Emotional Terrors in the Workplace: Protecting Your Business Bottom Line - Emotional Continuity Management in the Workplace

The following case examples are real, true-life, experiences. Details have been altered to protect privacy. The exercise activities are designed to give you an overview of the problems and issues of real-life experiences. Use the scenarios below to practice with the activities:

Activity 1 ” Give your planning team 3x5 cards. Give them 15 minutes to make as many wild and unlikely risk scenarios as they can imagine. Toss the cards into a box and draw them randomly . Discuss each potential emergency scene or risk for two minutes. Focus only on what emotions might be demonstrated or experienced by your employees in each situation.

Activity 2 ” Choose several different scenarios and estimate the average costs of these emotional events if they happened in your company.

Activity 3 ” List what emotions might happen in each scenario. List positive and negative emotions. Find five or more ways to manage the emotions in yourself or a coworker.

Activity 4 ” Create a paper or table-talk drill for your company based on one of the scenarios.

Activity 5 ” Implement a drill based on the scenario of your choice or one you create.

Activity 6 ” Find five more ways you can say, define, describe, or give examples of the following words. Where do these words belong in discussing the scenarios? What emotional demonstrations do they suggest?

REHEARSE AND DRILL SCENARIOS

Scenario A ” Your community is located within 50 miles of a Mad Cow outbreak. You manage a food industry company that has contracts with health care services and other local contracts. You manage 34 full and part-time staff that work in two shifts. Your boss had informed you that your team must remove all beef from the venue .

Scenario B ” You just found out that you are pregnant and you have not told anyone yet. A co-worker discloses that she is leaving early today to have an abortion and wants you to finish her assignment without telling anyone .

Scenario C ” There is a running joke in the office about mentally handicapped people. Your brother has schizophrenia . Someone tells you a new joke.

Scenario D ” You have been struggling with weight loss for two years , a daily struggle. Co-workers make fun of "fat" people. There is a potluck lunch today and your boss asks if you are coming.

Scenario E ” Your new boss takes you and a colleague out to lunch, and insists on driving after a few martinis. Last year a dear friend was killed by a drunk driver.

Scenario F ” You have diabetes. Do you tell your colleagues how to help you if you become ill?

Scenario G ” You cheated on your time cards. A coworker finds out.

Scenario H ” Your spouse is an alcoholic. There is trouble at home. The boss wants you to work overtime. This means your alcoholic spouse will be driving the children home from school.

Scenario I ” You are a member of Alcoholics Anonymous and you have been sober for two years. You are being scorned for being a party-pooper by associates who party on the weekend . They think you don't like them. They invite you out again.

Scenario J ” You are gay. You have not told anyone. Someone asks you what you think about gay marriages and if you know any gay people.

Scenario K ” You are taking anti-depressants to tolerate your difficult working situation. At a meeting you are asked what improvements might help the organization.

Scenario L ” Your religion doesn't allow you to work on Saturday. Saturday is the championship game for the Company Bowling League. Bowling is at the center of all social events and social discussions throughout the year. Bowlers are more likely to get the promotions and often are given opportunities to travel to out of town conferences.

Scenario M ” You are having an affair with a co-worker. Your lover tells you about another co-worker who is committing fraud.

Scenario N ” You accidentally intercept a love letter on company letterhead to a co-worker on your team.

Scenario O ” Your boss asks you to do something that frightens you.

Scenario P ” Your co-worker asks you to help cover up an error she made.

Scenario Q ” Your co-worker tells you an unsavory secret about your boss.

Scenario R ” The National Weather Service has upgraded the hurricane to a category 4 and recommended evacuation. You are hosting a group of visiting industry professionals from a foreign nation. Their translator just walked out of the meeting.

Scenario S ” An employee that left the company a year ago, before you were hired , comes into your office with a weapon claiming he was mistreated by the last manager.

Scenario T ” Your company is forced to Shelter in Place for two days because of a toxic chemical spill. (A truck overturns, a railroad car goes off the track, a local chemical plant has a fire, etc.)

Scenario U ” Your boss has a sudden heart attack and dies in the employee lounge during Bring-Your-Children-To-Work Day.

Scenario V ” A toilet overflows during the weekend causing major foul flooding in your office.

Scenario W ” There is one confirmed case of Smallpox reported in the United States. (Contact your local health department, the CDC - Center for Disease Control, or WHO - World Health Organization) to find out the profound ramifications of this terrifyingly real possibility.

Scenario X ” You suspect one of your employees is a sex offender.

Scenario Y ” Your company has an Emotional Terrorist in a key position. This employee begins to focus attention on your management skills.

Scenarios Z ”

• You have a snake in your office

• A rumor of outsourcing has erupted

• Mass layoffs are threatened

• Someone in the company has committed cyber crime

• Money is missing from the cash drawer

• The office manager is not following through on tasks and is calling in sick frequently

• The boss changes his/her mind every time something is almost finished

• You work in tornado alley in the Midwest and new employees are hired who have never been near a tornado

• Your office is on an earthquake fault

• 15% of your employees are related to active duty military units deployed to the Middle East. The news this week is not good.

• Four of your employees are pregnant and the office is scheduled for repainting

• Two of your employees have been married to the same man

• Two of your employees have been married to the same woman

• Someone in your company has a child die

• An employee starts showing signs of mental illness

• Someone in your company is devastated by the loss of a beloved pet

• One of your employees insists on rearranging key equipment and the rest of the staff is upset

• 23% of your workforce are military reservists called to active duty

• A key employee disappears

• Your competitor raises the stakes and you lose a valuable client

• An employee has a chronic cough

• Office communications have been disrupted

• Your company files for bankruptcy

• There have been news stories about toxic leaks. There is an odd smell at your office. Someone starts vomiting.

• Someone forgot to "save" an important 83-page document and it was lost

• Your office shares a common wall with another company that has had a fire

• You hate your HR manager

• Your HR manager hates you

• A scandal implicates your company

• A severe winter storm collapses trees onto important job performance equipment

• An employee who is a combat veteran is upset with the War in Iraq

• The office is infested by termites

• Transportation to your office has been disrupted