Counseling a staff member out

From: Adrienne
Email: welch@bostonabcd.org
Date: May 22, 2007

Comments

I have unfortunately had to do this a number of times at past employers with varying results. When it has worked; everyone left the experience feeling affirmed and positive, it has taken time to build a bridge to the staff person so that they felt comfortable enough with me to be honest about what they did and did not enjoy about their job. I found that helping them to reflect on their own strengths and challenges often enabled them to see for themselves that their current job was not necessarily a match for them. On a few occasions the solution was a change of job within the program; such as becoming a 'floating teacher' instead of working in one classroom on a teaching team. This way they still were able to work with the children without all of the planning and paperwork responsibilities.

Other times, when 'counseling' didn't work I have found that holding someone to the high expectations of the job has led them to the realization that it was time for a change...that is to say I did not let things slip or slide by; I drew their attention to responsibilities that they were not meeting, gave them progress reports back to correct, and required that all things be cleared by me before they went out to parents. Soem people rose to the challenge and became stronger teachers and others decided to move on to a different job or an all together different field.