A bit about my work
link

For the past few days, I've been working on essays for my other web site. I've mentioned before that I use a weblog for communication with all my staff on all three shifts. We have a lot of new staff at the moment (due to promotions and a couple of transfers to other departments -- usually we don't have too much turnover). One of the problems with new staff is that no matter how much time you spend with them in training, there are some concepts that are just a lot easier to get across after they've been on the job a while. I was writing about targeted sanctions for unacceptable behavior last night. As a preface, I explained a little bit about why our program is structured the way it is. Since I've received comments expressing a mild interest in such things (and since it was kind of a crappy day today and I'm too tired to fight through the fuzziness in my thinking) I thought I would post an excerpt from that piece for anyone who might be interested in such things.

A couple of notes: Corrections Workers (my staff) are the folks who supervise clients in the residential center (like guards in prison, although with our clients going out to work and appointments it is a little more involved, if not as dangerous). ISO's (Intensive Supervision Officers: a term foisted on us by the State, not our choice) are the in-house probation officers. Anyway, here it is:

 

It has been said that we can't make our clients change. All we can do is offer them the opportunity to change. While, in the strictest sense, this is true, there is a lot we can do to influence the likelihood of change.

On the large scale, programs like ours are structured to provide rewards for positive behavior and consequences (or, punishment, if you like) for negative behavior. Often, it seems as if the responsibility for rewards and punishments is divided between the ISO's and the Corrections Workers, with the ISO's handing out all the goodies and the Corrections Workers being the bad guys. While on the surface there is a certain inevitability in this arrangement (given that the ISO's hand out the levels and out dates and the like) this appearance is somewhat deceiving. Given that Corrections Workers have considerably more contact with clients than their ISO's do, it follows necessarily that Corrections Workers have more opportunities to provide positive reinforcement than ISO's.

In general, we get clients who are not functioning positively in society. They make bad choices, they are irresponsible, they avoid accountability, their thinking is significantly different than the "normal" citizen. The point of a program like ours is not to change them into law-abiding, upstanding citizens overnight. Programs like ours are built on the notion of gradual change as an ongoing process. Radical change, even when made with the best of intentions, is easy to make but hard to maintain (as any smoker who has ever tried to quit smoking cold-turkey will tell you). Mild change, on the other hand, is a bit easier to maintain. And that is why programs are built on level systems.

In our program, in the early stages (see the policy manual or the resident handbook) clients have minimal privileges and minimal responsibilities. The idea is for the client to get used to taking care of the basics: household responsibilities, finding a job, etc. A lot of our clients can't even handle that much responsibility without significant coaching and maybe even some individual attention. Sometimes (although definitely not always) that attention must necessarily be in the form of negative consequences for failure to operate at a basic level of responsibility. But, given the skills most of our clients have (or, more properly, don't have) at this level, there is a certain margin of error built into the level system. A few mistakes here and there don't necessarily preclude level advancement because it is not reasonable to expect perfect behavior at this point. In other words, we are giving the client a few responsibilities and are trying to nudge them into a little bit better, more responsible behavior.

As clients progress through the level system, the responsibilities grow and the rewards (privileges) grow. And at each level, the standards for compliance become a bit more strict. In other words, at each level we are nudging them toward self-generated responsible behavior. If they master each level, then the incremental change made at the last level is easier to maintain as they move forward to the next level.

 

by Cziltang 
Posted: Friday, September 10 2004 01:51:01 AM

Getting Old?
link

You may be getting old if no one you talk to gets your movie references.

We are having some work done on our roof at my place of business. Unfortunately, this involves the use of hot tar. I was over in the residential area today, where the smell was approaching unbearable. I took a deep breath and uttered Robert Duvall's line from Apocalypse Now, "I love the smell of Napalm in the morning..." One of the clients said, "Oh, is that what that smell is?" I looked at the two staff members at the front desk. They were standing there with that bunny-in-the-headlights look.

I said, "Come on, you know; Robert Duvall? Apocalypse Now?"

Still nothing but the bunny-in-the-headlights look. I said, "Apocalypse Now? 1979?"

(To me, Apocalypse Now is a movie I saw a few years ago...)

