How I learned about H@W - Celebration of my Mom

In celebration of IWD I’d like to share this story my mum told my teenage daughter on work, leadership, rules, and play…..

I learned about happiness at work (without knowing it) while growing up on Vancouver Island. Growing up my single mom raised us, working full time at the local hospital for almost 35 years as a cook and house keeper/cleaner, not jobs which traditionally make you think “that will bring me happiness in my job”….but over the years I saw that she was always able to connect with who she was helping, and how she was making a difference.?

Here is her story (these are my mom's abridged words):

One winter’s day – back when I was still at work as a housekeeper in the Extended Care Unit (care home wing of the hospital) – there was a glorious snow fall, in a place where it rarely snowed.

As I walked into one of my 5 4-bed wards on B wing, the “girls” were pointing to the snow falling.?One of the residents (a 92 year old ex-horseriding champion) said to me “I’d like to see you go out there and throw a snow ball at our window.?I dare you!”

I explained that if the Head Nurse (HN) saw me from her office, I’d get in trouble.

“Chicken,” said the resident. “I’d do it if I could”.?

One of the other ladies sighed “It would be more fun ?to have a snowball fight – if we could” (All the residents in these rooms were unable to leave their beds)….

“Wait right here….” I said (A particularly sassy lady remarked that they had to….they couldn’t get out of bed)

Now my role as a housekeeper involves:

• The Basics – MUST BE DONE EVERY DAY: Bathrooms, bedside tables, floors mopped.
• Extras – if you have time, you get to those, floor polishing, dusting, windows etc.

The work was split between myself and my co-worker.?He used to do C-wing, and half of A-wing, I cleaned B wing, and the other half of A-wing.?Our supervisor would check in with us at the end of each day (to check on what had been done).

Back to the snow day…..I went to my janitor’s room and got 2 spare buckets.?I then went to the garden door (which was slightly out of line of sight of the HN) and made a bunch of snow balls in the garden.?I brought these buckets into the 4-bed ward, and got some cotton gloves from the cleaning cart.?

I made each of the women put on cotton gloves and a pair of rubber cleaning gloves so their delicate/elderly hands didn’t get cold.?The deal was they could ONLY throw snowballs at ME, as I stood in the middle of the room, and tried to deflect them with my dust-pan.

We were all laughing hysterically, and as I started mopping up the melted snow a voice said, “What is going on here?”….It was HN!?

“Snowball fights!” said my co-conspirators.

HN looked at me and said, “Could I see you for a moment in the hall?”….uhoh!?I’m in trouble now. But as I looked at my excited laughing women, I didn’t care. Out in the hallway, HN stared at me with silent, steel-grey eyes sparking, and said “I hope you have a good explanation for this!”

Me: “Well, they were so excited by the snow, and how long has it been since any of them have had a snow-ball fight? I made sure they wore gloves….”

HN: “And you’re going to mop up snow instead of doing your job?”

Me: “I’ll get all the basics done, and mopping the floor IS part of my job.”

HN: “And what would happen if you did this in all the rooms? How much cleaning would get done??And what would your supervisor have to say?”

(Gulp!) As the standard line of questions came when a leader wants you to see the error of your ways….I tried to explain as clearly and as kindly about my reasons and intentions

Me: “I would just get the basics done, I know, but that’s what often happens if we are short staffed, or my coworker gets called to another area of the hospital!”

She stared at me, and then smiled….and remarked “Yes, he does get called to the other areas of the hospital…..and it is very rare to get a snowfall here….”??And she paused….smiled again and said….

“But ONLY in the 4-bed wards…..In the double rooms or single rooms there’s no room and something will get broken.?And remember the residents MUST wear gloves”.

So bucket after bucket, I hauled snow-balls into the wards, and laughter rang around the often quiet and subdued area of the hospital.?My co-worker heard it, and came from his wing to see what all the fuss was about, and we had a plan.

He did his 4-bed rooms, and I did my wing, After lunch I did his single & double rooms while he got snowballs for his 4-bed wards, then we mopped up, and went down to the shared wing, and split the work so we could have snow-ball fights and get the cleaning done.

At the end of the day I heard other colleagues complaining about how all they did was mop up snow all day…..we were all mopping up snow all day…..but we just had more FUN while we did it.

The morals that my mom shared with my daughter were this:

• When someone in authority challenges your actions, don’t assume they are angry! When they say “I hope you have a good explanation for this? They might hope you do? They might just be curious!”
• Don’t get angry, just calmly tell them your good reason.
• They may not think it is a good enough reason for your actions, but at least they learned how you look at things, and that your motives had goodness behind them.
• And sometimes, you’ll get paid a decent wage to have snow ball fights.

To these I would add:

1. Play while the snow falls....you never know if this will come again. A little play makes a lot of difference
2. If you have fun with your colleagues, you can do amazing things, get all the work done, and bring people joy in the process.
3. Anyone can be happy at work by finding out where they make a difference and connecting to it.
4. How you view your work, is entirely up to you. Are you mopping up the snow with resentment? OR because you created a sense of joy, fun and relationships.