Transitioning Queen's Park Staff

 

Behind the curtains at Queen’s Park is a small army of political staffers who are currently in limbo.

 

 

Politics is much like a movie - what you see on camera or in the headlines is but a fraction of what goes on behind the scenes.  Politicians are supported by countless volunteers, stakeholders and of course, political staff.  While there is no one way into jobs in a Minister or Member's office (nor really any training once you get there), few positions you can have are more rewarding, draining, inspiring and all-to-often thankless than working in those back offices.

 

In addition to the challenges of doing The People's business, the Party's business and ideally, learning and contributing some of your own content in support of a shared vision, there's the constant uncertainty of employment (or perhaps, certainty of eventual unemployment).  So much of your job stability is dependent on factors completely removed from your actual performance; as Ministers get shuffled or Parties go in or out of favour, some positions simply vanish.  

 

With so many A-type personalities in politics, personality conflicts play a role, too - if you're associated with someone (or conversely, not seen as "one of XX's people") you can easily be painted with the same broad brush as a current or even former political boss or seen as inconsequential for not having the right connections.  Knowing which position to favour or not favour, or which of several competing direction-givers to follow can lead to analysis paralysis, which then actually does impede performance.

 

A sad consequence of this uncertainty is that some of the folk on the employer side of the equation are often in places where they simply can't keep the team together.  The cognitive dissonance that comes from having to let good people go sometimes results in a confabulated, comforting stance of "they were never that valuable anyway" being assumed by those holding the hammer.  These sorts of sticky situations result in a lot of bitter feelings, well expressed by Warren Kinsella's farewell tribute to Dalton McGuinty's outgoing staff.

 

In a recent conversation with a friend who worked on Team Pupatello, I mentioned that those who would be out of work were in for a rude awakening.  As this comment was first interpreted as meaning "those people have never had it so easy" I clarified thusly - the dedication, multi-tasking and ridiculously long hours worked in support of a cause, not a profit, doesn't translate as easily as one might hope to the private sector.  Figuring out how to frame your skills, experience and connections into a tight package that makes it clear what value you can add to a firm is far from intuitive.  Given the tightening restrictions around government relations, all the easy avenues are gone.  With a tipsy economy and an expanding pool of available labour, employers are defaulting to what (and who) they know instead of seeking to expand their operations or offerings in out-of-the-box ways.

 

The stress of the uncertainty, the loss of income and sudden inability to manage existing responsibilities, the mounting challenges and steadily increasing pressure in finding something new and the gradual loss of both financial resources and personal confidence can take a heavy, heavy toll.  These pressures can manifest themselves through things like anxiety, depression, substance abuse and damaged personal relationships.  It's not a pretty picture.

 

But it doesn't have to be this way.

 

When the Liberals were returned to Queen's Park with a minority government in 2011, it was an unfortunate reality that staffing levels would have to contract, significantly.  How to handle this situation in an appropriate manner became a topic of discussion among some of "The Centre" folk.  Although I've never been on anyone's insider list, I've been in politics long enough to know some of those who are; while talking with one such staffer at a reception, I volunteered to create a staff transition strategy that would help The Centre train and point outgoing staff in useful directions.  This offer was accepted. 

 

To me, Liberals aren't about throwing people into the deep end or buying them oodles of flotation devices - it's about teaching them to swim with the tools and training that makes the most sense for them and their context.  This "teach a man to fish" model became the basis of my plan; the opportunity presented by the election, I felt, was to put into practice the values that bind Liberals together.  Of course, in addition to helping political family members leave the nest under their own wing power, supporting staff who end up being tomorrow's stakeholders makes strategic sense.  Plus, it's an inevitability that your turn will come; we all know how karma works.

 

I called my staff transition strategy Moving Forward Together, with the implication being that moving forward together means leaving no one behind.

 

You can find it here.

 

For my part, I consider many of the people who now face employment uncertainty friends.  I get that there was some polarization that happened over the leadership, just as their was friction when the number of chairs on the deck were reduced in 2011.  That shouldn't matter - we are either all in this together, or we're not. 

