Absenteeism and employee counselling - Part II:

The problem of excessive holidays

Dorothy ABEYWICKRAMA

Considering the traditional and cultural patterns and their influence on the mode of living and their thinking as members of our society which is predominantly rural, we have to accept that absenteeism has its roots in them. Seasonal absenteeism during harvesting time and during religious and cultural festivals is a known problem. Another feature in Sri Lanka which is much talked of is the number of public holidays listed in the calendar. When the holidays immediately precede or follow a week-end, that induces people to keep away from work. Such a decision is solely due to irresponsibility on the part of the worker. I gather that even now, as it is a common occurrence when holidays fall in this manner, some private sector organizations work extended hours during the week to make up for the 5.5 hours lost and close the factory that week-end.

Good workers, an asset to employers

Another common phenomenon is stay away from work owing to social obligations such as attending funerals, weddings and even birthday parties. What happens is that the workers consider it as a social responsibility they just must fulfil, or in such situations, their spouses pressurize them so much that they decide to stay away from work and attend such events. They know that were they to apply for leave, management will not approve, so they decide to ‘cut’ work that day.

The worst of it is, that in addition to such commitments leading them to keep away from work in this manner, workers and their families also entail additional pecuniary burdens on them to attend these events, such as taking gifts and even ‘do as the Jones’ do’. A funeral or a wedding in the family could easily deplete their life’s earnings, if any, and often lead to indebtedness. Thus, among other things, indebtedness also gives rise to absenteeism. Workers keep away from work on pay day to avoid the money lender. Additionally, some may even fail to report to work for want of the bus fare to do so. This is how stay away from work start. Progressively ‘cutting work’ is no problem for them and they become chronic absentees.

How it works is like this - considering the basic assumption that normal behaviour is rational and behaviour is conditioned by attitudes, one has to look for the factors contributing to stay away from work. Attitudes are conditioned by perception. Bad attendance behaviour is therefore caused by a distorted perception. This came out strongly in the attitude survey part of my study. They could not motivate themselves to report to work. The use of a reprimanding system to correct absenteeism, was not considered to be of value, both by the bad attendance workers and the regulars interviewed. The workers interviewed welcomed and openly expressed the view that counselling would be useful for them.

Counselling work as a remedy

Absenteeism as explained earlier is a form of inappropriate behaviour by a worker, which can be changed through the Counselling process. Both a manager and a supervisor can play a key role. Please note that a supervisor is the linking pin on the factory floor. They are most important. They must function in the role of counsellor, to provide clarity, understanding and emotional support for a worker who has personal-social, work or family related problems. They should equip the worker with sensible decision making ability, a skill to be used when he (the worker) is confronted with the question of and the temptation to stay away from work in such situations, and in the last analysis, to enable him solve or cope with similar and even other problems through good decision making. It would be unfair by Ceylon Tobacco PLC, where I worked as a personnel manager, if I fail to mention at this point, that they were one of the pioneers, if not the pioneer to have introduced employee counselling with success to minimize absenteeism, and that was way back in the last quarter of the last millennium.

What really is counselling?

We all have a general idea about Counselling. Likewise we also have wrong notions about Counelling. Some think Counselling is persuasion. Some still think it is synonymous with advice giving. Then there were others who think that it is welfarism. These are incorrect notions. Counselling is delivered (given) to bring about self-understanding and behaviour chsnge in the form of good decision making. Counselling is a means to an end and that end is, to bring about appropriate behaviour in the person counselled. It is an exercise in personal growth and ii is a decision making strategy.

Counselling is described by some Counselling Psychologists as ‘Change Counselling’, ‘Choice Counselling’, ‘Listening with the third ear’, ‘Hypothesis Testing’, and so on. That is, because a counsellor has to assist the counsellee (in this case the worker), to identify and test hypothesis about what personal behaviour or environmental factors underlie the conditions he (the worker) wants to change. This simply means - if certain environmental conditions exist, the individual’s behaviour repertoire needs to include ‘such’ and ‘such’ behaviour. The other side of the coin being, that if an individual can alter his environment, then that may bring about the desired results.. This is what is achieved through the counselling process. Counselling is a means to an end and that end is the desired appropriate behaviour of the individual being counselled. The foregoing describes the Goals of Counselling.

