HR Diaries Chapter 8: WHEN YOUR SUBORDINATE IS 'STRESSED' - PART - II

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 Please read this blog post (https://pathikvariya.blogspot.com/2020/10/hr-diary-chapter-7-when-your.html) before reading the current one as both are related.

After a lot of thinking, both, Chandu and Swami decided to take matters into their hands and "peep" into the life of Raghu. Swami was given the charge to find out what was wrong with Raghu? They thought it was ok to "peep" into the personal life of Raghu as not only Raghu was a close friend of Swami, it was essential to solve the stress-related problems of Raghu as it would also make business sense. His remaining absent for a long period would prove to be costly for the business. So, Chandu and Swami, after a long discussion, decided to learn more about the personal life of Raghu (and probable reasons for his recent stress and poor performance at the workplace)

Swami first scanned through the social media posts of Raghu, to get an idea about, what was going into the mind, as well as, the life of Raghu. Swami worked under a strategy to look into the Instagram and FB posts of Raghu, right from that Sunday, when Raghu made an error of not being able to tally the accounts, and there was a reported error of Rs. 532. Swami also checked his conversations with Raghu over WhatsApp to further dig into the psyche of Raghu.

Based on that, Swami developed a timeline, in a word file, whereby, he made the following observations:

1 September 2020: Raghu made the error in tallying the accounts (Rs. 532)

3 September 2020: Raghu sent him a good morning message over WhatsApp, with the text - "Life is beautiful* conditions applied".

4 September 2020: Raghu updated his status on FB, "Listening to the sad songs by Mukesh and KayKay"

5 September 2020: Raghu uploaded a photo of his mother, who had passed away two years back. Raghu was very close to her mummy was never a secret to Swami.

6 September 2020: Raghu uploaded a big GIF of a question mark on Instagram.

7 September 2020: Raghu wrote heartbreaking/sad poetry on FB.

8 September 2020: Raghu continued to upload the pictures, that reflected, to the best understanding of Swami (who was close to Raghu for sure), sadness, anxiety, boredom, and other negative emotions.

9 September 2020: Swami also wrote down the change in the body language of Raghu, like how he smiled less of late or how he always look fatigued and irritated of late. 

10 September 2020: Swami also talked to the relatives of Raghu to get into the details of Raghu's problems. Despite trying everything, Swami did not get many details, except that even relatives also observed that Raghu was not in good moods in the last few weeks.

11 September 2020: Swami now paid his attention to the trading habits of Raghu. Raghu was an avid trader in the stock market. Swami knew the broker of Raghu as well. Swami could manage to meet Raghu's broker, and that's where he could get some success. Raghu had sold his late mother's gold to do trading in the share market. But he lost a lot of money. And, it looked like, Raghu was going through the trauma of not only losing money in trading but also losing the money that he got by selling the gold ornaments of his late mother. That, it seemed to Swami, was the reason for Raghu's poor performance. 

Swami was also well a well-read person and he had studied 7 to 8 books on stress management and counseling. He was also an MBA in HRM and was famous for counseling people in his circle, in matters of the family dispute, etc. He had pursued a course on Stress Management from a MOOC website. 

So, based on all these developments, Swami met Raghu and, after a prolonged counseling session, got Raghu to speak everything. Swami's assessment was correct - Raghu was repenting the fact that he lost the money in trading, that he got after selling the ornaments of his late mother. That was taking a heavy toll on his mental as well as physical health.

Swami, after getting positive approvals from Raghu and Chandu, offered the following plan to help Raghu come out of his traumatic mental condition:

1. Raghu should first of all see a lot of comedy movies so that he can laugh. Laughter is the best medicine.

2. Raghu should also walk for six miles a day so that "pleasant" hormones is released by the body.

3. Raghu should do some meditation based on the art of living classes

4. Raghu should read The Bhagwad Geeta so that he can do nishkam karma.

5. Raghu should write every day in a diary, "I am positive and this day will be positive too".

What problems do you find in this case?

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