As a follow up to the discussion today, this may be of assistance.  Michelle

 -----Original Message-----
From: 	Lighthill, Sandra  
Sent:	Wednesday, September 12, 2001 2:25 PM
To:	Cash, Michelle; Hope, Valeria A.; Johnson, Rick
Subject:	FW: SPECIAL EDITION ... The EmploymentSource Newsletter

FYI and akin to our meeting this morning.

Sandra

 -----Original Message-----
From: 	Employment Practices Solutions <eps@epexperts.com>@ENRON [mailto:IMCEANOTES-Employment+20Practices+20Solutions+20+3Ceps+40epexperts+2Ecom+3E+40ENRON@ENRON.com] 
Sent:	Wednesday, September 12, 2001 1:05 PM
To:	EPS@list.epexperts.com
Subject:	SPECIAL EDITION ... The EmploymentSource Newsletter


[IMAGE]
The  EmploymentSource Newsletter 
SPECIAL EDITION
Our Mission is To Help Employers Enhance Employee  Relations While Minimizing Employment  Claims.
Please forward this  newsletter to your friends and co-workers.  To subscriber or  unsubscribe, see bottom of newsletter.

We at EPS share our grief and prayers with our  fellow Americans in the wake of the terrorist attacks.  We offer our  condolences to those of you who have lost loved ones, friends, or colleagues.  This tragedy has touched each of our lives  While focusing on  business-as-usual is difficult right now, we are moving quickly to  adapt to the needs of our clients. We are adding special segments to our HR  classes to address organizational response and workers' reactions to the crisis,  and we will continue to work to meet your special needs. We are committed  to providing a compassionate resource should you need  one.

What  NOW?
Kathleen K. Edmond, Esq., MBA,  LICSW
Employment  Practices Solutions, Senior Consultant, Minneapolis/St.  Paulkedmond@epexperts.com 
 (800)  727-2766
 
Soon, very soon, we will all need to  get ourselves and our companies back to business - whether we are ready or  not.  How can we do this in a way  that is respectful and helpful, but at the same time doesn't create issues that  do not exist?
First, understand that we  are all affected.  Not just those of  us who had family, friends, co-workers, or neighbors in New York, Washington, or  who were passengers on the airlines.   Our world has permanently changed.   This is not a dramatic overstatement.  It is simply the truth.  We cannot undo what happened yesterday  but we can influence how we deal with the change and how we can be stronger as a  result of the horrible attack on our country, our safety, and our sense of  security yesterday.
Let me simply make a  list.  I apologize if this is not  Pulitzer Prize material.  Timeliness  is the most important factor at the moment.  
Speak to the  organization.  Pull management  together first to discuss their responsibilities as managers and give them  guidance.  Acknowledge their dual  roles as managers in the organization and individuals with personal  feelings.  While it will take time  to absorb the full impact of what has happened, it will be necessary to get  back to the business at hand.  
Depending on the size  and configuration of the organization, talk to everyone as a group.  Either get them together in person, a  group e-mail, voicemail, teleconference - whatever means are available to  you.  At this point it is most  important to let people know that we are all stunned but that we are pulling  together.  It is not important to  have all the answers right now.   Communication will continue.  
Acknowledge that our  world is now different.  The sense  of safety and security we had before September 11th is gone.  We must each individually and  organizationally replace that with something different.  
Acknowledge that  individuals will respond and recover at different paces.  Some will want to get back to work as  quickly as possible to regain their sense of normalcy and control.  Others will have difficulty focusing  for a long time.  Most likely it  will be sporadic and not a constant inability to focus.  This is a very normal response to a  crisis.  
Depending on your  organization and the level of direct impact, you may choose to bring a  professional counselor or team of counselors on site for a day or longer.  They can conduct group processes and  individual counseling.  
Another possibility is  a chat room where employees can share their experiences, feelings, and have a  place to vent.  The question will  arise, how long should the chat room be operational.  For right now, don't set a time limit,  but review it in a couple of weeks or a month.  If participation is decreasing (which  I except that it will in a month), determine a date to close it down and make  an organizational announcement to that effect.  When closing it down, don't go dark  without notice.  Just let people  know that it is time to end that part of the recovery process.  
Allow people to talk  periodically during the day.  The  need for the amount of discussion will change over the next weeks.  In the next day or so probably little  work will get done.  But by the  end of the week and certainly next week, business will resume.  
Consider allowing employees additional  personal time off for memorial services, blood donations, or other  community-focused recovery events.  
Remind people to use  your Employee Assistance Program, company counselors, health benefits,  religious leaders, and other local counseling resources as available.  Have someone in the organization pull  together a resource list of local and organizational telephone numbers for  employees and their families.  
Talk about the impact  on your specific business and what effect if any it has on your company.  Maybe it affects your communications,  transportation, distribution, or some other aspect of your operations.  
If  members of your corporate family have been killed in these attacks, consider a  memorial service later this week or next for all employees to attend, whether  they personally knew the individual(s) or not.  
Assure them that  business will go on, subdued perhaps, different in some ways, but there will  be continuity.  
Recognize that people  will be angry, sad, scared and confused for some period of time.  The risk of discriminatory judgments  and remarks is increased.  If you  hear such remarks, challenge, gently if necessary, but help people understand  that it is a normal reaction to the attacks on our safety.  
Remind them to take  care of themselves and their families and friends.  It is important to keep talking to  each other and their children, even those very young children.  Here is a good article they can  use:  www.womencentral.msn.com/parenting/articles/tragedy.asp 

