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I have learned over the years that sometimes we have to spell things out, even if we think that everyone should already know. So, here is my effort at explaining what I think should not need explanation.
Not all jobs require you to be a good writer. You can do well without that particular skill, but…
You do have to be able to spell two things:
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Your job title
Early in my career I worked alongside a gentleman whose title was Community Resources Liaison. He was not my employee and I don’t remember exactly what he did. One day he included me on an email from him. In his signature, under his name, it said “Community Resources Liazon.”
I had to say something. While I was not responsible for his work, we did work for the same company and that’s just embarrassing.
He thanked me.
And proceeded to leave his signature line exactly the same: Community Resources Liazon.
I talked to him once more, but no change to his signature line. Then I had to notify his supervisor (my colleague). I’m not sure why she had not caught the error, as I’m sure she got emails from him. Maybe he left off the signature when he emailed her. I like to think so.
This gentleman was ultimately fired, for many more reasons than this misspelling, but that was certainly a red flag.
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The name of the street on which you work
Not too long ago, I had a staff member who was in a situation that required that he write an incident report. His job did not require him to be a good writer and I knew I would have to help him with the report. Not a problem. I asked him to get the basics down first, then we would go from there.
He didn’t seem to know the name of the street on which the incident took place. The street where he worked each and every day.
I think I would have taken a walk up to the corner to read the street sign rather than admit that I didn’t know the name of the street or even that I couldn’t spell it.
He was also fired soon thereafter, also for multiple reasons. But again, this was a major red flag.
We’ve all heard that there are no stupid questions. Well, that’s not completely true…
You know how this works. There’s a big meeting with lots of people. There’s an agenda, most of which does not interest you. I understand. I firmly believe that most meetings could easily be replaced by an email.
But sometimes we have to attend these large gatherings. I get it, some people are just going to zone out. Probably not that big a deal. Others are going to pay attention and ask relevant questions. That’s great.
The problem comes in when you try to be part of both these groups of attendees simultaneously. Sure, you can zone out on some topics and engage with others.
However, it might be best not to try to engage with the topics to which you have not been paying any attention.
At one such meeting, a woman was talking about a service that she offered that could be relevant to all of us attendees. She was quite interesting and her presentation elicited good questions and participation from the audience. She was willing to bring her service to our individual staff meetings and went through a pretty solid process of how we could request a date for that to happen.
Just as she had finished – really, just finished talking about bringing her service to individual staff meetings, a woman raised her hand and asked, “Would you be able to come to individual staff meetings?”
The room went silent.
The presenter, to whom I give much credit, fixed the expression on her face (which had been, quite reasonably, an expression of utter disbelief) and repeated what she had just said.
I guess the only stupid question is the one that was just answered while you were not paying attention.
It would have been better for this woman to ask a colleague later, “I think I missed the part where she was talking about her services. Did she say we could get her to come to our staff meetings?” It would have been more honest (we all zone out sometimes) and would not have wasted the time of everyone else, who had to sit through an explanation that had already been given.
If you work in child care or human services with certain populations, you might have the opportunity to take people on fun outings such as to the movies, the park, the zoo, etc.
I wish I didn’t have to say this, but I’ve seen too many employees who do not understand that:
These outings are not about you
I had a staff member take three residents of a treatment program to see the movie Marshall. It is a movie about the early career of Supreme-Court-Justice-to-be Thurgood Marshall.
We don’t make a practice of taking people to movies that are going to be harmful; we did not realize that there is a scene in the movie in which someone is thrown out a window as part of a civil rights demonstration.
This was triggering for one of our residents, who had at one time attempted suicide by jumping out a window.
This is why we send staff on these outings. Our residents are adults and it’s not like they can’t sit through a movie alone. Staff are there to provide support as necessary.
My staff member had decided that, since she had already seen Marshall, she would take herself to a different movie in the Cineplex. She was not there to provide comfort to the upset resident or to let me know what had happened.
This staff member was fired immediately.
On another occasion, a group of program participants and staff went to the zoo. There were two people in wheelchairs. One was pushed through the zoo with no problems. Staff left the other participant at the zoo entrance because, as the staff member reported when asked, “She [the resident] had an attitude.”
I’m sure that’s true. This program participant was a woman who had had a very hard life filled with traumatic events. That’s why she was in a treatment program.
That staff member was also fired immediately.
There will be people who do things you don’t like through every step of your career and life.
If you’re working in customer service, human services, retail, hospitality, and pretty much anyplace where you’ll come into contact with other people, you will need to behave professionally, no matter what other people are doing.
If the police show up at your one-person worksite, you should be able to explain why
I get a call that “the police were just here but they left.” OK, I think I need to know a little more about that.
This gentleman was the staff person in a house where three adults with special needs lived. The police came to the door asking if everything was ok. The staff member said yes and the officers left.
Does it seem like we’re missing a piece to this story?
“So,” I asked the staff member, “when you asked the officers why they had come by…”
Blank stare. This staff person actually failed to ask the police why they had come to the door.
I’m pretty sure one of the residents was being loud and a neighbor called the police, but can you fathom not asking?
These are just some of the examples that have made me realize that things that I think ought to be obvious apparently are not.
