September 22, 2010-Treating Employees as Volunteers

     This morning, the head of our department gave a fantastic presentation concerning his vision for where he wants us to go after the recent RIF (reduction in force) and general transition within our specific workplace. In addition, he shared his views and recommendations for how we lead as managers and how we can collaborate to provide “uncompromising customer service” (which has become our vision) as well as maintain morale and enjoyment of our jobs as employees and colleagues. This is something I really needed to hear today.  It’s been a stressful last few weeks for everyone involved in the changes happening in the education department on island, so much so, that my health has even been hit. Yesterday, I felt horrible physically, and I’m definitely coming down with something today, and I can’t help but feel that the stress I’ve been dealing with has weakened my immune system as I’m normally very healthy and do not tend to pick up every little virus the kids that I work with and live with carry throughout the year.
     There are two things that really stood out to me from the presentation today, and one of them is the title of this journal entry.  After introducing the department vision, we discussed who are customers are, and surprisingly, no one in the group spoke up and mentioned our colleagues and direct reports as customers.  I think this is telling. I certainly didn’t think about my colleagues and supervisors this way until today.  But it made sense.  He suggested we treat our employees and colleagues as we would volunteers within our programs.  Volunteers are there because they enjoy helping, because their heart is in it, and they are usually treated with the utmost respect and kindness because they are choosing to be there, not getting paid to be there, and they can leave at any time.  Obviously, as employees, we cannot just leave, and we have certain responsibilities we are required to take care of, but how much more appealing would it be to come to work if we all treated each other with the same type of respect and kindness that volunteers receive?  It’s an ingenious way of thinking about it, and I’m completely on board. 
      It’s kind of like family versus friends or acquaintances. Often, with friends or people we only know from occasionally crossing paths socially, we project an image much like we do with those volunteers; we show our best selves. At the end of the day, when we are back at home and completely comfortable with our closest family members, we take them for granted, projecting our frustrations of the day on them, when they don’t deserve it in the least. I think, on such a small island, where our colleagues often become our close friends and where it’s very likely that you not only work together 10 hours a day, but you also hang out together on all major holidays, we began to see each other like family and take each other for granted in the workplace. It’s easy to fall into this trap, and today was a lovely, gentle reminder of how we can begin to enjoy work again where we might have allowed the stress of it all to take that passion away temporarily.

     The second memorable part of the presentation today was a short, simple concept concerning leadership, breaking it down into two basic ways to lead, by trust or by fear. I believe the world in general operates today way too much by fear. The media thrives on fear, playing on the fears of people to drum up news stories. Terrorists operate out of fear, controlling people by making them afraid to speak out or go against their beliefs. Unfortunately, many supervisors and managers operate their little corporate worlds using fear. If you don’t do it their way, you are threatened with losing your job, so after a while you are afraid to ever speak your mind or ask for what you need work-wise, especially if your boss is always questioning you and your intentions. Trust is such a more appealing way to lead. It’s taking a bit of a risk at times to trust each other and lead with that, but fear is exhausting and stressful for everyone. I believe to lead your life and your workplace with an attitude of trust is the lesser risk than choosing to lead by fear, which will alienate your colleagues and employees from you and take away their enjoyment and passion for the job and thus affect their performance.
     At any rate, I left work today with renewed enthusiasm for what’s ahead and renewed drive to do the very best I can in a field that I have more passion for than I can even express in words. I do enjoy going to work, and I don’t want that to stop. Treating colleagues and employees as volunteers and leading with trust are two ways to ensure that our careers can continue to be not just a job, but a part of our hearts!