How long have you been with SHAR?
Psychology homework help
1. How long have you been with SHAR? Was with SHAR 8 years before taking time off to get my Masters Degree. Back again for 15 years
2. How long have you been in your current position? 15 years this time.
3. What was your previous place of employment? Worked as in management working with an EAP doing both phone and in-person counseling. For employee related problems as well as home life as these often flow into daily work life. Who a person is and the impact they have flows into the job. Once they leave home they do not leave problems there. Attendance problems are often due to home life (home, childcare, and eldercare, etc.)
4. What is your educational background? University of Michigan Masters in Social Work Administration Received in 1989, Has credentials and certifications in supervisory responsibility, addiction counseling, stress management
5. How long have you dealt directly with substance abuse and mental health clients? Since 1980, even before he had his masters he was working in substance abuse.
6. Do you think that both moods and emotions affect operations at SHAR? Yes, no doubt, people for the most part can be temperamental, the mood can affect job performance, and can impact relationships with other people or what have you. Stated keep the main thing the main thing. And the main thing where he works is to be productive and do your J.O.B. and as long as peoples moods and emotions they will get in the way of them doing their job. Curse out coworkers and clients. Also effects
7. Specifically how do moods and emotions affect organizational behavior at SHAR?
8. Do you train your employees how to control their moods and emotions? Yes some staff is professional trained staff with bachelors and masters degrees in counseling. They are still human. It is different to handle other people other than yourself. If clients are angry with workers they may go out the window. They must remain focused and client centered to do their jobs. Everything is for the client your one issues are to be put to the side. Another important part of training or coaching is self-care. I am no good to the client if I am not doing good for myself. I must help myself in order to assist the clients. To do this self-care with myself I must do things recreationally, meet with friends, etc. I often use my own experiences when dealing with the clients as well. So do all of the other employees at SHAR. The unique thing with SHAR over the years, SHAR stands for Self Help Addictive Rehabilitation, and SHAR was one of the first companies that hired recovering addicts, it is also know that we hire employees with the book knowledge so to speak, these people did not have the personal experience. Now, today, we have many employees that both have the book education and are recovering addicts. In this company it is very important to have both. With having the addiction background this helps them to endear themselves to the clients and also allows the client to get closer to the staff.
9. How do you train employees to control of their emotions when dealing with clients? Professional development classes to help a person with their growth. Professional growth and development. Continuing education credits that do SHAR and ones that can be obtained outside of SHAR provide both. Once you get your degree you must take a certain amount of CEU’s to remain certified for licenses. Classes must be relating to their degrees. CPR Training is provided at the office. Ethical training is a must as well. They can also be done online.
10. How do you handle the emotions of drug and alcohol addicted clients since you are meeting them at the lowest point of their lives? You must be loving, firm, and focus. Redirecting them whenever possible if they stray off track. At SHAT the older staff always wants to confront everything and tear people down. Over time they have found out that the best way to handle a situation is to be loving and try to fill the person up. I share my experiences with my clients every time I stand up. I try to be a role model and provide hope. Someone once told me I have never seen a CEO like you. I am in recovery and I am very open to share what I have been through. And what I go through now in order to give them hope to see what they can do and overcome what they are going through. The 15 years at the EAP I only told 1 person about my being in recovery. I was however transparent in other areas of my life when counseling. For instance I could identify with marriage and the things I had been through to a certain extent. Hoping that this would help them. They called it purpose of useful self. I would not talk about me just to talk about me; I would address experiences and myself if it could possibly help them to relate to what they were going through. Relate and make them feel at ease and comfortable.
11. What is SHAR’s organizational policy when it comes to people skills? There are no acts of threats or violence at SHAR. Even if there is an argument for client-to-client, client to staff, staff to client. Teach them conflict resolution and how to diffuse a situation before it gets out of hand. Very important to be a role model to overcome a situation. There are other staffs nearby that can assist to diffuse the situation. There are many times that there is one staff to a group of 14 or 15, monitors, medical staff, and nurses are handy if something happens. There are always several people on staff just incase someone has to go to the hospital there is still someone at the office to man the ship. Clients often play games with being sick so they must be able to take care of things for the most part at the facility and if it escalates they must take to the hospital if not staff can help. Many times they fake it and they girlfriend/boyfriend is in the hospital and they are hoping they can get some nookie. Also with addicts you must be careful because friends sometimes meet them at the hospital with dope.
12. Is it ingrained in the executive, the management, and the employees to use the words please, excuse me, sorry, and thank you whenever necessary? It is an ongoing struggle to get staff to be that obliging and courteous. As CFO I try to be a role model when it comes to manners. Give them respect, seeing the way I handle things hoping they will do the same. One practice that is ingrained in the clients at SHAR is when a lady is coming to the door they are to meet them in the parking lot escort them to the door and make sure that they get in OK. They must be a gentleman.