 

There are ways to help the team find success that won't break the bank; they just take time, commitment and active communication.  You also have to care enough to invest yourself in the process.  But the same applies to governing, doesn't it?  If we don't believe we have what it takes to nurture and accomodate people with the tools they need to succeed, then we're in the wrong business, or maybe the wrong Party.

 

Move Forward Together - it can't be just a tagline, it has to be a value statement, a mission. 

 

But we have to believe it's possible for us to make a difference.  Not them, not you - us.

 

So - do we?

Mental Illness in the Public Sector: Tony Clement Had An Option

Treasury Board President Tony Clement was questioned about the way the government was managing its cuts following revelations that a Justice Canada lawyer committed suicide after he and his wife received “affected letters” putting them on notice that their jobs were in jeopardy.

 

“It’s not my place to respond to this question,” he said following Question Period on Thursday.

Pardon my English, but bullshit, Mr. Clement.  You're the Minister responsible for the mismanagement of the Slash-And-Burn Public Staff File - if not you, who? 

 

It's enough to drive you nuts - or at least, exacerbate depression and anxiety.  I really find it hard to fathom how, after a multi-faceted campaign to achieve majority government, Team Harper can be so silo-based in its thinking to not see how harmful their policy regimen is to Canada,  particularly given the commitment of folks like Stephen Harper himself and Finance Minister Jim Flaherty to addressing Canada's mental health crisis.

 

But we know what they're thinking - too many people are suckling at the government teat.  Broad ranging government services and regulations impede success.  It's a cut-throat world out there, survival of the fittest, etc.  People have to get tougher, take more responsibility and become more competitive to get ahead. 

 

Here's the thing - survival of the fittest isn't about everyone becoming tougher.  It's about the less competitive literally dying off.

 

That, really, is what suicide is.  Most people with suicidal ideation go through a horrendous, tortured internal process that chips away at their sense of self-worth.  They feel they have no value - in fact, all they do is place a burden on others.  Every minute is merely another eternity of enduring psychological agony and shame.  In essence, they don't feel like they're fit enough to be in society to such a strong degree that they feel the most responsible course of action is  to take themselves out of it.

 

What are some of the external factors that lead to suicidal ideation?

 

- Grief

- Unemployment

- Rejection

- Traumatic events

- Financial/problems

 

So, picture you've worked hard to get your law degree and secure a job but still feel as though you aren't doing enough to earn your keep.  In fact, you're even willing to cancel your vacation because you feel you'll be letting others down/not getting enoughdone if you take a break.  You already doubt yourself - then you have that doubt validated by your employer with an "affected" letter.

 

“We have stressed on a number of occasions (the cuts) will affect the lives of people, it will impact on not only them but the people around them as well as their individual circumstances. We are not talking about widgets. The people are real and they need to be treated with respect and dignity.”

How many of those receiving affected letters have families and mortgages?  How easy will it be for them to compete with younger folk on the job market that don't have responsibilities so can work longer hours and probably for lower wages?  Will these people worry about how to support their family, feel as though they have failed their duties?  What does this do to one's sense of self-worth?

 

The whole "keep home and work separate" meme is crap.  There is only one person; we can't switch work/life brains the way Mister Roger changes his shoes.  Just as the stresses a person faces at home will impact their performance at work, what happens at work impacts family life, too.  What happens to the individual at the centre of all this accumulated stress?  Their health, performance and relationships begin to suffer. 

 

About 48 per cent of all health claims filed by public servants are for mental health claims, often for depression and anxiety. As of August, those claims were already 13 per cent higher than last year.

 

This isn't just the public sector, either.  Mental illness and addictions cost the Ontario economy $39 billion annually and are trending to become the number one cost driver of disability claims by 2020.  The Private Sector spends at least $2.1 billion annually on disability claims, drug costs and employee assistance programs (EAPs).  It's like cognitive carpal tunnel syndrome - the repetitive psychological stress doesn't make you tougher or whatever, it wears you down.