One of the staff members looked me straight in the eye and said, "I was 3 years old."

ouch.

by Cziltang 
Posted: Wednesday, September 08 2004 10:13:50 PM

Interim Iraqi National Conference Meeting
link

OK, I've spent way too much time at the computer tonight, but here's one last thing. At Iraq the Model, there is a commentary on the first meeting of the new Interim Iraqi National Conference. If you think our involvement in Iraq is just about oil, go read this.

 

by Cziltang 
Posted: Tuesday, September 07 2004 10:53:53 PM

Time for an Intervention
link

Well, I never got to the "nature of compensation" piece this weekend. I spent a lot more time over at my parents' house than I had imagined I would. I must say that on the whole, it was mostly pleasant.

I haven't spent much time with my sister and brother-in-law in the past couple of years. They don't come down from Nebraska that often and I haven't been in a position to go up there, so we haven't spent too much time talking politics in the last couple of years. Consequently, they have missed most of my shift to the conservative and libertarian positions I'm at now. I guess I should have kept them up to speed...

A lot of it was pretty amusing. Like me complaining to my brother-in-law (an avid bicyclist) about the land and money that has been wasted in Portland to put bicycle lanes on both sides of the highways. And he explaining to me (the owner of a Ford F-150) that no one who lives in an "urban" environment should be driving a full sized pick-up. I caught some flak over my enthusiastic description of the local public gun range (but let's face it, I baited them into that by wearing my "Peace through superior firepower" T-shirt).

Where it got weird (and I'm still shaking my head about this) was the neo-rabid response I got when I didn't agree that Kerry was the only rational choice for president. I was pretty sure they weren't Bush supporters, but I thought that I was going to get an opportunity to talk about IDEAS and about how those ideas shaped our positions. Having just written the articles on political vegetarianism, I was expecting an interesting discussion.

What I got was: "Iraq is about oil," "Bush lied," "Bush is an Idiot." To hear them tell it, there is logical consistency in everything Kerry has said publicly on the campaign trail (as long as you are smart enough to understand nuanced truth), Kerry's plans and intentions are crystal clear, etc, etc, ad nauseum. In short, I got every knee-jerk, jingoistic piece of campaign propaganda I could have imagined. At one point I made the mistake of saying that I thought what we are doing in Iraq is the most important issue we are currently facing. Wow. From the reaction, you'd think they had just caught me with a swastika tattooed on my forehead, clubbing baby seals from the seat of an over-sized SUV with a "keep 'em barefoot and pregnant" bumpersticker on the back. I didn't get an opportunity to talk about the possibility of a moderate, successful Iraq as an example of a reasonable alternative to those who now support Radical Islamists for lack of a viable alternative to their current situations. It was at that point that my brother-in-law suggested that, "Maybe we need to do an Intervention?"*

Needless to say, I think I'll confine my conversation to family gossip and yapping about the kids next time we get together. Besides, that will be at Thanksgiving, and the election will be over, and it won't matter what barking moonbats like me think, will it?

(* for those not familiar with substance abuse treatment terminology, an "Intervention" is when an alcoholic or addict's friends and family get together to confront the individual about their addiction and try to get them into treatment.) .

by Cziltang 
Posted: Tuesday, September 07 2004 10:29:07 PM

Kitty TV
link

"It is an old maxim of mine that when you have excluded the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth."

Sherlock Holmes

The Head Rat installed a new Kitty TV this past week. OK, its an aquarium, but the cats watch it like frat boys watching Jerry Springer interviewing teenage, blonde, nymphomaniac twins who want breast implants so they can make more money as lap dancers. I've never seen a cat drool before.

Last night when I got home, we noticed that we couldn't find one of the fish. No fish. No fish parts. No fish bones. We have absolutely no idea what happened to the fish. There is a hole in the aquarium lid, but it is too small for a cat (even my football buddy) to stick a paw in and snag a fish. The only possibility I can come up with is that one (or more) of the cats moved the lid, got the fish and then replaced the lid. Now, I enjoy the occasional conspiracy theory, but I'm not buying this one. However, as I have yet to come up with any other improbable explanations, I'm sort of stuck at the moment.

by Cziltang 
Posted: Tuesday, September 07 2004 08:55:11 PM

Weekend Ramblings
link

First off, I'm not even sure "ramblings" is a word, and I'm too tired to mess with it and it kind of sounds legitimate, so I'm going to leave it.

