Assignment: The Family Tragedy
It was midafternoon on a busy Friday when everyone in the company learned that Carlos Garcia had been seriously injured in an auto accident. Juanita, Carlos's life partner, was a well-liked agent at Zola Insurance. Carlos himself was a former employee, and was very well known and respected by many in the company. The weekend was to be a long one: doctors immediately placed Carlos in intensive care, and his condition remained critical. Zola Insurance employees swarmed through the hospital, encouraging family members, hoping for the best, and praying in the small chapel near the intensive care unit.
Early on Sunday morning, Carlos lost the fight. With only 24 hours to get back into a working frame of mind, the insurance company employees struggled to make up some badly missed sleep. Needless to say, the situation wasn't exactly business as usual when Monday morning came. Nobody seemed to be working up to speed, and the company was uncharacteristically quiet. Customers who walked unknowingly into the service office invariably asked what was wrong.
Days passed, then weeks. Soon the surface behavior of the employees seemed to return to normal, but more than ever the focus was still on Juanita. She had seemed numb at first, but now her behavior seemed confusing. Some days she acted nonchalantly, denying that she was having a tough time-then she would suddenly show a burst of anger. Few of her co-workers understood exactly why she was acting this way.
Devi Ramasamy, the CEO, decided to bring in a grief counselor. When she described the situation to the counselor, he said, "It seems to me that everybody in the company needs this, not just Juanita."
Task
A. How could an understanding of the seven steps of personal change help everyone at Zola Insurance?
B. Explain the grief counselor's statement that everybody at the company needs a grief counselor, not just Juanita.
C. There are some disadvantages to the company in keeping Juanita at work at this time. What are they? What are some advantages of having her remain on the job during her healing process?