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Executives must continuously adapt to changing circumstances to succeed. A different kind of change, however, is becoming more prevalent in the workplace today and is triggering emotional distress among executives.
"The corporate culture has shifted away from the previous unspoken agreement that if you perform well and are loyal, you will be taken care of," said Jeffrey Kahn, M.D., president of WorkPsych Associates in New York City, an executive and corporate mental health consulting firm.
Because executives are highly functional and motivated, their distress may not be obvious to their colleagues, said Kahn at APA's 1998 annual meeting in Toronto in June. "When a high-powered executive gets depressed, he or she can become irritable and more detached, but will still crack jokes and work just as hard."
Common symptoms include depression, increased obsessive-compulsive behavior, panic attacks, and substance abuse.
"Executives I see often complain that they feel like they are falling apart and they can't handle their jobs anymore," said Kahn, a past president of the Academy of Organizational and Occupational Psychiatry.
Obsessive-compulsive personalities are common among this group and generally adaptive. However, these traits become self-defeating when executives are overly perfectionistic, obsessed with details, and work too hard, observed Kahn, who has counseled more than 100 executives and professionals since 1988. This behavior can alienate people and lead to burnout and reduced productivity.
"Panic attacks, which are also common, can intensify an executive's obsessive-compulsive personality style. The individual becomes even more preoccupied with work-related problems and demands an even higher level of perfectionism," Kahn said.
Some executives become so overwhelmed emotionally that they resign from their jobs, observed Kahn. Occasionally a supervisor intervenes and recommends that an employee take paid leave and obtain counseling. A more common scenario is a friend in the workplace or a spouse becomes aware of the problem and suggests help, said Kahn.
In the case of a direct referral from a company, Kahn states that he works for the patient and not the company because confidentiality and trust are essential to the therapeutic relationship.
Kahn informs the company and the patient that some resolution of the crisis can be expected between two weeks and two months, but that additional therapy may be needed. The employee's performance can be expected to return at least to the same level as prior to the distress.
Because most executives know that their mood and behavior set the tone for their employees, they typically adopt a businesslike approach to therapy and want to fix the problem.
He observed that executives generally are not psychologically minded. "For example, one executive I treated had a fear of public speaking and was unaware of any underlying problem or implications for his personal life. Once he understood the relevance, he became very interested in exploring the psychological aspects. I treated him with medication for social phobia, and he has since expanded his social life and married," said Kahn.
The Web site of the Academy of Organizational and Occupational Psychiatry is www.mcn.com/aoop.