A) He needs the overtime and cash?
B) His wife said he needs practice?
C) He has nothing else to do?
D) None of the above?
If you answered "A", sorry you're wrong. The CEO is an exempt position and not eligible for overtime pay, although in these tough economic times, who couldn't use more cash?
If you answered "B", sorry you're wrong also. My wife won't let me even go in the laundry room at home. Okay, it was only a little laundry mishap a long time ago and for the record, I did offer to replace all of her sweaters I shrunk!
If you answered "C", sorry you are really wrong. That same day I also had to respond to a Medicaid Assistance appeal, work with our broker on an insurance renewal proposal, work on a strategic planning process and participate in a late afternoon community health committee forum.
The correct answer is "D", none of the above. I was participating in our periodic "Walk in My Shoes" program. This is a fun and informative program where staff is able to spend most of the day shadowing and assisting a peer staff member. The objective of the program is to help us better understand the work of others so that we can have a greater level of support and teamwork among us.
I chose to work with the laundry staff, although when I made that choice I wasn't aware that the first shift starts at 5 a.m. They cut me some slack knowing I had a late day scheduled and only gave me a little ribbing when I showed up at 7 a.m. If they were intimidated by the CEO in the laundry room, you couldn't tell. Within minutes of my arrival they had me sorting and labeling personal laundry, making deliveries to the resident rooms, picking up and sorting dirty laundry from the households, running washer and dryer loads, folding and storing clean linens.
It was hard work, but I was amazed at the efficiency of their processes and how well they all worked together as a team. Piles and piles of dirty laundry flowed in and just as quickly it was sorted, weighed, washed, dried, folded and put back on the shelf. When noon came, I was exhausted but looked proudly at the shelves of neatly stacked rows of clean linen that we all had worked so hard to process.
And then......................they started loading the carts to bring clean linen back up to the households. "What are you doing?" I asked with a selfish whine. "We just cleaned those!" I have to admit I was a little overwhelmed by the fact that life in the laundry room is a recurring and never ending cycle of clean and dirty laundry.
My time in the laundry room was very informative. In addition to getting to know the staff better and seeing first hand how efficient and knowledgeable they are in their roles, I was able to see a critical cog of our operation and mission from the front lines. We talked about the equipment, the supplies needed and why we do things the way we do. I was even able to make some suggestions for adaptive equipment to help protect them from injury or infectious waste.
As the old adage goes, "you can't begin to understand what another person goes through until you have walked a mile in their shoes". At Seniorsfirst every person and every department is of equal value to our mission and we are reminded of this with the help of our "Walk in My Shoes" program.
Thank you to all who have participated in this program and keep on walking!
Helen Bennett (Therapeutic Recreation) walks in the shoes of Pamela Davis (Housekeeper)