 

As if it wasn't bad enough that the Harper Government is abdicating any sense of responsibility for mental health in its public sector employees, they are completely dropping the ball on mental health in the military.  How can we be thinking of war with Iran when we haven't dealt with the mental health of our troops? 

 

But back to Tony Clement.  We can already see the narrative he hopes to use emerging; people shouldn't bring their work home, this guy had problems unrelated to his work, so on and so forth.  Whatever mental health issues emerge in the public sector, it's got nothing to do with him.  In avoiding questions about whether he has read any reports about stress and anxiety levels among the public service since he started his cuts, Clement is trying to evade any personal responsibility for the consequence of his actions.  Of course, we knew this was coming - Team Harper has been strategically dismantling data since day one for the express purpose of unencumbering their policy decisions from the burden of fact.

 

Unless Clement has been living in a complete bubble, though, there's no way he could have avoided the countless studies out there tying workplace anxiety to mental health.  A fellow he might know by the name of Michael Kirby has dedicated a lot of time to the issue.  Besides, isn't one of his duties as President of the Treasury Board to table, in Parliament, reports, papers and operational documents?

 

If Clement has been pulling a Rob Ford and ignoring the content of his materials, there is still the fact that he committed, publicly, to a supportive and orderly staff transition.  Hell, I even sent him a template he could have built a plan on:

 

Craig Carter-Edwards — @TonyclementCPC; if you're seriously looking into an exiting-staff transition strategy, feel free to crib from this http://t.co/26akna4B (1)

 

You, sir, had an option that could have done a hell of a lot to prevent this uptick in anxiety and all its consequences.  Including this poor man's suicide.

 

Instead of leaving employees in the lurch and peeling the staff reduction bandaid off over a period of months, Clement could have created an orderly transition first and put more effort into making the reduction as quick as possible, allowing for people to move on and helping them to do so effectively.

 

That sounds a bit too much like enabling, though doesn't it?  Team Harper's whole mandate is about downloading responsibility and beating, not supporting, the other guy.  Their politics bleeds directly into their governance style, to Canada's detriment.  Folks, if you really feel that strongly against responsibility, don't run for office.  The job of leaders is to lead, not to abdicate. 

 

They still have a chance.  If he moves quickly, Clement can still put together a true staff transition plan and help stop this cognitive crisis in the public sector.  Likewise, Team Harper can still do as they've been advised and set up a comprehensive, national mental health strategy.  All the evidence points to the benefit both of these actions would have for the public.

 

Here's the challenge, though - implementing a proactive, national mental health strategy and providing supports for their workers goes against everything the Harper folk believe; survival of the fittest, centrally coordinated services are bad, government is the problem, not the solution, etc.  They can ignore the facts for only so long before more people start to suffer from their approach - something Clement has seen happen before.

 

They can either pursue their ideology or they can help prevent more mental health related tragedies, but they can't do both.

 

It must make them crazy to think about.

An Era Exploding - in Opportunity

"If a recession arrives, the great fight in Ottawa will be between a Conservative government reluctant to pile on tens of billions of dollars in new debt, and an NDP opposition that demands just that to combat unemployment.

It would be an ugly debate, fought on the backs of suffering workers and stricken businesses. We can only hope the Europeans find a way out of the mess that they’re in danger of dragging us all into."

This is true, though it needn't be.  We aren't being backed into a corner by economic challenges; the social challenges that are mounting in response to the financial ones aren't a nail in a coffin.

Instead, we have an unparalleled opportunity to break the mold, rethink the way we do business, govern, and participate in society. 

We can have staff transition strategies.  Governments can coordinate shared service models empowered by one service platform that is open sourced.  Businesses can create new markets, empower employees and reduce the barriers that constrain productivity and lead to mounting insurance costs, but also broader health care costs.  Online training can be expanded and students given more power, twinned with more mentorship, throughout their ongoing studies.

