Thanks so much to the 70 employees that took the time to join me on Zoom! It was nice to “see” everyone for sure. I am grateful to each of you that have continued to work by providing direct services to clients as well as to the countless others that support the staff working directly with clients, i.e. Facilities, Finance, HR, Development etc…You are all my heroes!
As promised, I wanted to provide more insight to the first question that you had all shared comments on…because it was unreadable while we were on the call. The question related to how you all were feeling, and as you can imagine, had comments that ran the gamut from many saying they were feeling good, to others sharing that they were feeling overwhelmed, isolated and anxious. Times of uncertainty create stress and anxiety and I can empathize with what you are going thru as we are all in this crazy time together. Each of us has been impacted and we all respond differently.
I encourage each of you to find a healthy way to cope w/ this stress and have asked Leah Morken, the Clinical Director, to offer up strategies for dealing with stress on the Depot.
Additionally, I understand that many of the comments related to anxiety were related to not knowing what the future might look like…know that the senior team is absolutely addressing the issue from FCC’s perspective and I re-invite each of you to offer any insight about your program’s future. This is our time to be creative, reflect on lessons learned thru this crazy time and capitalize on what the future may hold.
Also, as I had an opportunity to look at the other questions more closely after our live meeting, I recognized many questions that were related to how the new Float Holiday will work, questions about unemployment, and questions about the Economic stimulus $ that was announced last week, thus I wanted to make a few comments… I don’t want anyone to feel unclear about what’s happening, but as I am unsure of who to direct this to, I encourage any staff that are uncertain to please first go to your supervisor and then follow-up w/ the Director over your area for any needed additional clarity. Any unemployment questions can be directed to HR, Rich Petro. We have limited ability to actually do much for those seeking unemployment…but we can point you in the right direction and explain your rights, for sure. Finally, I want you to know that the Float Holiday may begin to be used after June 1. This holiday will work like any other holiday other than you can choose when to take it, perhaps consider taking your birthday off or an anniversary…it’s your call! This benefit is for any staff receiving benefits, of course. HR is working on adding the Float holiday to the benefits list.
Finally, there was a new Speak Out Submission that expressed concern over staff needing to respond to emails/messenger in a timely manner, whether they were working from home or in the office. This, of course, is an expectation all of us share, that we are timely in responding to communications. I would say that emails and phone calls are the norm and messenger is not necessarily so, unless it is a department choice to communicate in this manner. I encourage this employee to directly discuss this issue with whomever this was directed at and if unsatisfied with the response received here, to please go the next level.
I received many comments after the Virtual meeting to have more of these and I will absolutely do so. Stay tuned for the next Town Hall meeting! In the meantime…be safe. Better Days are Ahead!