Employee assistance programmes (EAPs) : from crisis support to sanctioned coercion and panopticist practices?

Employee Assistance Programmes (EAPs) have been developed to provide support for organisational actors in 'trouble'. In many instances, they provide a valuable service to the 'troubled worker' who may be experiencing personal grief, work conflicts, financial problems or relationship difficulties. The evolution of EAPs and their philosophy is explored in order to expose some of the 'propaganda' that surrounds their use. 'Hank's' case, and its place as an EAP 'success story', is examined in light of the authors' views that EAPs provide possibilities for covert coercion and surveillance. The EAP process is critically considered in terms of the problematic nature of 'favoured ways of thinking', especially given the imperative of supervisory 'observation' and subsequent coercive referrals for the 'recalcitrant', 'intractable' or 'depressed' organisational member. The paper concludes with a recap on the problem of using EAPs as crisis support, sanctioned coercion or panopticist possibilities, with some pointers for future research and a critical review of the widening organisational problematic of surveillance and control.