The rollercoaster
The universe is funny sometimes. Monday morning I was busy fantasizing about finding a different job. Today, I voluntarily stayed late at work, cuz I was being productive and enjoying myself. I've learned to do all kinds of new things recently, including orienting new hires, and interviewing and hiring an employee of my own choosing(!!). I'm so excited about these new people and how they're going to help change the attitude of the place. Aaaand I'm just a teensy bit hoping that we can edge out a few more people to get better ones in. Honestly, about 50% of the people chosen to work there have not been wise decisions. But that's another story.
The one thing I'm really happy about is how the morale is beginning to change. For months, it's been pretty awful. Everyone's been miserable and grumpy and talking about how they don't want to work there. A couple weeks ago I came up with an idea to help change it, and I called it the "Positivity & Teamwork Smackdown." I bought about $40 worth of candy and some index cards.
The rules were as follows: You can take a piece of candy, but not for yourself. To give someone else a piece of candy, you have to write down on an index card why that person deserved it. The reason has to be related to positivity or teamwork. Leave the index card in the bucket, give the candy to the person, and explain what it's for. If all the candy (~400 pieces) is gone within 4 weeks, then the entire clinic would win a pizza party. As a final step, we added a new section to our "operations update" (an email sent out every morning with important daily updates) called Recognizing Each Other: Wonderful Workings in the OB/GYN clinic, and under this was all the messages written on the cards from the day before.
It was a little slow going to start, which was baffling to me. (Who doesn't want an excuse to give and receive free candy?) But over time, people started noticing who was always participating, and people started getting competitive. They wanted to earn candy, and they wanted to be seen as someone who recognizes and thanks other people. It has spread so that even the providers are participating. And today, best of all - the people that have frequently been the most complained about have received some serious compliments about how great they've been lately. I. Am. THRILLED. Someone told me today that they think the attitudes have really been great lately, and they think I have a lot to do with it.
"Over the moon" doesn't describe it. If this works, it'll be the best $40 investment I've ever made. I just hope it continues . . . fingers crossed.
The one thing I'm really happy about is how the morale is beginning to change. For months, it's been pretty awful. Everyone's been miserable and grumpy and talking about how they don't want to work there. A couple weeks ago I came up with an idea to help change it, and I called it the "Positivity & Teamwork Smackdown." I bought about $40 worth of candy and some index cards.
The rules were as follows: You can take a piece of candy, but not for yourself. To give someone else a piece of candy, you have to write down on an index card why that person deserved it. The reason has to be related to positivity or teamwork. Leave the index card in the bucket, give the candy to the person, and explain what it's for. If all the candy (~400 pieces) is gone within 4 weeks, then the entire clinic would win a pizza party. As a final step, we added a new section to our "operations update" (an email sent out every morning with important daily updates) called Recognizing Each Other: Wonderful Workings in the OB/GYN clinic, and under this was all the messages written on the cards from the day before.
It was a little slow going to start, which was baffling to me. (Who doesn't want an excuse to give and receive free candy?) But over time, people started noticing who was always participating, and people started getting competitive. They wanted to earn candy, and they wanted to be seen as someone who recognizes and thanks other people. It has spread so that even the providers are participating. And today, best of all - the people that have frequently been the most complained about have received some serious compliments about how great they've been lately. I. Am. THRILLED. Someone told me today that they think the attitudes have really been great lately, and they think I have a lot to do with it.
"Over the moon" doesn't describe it. If this works, it'll be the best $40 investment I've ever made. I just hope it continues . . . fingers crossed.