I spent the evening with my sister and brother-in-law at my folks' house tonight. My brother-in-law is a programmer up in Nebraska. I sat and listened to him talking about the politics and internal communication problems at his job and it struck me how lucky I am to be working where I'm at. I hear all kinds of horror stories about secretive management and refusal to share information in various companies. While there are some things we can't share with all the staff (mainly personnel issues), generally we try to let folks know what is going on at the first available opportunity. When we were approached about putting together a plan for expansion, we had to keep quiet while it was in the development stage, but as soon as it became an official proposal, we started working on getting the word out and preparing the staff for the possibility. This is pretty typical of the way we do business. Secretive just doesn't work for us.

Since I got re-assigned to a different position about six months ago, I've been in charge of the security staff. I've got about 20 staff spread over 3 shifts. My main communication problem is that when we have information we want to get out, getting it to all three shifts is often an issue. There are several ways to deal with the problem, but they all have drawbacks.

The most obvious answer is to call a meeting for all my staff and give them the information all at once. Except that I hate meetings. I won't call one unless I absolutely have to. I don't like large groups. When I'm discussing important information I want to be able gauge the comprehension level of the people I'm talking to, and I just can't divide my attention between 20 people in a meeting. Then there's the matter of not being able to get all the staff together on short notice. There are always some who can't make it due to child care arrangements, school schedules, etc. And then there is the issue of paying everyone overtime to attend the meeting.

Another possibility is for me to go around to each shift and talk to each shift personally. I like this a lot better, but on any given day, I will miss the one or two staff on each shift who are on their regular days off, so if I want to hit everybody, I have to do it twice. I don't mind odd schedules, but I'm not as young as I used to be and that really takes a toll on me these days. I can cut it down to one visit to each shift if I go to their weekly shift meetings, but for a variety of reasons, they are all scheduled on different days, so it might be 3 or 4 days before I could get the word out. I could solve that problem by having the Shift Managers call special meetings for each shift, but then I'm back to the child care and overtime issues.

If I think I can get away with it, I often meet with the Shift Managers and then let them pass the word along. This works pretty well for some types of information. But sometimes it is really important for me to be able to answer questions, and if it is bad news, I feel better about doing it myself, rather than dumping it on my Shift Managers.

We've tried sending out memos by e-mail, but for some reason, I just really don't like it. It seems kind of impersonal. It's just one more piece of information in the in-box and it seems that the e-mails get buried or deleted without being given much thought.

For the past several months, I've been maintaining a web site for my staff. We've posted up drafts of policies that we were planning to change and I've used a web log to pass along information. For the most part it seems to work pretty well. The staff have responded to it almost enthusiastically, and when they do have questions, I can post the questions and answers for all to see. My boss and her boss are aware of the site and have been supportive of it.

Unfortunately, the IT department won't let me install the Blog software I use to publish these things on my work computer, and I don't want to use something like Blogger at work when I'm comfortable with Blog at home. So, anytime I want to post something to the work site, I have to do it at home.

I spent Friday night putting together a post for work. We've had some personnel issues, we've got some procedures that need to be tweaked, and we are rolling out a couple of new processes in our new database. I finally got it posted a little before 3:00 am.

I'm not really sure why I'm explaining all this, except maybe by way of apology. The article "co-opted Christian" over at The Smedley Log last week got me thinking about the concept of and the nature of compensation for labor. I've got some thoughts on the subject of reasonable compensation, especially in relation to union shops, but I'm having a bit of trouble expressing them coherently.

When I was a kid, my father used to tell me that his mother used to tell him, "First we work and then we play. We always have more fun that way!" I have never figured out a way to test this aphorism empirically, but as is often the case with things our parents tell us that we think are really stupid, they stick with us when we become adults. So, I often find that that phrase is running through my head when I am attempting to ignore work and do something fun. I had intended to try to finish the compensation post Friday night, but the work post took the entire evening. Plan B was to do it Saturday, but since I didn't manage to offend my sister and brother-in-law (even though I was wearing my "Peace through superior firepower" T-shirt) and didn't (as they say) "wear out my welcome," I ended up staying over at my parents' house a lot longer than I had planned on.

I guess plan C was to have done it instead of this post, but for reasons I can't explain, this is what came out when I sat down to write. Plans D and E will take me through the Labor Day holiday. I guess we'll see what happens.

by Cziltang 
Posted: Sunday, September 05 2004 01:32:07 AM