Meeting Maslow’s Needs: Carla’s Struggle As A New Office Assistant

Background

Considering the Maslow’s hierarchy of needs (Hale, Ricotta, Freed, Smith & Huang, 2018), the needs that were not met include social, safety, self-esteem and self-actualisation needs. The safety needs of Carla are not satisfied as expected. Looking at her first day at work Carla seems to lack job security in the back of her mind. Also, there are social needs that Carla did not meet starting from her college where she lacked a sense of belonging such that she could not go close to her classmates out of class which finally translated to her clinic environment. She has brought isolation to herself calling into question her social needs but also her self-esteem needs. As the clinic got busier, Carla became more flustered until her frustration developed into self-doubt which also could result in low self-esteem.

Carla read the actions of her colleagues and perceived negatively the influence of how she viewed their actions. To cope with the stressors of the job, Carla would use alcohol every evening, and this action could contribute to letting her self-esteem down. Self-actualisation is the totality of development (Helne & Hirvilammi, 2015) and it seems that Carla did not meet it since she lacked the invaluable skill of communication along with interpersonal skills which could have helped her in her situation at the front desk. Through the communication needs one meets the safety, social, self-esteem and finally elevate to self-actualisation needs (Socha & Beck, 2015).

 The interferences in the social, self-esteem, safety along with self-actualisation needs significantly affect human’s health (Narvaez, 2018). She had not only instituted a toxic association with her fellow workmates but also to herself. It would put a lot of immediate stress on her health by putting her social together with safety needs at peril. Also, she faced interference in that her financial needs along with job security were at peril. The operations were not going on well at the start of her job and continued being worse as she took on the workloads of her colleagues and worked past her hours to accommodate the additional work which did not help her build qualitative relationships. Moreover, her wellness was at peril because the moment she drank alcohol at night she could woke up with a headache and also feeling sick in her stomach and this could interfere with her health.

A coping mechanism or a healthier outlet could be to stop, take a deep breath and ask for assistance rather than feeling low or shutting down. On the self-esteem need, Carla is the biggest problem in her health emotionally and also physically. The idea of drinking alcohol after a stressful day was not good since she filled her body with toxins and could not process her emotions in a clear mind. Stress management could have been vital in finding productive and healthy outlets (Ansley, Houchins & Varjas, 2016) other than breaking down emotionally at the job and turning to the substance after going home. If the clinic had granted her an inclusive together with a supportive environment, she would have been in a better mindset, and the facility could function efficiently and smoothly. The lack of communication along with the lack of listening skills from her colleagues contributed to the situation downfall.

Time management is an issue because a lot of work is not completed before the day ends. This issue commenced when Carla accepted to do additional tasks belonging to her peers combining them with hers. There is a scope of practice that must be adhered by each health administrative assistant and which is particularly outlined for every position together with a list of tasks and hence time management should not be a problem (Davis, Radix, Cawley, & Hooker, 2015). If other members of staff take advantage of someone’s susceptibility like Carla the work will undoubtedly pile up and be expected to be responsible and take care of clients’ needs and not to leave items unattended.

To improve on the time management issue, the other staff members should have discontinued taking advantage of Carla and completing their duties and working within their scopes. Also, Carla could have gone to express her concerns to someone in a position of authority or the management and bring attention to the workplace harassment along with bullying which was going on. On the other hand, Daniel after realising that Carla had too much work he should have enquired the reason behind it and help Carla as a new employee to save time instead of shouting at her.

References

Ansley, B. M., Houchins, D., & Varjas, K. (2016). Optimizing special educator wellness and job performance through stress management. TEACHING Exceptional Children, 48(4), 176-185.

Davis, A., Radix, S. M., Cawley, J. F., & Hooker, R. S. (2015). Access and innovation in a time of rapid change: physician assistant scope of practice. Annals Health L., 24, 286.

Hale, A. J., Ricotta, D. N., Freed, J., Smith, C. C., & Huang, G. C. (2018). Adapting Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs as a Framework for Resident Wellness. Teaching and learning in medicine, 1-10.

Helne, T., & Hirvilammi, T. (2015). Wellbeing and sustainability: a relational approach. Sustainable Development, 23(3), 167-175.

Narvaez, D. (2018). Basic Needs and Fulfilling Human Potential. In Basic Needs, Wellbeing and Morality (pp. 135-161). Palgrave Pivot, Cham

Socha, T. J., & Beck, G. A. (2015). Positive communication and human needs: A review and proposed organizing conceptual framework. Review of Communication, 15(3), 173-199.