I Suspect a Team Member Has a Substance Abuse Issue

Dear A.E.,

This is not the first time I have heard a similar question from one of my advisory firm clients – during these virtual/COVID times, stress levels are very high and many family issues are happening. Too much togetherness can be difficult for certain families and the forced time together is taking its toll.

One concern I have is your conversations with other team members about what is happening with this advisor. I understand that 13 people is a small firm and you are like family. But you do need to be careful about breaching this person’s confidentiality. I don’t fully glean from your note whether the colleague who spoke with him then just reported back to you, or whether this was a group meeting. This is obviously difficult and could be very embarrassing for your advisor going through the issues. Be careful not to spread this news too widely or get too many people involved in the dialogue.

I realize he is showing himself at the meetings potentially under the influence and others are noticing. But I suggest saying, “We are speaking with him. Thank you for your concern,” and leave it at that with the others.

My one caveat is if you operate in a partnership or team environment where other advisors or team members are working with him directly with clients. He might have a junior advisor, or planning partner etc. In that case, reach out to anyone who is getting on a client call with him and find out what they are experiencing. It is critically important to make sure clients are not seeing this.

As a small firm, I’m going to guess you do not have an HR professional or lawyer on staff. It can be very helpful, even for small firms, to have an outsourced HR partner to ask these questions. I’m not a lawyer so don’t want to give you advice that could be detrimental.

I know from working with other clients there are employee-assistance resources for this type of thing, and that in some cases, depending on what this advisor has shared, he could qualify as having a disability.

You can’t risk this behavior being seen by your clients, and you want to support an important team member. But you need to take some action.

Could other readers from smaller RIAs let us know what outside resources they have found to be useful in cases like this? I know there are organizations in the HR field you could contact, or perhaps even your local Chamber of Commerce. You could consult with an attorney and find out what your options are for dealing with this.

It is a tough situation all around and I wish you the best of luck with finding a reasonable resolution for all concerned.

Dear Bev,

We have recently returned to the office – all of us are doing four days and we are letting everyone have Fridays off for the duration of the summer. We’ve always done this, even pre-COVID, so it feels like a return to normalcy, which is a welcome experience.

We have a staff member who has a very strong view about vaccinations and believes receiving them is a government conspiracy designed to keep track of us all and document our every moves. As such, she has been very vocal about not receiving the vaccine and about “going out normal life” without taking any precautions.

Her son-in-law was quite ill with COVID. He subsequently recovered but was hospitalized and she continues to refer to his “government-aided flu experience.”

I don’t judge anyone’s choices. But I start to wonder whether she has a bit of dementia (she is 63 years old). I realize millions of people share some of these beliefs. But it is more about how she goes about expressing them. She will stand at the front receptionist desk and speak as loudly as possible about how the rest of us are “sheep” and blind to the truth.

We have spoken to her about it and expressed that we aren’t telling her to change her view, but rather to be discreet and professional about how she shares it, but she just seems to get more emboldened by this.

Her work is stellar. We’ve never had any problems with her performance. She is an older woman in a mostly male firm (our only other female is the receptionist who also does some of our client servicing work).

How can we get someone like this to see she is creating an unnecessary uproar?

J.C.

Dear J.C.,

Do you remember the days when we were all told to refrain from discussing religion or politics and when we were told to keep deeply personal views on things to ourselves? I sure do and cannot imagine talking even with my friends about whether they have had a shingles vaccine (recommended to us older folks) unless the topic came up in our general conversation.

It’s like a forbidden topic has been normalized and no one seems to know how to reign it back in. This is another situation, like the reader above, where having an HR professional on call would be very helpful. You are right; you have to tread lightly here.

It is fair to make it a requirement (for everyone) that no conversations at all are held at the receptionist desk. If someone needs to speak with her, perhaps a meeting in the conference room is the best approach or if you do not have a place like this, it could be someone’s office. If you have a blanket policy on this, it isn’t as if you are singling her out which seems prudent to me.

On the issue of “is it dementia?” that’s a harder question to answer. Has she has exhibited this type of forceful behavior in the past when she believes in something strongly? Has she been loud on other issues where she has a point of view?

After the lockdown time where people were home and had a lot of time to think, some people are emerging forgetting some of the basic courtesy and professionalism we used to exhibit.

Stop the talking at the desk, see where this goes and consider whether this is in fact totally new behavior. If it is, ask someone else in the firm to sit down with her and express concern about how she is doing. Maybe she needs to work from home a couple of days a week, or maybe she just isn’t ready to return to the office. In some cases, advisory firms might not be able to push people if there is a backlash that threatens the overall working environment.

Beverly Flaxington co-founded The Collaborative, a consulting firm devoted to business building for the financial services industry in 1995. The firm also founded and manages the Advisors Sales Academy. She is currently an adjunct professor at Suffolk University teaching undergraduate and graduate students Entrepreneurship and Leading Teams. Beverly is a Certified Professional Behavioral Analyst (CPBA) and Certified Professional Values Analyst (CPVA).

She has spent over 25 years in the investment industry and has been featured in Selling Power Magazine and quoted in hundreds of media outlets, including The Wall Street Journal, MSNBC.com, Investment News and Solutions Magazine for the FPA. She speaks frequently at investment industry conferences and is a speaker for the CFA Institute.

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