Divorce is a heartache that workers don’t need to endure alone — even in the workplace. Rather, managers and employees have an opportunity to help see their colleagues through this tough time of their life.
The effects of divorce in the workplace, if not well managed, can take a toll. Employees struggling with issues related to divorce often manifest changes in the way they work or how they relate to their colleagues. The emotional and physical distress resulting from a divorce can significantly affect both how individuals work and the output of their work.
“Given such dynamics of a divorce, it is essential to manage the effects of divorce at the right time before it affects the overall workplace performance,” notes Jessica Hayes, Corporate Performance Management Analysis at College Paper Writing Service.
Employees going through a divorce might experience:
- Reduced work productivity.
- Absenteeism from work.
- Increased incidences of work-related accidents and mistakes.
- Reduced concentration in the workspace.
- Poor decision-making.
- Distraction in the workplace.
- Failure to meet work deadlines.
- Intolerance among workers.
These physical manifestations or emotional turmoil should be signals for management to act.
The role of management
Management plays a critical role in assisting employees going through a divorce. Because a divorce impacts work output and the health of the employee, a manager must identify those who may be struggling and provide them with the necessary support.
“A good leader should be one who meets his or her followers at their different levels of need. Such intervention gives and maintains his or her influence upon the followers,” explains Joshua Spencer, Leadership Associate at ConfidentWriters. One such option is to speak with employees directly about their recent marriage challenges. By talking to them, the manager helps to build trust and loyalty, which enable a worker to talk about their divorce with an employer. Given the nature of the divorce, the employer can then know what further action to take that will help the employee. If such a conversation is not possible, a conversation facilitated by an HR representative may be a viable alternative.
Depending on the scenario, possible solutions include counseling and therapy. In the course of setting up therapy or counseling sessions for these individuals, an employer can help strategize on how they can maintain their workload and still manage to attend divorce support programs as well as legal appointments with their partners.
An employee assistance program is therefore crucial in helping workers address their challenges as they go through a divorce. Such a program often calls for a number of therapy sessions to help see the employee through the crisis. An employer can create a flexible program that is customized to the different situations that may arise within the company.
For example, in a situation where a divorce is between two workers in the same organization, then the employee assistance program can be modified so that interactions between the two parties can be minimized and certain work can be delegated elsewhere. Moreover, the assignment of duties during the divorce process should also be on equal terms so that neither party feels less supported by the company.
A rebuilding program that is tandem to the available time and flexibility of the company may also be necessary to help an employee deal with the aftereffects of divorce. Such a program provides an employee with the opportunity to cope with their divorce, recover from the experience, and return to work in due time, where they will be able to continue contributing value to the company.
About the Author: Paul Bates is an online tutor at BeeStudent. He also works as a part-time editor for a few academic writing services such as Paper-Research, SwiftPapers, and DedicatedWriters.