Below are two definitions of counselling:-

“A largely verbal process in which the Counsellor and the person (or persons) to whom counsel is given are in dynamic interaction and in which the counsellor employs a repertoire of diverse behaviours to help bring about self-understanding and behaviour change in the form of good decision making in the person to whom counselling is given, who has responsibility for his actions.”

- Edwin L.Herr (1996)

“….is a largely verbal process of helping people to learn to solve certain interpersonal, emotional and decision-making problems,”

- Krumboltz and Thoresen (1976)

In the employment scenario, the primary objective of having a counselling interview is to help a worker to help himself. In other words, through the counselling process, the manager or the supervisor helps the worker to explore himself and his problem/s, understand himself and his problem/s and thus get an integrative understanding, after which he (the worker) is helped to prioritize the diverse issues involved and then plan his course of action from among the possible options that get surfaced, and that too, as per his capacity to implement the course of action he (the worker) decides.

Such a course of action could be in relation to solving his indebtedness or they may be even emotional problems which are leading to absenteeism, which is the area we are concentrating on. In this process, the counselliee (the worker) also realizes his own shortcomings and they have to be taken note of. There is no point in a worker who has been a chronic absentee because he has been an alcoholic resolving not to consume liquor and then telling the manager or the supervisor counselling him, that he has decided not to drink and that he is going to stop drinking from that day. It will just not work out that way even though he is very sincere when he announces this decision. On the contrary his action plan has to be spelt out thus - will he go to an NGO such as Alcoholics Anonymous or Sri Lanka Sumithrayo in order to get their help to get over his drinking habit, or will he consult a Consultant Psychiatrist and enter Ward 59 of the National Hospital, or such other institution to get himself treated. It must be realistic and workable decision making.

That is not all, the manager or the supervisor concerned must monitor the counsellee’s ( i.e. the worker’s) progress in this regard. In this way, counsellling is delivered to bring about change in a worker’s inappropriate behaviour repertoire - change which leads to his personal growth. Take another example - Absenteeism which is due to indebtedness. Sometimes the manager/supervisor might decide at the action stage of the counselling interview to help him to the extent of monitoring his budget and his expenditure over a period of a few months. This may have to be done until his excessive spending habit is arrested and he cleaners up his debts. That is not all, conducting even family counselling sessions with the spouse also present might become necessary. More often than not,the spouse - especially the wives of male workers do not know, when the husband decides not to go to work on a particular day, that her husband is not fulfilling his obligation to the company by not presenting himself for work that day, that it is therefore an offence and that as he is a bad absentee it will lead to his termination soon. When all this is revealed at the family counselling session, the spouse gets a rude shock. Family counselling is invaluable in such critical situations.

Poor performance

In this way, counselling is useful management tool to reduce absenteeism. As you read on, you might sometimes ask yourself the question - how could we spend time like this on counselling workers? I am sure very few think like this, because it is not time wasted but time well spent. Such scientific counselling sessions will bring rich dividends when you harness the skills of your experienced workmen for the benefit of the organization and thus unleash his potential. The famous management expert Renesis Likert (1961) in his book ‘New Patterns of Management states thus’….time taken from the subordinate’s job to discuss his personal problems… is time well spent.’

As a matter of fact counselling as a management tool is useful not only in the scenario of absenteeism, it is a tool which can be used in diverse work situations such as poor performance, to bridge skills deficits, sharpen career goals, in annual performance appraisals and even at the exit interview stage of a worker.

It must be mentioned, that even though employee counsellling is usually done by HRM staff, the line management must be associated at such interviews and, that ideally the process should be decentralized for the first level counselling to be done by the line management.

It is also important to remember that what is stated by a worker or a counselling interview should not be used against that worker- say to issue a Show Cause Notice asking for his explanation. This will be unethical. Please desist from doing so. Also that will be the death knell of your role and value as a manager/counsellor.

An employee must know that you have understood him and that you are jointly thinking through his problem with sincerity and genuineness, that he will accept you and shed his mask and open out with you and be willing to bring about a change in his inappropriate behaviour.

Also, you should keep notes of your counselling interviews, and most important of all, maintain a high degree of confidentiality. What is stated at a counselling interview should never be repeated by you either within the organization or without. Always remember the rule of thumb, that counselling is for the counsellee.

Concluded