby
- having good family relationships
COACHING PROCEDURES:
- assessing the degree of occupational burnout
- examining the energy gain/loss when dealing with different people from professional and private life
- examining key destabilizing factors
- considering the pros and cons of staying in this work situation (deepening of burnout, depression, health problems, the inability to build lasting relationships/starting a family, loneliness, loss of meaning in life)
- examining the extent to which necessary changes can be made ( minimal)
- making a decision about job change
- working on developing assertiveness, reducing the number of people/events that decrease well-being
- lowering self-expectations from 300% to 80 %
- changing beliefs concerning inequality between men and women
- finding a new job ( without the “American” style of worker exploitation)
- fulfilling the inner need to please others by changing it into the pursuit of creating good working standards
- creating a balance between the needs of taking care of others and own well-being
- fulfilling the dream of changing her job profile
- creating a vision of a smooth transfer from a committed financial director into a coach/lecturer.
- creating rules allowing balance between work and private life
KEY ACTIONS:
- the person looked for help in order not to be forced to resign, paid in advanced for a full coaching cycle.
- looked at her situation and discovered that she was playing the role of a victim and that she expected change to come from her employees.
- took responsibility for her well-being
- discovered that she was trying to give more than it is realistically possible and good for her well being
- started to believe that she can work in a company with rules which are close to her idea of good organization