“My supervisor is getting angry more and more often: he loses his temper with us, shouts at us and throws things across the room,” Dimitri*, a CERN fellow, tells me.
CERN is a demanding place to work, particularly during critical periods such as technical stops: all hands are on deck, the tension rises and the expectations are huge. In addition, long-term and large-scale projects often pose strategic challenges that are sources of uncertainty and stress.
Section leaders, who in most cases constitute the first level of supervision, are particularly vital cogs in the Organization’s machinery.
“Felix* has been a section leader for three years and supervises those he used to work alongside. His section consists of 15 staff (LD and IC), two fellows and a technical student. Felix is also responsible for supervising the work of four technicians from an external firm. Felix does his best to manage this small army while responding to increasingly demanding requests from users. His group leader trusts him completely, which makes him feel valued, but some days he really feels the weight of the world on his shoulders. However, he doesn’t want to show any signs of weakness, so he ploughs on through thick and thin. So when Dimitri comes to him to tell him that he hasn’t had time to deal with the stock management, Felix hits the roof. He regrets his behaviour later, but hasn’t yet found the time to clear the air with Dimitri.”
The problem is that, if we let it, stress can be passed from one person to another. So how can we avoid being caught in its wake?
Obviously we should try to avoid losing our tempers with our colleagues or the teams for which we are responsible. However, if it does happen, there’s nothing to stop us acknowledging our mistake once the dust has settled: it’s a way of opening a dialogue and reinforcing our credibility.
As team members we can also make a positive contribution. If we see that our supervisor is stressed, we can try and give him or her a bit of space and thus avoid getting caught up in the drama. We can also offer to help our supervisors.
As the Ombud, I regularly see colleagues who tell me about stressful and tense situations. Rarely – in fact almost never – do supervisors come to me when they are stressed and feel like they are losing control. To these people I’d like to say: to err is human, we can’t always be at the top of our game, no one is infallible. There are places, like the Ombud’s office, where you can discuss this sort of situation openly, without worrying that it will come back to haunt you. It doesn’t mean you’re admitting weakness – in fact it’s a sign of maturity.
If you find yourself in a stressful situation, talking it over with a person you trust is the first step towards resolving the problem.
* nick name
If you’d like to comment on any of my articles or suggest a topic that I could write about, please don’t hesitate to e-mail me at Ombuds@cern.ch.
Pierre Gildemyn