Staff Morale

The “coming to God” staff meeting didn’t work. In fact, it’s possible it even made staff morale even worse. I’m not sure what is wrong with everyone, but there just seems to be a gray cloud hanging over camp. Even Nurse J, who is usually my information source and a supporter, is out of sorts. Actually, she has been the weirdest of all. She came to me and told me that “everyone is unhappy and you’re going to have mutiny on your hands.”

Um… okay…?

She couldn’t tell me why or any details. When I asked who had talked to her, she refused to tell me. When I sad, “I could probably guess” assuming it was a few of the return staff, she said, “you probably couldn’t.” At that point, I got mad. Was she enjoying this? Was this a game?

I don’t enjoy drama. If there are problems, I want to fix them. I understand that when you take a group of 19 year olds and have them live together, work together and push them to the brink of exhaustion/frustration on a daily basis, there is inevitably going to be drama. And I am always prepared to deal with it in a calm, no-nonsense way, so that we can move forward and do the work we are here to do.

She claimed that there was nothing I could do unless they came and talked to me. I disagreed. They are 19 and more often than not, they won’t come to me. If I go to them, they will usually talk to me. And I am the adult, who wants to fix the problem, so I am direct.

Nurse J seems to enjoy the drama. And so I was mad. And I asked her about it. And she got defensive, asked if I wanted her to be here and then she cried. I wanted to tell her to go away, but instead, I calmed her down. I And eventually she told me which staff were unhappy.

I pulled in 6 staff for a meeting. I asked what was going on and how I could help. I told them some of the things I’d heard and listened to their concerns. Then I pulled PDP and PDS into the meeting and they listened.

I never really found one big problem. There were some little things and a lot of miscommunication. The counselors thought the lead staff were mad at them. The lead staff thought the counselors hated them. So every interaction was colored by a bad feeling, when really, no one was actually upset. After we cleared it all up, everyone seemed relieved and there’s a clear difference in feeling in the air.

I’m a little surprised by Nurse J. The whole incident showed me a side of her I’ve not seem before. Even though we resolved our issue and hugged at the end of the conversation, I can’t shake the uneasy feeling I have about her. It’s so weird and I am really not sure what is going to happen- hopefully it blows over and we can go back to normal.