Policy Text
Page 1 of 7 11/03 (REV 4/95)
Dealing with Job-Related Employ ee Behavior and Emotional Proble ms
The purpose of this General Order i s to establish policy concer ning job-related
employee behavior and emotional pr oblems. The provisions of the Order are, in part,
voluntary for the employee and , in part, mandatory (see pages 5 through 8 for
supervisor’s checklist and schemat ic). This Order is related to General Order 11/02
“Voluntary Employee Assistance Program,” 11/04 “Guidelines for Suspension of Peace
Officer Powers-Immediate Admini strative Leave” and 11/05 “Traum atic Incident Follow-
Up.” The Department has an obligatio n to the public and its employee s to ensure that officers
charged with public safety are em otionally fit for duty. The De partment’s policy is that,
within limits, the Department will assist employees to help the mselves by encouraging
employees to use the voluntary Employee Assistance Program. How ever, when an
employee fails to take care of t he problem voluntarily, it is t he right and res ponsibility of
the Department to insist on mandat ory psychological counseling intervention.
I. General
This policy is based on the assu mption that all members of the Department are valued
employees. Both the organization and the employee benefit when employees maintain
acceptable performance levels. II. Responsibilities
A. The Department expects that s upervisors and employees can re asonably
identify behavioral and emotional changes.
B. Any employee who becomes awar e of a significant change in an other
employee’s normal behavior; i.e ., a change which may indicate a n
emotional problem, including behav ior which may be related to s ubstance
abuse/addition, shall immediatel y report the behavior to the ob serving
employee’s supervisor.
C. After careful review of the facts, and if a supervisor has c ause to suspect
that a subordinate’s job behavior is suffering as a result of e motional
problems, the supervisor should i mmediately arrange a meeting w ith the
subordinate. Based upon this meeti ng, the supervisor can decide if his/her
concerns were unfounded. If the conc erns are justified, the sup ervisor
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may choose among various intervent ion alternatives reflecting three
primary approaches available to deal with the problem: volunta ry
psychological counseling, mandato ry psychological counseling, and/or a
psychological fitness for duty evaluation. The supervisor shou ld not
attempt to conduct psychological counseling.
III. Voluntary Psychological Counseling Intervention
A. The employee chooses to seek counseling.
1. In the first type of counseli ng intervention, the employee c hooses to
seek counseling bas ed on information about the Employee
Assistance Program provided by the County. There are no
identified indicators of a probl em. Rather, employees are train ed to
identify in themselves the kinds of issues, concerns and proble ms
which might benefit them through counseling.
B. Observed early indications of a problem.
1. In the second type of interv ention, the supervisor suggests the
employee seek counseling based upon observed early indication s
of the kinds of problems which could benefit from counseling .
There is not a sufficient decr ease in performance to warrant a
formal or documented discussi on about it. There is no record of the
supervisor having noticed a pr oblem or having made the
suggestion about counseling to the employee. The employee is
afforded the maximum degree of c onfidentiality. There is no a ttempt
by the Department to verify that the employee actually did se ek
counseling. If the problem indi cators subside, it will be ass umed
that the employee overcame his /her problem(s ) with or without the
aid of counseling. C. An observed problem that is m oderately affecting the employe e’s job
performance. 1. In the third type of intervention, the supervisor suggests the
employee seek counseling based upon definite indications of t he
kind of problems which could benefit from counseling. There i s an
associated moderate decrease in job performance which warrant s
a formal discussion and documenta tion. The supervisor informs the
employee that their job performa nce is unsatisfactory and app ears
to be the result of the employ ee’s emotional problem. The
supervisor informs the employee that action will be taken if the
employee does not correct the problem. Appropriate documentat ion
of the discussion with the empl oyee about performance is
established. Nevertheless, the performance decrease is not se vere
enough to make the referral to counseling mandatory. At this level,
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the Department still does not ver ify that the employee has go ne for
counseling. The employee is affo rded the maximum degree of
confidentiality. Again, if the j ob performance improves, it w ill be
assumed that the employee has ove rcome his/her problem with o r
without counseling.
IV. Mandatory Psychological Couns eling Intervention Not Monitor ed by the
Department
A. The employee is involved in a duty-related traumatic incide nt.
1. The fourth type of interv ention occurs when the employee h as been
i n v o l v e d i n a d u t y - r e l a t e d t r a