Regulations, compliance, employee handbooks, and company policies. No doubt about it, Human Resources (HR) is complex, regulated, and probably appears to be convoluted to the general employee.  One of my missions as a HR progression is to present the need-to-know material to employees, without diluting the content, in a meaningful way. At the end of the day, I want to provide information that they will use in their everyday life.

A few weeks ago I met with an individual who was experiencing a number of hardships in their personal life that was ultimately impacting their work at our employer. The employee felt that their supervisor was too concerned about the situation that wasn’t relevant to the workplace. Does the employee have merit to feeling this way?

I sat back asking myself, “What does the supervisor need to know about the situation?” If the employee was requesting an intermittent Family Medical Leave, that’s one story. I believe the employee was trying to drill down whether or not they were obliged to discuss the situation with their supervisor. The situation was sensitive. I explained to the employee that the supervisor cares about two things: that you do well in your role and that the operational needs of the unit were functioning. When one of those two things is out of equilibrium, supervisors start to ask questions.

To add another layer to the situation, the employee is a long-term employee (more than 15 years) and there is a personal relationship built on top of the professional with the manager. As the HR professional, I’m not in a position to critique how the manager is to manage the employee. However, I can suggest some tips to the employee as far as how to teach the supervisor how they feel in this situation.

“When you ask me how my family member is, I am reminded of the struggles I have at home. Being at work is my only ‘vacation’ from the situation and I’d like to focus on my work.”

“I understand my job performance has declined over the last few weeks. I take accountability for my actions and would like to discuss an improvement plan I anticipate accomplishing by ______.”

“My situation is not easy. I appreciate your concern, but at this time I must focus on my job performance.”

There are different ways to approach this topic. After giving the employee these suggestions, I could see the relief they had to initiate a conversation with their supervisor. It was just a matter of teaching the employee how to express their professional needs on a personal level.