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Workplace issues
take center stage for
Thierry Guedj, Ph.D.
(June
2007 Issue)
Workplace issues can be the cause of more stress than nearly anything
with which we deal. From demotions to layoffs to being passed over
for a promotion to backstabbing colleagues or just plain boredom,
navigating the daily 9-to-5 can take real survival skills.
We spend far more time at work than with family or friends, or
even sleeping, says Theirry Guedj, Ph.D., a senior consulting psychologist
and faculty head at Boston University and a counselor for the Office
of Faculty and Staff Assistance at the BU Medical Campus. But, while
there are scores of relationship, marriage and family therapists,
there are very few psychologists who help clients with their business
relationships.
Realizing both the need and the career potential in working with
workplace issues, Guedj opened OnTarget Professional Advising,
a professional training and consulting practice, in February. He
spoke with New England Psychologist's Catherine Robertson
Souter about what he offers and the wide-open field of psychology
of work.
Q: What exactly is "psychology of work?"
A: It is the interface between the world of work and the individual.
That would be a basic definition - however you would probably get
as many definitions as you ask people who are involved in psychology
of work. There is really not a single discipline. There is organizational
behavior which comes out of business schools and there is organizational
and consulting psychology which comes out of psychology, and then
you have all the executive coaching type models that come out of
the business model.
There are several layers to my work. I run a psychology department
at Boston University and I do consulting work there as well, working
with the Faculty and Staff Assistance Office, which assists employees
who are struggling. Then I have a consulting business that I run
out of my home office, OnTarget Professional Advising, where I see
people privately and do professional training.
Q: How did you get involved with this kind of work?
A: I started approximately five years ago while working in a
behavioral health clinic. I happened to have three or four clients
in a row who were victims of very serious harassment. I didn't know
how prevalent that was. When I searched the clinical literature
about how to help victims of sexual harassment in the workplace
I didn't find too much - so I decided I would have to teach it to
myself.
I also realized there was a need and that I could do a very good
job filling that need and at the same time I could do well professionally.
The idea of having my own niche of expertise where I could contribute
was appealing to me.
In the beginning, I mostly helped clients around harassment and
discrimination issues and the emotional upheaval that inevitably
follows. In more recent years, I have broadened my scope of expertise
to include advising people on career issues and providing leadership
coaching.
Q: What issues do you most often deal with?
A: When I work with executives, it might be: 'My board of directors
won't give me the time of day or my CEO bypasses me when making
decisions. How do I get his/her attention?' It goes from the person
who is basically miserable at work and depressed and anxious to
someone who needs to learn how to do office politics better because
he is being sidelined in the organization.
It is a matter of balancing the amount of empathic listening with
actively guiding people and giving them real skills that help them
reach their full potential as professionals and as individuals.
One of the first questions I ask is whether we are going to work
together on making the situation better or 'are we going to be working
on getting you out of the situation?' For some people it's very
clear and it's very straight-forward and they know when they walk
in my door what they want. For other people it can be a pretty deep
and heart-wrenching grief process to leave a bad situation. I'm
working now with an attorney who has been with the same firm for
17 years. From year one he wanted to leave but he stayed and now
the idea of leaving and putting his life upside down is very painful.
In a way it is like family therapy - because you have to work systemically.
You have to understand how the pieces move with one another in order
to bring about change. With psychology of work, you also need to
have a good understanding of how organizations work and how decisions
get made. Many therapists have never worked within large organizations
and don't necessarily understand how the corporate world works and
how people build credibility within an organization or get promoted.
Most people think, "Well, if I do a good job I am going to get promoted,"
whereas 90% of promotions come from playing office politics. I do
a lot of teaching about how organizations really work.
Q: What kind of training do you offer?
A: Mostly I've been training people in mental health agencies, providing
a basic introduction that encourages psychologists and other mental
health professionals to take people's concerns about work seriously.
Many times clients have come to me and have said either their therapist
is not comfortable talking about work issues or they change the
subject when they try to talk about it. For example, I had someone
who had been written up for a supposedly poor performance on a project.
He came to me because he was not happy with the help he was getting
from a traditional therapist. The therapist had explored for many
sessions what it had meant to the patient to be written up for poor
performance whereas my approach would be to see what could be done
about the person being written up. And, in this particular case,
the allegations made by a supervisor were false. My advice immediately
was that he had to set the record straight about the allegations.
Q: It's not always about how you feel about it.
A:Right. He was asking, "What am I going to do about this?" I told
the client that the most important thing is to not let the false
statement stand with his personnel file especially. So, in essence
it is a very different way of working, more practically oriented.
Q: How can someone learn more?
A: There is very little training being offered. We might have spent
two hours in eight years talking about work-related issues in my
clinical training. The American Psychological Association has created
a Business of Practice Network that mostly does research on the
kind of workplace systems and structures that are either stress-minimizing
or stress-augmenting. They also have a healthy workplace initiative
that encourages employers to promote a psychologically healthy work
environment. They are working more at the macro level, which is
their role and I tend to work at the micro level. The new division
will raise awareness but it hasn't yet translated into any form
of training at the graduate school level.
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