By David J. Craig
During a free seminar at BU last fall, faculty and staff learned how to confront tactfully a spouse or roommate about a forgotten stack of dirty dishes.
Household squabbles may not seem work-related, but
the Work, Health, and Life Series aims to show that they are. The idea
behind the series, begun last year, is to improve the state of mind of
participants, at home and in the workplace, as well as to teach the sorts
of nuts-and-bolts skills traditionally the subject of professional development
courses.
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| Bonnie Teitleman, of the Faculty/Staff
Assistance Office, and Hilary Murray and Kerry Ducharme, of the Office
of Personnel, (left to right) helped organize the Work, Health, and
Life Series this semester. See Spring schedule.
Photo by Kalman Zabarsky
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"The Difficult Conversations seminar is geared toward teaching people how to talk to their employees or employer about a difficult subject, which is something no one likes to do," says Bonnie Jean Teitleman, director of the Faculty/Staff Assistance Office and a licensed social worker, who leads the seminar. "We focus on things such as understanding your own emotions, separating another person's intent from the effect that their words have on you, and trying to understand another person's perspective without judging him.
"An important part of this series is to give people the tools to enhance their lives outside of work, and the discussions address that," says Teitleman. "The textbook example, in this case, is the argument between a woman who thinks her husband is a slob because he won't clean his dishes, and her husband, who thinks that she's a compulsive neat freak."
This semester, the Work, Health, and Life Series is offering free seminars and workshops to faculty and staff at the Charles River Campus in three areas: professional development, health promotion, and life enhancement. The seminars are led by employee volunteers and cover subjects as varied as public speaking, lower back pain, and caring for elderly family members.
The series is a collaboration between the University Training Group, the Faculty/Staff Assistance Office, the Occupational Health Center, the Office of Family Resources, and the Office of Personnel. Until last year, each group offered its own development program. But organizers say that the programs competed for the attention of faculty and staff and led to duplication in some seminars, which revealed the need for a centralized source of information.
"The new series is more cohesive because the offices communicate with one another about these events," says Hilary Murray, manager of employee relations, employment, and training at the Office of Personnel. She coordinates the University Training Group, a cross-campus assembly of faculty and staff volunteers. "For instance, we're trying hard to offer seminars around a specific theme so that they complement one another."
Last semester that theme was midlife issues, such as parenting teens and caring for aging parents. This semester the focus will be communication within the workplace, which will be addressed in seminars such as Difficult Conversations, Conflict Resolution, and Straight Talking.
Organizers are also mailing surveys this month to all BU staff in order to fine-tune their offerings. While the 20-person limit of a seminar is conducive to active participation, organizers have made boosting attendance a priority. "We need to find out what people's interests are and what keeps them from hearing about and participating in the program," says Murray. "I think attending professional development events is often not on the top of peoples' list, because everybody is busy at work, and life just gets in the way."
Attending a seminar may make real life that much easier, however, according to Kerry Ducharme, an employment and training specialist who led a seminar last fall about e-mail privacy issues. "A lot of people who came had no idea that, depending on the program, after you delete an e-mail message from your desktop, it's still in the system forever," she says. "I never write anything very personal in e-mails anymore, because that brings up real privacy issues."
For more information about the seminars, including locations, or to register, call 353-4486 or 353-3500. Further details, such as descriptions of the seminars and registration information, are available at www.bu.edu/personnel/training.