June 21, 2016
Let's Be Careful Out There!
This week Gregg fills in for Dr. Buchholz.
Last week that special person I refer to as “My Better 7/8ths” forwarded me an article regarding the death of Earl Potter. Earl Potter was President of Saint Cloud State University in Minnesota. According to the MPRNEWS report, he had been driving to a meeting and was killed in a single car accident. At the time of the report, it was unclear whether he had fallen asleep, had become distracted, or was in some sort of physical distress.
My mind instantly flashed back to the time when I was working at my previous university. Our chancellor, well liked and respected by all, had been driving in the early morning hours to a meeting. She lost her life when she accidentally pulled out into oncoming traffic at a busy county highway intersection. I imagine all of us can think of similar situations regarding the near loss or loss of a colleague.
Hearing about the loss of President Potter and remembering the loss of my former chancellor made my mind flash to another memory. In the 1980’s, there was a police drama show called Hill Street Blues. The show always started out with the police officers and detectives meeting for roll call and getting their duty assignments. When the crusty but caring sergeant released them from the meeting, he would let them go with this piece of compassionate advice, “Let’s be careful out there!”
It is this piece of advice that I want you to remember, and by “let’s,” I mean all of us – you, me and our colleagues. Our institutional culture seems to favor the quantity of work performed. One of our colleagues has coined the phenomenon as “our culture of busyness.” The cell phone is always in reach to respond to any request, and we say “yes” to everything. We pack everything we can into a day. We keep pushing. We are always willing to help. We stay out late attending one meeting, only to get up in the wee hours of the next morning to drive to another meeting. Some of us do this to the extent that we sacrifice the quality of our work, our family time, recreation time, sleep time, healthy meal time, professional development time, and time for our own personal reflection. In short, we often sacrifice the quality of our work, our health, well being, and, in some cases, lives just to get a few more things done.
If this sounds like you, I ask you (and me) to reflect on your work schedule. Yes, there will be times when long hours are a must. The term “fair” comes to mind. If you find, however, that those type of work hours are more common than not, I urge you to consider being more realistic about your work expectations. On the scale that balances the quantity of outputs with the quality of outcomes, shift the emphasis to the quality of outcomes. Spend that much needed time with your family. Take the time you need for self-reflection and professional development. Take that bucket list vacation. Take care of your health. Be careful driving. Take care of yourself. By doing these things, you will probably be an even more effective worker than when you were complying with our culture of busyness.
We only have one you, and we do not want to lose you, figuratively or otherwise. Let’s be careful out there!