This past week, LIANZA Ikaroa held their Library Experience Day in Palmerston North. The day was filled with engaging workshops, timely presentations and talks, and interactive components which left the attendees buzzing with excitement and inspiration.
Cath Sheard presented on resilience, wellness, and well-being within the workplace, and with a nationwide level 4 lockdown recently, this is an extremely important topic. Cath explains her role within her library and how she is there to manage people's "buckets" to make sure they're not overflowing, and if they are, how best to help with that situation.
Cath Sheard presented on resilience, wellness, and well-being within the workplace, and with a nationwide level 4 lockdown recently, this is an extremely important topic. Cath explains her role within her library and how she is there to manage people's "buckets" to make sure they're not overflowing, and if they are, how best to help with that situation.
Cath Sheard at the LIANZA Ikaroa Experience Day. Photo credit: Ana Pickering
When we look after ourselves in these seemingly small ways they add up, and what they add up to is better overall wellbeing and a bit more resilience. Resilience that means when a customer loses the plot, we can mentally take a step back and think “It’s not about me, this is someone who is having a hard day”.
As a manager one of my key roles is to protect people’s buckets. Let me explain. I think our lives are like a bucket of water. Some of the water is our out-of-work lives – and the amount of water this creates varies. When our homes lives are going well, the water might only be half a bucket. When we have vet bills to pay, a sick child or spouse, or are trying to sell our home, the bucket might be 80% full.
Some of the water is our day-to-day work and some of the water is extra tasks we are given. Sometimes the water in our bucket is sitting right at the top and it only takes one drop – an extra task, a printer that won’t print, or a customer that’s being difficult – for our bucket to overflow. For some people that overflow is physical, with hot tears of exhaustion or frustration leaking out – unbidden and unwelcome.
My job is to make sure people’s buckets have room at the top so one drop doesn’t cause them to overflow. That means individual staff are given more work, or less, depending on where the water level in their bucket is sitting.
As a manager one of my key roles is to protect people’s buckets. Let me explain. I think our lives are like a bucket of water. Some of the water is our out-of-work lives – and the amount of water this creates varies. When our homes lives are going well, the water might only be half a bucket. When we have vet bills to pay, a sick child or spouse, or are trying to sell our home, the bucket might be 80% full.
Some of the water is our day-to-day work and some of the water is extra tasks we are given. Sometimes the water in our bucket is sitting right at the top and it only takes one drop – an extra task, a printer that won’t print, or a customer that’s being difficult – for our bucket to overflow. For some people that overflow is physical, with hot tears of exhaustion or frustration leaking out – unbidden and unwelcome.
My job is to make sure people’s buckets have room at the top so one drop doesn’t cause them to overflow. That means individual staff are given more work, or less, depending on where the water level in their bucket is sitting.
 | Let’s start with the absolute basics of well-being in the workplace. Some of the advice I give people includes:
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- If you need a two-second breather, take it. Tell someone you’re unavailable for two minutes and walk fast to the end of the building and back.
- Take your annual leave. We have allocated leave because it is GOOD for us. I don’t buy the idea that we can’t leave our roles for a week or two. If I got run over by a bus tomorrow work would miss me, I hope, but they’d cope. Last year I was off for two weeks when I had a knee replacement and, in March, I was off for three weeks after my stomach ruptured. Did work fall apart? Of course not! My staff are amazing, and no one is irreplaceable.
- Don’t get into the habit of working extra hours. You need to be at your desk and ready to work by your start time. When you always start early you are actually lowering your hourly rate. Yet if I suggested lowering your rate you’d be horrified.
- Consider taking work emails off your phone. Again, I appreciate this is role dependant. I mentioned to Rachel Esson once that it 'probably isn't a fire' - and she looked at me and said 'actually it is a fire - in the basement!"
Cath Sheard is the Libraries & Cultural Services Manager at South Taranaki District Council, and has an Advanced Diploma of Arts & Creativity (Honours). A wonderful supporter of LIANZA and libraries for many years, Cath was the chair of the LIANZA Professional Registration Board for several terms, before stepping down in 2020. Cath is also an artist and inspired by the local landscape, much of her work leans toward abstraction. Cath's art can be found in galleries, exhibitions and private collections, primarily in New Zealand and the USA. Visit Cath's blog here: https://cathsheard.wordpress.com/
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