2. [EMPLOYEE ASSISTANCE PROGRAMS] 24 de octubre de 2010
Sylvia Ponce de León Zenteno Page 2
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Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs) are employee benefit programs
offered by many employers, typically in conjunction with a health insurance plan.
EAPs are intended to help employees deal with personal problems that might
adversely impact their work performance, health, and well-being.
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The issues for which EAPs provide support vary, but examples include:
 substance abuse
 safe working environment
 emotional distress
 major life events, including births,
accidents and deaths
 health care concerns
 financial or legal concerns
 family/personal relationship issues
 work relationship issues
 concerns about aging parents
An EAP's services are usually free to the employee or household member,
having been pre-paid by the employer.
Many of these firms rely upon resources fromskilled vendors of specialized.
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Some studies indicate that offering EAPs may result in various benefits for
employers, including lower medical costs, reduced turnover and absenteeism,
and higher employee productivity and morale.
The broad array of services provided to employers by today's EAPs make a
good business case for external programs. External EAPs can provide more than
just psychological counseling through the integration of a host of "work/life"
resources.
External EAPs also provide the added benefit to employees of delivering
confidential counseling services off-site, away from the eyes and ears of fellow
workers, managers, or the Human Resources department. If the employee
improves as a result of the use of this benefit, then both the employer and the
employee are winners--the employer has a good, highly motivated and high-
performing employee and the employee gains assistance with a personal problem
that was previously impacting their ability to focus on their job.

3. [EMPLOYEE ASSISTANCE PROGRAMS] 24 de octubre de 2010
Sylvia Ponce de León Zenteno Page 3
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Workplace bullying targets should be leery of EAP's. Sometimes a target will
contact the EAP complaining about workplace bullying and an EAP counselor
may come to the workplace and give a generic group presentation. However, this
presentation will imply that bullying is co-worker(s) on co-worker that occurs only
because management is unaware of the situation, rather than as the manager as
the bully and research indicates that 89% of bullies are bosses. Typically, managers
in attendance will announce they have an "open door policy" and staff can come
to them at any time with any concerns.
Many managers view EAP enrollment as demeaning to the employee or a
means to “straighten out” the target. Management or even a union steward (who
is hostile towards the target) may leak to the target's co-workers that the target
has entered into an EAP to make the target appear unstable and weak thus
further undermining and isolating the target.
Typically, when the bullying turns critical, management with the help of HR
will fabricate frivolous work performance allegations against the target and apply
a progressive discipline policy (i.e. reprimand, suspension and dismissal). In an
unionized workplace the collective agreement usually suggests that under-
performing employees voluntarily enter an EAP program. EAP's are based on the
premise that the unsatisfactory work performance is due to non-workplace factors
such as substance abuse, financial problems, family and/or relationship conflicts,
physical or emotional illness, however, these are unrelated to or the cause of
workplace bullying, so the EAP is unlikely to help the target.