On Thursday March 21st, we paid a return visit to one of our ” Situations” meetings. What is a Situation meeting you may be thinking to yourself? 

Well, prior to the start of the meeting, each one of our facilitators was given a situation, or a ” scenario”. Each scenario was a hypothetical situation which our breakout groups were given to discuss our opinions and solutions. 

My group was given Scenario#1, which was as follows:

You have become close friends with your co-worker Ben over the last couple of years. You work on a team that requires a lot of collaboration and teamwork, and lately you’ve noticed that Ben is missing a lot of work. When he is there, he isn’t contributing much, he seems withdrawn, and you’ve even noticed that his hygiene has started to suffer. The other members of your team are starting to get angry and bitter. They perceive Ben’s actions as laziness and have had conversations with your boss when Ben isn’t around about how he needs to be fired. You’ve tried to talk to Ben about your concerns, but he brushes them off and hasn’t been open to talking about them. Nobody on your team understands Ben as dwell as you do, 

So, what is your assessment of Ben? What actions will you or won’t you take to try to help?

Our response: We felt that Ben could be dealing with depression, or maybe drinking too much alcohol or taking drugs. We felt maybe we could ask Ben how we can share his work load or burden since he is going through such a tough time. If you are perhaps close friends with Ben, you could try talking with him outside of work. The most important thing you can do for someone who is struggling is to be there to support them. Try and create a safe space for Ben at work. If your workplace has an EAP ( employee assistance program) maybe suggest to your Manager to recommend this program to Ben for assistance. 

I felt that our group members in attendance really enjoyed the challenge of looking for solutions to the different scenarios we were given. It was a great way of giving each person a chance to contribute and make a difference in our group, and maybe possibly learning something new at the same time.