We do not know what will be happening in the next weeks or  months.  There may be additional  armed conflict.  We have entered a  time of uncertainty that will continue to affect the national psyche and our  individual lives.  As organizations  we are well advised to be prepared to address the effect it will have on our  employees.
You will need to address the corporate travel policy.  What will you do if an employee is  afraid to travel to New York for a business trip?  Consider making other meeting  arrangements, at least for the near term.
Longer term you will have questions about what to do with  employees who cannot seem to focus after a reasonable length of time.  And you will have questions about what  is a reasonable length of time and proper disciplinary actions if needed.  We will address those questions as they  arise, but for now they are beyond the scope of this communication.  Please feel free to email or call us if  you have specific questions.
Yesterday I was conducting  a Best  Practices seminar in Minneapolis as the terrorist attacks were  unfolding on the East Coast.  As we  did not know the magnitude of what was about to happen we decided to continue  with the work in front of us but to be cognizant of the events that were  occurring.  The day and the response  of the participants were instructive to what to expect at work.  Participants were engaged, but at some  level distracted.  We took a break  every hour or so for an update on events.   We talked about our personal feelings.  We changed our agenda to spend the last  half hour of the day planning about how we would lead our organizations through  this tragedy.  We discussed the role  of Human Resources and the Legal departments.  We wondered at the inconsistency of the  beautiful day, the sunshine and the green grass in the suburbs of Minneapolis  and the horror we were hearing on the news.  We encouraged people who had two hours  of drive time to leave a half hour early to be home with their families.  We all took calls and made calls during  the day to check on family and friends.
In other words, we took  care of ourselves, and we took care of others.  We also worked, and planned for the  future.  I urge you to do the  same.

 About the  author:  
Kathleen Knutson Edmond is a  Senior consultant with Employment Practices Solutions, Inc. and is located in  the Minneapolis/St. Paul office.   Kathleen has worked in the Human Resources field as a management  consultant an in-house attorney for a large national retailer.  In addition  to her law degree, she has earned an MBA, is a certified mediator specializing  in employment disputes, and is a licensed independent clinical social  worker.   Over the years Kathleen has counseled, coached, and trained  several thousand employees and managers on a broad spectrum, of human resource  and business operations issues.   Kathleen can be reached at kedmond@epexperts.com .  

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