/// QUARTERLY BEAT / OCTOBER 2021
QUARTERLY BEAT / OCTOBER 2021 ///
Be Engaged & Have a Good Work Ethic If you are not engaged in your job, then others will disengage from you. The minute we see disengagement, or we feel disengaged, we need to figure out why. Disengagement is the start of burnout. Maybe you know someone who is completely disconnected. Start a conversation with, “You don’t seem like yourself today,” or “What’s going on? You don’t seem to want to be here.” They may not want to talk, but they will realize you see a change, and you are concerned. They will know you care. There will be days that you are disengaged. It is important to let the team know that you are having an “off” day. It’s okay to tell your team, “I’m exhausted today because I didn’t get enough sleep. I’m sorry that I am dragging or cranky today.” If this behavior occurs every day, then it is usually a symptom of a more significant problem. Everybody wants to work with a teammate that works hard and does a good job. Remember back to the story where I said that I went through 100 job applications. I went through them to find if there were any commonalities in employees being unhappy at their previous place of employment. Gossip was written down the most as the one thing people did not enjoy about their previous job. The second thing that people wrote down under the question, “List something you did not enjoy about your last job,” was the “laziness of my coworkers.” When you are a hard-working employee and the rest of your coworkers are sitting around not doing anything, you are bound to get upset. No one wants to work with lazy people. Look and ask yourself, “Am I engaged?” If the answer is “no” every day, figure out why and work to resolve it. Don’t Gossip & Assume Good Intention Just don’t do it. When team members gossip it breeds distrust. The trust in a team comes from a respectful and healthy relationship. It’s okay to make mistakes. Everyone does. However, if people gossip about the person who made the mistake behind their back and that individual finds out it becomes a very bad team. Even if the person doesn’t find out, anyone who makes a future mistake will assume that they too will be the brunt of gossip. A good team is built on trust. Gossip is defined as talking about someone when they are not present. Gossiping makes people feel uncomfortable and they will shut down and become resentful. The person who is gossiping requires attention or acknowledgment of what they are saying. It is hard for those who are listening to the gossip to disagree with the gossiper. Disagreeing with someone who is gossiping creates conflict. No one likes conflict when they have to work in a team environment. So, even if individuals disagree with the gossip they are often times left with just agreeing to get through the situation. Gossiping makes everyone except for the person who is doing it uncomfortable. Since most gossip is about something that someone did wrong or how someone is bad or how something is annoying, the best rule of thumb is to “Assume Good Intention”. If all team members can assume good
intention from clients and each other, it will make for a better team environment. Assuming good intentions and not gossiping go hand-in-hand. Getting off the phone and complaining about a client who called in for a silly question about their cat’s medical health and about how much time they took out of your day is gossiping. It’s also not assuming good intention. The client had good intention. They were worried about their cat. You work in veterinary medicine. You share a same love of animals as that client. Their only intention is to do right by their cat. Maybe they don’t have all the answers or maybe they’re not going about it the right way but the end result is they are trying to have good intention for their cat. When you get off the phone and talk about how the client is “stupid” and “annoying” and “wasted 15 minutes of your day” that is the opposite of assuming good intention. It also is gossiping. It is unlikely that your coworkers want to hear you go on and on about the client on the phone. They have other things to worry about. The reason why you are upset and gossiping in a negative way about that client is because you did not assume good intention. Take a moment to have compassion for them and assume good intention. This same scenario can be used with your coworkers. The doctor wasn’t trying to make your life harder because they forgot to write a prescription that you asked them to do three times. They were busy and they had good intention doing other things. Maybe they simply forgot. It was not, however, their personal vendetta against you to not write the prescription. Don’t gossip about it. Assume good intention. Remember ONE Team You are part of ONE hospital team. Within the hospital team there may be smaller teams. There may be the front office team or the management team, but regardless you all work in the same hospital. You are all striving for the same goal. No team is better than the other so please, don’t start the team wars. If a team member is struggling in a different department or area of the hospital you don’t normally work, but you’re able to help them even if it’s not the best help, do so. They are your coworker. If