It's all there for the taking - we just need the will to think it through and make it happen.

Welcome to the Conscious Society.

Overview of Outgoing Employee Transition Strategy

The Plan

Moving Forward Together: A Team Transition Strategy would involve three phases:

1)      Build the Transition Plan and Team

2)      Implementation

3)      Follow-Up

Phase 1 – Building the Transition Plan and Team

Based on the number of departing staff, Department Heads will select Transition Team Partners to manage the transitions of no more than ten individuals each.

Transition Team Partners will be selected based on:

-          Their demonstrated commitment to the wellbeing of the team

-          Communication and empathy skills

-          Internal and external connectivity

-          Capacity to manage departing staff (client) responsibilities in addition to their existing jobs

-          Ability to identify opportunities both for their clients and, through targeted connections, the agencies they are departing

Transition Team Partners will be assigned clients and provided with client contact information and details of last position/campaign roles.

While a volunteer position, Transition Team Partners, if staff, would be given flexibility with their regular duties to allow sufficient time to exercise these responsibilities.  All Government employees, including political staff and where possible, stakeholders would be encouraged to support Transition Team Partners in identifying and connecting with targets.

Phase 2 – Implementation

HR will contact departing staff and inform them of their status; HR will then explain the transition service the Department will provide and indicate their assigned Transition Team Partners will contact them.

Transition Team Partners connect with their clients, supplying a questionnaire designed to help clients profile their interests, skills and career objectives.  A meeting to plan next steps will be arranged.  This initial conversation will firmly establish that positive results cannot be guaranteed and it is in the best interests of the client to continue seeking out opportunities through traditional methods throughout the process.

-          In the event that clients have already found new employment, meetings will still be established to retain connectivity between individuals and the agency they are exiting.

During this meeting, Transition Team Partners will use the questionnaire to help their clients build a narrative (i.e. What is your career objective?) to help Partners identify targets and clients frame themselves in interviews. 

Transition Team Partners will work with their internal and external contacts, reaching out to other potential supports to identify targets for each of their clients.  These targets will be suggested to clients and, where there is consensus, informational interviews will be arranged.  Partners can attend these meetings based on their availability and inclination.

Transition Team Partners would provide status updates to HR, who would in turn let Team Partners know of any new opportunities within the Civil Service.  Transition Team Members would also convene monthly to share targets and see where cross-pollination is possible.

This would be an ongoing process until such time as “next steps”, be it new employment, ongoing social assistance, etc, are established.

Phase 3 – Follow-Up

Once next steps have been secured and clients are established, Transition Team Partners will reconnect to see how the new positions are going.

Contacts, targets and clients will be provided an opportunity to evaluate the process.  Transition Team Partners will convene to determine best practices and lessons learned.


EXECUTIVE RECTRUITMENT, a Toronto placement firm, uses more or less the same methodology.  Where the gap lies is in employers recognizing the value of landing outgoing employees.  We'll get there.

1. Conduct a client interview to identify the qualitative and quantitative factors that establishes the ideal candidate.
2. Evaluate that information and, using our extensive database and experience as resources, determine the most targeted approach to finding the top candidates.
3. Begin contacting potential candidates and screen them by way of initial telephone interviews.
4. Determine the contenders who are the closest match to our ideal candidate to meet for more in-depth, face-to-face interviews.
5. Assess the results to determine a short-list of three or four candidates to present to the client.
6. Provide the client with an individual assessment of selected candidates.
7. Arrange interviews with the client and candidates.
8. Perform an in-depth de-brief with both the client and the candidates to ensure a clear understanding of job requirements and expectations, determine a cultural fit and establish both parties desire to continue the process.
9. Co-ordinate follow-up interviews when necessary.
10. Consult with client to determine the best candidate and confirm the candidate’s satisfaction and willingness to accept an offer.
11. Facilitate the offer process.
12. Complete or assist with the reference checks, as the client requires.
13. Give guidance to the candidate as needed with the resignation process.