"Out of the Office": Keeping Our Sanity at Work

By BA Laris, MPH | June 9, 2016
Research Associate, ETR

How do we keep our sanity at work? How many times have you heard that question?

How do we provide the best services and products possible? How do we meet the needs of our clients and customers? Our co-workers, our supervisors? Our Board of Directors and funders? How do we do all this and still maintain a healthy family and social life?

Yes. I admit it. I use my “out of the office” message regularly!

The first week of June every year, I spend seven days on my bicycle, riding with over 2,000 other cyclists. We travel the 545 miles from San Francisco to Los Angeles as part of AIDS Lifecycle. We raise money and awareness in the fight against HIV/AIDS.

In the Winter, I Ski

During the winter, each month I volunteer two days to teach adaptive skiing to wheelchair riders. I do this through the United States Adaptive Recreation Center at Big Bear Mountain.

The emails pile up and the deadlines don’t take a vacation day. But being out of the office and being part of something bigger than me does more than just help me keep my sanity. These things feed my energy and enthusiasm for work.

For me, diversity and inclusion have a lot to do with this balancing act. An organization’s commitment to diversity and inclusion practices and policies helps create a working environment where employees are valued for who they are and what they bring to the table. An inclusive climate supports all employees in participating in, and contributing to, the progress and success of the organization.

I'm a capacity-building provider with ETR’s Community Impact Solutions Project. I provide diversity and inclusion training and technical assistance to support community based organizations providing HIV prevention education. We encourage organizations to examine six common factors that affect employee experiences in the workplace. We can help them identify ways to recalibrate these factors if necessary.

1. Control. Employees’ perceived capacity to influence decisions that affect their work and gain access to resources necessary to do an effective job. The ability to exercise professional autonomy.
2. Workload. The extent to which job demands match employee limits.
3. Fairness. The extent to which decisions at work are perceived as being fair and people are treated with respect.
4. Reward. Employees’ experience feeling recognized and valued by service recipients, colleagues, managers and external stakeholders.
5. Community. The quality of social interaction at work (e.g., conflict, mutual support, closeness, teamwork). Community typically thrives where people share praise, comfort, happiness, humor and assistance.
6. Values. The extent to which the organization encompasses the ideals and motivations that originally attracted employees to their jobs.

I am grateful to work in an organization that is examining these factors, that encourages uncomfortable discussions and nudges us to be aware of these issues that affect us all. Personally, one of the reasons I have been at ETR for 17 years is because these six factors resonate with me, and the organizational culture embraces the things I do to keep my sanity.

BA Laris, MPH, is a Research Associate with ETR. She plans, develops and coordinates evaluation activities in a variety of settings and also provides capacity-building assistance to community-based organizations working in HIV prevention across the United States. She can be reached at bal@etr.org.