you see the front office staff struggling to answer the phones, answer a phone. You may not know the answer to the client’s question, but that’s okay. You can put them on hold or explain to them that the front office is busy and you’re going to try to get the answer for them. It’s okay to say that you don’t normally work in a certain area of the hospital but you’re doing your best to help. Be respectful of the fact that that individual has to do their main job too. If the team member is constantly being pulled away from their main job then it will cause more stress within their team. It’s important to remember that each team member has a very specific job within the hospital in order for the hospital to function best. Most of that team member’s job must be dedicated to their original job description. It’s okay to ask for their help, but don’t be upset if they truly can’t because there is a more pressing issue in their team
VETgirl U HIGHLIGHTS
AMY NEWFIELD, MS, CVT, VTS (ECC) Veterinary Team Training Goodbye Toxic Team
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managers do not work directly on the floor with their teams every day. Ninety percent of the praise that a team should receive should be from the members themselves. Leadership might not have any idea that the team managed an exceedingly tricky surgery or dealt with a problematic client. The team needs to boost each other up. I often describe a bubble team, which is a team that lives in its own happy bubble. I see bubble teams when I go into largely dysfunctional hospitals. The leadership has issues and most of the team is at each other’s throats. The sky is falling, there’s a dumpster fire, and everyone is angry with each other, except the bubble team. The bubble team is super happy. Rainbows, unicorns, and cotton candy live in their bubble. When I ask the bubble team if they enjoy working at the hospital, they inform me they love working at the hospital. They tell me how amazing the team is that they work with. They cannot imagine working anywhere else. They are in their own happy, wonderful bubble. They don’t see the dumpster fire or the meteorite that’s about to hit the hospital. They are blind to all of it. How can a bubble team exist in such a terrible environment? Simple. They have managed to tune out all the negativity and infuse the team with positivity. They have spent their energy lifting each other up and promoting each other’s strengths. They have each other’s backs. As a result, they are super strong and committed to each other. And yes, they live in their own happy bubble. There is nothing wrong with it. The other teams within the hospital likely can learn a lesson from the bubble team. I am a big fan of bubble teams because they know how to be each other’s best cheerleaders. Be Helpful If you do not notice how your team members are doing, then you are not a good team member. Being a good teammate requires you to step up to the plate and be there for your team member when it’s necessary. You must be observant of how your team members are doing.
Having a helpful teammate was one of the most mentioned traits when I asked individuals. If you see somebody always grumbling about having to take care of the dog with bloody diarrhea or they talk about how they don’t want to handle the cat that is growling, ask if you can help. Take the initiative to help that team member because, at some point, you will need help yourself. If you think someone is suffering from compassion fatigue or burnout, talk to them or their manager. It is not your job to counsel them, but it is your job to ask them if they are okay. Check in with your teammates. If you notice that someone is struggling to reach something high and you know where there is a step stool, help them. If you see that someone is setting up for an intravenous catheter and looks like they are waiting for someone to help them, be the person to offer help. “Did you eat lunch?” is a simple check in with a team member and can mean so much. Observing if your teammate needs help, whether it be physical or emotional support, is important to being a good teammate. If you sense someone needs some type of help in doing a task, then help them. If you see someone who needs an emotional check in, ask, “You don’t seem like yourself. Is everything okay?” I developed an acronym to utilize with my teams. I wanted them to H.E.L.P. themselves and each other every day. Each one of these things means the difference between having a good day or a bad day. It’s so simple, but when you think about it, these are the fundamental basics that every employee needs so they can function to the best of their ability every day. If all employees can ensure that they stay hydrated, eat, laugh throughout the day, and they take care of their bladder (pee), it would be a much better day. Too often, our employees sacrifice these important things and end up becoming miserable because of it. Being helpful means checking in with your teammates on how they are doing. Are they H.E.L.P.ing themselves? Are you H.E.L.P.ing yourself throughout the day? I know that I am in the midst of a good team when I hear them checking in with each other regarding who still needs to eat lunch.
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