Max and Jenny both work at Small Company America. Max has been there for almost 15 years now and knows every aspect of his job function as a machine operator. He has spent his entire career as a machine operator and can tell you anything you needed to know about his machine, his role in the process, and his technical job functions. Max has a high school diploma and prides himself of learning all that he knows from experience and hard work. Max plans to retire in 5 more years after 20 years of dedicated service at Small Company America.
Jenny was recently hired at Small Company America by Max's supervisor to work in Max's unit. Jenny is a young, energetic individual, with a 2-year engineering degree and seems to already have a good understanding of her job which involves at times, using a similar machine as Max near his station. Sometimes she has questions since there seems to be no manuals or guides for new employees. Her supervisor explained that they have not had new employees for a while and everyone in that unit has been there for at least 5 years. So, new employee resources are lacking.
However, as far as knowledge goes, Max knows all that there is to know about the unit's operations and machinery and the supervisor suggests that she seek him out for guidance with any issues. The supervisor says to Max, "Help out Jenny if she needs anything, will you, Max?" and Max responds, "Sure will, boss!" without looking up from his work.
Max volunteers a lot of information to Jenny about how things work in that area. He explained that he does not have time to teach folks and that they should learn the way everyone else does, by figuring it out. After all, this is a job, and they are getting paid so they should know what they are doing. He seems to not be concerned with answering the technical questions that Jenny has and resorts to an "I'll show you" approach and shows her things once then seems to get annoyed if she asks for a reminder. Jenny began to write her own job instructions and processes down and has created a self-help manual of sorts. Max saw Jenny's manual and scoffed, "You young folks always trying to do things your own way, huh?"
After 2 weeks on the job, Jenny begins to feel a bit stressed. She does not have others to talk to and feels that her supervisor is not understanding her struggles. She also does not want to seem like she is complaining too much because she really needs this job.
While she is learning and getting familiar, she feels that everything she does to help make her job easier is commented on by Max. She spoke to her supervisor who explained that that was the way things get done around there and she'll get used to it like everyone else. He explained that Max is just trying to help. And that everyone loves Max. Although her supervisor says to her to come to him if she has any questions or needs anything, she can sense that he may be getting a bit agitated.

On the plus side, machine operators at Small Company America get compensated very well. And women get a hiring bonus as the company gets a government stipend for promoting gender diversity with every female employee they hire. Jenny is the first employee hired for the machine shop since most of the other female hires were in administration.

Questions

1.Identify at least 2 of the workplace stress and safety issues in the case study. 

2.Categorize the sources of the stress and safety issues identified.

3.Suggest 1 solution that may help Small Company America to resolve these workplace issues.

4.How can Trauma-Informed Approaches be used to mitigate employee psychological safety issues in the scenario?

Answer rating: 100% (QA)

1 Workplace Stress and Safety Issues in the Case Study Stress due to lack of proper training The new employee Jenny is under significant stress becaus... View the full answer