I was in a “VP Awards” meeting this morning with Craig Weidemann, the VP for PSU Outreach. I was a little surprised at first that he began the meeting with a question about morale around Outreach in the context of these awards. One of the things I like about working with Craig is that he wanted to hear what everyone in the room had to say about the topic.
We had a pretty frank discussion about the recent organizational-change impacts here at Outreach. We agreed that recognition and awards are important in this time of transition for Outreach. Craig followed-up with an accurate analogy that stressed the importance of tradition and recognition of the things that mean a lot to us in spite of what is a stressful time for many.
Someone was brave enough to share some personal and professional reflections on the effect of a few lay-offs around the organization and a message they had received that it would be a good idea to “seek other employment.” They asked the question to consider the impact of getting an award while you’re standing in the unemployment line.
After some discussion, my response was that “good work is good work” and that recognizing someone is not dependent on whether they were laid-off. Craig added something to the effect that lay-offs are different than firings.
Here in the World Campus, many things haven’t changed since before the RESET. However, I work a lot with others from different units. Some of these units don’t exist anymore. Some don’t have job descriptions yet. It was interesting to note that it appeared that 4 of the 11 of us in the meeting have either been laid-off or have dealt with the impacts of loved ones that were laid off. Since my wife doesn’t work right now, I can’t even gauge the impact of me losing my job.
So when I hear “I’m so busy,” I can’t help but think “be happy to be so ‘busy’ and more importantly what can I be doing to do my best, push my own boundaries, and make life/work better for others?”
Not having taken the Authentic Conversations training yet, I don’t yet understand the connection between us being “authentic” with one another and new changes to our culture (can true cultural change be mandated?), since I never saw that as an operational problem in the committees, cross-functional teams, and in my day-to-day work. If someone had just come by and asked me, I would say that we have other problems, but talking is one of them. People here love to talk. All one has to do, simplistically speaking, is listen, ask questions and take action-planned, collaborative, and timely. But I shouldn’t get ahead of myself before the training.
<!–Saying good bye to colleagues
OHR has helped to place 7 of the 8 PSPB workers that were laid-off
4 of 11 have either been laid-off before or have been effected by it
i am the only one working in my family
craig: difficult balance between living in the numbers and focusing on our great work
awards look good on a resume
people falling through the cracks
are we at square one?
wake-up call this morning–>