Tough conversations
I'm on a management team in a health care facility, and I also teach at a technical school and my students get there training at the facility where I'm a manager. I have a staff member at the facility who think he is helpful and friendly. He is found to touch and invade personal space. I have asked him multiple times in the past to be careful of his approach, because he is offending people and my new students. He always responds with " Its ok ".(I do identify this as culture because he is from another country)but I don't want to make excuses if it's offensive. I find this to be an opportunity to coach. This is affecting current staff and new students. Advice? Thank you JLD
Perhaps it would be better to take the individual aside to discuss the situation and ask if they feel this is appropriate with his approach. Based upon the answer provided, could gear in the direction to discuss cultural differences and explain to the individual that some cultures are accepting in their country, likewise, our culture may view this as offensive. I would review over the differences and set up examples to explain this for clarity.
May recommend some literature to read and follow up on the conversation to see what the indivual learned, and how the actions of the individual can be applied to what was learned and derive a plan that will help the individual work better with his staff and students.
Mark ,
yes, this is a good point. This individual must understand the seriousness of what they are doing.
Ryan Meers, Ph.D.
HR needs to talk to address the touching issue right away. This could get much worse.
Andy,
You make an excellent point. I think this individual has to be helped to see how his actions are perceived in different cultures & that in this culture it is unacceptable.
Dr. Ryan Meers
This has to be readdressed to him from a supervisory stand point, with acknoweledgment of culturel differences that may give him the concept that its not a problem may also give someone else the concept that it is a problem. If he understands this & still does it, He is in voiolation of harassment policies
Russell,
This is definitely a good approach, how would you suggest making sure that this person knows he is the "offender" of the rule?
Ryan
you could hand out a reminder memo on different topics and cover these issues and have everyone sign in.
Yes, none of use likes these conversations but they only get worse the longer we wait.
Ryan
The longer the issue is ignored the harder it will be to solve. Perhaps there could be some form of meeting in which these issues are discussed. At this meeting, real life scenarios could be presented and then someone could lead a discussion regarding these scenarios.
This is a bit of a tough situation but a couple of thoughts come to mind.
First of all, make sure you are carefully & clearly explaining which of his behaviors are causing the problem & be clear on the problem. It sounds like you've done this, just make sure that you have. And that he understands that in his mind it's okay, but not to other people.
If that is not being effective, you may have to move to more of a performance-coaching, disciplinary type of conversation. I realize this is a last resort, but it sounds like he needs to understand the seriousness of the situation. Not to mention, you don't want to sacrifice the comfort & productivity of the rest of the group in order to preserve the feelings of 1 individual. Hope that helps & best wishes.
Ryan
