“If You See Me Looking a Little Tired, Please Just Remind Me to Eat Something.”
As VP, Health and Wellness, with responsibly for a Fortune 100’s Behavioral Health function, one of my responsibilities for the better part of 19 years was coordinating the company’s Safe and Respectful Incident Oversight Team (IOT). In addition to me and the director who reported to me, the team also included the VP who led corporate human resources’ employee relations function and a director from the global security team. Depending upon the nature of the situation brought to us by a manager and their HR consultant, we may also involve members of the employment law, corporate ethics, global communications, and disability management teams.
When I share my experiences from my work on this team, note that I’m shielding names and other identifying details but not changing the core facts of what happened.
We got a call an HR manager who reported a problem involving the way an employee was managing her diabetes.
The supervisor explained, “About six months ago Jess told the three coworkers with cubicles closest to her own, ‘I’m going to manage my diabetes from now on with diet and exercise alone. If you see me looking a little tired, please just remind me to eat something.’”
Kind souls that they were, Jess’s three coworkers agreed to this plan.
Jess’ supervisor went on, “Well, we all tried to support Jess but there were a couple of times when a man who works a couple of aisles away from Jess and who also is a volunteer EMT had to get involved. He got her to eat something or drink some juice. Last week one of her coworkers found her slumped on her desk and scraped some glucose gel into her mouth to get her up and going again.”
When I heard that last bit about the glucose gel, I couldn’t help but ask Jess’ supervisor to repeat it, which she did. I was amazed that a non-medical professional would take it upon him or herself to scrape anything into a seemingly unconscious coworker’s mouth.
Noting that this had been going on months without Jess’ supervisor having once consulted HR or her own manager about it, I wondered what happened that finally made her do so.
I asked, “What happened that made you ask for help now?”
Jess’ supervisor said, “We called 911 and had an ambulance here a couple of days ago because Jess was unconscious on her desk and none of us could rouse her.”
I will note here that a very similar situation unfolded at another of the company’s locations almost simultaneously. There was no connection between the two employees. They were in different businesses so the co-occurrence was coincidental.
We thanked the HR manager and Jess’ supervisor for bringing this to our attention and shared these observations:
· Although certainly acting with the best of intentions, neither Jess’ supervisor nor any members of her team were physicians, nurses, or medical professionals of other disciplines. None of them were qualified to administer medical care.
· Although he may indeed be a trained volunteer EMT, the man whose cubicle was nearby this team was not filling that role while at his day job. He was working as a call center representative like the rest of Jess’s coworkers involved in this situation.
· The liability risks for the company were great: Imagine if Jess had bitten a coworker while not entirely lucid as gel was scraped into her mouth, choked, or fallen into a dire condition due to her glucose level while expecting to be saved by fellow employees.
· Many other employees live with diabetes as well as other challenging personal matters and they take responsibility for managing these issues without making them into workplace concerns.
We advised Jess’ supervisor to:
· Inform Jess that she can no longer expect her team members to monitor her medical condition, noting that it is her responsibility to care for herself as all other employees are required to do regarding whatever medical and personal issues they may have.
· Inform Jess’ team members and their volunteer EMT colleague (as well as his supervisor) that they are no longer to provide medical care to Jess or any other coworker.
· Recognize that asking for help from her next level manager and/or HR regarding things going on in her team that concern her as soon as a concern arises is a strength and not a weakness.
Blowing the Whistle on Workplace Crazy: True stories (with names and other identifiers changed to protect the innocent and not-so-innocent) and commentary from a mental health expert/leadership advisor/retired corporate executive. Crazy=bizarre, unexpected, sometimes darkly humorous.
Send your workplace stories to me at kenddv@gmail.com with the subject line “Workplace Crazy” and I’ll share (minus identifying details per your instructions) and respond to them here.