| In the last quarter of 1980, I was working at an | | | | the betterment of his long-term overall health. |
| apartment building called Center Park in south | | | | "The goal of the group creates a vision that |
| Seattle. Center Park was the first building of its | | | | focuses their efforts."-Hendrix. The four of us |
| kind built specifically to accommodate the needs | | | | never had a clear vision of what our general |
| of people in wheelchairs who could live | | | | purposes were. |
| independently with some assistance. I and a lady | | | | Motivated our team, as outlined in "Team |
| named Virginia were working there as Personal | | | | Motivation" by Peter Grazier. Virginia and I had no |
| Care Attendants. We worked very closely with | | | | sense of growth or motivation in our jobs, except |
| two disabled men, John Tyler and Ron Schwarz, | | | | for the general rewards of caring for the sick and |
| both now deceased. | | | | challenged. We held stagnant, dead-end jobs with |
| I consider us to have been a loosely knit team of | | | | very little chance for relief even on the |
| all four individuals. However, we did not perform | | | | weekends. I remember going to a talk by a |
| the tasks that a good team should have done to | | | | Canadian lady who had gotten her aides together |
| accomplish our goal of best possible care of our | | | | as a team and rotated them on a schedule, which |
| clients. This is what I think we should have done | | | | gave them time off and a chance to go to school |
| to improve our performance: | | | | and better themselves. Job satisfaction was |
| Set more goals, as outlined in "The Importance of | | | | improved, and the lady was not overly dependant |
| Goals to the Success of Work Teams" by Greg | | | | on any one aide. Not so with our "team." Ron was |
| Hendrix. We simply played it day-by-day when it | | | | highly dependant on my services. My sole |
| came to taking care of our clients. We did take | | | | motivation was Ron's care and to work alone with |
| trips to Hawaii, San Francisco and Canada which | | | | Ron so much taxed me greatly. Virginia had similar |
| were well planned and executed, but when it | | | | problems with John, even though we traded off |
| came to personal care we just took care of | | | | sometimes and covered for each other. We |
| things as they came along. This may have | | | | lacked "a clear purpose, focus or mission" - |
| shortened the lives of our clients in the long run. | | | | Grazier - which should have been at the top of |
| John Tyler was seriously overweight, and we | | | | our list of how to handle our jobs. We should |
| never clearly set a goal of having him lose weight, | | | | have discussed burn-out issues with John and Ron, |
| such as write up a plan or get together as a | | | | and laid out a plan for hiring more attendants on a |
| team to discuss his needs. Ron Schwarz was | | | | revolving schedule so Virginia and I would have |
| taking far too many medications for his health, | | | | had time to go to school and better ourselves. |
| and one in particular seemed to be destroying his | | | | In summary, there were a lot of things the four |
| central nervous system. Virginia and I should have | | | | of us could have done to improve our working |
| met with his doctors to discuss this problem and | | | | situations, but the two most important ones were |
| worked out a way to lower his amount of | | | | to set healthy, realistic goals, and to clearly |
| medications taken. We should have set goals for | | | | motivate our paired and interactive teams. |