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6.  Relax.  Plan a vacation at least once a year, preferably twice!  Having 45 days of vacation on the books isn’t something to be proud of.  Use it!   If you can’t afford to go away, use the time to do some things around the house – read a book, paint a room, or visit a local museum.  The possibilities are endless.  Force yourself to do it.  You’ll be glad that you did.

This concludes our tips on Avoiding Job Burnout.  There are many great resources on the web about work/life balance.  CNN.com has a work/life balance calculator that allows you to visually see how you’re spending your time each week on a pie chart.  You can even plot out how you’d like to spend your time in the future when you’ve made some neede changes to your schedule. You can visit the calculator at: http://snipurl.com/3fea0. 
  

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5. Take a Break.  Throughout the day, take a few minutes to clear your mind, especially if you’re feeling overwhelmed.  Don’t forget to take your lunch break.  Make sure you actually use it to do something for yourself, not to do more work.  Take a walk, exercise, do some type of activity that removes you physically and mentally from work and don’t feel guilty.  Stick to it, and do it now – right now!

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4. Say NO.  Learn to say NO or not right now to items that are not a necessary part of your job.  If saying no isn’t an option, be sure to let the person know who assigned you the task how long it will take to complete and when you will be able to fit it into your schedule.  Do not promise anything you can’t deliver on – this will create more stress!  If time is limited, do the best job possible.  Sometimes it doesn’t have to be perfect to still be a job well done.

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3. Simplify.  Instead of packing your day full of tasks and activities, determine what needs to be done, what can wait, and what can be eliminated all together.  Update your task list every day.  For things you must complete, determine how long each will take and assign a time.  It will be less overwhelming if you know how long each task will take to complete.    

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2.  Unplug!  If you carry a pager or cell phone for work, turn it off once you leave the office.   Most employers do not expect you to be available 24/7 unless it’s in your job description.  Set boundaries and stick to them.  You need and deserve the down time.  This includes e-mail.   Avoid checking work-related e-mail at home, unless you work out of a home office.  If you do, only check it during regular business hours.   Self and family time are important!

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I’m sure most of us have experienced some form of burnout over the years.  In the public service field, burnout is especially high as organizations try to do more with less.  Many staff are juggling multiple job responsibilities…often responsibilities of more than one job!

The next 6 posts are strategies that will help reignite your passion for what you do, and hopefully provide you with a little bit of stress relief!

1. Take Charge.  In order to feel more in control, especially during times of change, arrange to meet with your supervisor at least quarterly to talk about your performance and your job. Take this opportunity to clarify your strengths, weaknesses, and any areas you can develop or improve on, including discussing any sources of concern.

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I wanted to share this resource with you.  It’s a blog written by the American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD) that has all of the latest information and news about the ADA Restoration Act of 2008.  For businesses, service agencies, and people with disabilities - this has been a HOT topic.  The site also has a great overview of the act that I’ve attached here.  It’s 4-pages long and much easier to read than some of the other documents I’ve ran across. 

Here is the link to the blog: http://adarestoration.blogspot.com/.  I’ve also included it in on the Blog Roll.

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Many workforce development agencies provide some sort of assessment to measure their customer’s reading and math skills. In most cases, this is done to determine the need for basic skills assistance or to qualify the customer for other services. Many of you have probably already witnessed that using the word “test” often raises the anxiety level of a person just by its mentioning. The following are a few tips you can use to explain the need for this type of assessment without having your customer exit out through the back door before they’ve even started.

You should always:

• Clearly explain the reason why you’re giving the assessment (don’t call it a test). There is often a fear of failure associated with tests. Spell it out in simple terms, but more importantly, let your customers know that the purpose of the assessment is to qualify them for services NOT to screen them out.
• If your customer was referred by another agency, always check to see if similar tests were given somewhere else. There is no reason to re-administer an assessment if current results from an acceptable tool already exist.
• Know how to provide testing accommodations if they are requested. A word of caution…make sure if you make any alterations to the assessment yourself, you don’t invalidate the results. For example, if you have a customer that is unable to read the assessment due to a visual impairment, it may be okay to read the math portion of the assessment, but certainly not okay to read the reading portion.

You should be able to find helpful testing accommodation suggestions for most assessments on the publisher’s website. For the CASAS or the Comprehensive Adult Student Assessment System, you can call (800) 255-1036 or visit: http://snipurl.com/2tpyh.

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I’ve worked with a large number of One-Stop agencies across the state of California.  As part of my technical assistance and training, we often engage staff in a conversation around the agency’s Reasonable Accommodation Policy.  I’m often surprised at the number of staff that are either unaware of whether they actually have a policy (most do) or what exactly the policy says.  Now, we all know if you haven’t had to use certain information, what often happens is that you hear it once, you store the information away somewhere, and you move on to issues that are more pressing.  If you don’t use it, you lose it.  Right?

As a good rule of thumb, I’d like to suggest the following…and I’m saying this from the perspective of a consultant who has seen what can happen when you don’t do these things…First, locate your policy.  As I mentioned before, most of you will find that you DO have one.  If the policy is more than two years old, review it for accuracy and make sure that the contact information and instructions still make sense.  Next, get your staff together and share and discuss the policy with EVERYONE.  Interestingly, I’ve found that for some reason, the person who answers the phones or sits at the front desk isn’t included in the EVERYONE.  In a Secret Shopper survey we conducted, I can tell you that excluding administrative staff in this discussion led to a significant amount of misinformation going to the public.  These are your gatekeepers!  If anyone needs to be trained on your policies and procedures, it’s the person or persons who interact most with your customers.  Lastly, put a 20 minute placeholder for policy review on your staff meeting agenda every quarter.  With staff turnover and the many other things that fill our days, a review of the information will make sure that everyone is on the same page. 

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I’m often asked the question by One-Stops and other public agencies providing community services: Where does accessibility begin?  My response: Accessibility begins at the first point of contact for your customer.  Whether that’s over the phone, at the bus stop, or through your outreach materials, as providers, your responsibility is to ensure that all points of entry are welcoming, safe, and accessible. 

If it’s over the phone, be sure to mention that reasonable accommodations are available for customers with disabilities.  If customers travel to your location via public transportation, don’t forget that they should be able to safely get to your front door.  This is often referred to as the “path of travel.”  As a public service provider, how a customer gets to your agency is just as important as what happens when they get inside.  Last, but not least, don’t forget to include disability-related information in your outreach materials.  If you are a federally funded agency, in addition to your Equal Opportunity taglines, you also need to include a TTY or Telecommunication Relay Service number if you include your phone number.  This is for your customers that may need an alternate way to get in touch with you.   More tips to come!

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