32. Downsizing has an impact on employee assistance programs

By Tom O'Connell

The downsizing of corporate America has had a dramatic impact on the staffing of addiction and wellness programs in the workplace, according to an expert on employee assistance programs (EAPs) who has seen the EAP movement expand and then shrink.

Ernest Kapopoulos, senior EAP consultant for Kathleen Greer Associates (KGA), told the 10th Annual Cape Cod Symposium on Addictive Disorders that in the 1970s some 85% of EAPs were staffed at the workplace, but in this decade close to 90% of EAPs are serviced by consulting organizations such as KGA.

Kapopoulos was "outsourced" himself in 1990 after 30 years with Honeywell where he was an employee assistance professional. "The EAP there was given to a vendor." Why are corporations farming out EAP services? They're saving money and increasing profits by downsizing across the board, including EAP counselors. In other words, this expert infers, profits are more important than the well-being of employees.

At Wang, in the 1980s, Kapopoulos recalls that "sixty EAP counselors were gone within six months. Pffft!" Part of his own role as an EAP consultant for corporations is to "deal with the survivors" of downsizing. It's not unusual for an organization to eliminate 600 jobs in a matter of weeks. And this leaves the survivors in a state of shock.

Employees are left anxious and angry, he explains, and experience sleep disorders and a host of other problems due to the imminent threat of being cast into the ranks of the underemployed. The workplace world of today is one of early retirement, buyouts, the "golden handshake," staff reductions, mergers, and acquisitions. Although some people benefit from the transition, others descend into personal disaster.

An interesting sidelight in the wake of downsizing is that this nation's largest employer is a temporary employment agency called Manpower, Inc. "Even full-time permanent employees feel temporary now, "says Kapopoulos, "regardless of how loyal they have been, or how well their organization has treated them."

The average length of service in high tech today, he says, is 3-5 years. And violence has become a problem due to the level of anger felt by discharged employees, and the tension felt by survivors. "When someone experiences downsizing, he or she usually  makes about two-thirds of what the previous job paid, and it can take three or four years to get back to the earlier level." This produces stress on workers, families, and society.

Such stress can lead to relapse into previous addictive behaviors as well as plunging into new addictions to cope with career disappointments. To help employees handle the challenges of this era's insecure workplace, services provided by Kathleen Greer Associates include EAP counseling, career counseling, presentation coaching, and training in stress management, time management, and sexual harassment prevention.

Kapopoulos referred to a recent "128 News" article indicating that three out of four Americans would step off the fast career track with a significant pay cut if they could spend more time with family and friends, and recapture peace of mind.

With deep insight, he said, "They're experiencing a disconnect between what they give and what they get. Job security just isn't there anymore." Downsizing large numbers of people in the world of work once made headlines. Now it happens so often it hardly makes news.

Unfortunately, the potential for increasing addiction throughout society is part of the process, and escalates with each "outsourcing." But who is dealing with this reality?

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