POETS Club

Carolyn is a VP of Quality & Resource Management at corporate headquarters in TN—and she’s brilliant! She recently shared with me one of her tactics to help her staff de-stress. On Fridays, before the end of the workday, the office holds a POETS Club meeting. This has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with poetry. It stands for “Piss On Everything, Tomorrow’s Saturday.” She explained that she didn’t want her staff to take the stress of their work back to their families. She wants them to enjoy their weekends and come back to work refreshed and productive on Monday; so at the meeting the group does whatever they need to do to distress: laugh, cry, complain, vent, let-their-hair-down—whatever it takes. The meeting lasts for about an hour and folks head for home leaving their work stress behind.

This is not to be confused with a Pity Party. If someone announces that they want a Pity Party, it must be held within the next 24 hours. Usually it is in the evening after work and may involce alcohol. The initiator of the Pity Party starts off by sharing his or her pitiful story and gathering as much sympathy as possible. Then, that person must listen while everyone else attending also shares a pitiful story. Carolyn assures me that in this context, it’s almost impossible to feel pitiful for long. Everyone can’t help but laugh at the absurdities and everybody leaves feeling better.

 

It’s great meeting someone who is thinking pro-actively about de-stressing her staff—and  with humor!. I’d love to hear what others are doing that is fun and unique. Anyone out there got anything to share?

Kudos to UCSF

In my quest to look for extraordinary service to both internal and external customers, a piece about a unique employee program caught my eye.

Staff at the Comprehensive Cancer Center at UCSF often feel stressed and emotionally drained. No surprise. Dealing with those who are chronically and terminally ill can be rewarding, and at the same time, exhausting.

Cynthia Perlis, director of UCSF Art for Recovery Program brought an idea to Gerrie Shields, administrative director of the Cancer Center. Her goal was to do something for the frontline people who are bombarded with loss on a daily basis.

The result: The Employee Well-Being Project where staff could feel cared for in a community that would also provide workshops to sustain them throughout the year. The program has not only improved morale, it has provided them with additional tools to cope with the stress they encounter daily.

Four different themed workshops are held quarterly, with each one hour workshop repeated six times on different days of the week to accommodate everybody’s schedule. Past themes have included creating journals, yoga that can be practiced at work, breathing techniques, Hawaiian songs and chants, and the favorite expressed by many: finding humor on the job.

The response has been overwhelmingly positive. Attendees have commented on the benefits of this brief respite in terms of decreased stress, the opportunity to bond with others and the ability to express themselves.

“They not only derived benefits from the workshops themselves, but also succeeded in building a greater sense of teamwork as a consequence of their interaction,” says Cynthia Perlis.

When staff members can return to their work stations feeling relaxed and heard, everybody wins—the employee, the patients and their family members, AND the hospital. Kudos to UCSF for putting people first.