13. What do you do to control your emotions at work when you have had an argument at home with one of your family members? Normally if I have a bad day at home or even a bad hour. I don’t believe in having bad days over the years I have had bad hours, never had a bad day. It is easier to deal with a bad hour as opposed to having a whole bad day. Normally in the car I listen to gospel music, self help groups, or talks by TD Jakes, then, by the time I get to work I am together. I may talk to a friend Larry from Philadelphia, we have a standing conversation every Wednesday morning and we talk. I talk to one of my friends, pastor, deacons from church, or one of my sponsees to get my correct. Having a network of friends is very important.
14. Do negative emotions get in the way of SHAR’s performance? Yes, it is a balancing act, since we hire so many recovering people, and so many people are from the fellowship. It is a balancing act to see who to hire and how would interact with other people. They must be reminded that they are not at a meeting. They must be reminded that they are not to talk about their personal lives or at meetings they need to focus on their jobs. This is a job or this is work be more professional not personal.
15. When hiring people in recovery, how much clean time do they have to have? We have different recovery time requirements for different positions. Personal experience also plays a part in whether you are ready to work in this field. It is difficult to gage if someone is ready to work in the environment. They come in on a probationary period of 3 months and I have the ability to extend it to 6 months if I believe they are not ready. They try to be lenient with recovering people. They like to recruit, train, and retain them. Also helps clients to train someone that they can trust. Someone that is there for a longer period of time.
a. 1 year clean for entry level positions
b. 3 years clean for mid level positions and must have the right certifications and licenses.
c. 5 years for management level positions and must have right degree and certifications
16. On a personal level do you sometimes raise your voice to employees when they do not follow your instructions? I do have to raise my voice at times. Often times someone can look at my face and see where my mind is. I can laugh, joke, and play. When someone comes into my office they know it is time for business. Be consistent with what is being done then and there. Looking over my glasses also makes it know that I am serious.
17. Do you like to be part of the process right from detoxification to discharge when assisting clients? I am not really involved in this I oversee the process. People are at their worst when they come in at detox. I did a talk the atmosphere of recovery how people need to feel wanted, feel safe. It is important to do this right from the start for these clients.
18. In what way do you manage the full spectrum of presenting medical concerns of clients? Medical concerns are normally handled holistically. There is a medical director on call 24 hours a day, nursing and medical assistants. If this can be handled in house we prefer it be done there if not we will refer then to a hospital or other medical facility and let their primary doctor handle it from there.
19. What skills are taught so that everyone in the organization is able to maintain proper personal and professional relationships with clients and coworkers? Remember that you are the helper not he helpee. Being the helper you get helped also. Helps you to grow as a person as well.
20. What motivates you to display positive moods and emotions every day you come to work? In many ways I am an angel from God. I am a representative and an ambassador. I need to give to people what was so freely given to me. Three years ago there was a problem with a manager. They were going to call him in and fire him. When they brought him into the office he cried and freely shared how he cared and showed them how much he loved the job and how much he needed this job in his life. He got a 30-day suspension instead for being fired. He got fired 2 years later.
21. Would you advise a fellow executive of an employee to skip work as opposed to coming in and portraying bad moods and emotions to everyone? At his last employer the UAW and their companies had a lot of people had marital problems, child issues, and employment issues, bad teenager issues. Those spilled into work.
22. Would you advise someone so skip work if they were having an off day? Yes, however I do not like the word skip, I prefer to say take a mental health day. The only thing with this is sometimes people will take advantage of a mental health day if they do not get approved for time off requested or they will take them around the holidays. I always make sure I am fully staffed to make sure that I have enough staff on duty so that this does not often hurt our shifts on a daily basis. Sometimes we must call staff in if someone takes a mental health day. We have recovery coach and monitors, as a monitor they make $11 per hour. As a recovery coach they make thousands of dollars per month. They call off after they get their check for recovery coach they could jeopardize their job as a recovery coach and cutting pay drastically.
23. What advice would you give to other executives like you when it comes to matters of managing personal emotions and helping employees to manage theirs? Be a good leader you must be a good follower. As a leader you have good mentors that school and teach you. As you are helping yourself you are helping others to humble themselves to learn. You cannot lead where you have not been. If you want to get over what you have been under, you have to be willing be under the authority of something else. Getting over heroin to go to cocaine, go from cocaine to alcohol, getting over addiction to a program, once leave program go to church or NA/AA. You must be under someone or someone’s authority.
