Everyone Has an Accent (Yup, Even You)

Say the word crayon. Now have your coworker say it. Do you both say it the same? Maybe one of you says it cray-ahn and the other says it cray-awn or just cran. And if you speak a different language at home, it might be none of these!

The point here is – everyone has an accent. Yes, even you, English-as-a-first-language speakers. A recent workshop sponsored by the Diversity & Inclusion and Customer Experience initiative teams explored how people can form assumptions about others based on their accents. Employees learned strategies to make sure they give positive experiences to customers who might speak differently.

“Events like this help us reach our goals to be more inclusive and culturally competent,” said Virginia Exner, Senior Human Resources Analyst who led the workshop.

Exner said the workshop brings awareness and attention to challenging topics and creates thought-provoking environments where employees are encouraged to engage in activities and discussion that help them better understand both their fellow employees and those they serve.

“I think it’s a great starting point,” said Keisha Clark, who works for HHSA and is current president of the African American Association of County Employees (AAACE) employee resource group. “One of the highlights for me is seeing some of my coworkers and their thoughts about it, but also then checking my bias about judging them about their bias.”

Diversity and Inclusion champions work on an accent exercise at a workshop focused on accent biases.Clark, who admitted to formerly having her own misconceptions about people with accents different from hers, said she hoped that the attendees would take the information learned back to their departments and share with their colleagues to keep the conversation going.

“When you have rich discussion and things like this, you want more time to interact and talk,” she said. “It gets you thinking a little more.”

Exner said based on feedback from the participants, the workshop was successful. She said one employee who speaks English as a second language was particularly grateful for the experience.

“The activities challenged the audience to look at ways languages and accents can potentially influence our views and the service we provide to our customers,” Exner said. “If success is measured in opening minds and increasing our empathy for others, then I would say the workshop was very successful.”

Things You Can Do to Overcome Accent Biases

• Practice Acceptance
• Be Respectful
• Listen
• Be Flexible
• Be Patient
• Be Empathetic
• Understand
• Have HEART

You can learn more about the County’s commitment to diversity and inclusion on InSite.

Let's Give a Big Hand to Those Giving Their Time

If someone handed you $40 million as a gift, what would you say?

“Wow! Thank you so much,” would hardly capture the depth of your gratitude.

That amount is roughly the dollar value the County gets each year from the combined efforts of its volunteers. Tens of thousands of people, donating their time to help us provide better services. We thank them all, and in a few weeks, our Board of Supervisors will hold its annual volunteer recognition event to express their appreciation. We quite simply could not do what we do without them.

And now – because we’re always looking for ways to do more at the County – we’re preparing for a big enhancement to our volunteer program, meant to put more of those resources at our disposal. We’ll soon be launching a website that will eventually bring all our volunteers into one centralized system.

The system will make it more efficient for department staff to review volunteer applicants, speeding up the process to get them started. It will make it easier for volunteers to search for and choose opportunities based on their area of interest. And if volunteers want to move from one program to another, they will already have a profile. The system will make it possible to do online scheduling, so both volunteers and department coordinators are literally working from the same page.

If we want people to offer us their time, we need to make it as easy as possible for them. In short, that’s what the system will help us do. We expect to get it rolling with a few departments by later this spring, then keep adding to those. 

There’s also more to the value of our volunteer program than what we can put into numbers. One of the County’s top goals is to create ways for residents to be engaged with their community. Volunteers want to feel they are doing something meaningful and making a difference. When we involve them in our work, we’re giving them a stake in that community and the opportunity to have a positive impact.

The experience builds their sense of connection, which is a goal of Thriving, one-third of our three-part Live Well vision for the County. Compared to the other two components, Healthy and Safe, Thriving has more aspects that go beyond basic needs and are sometimes intangible.

Think of the distinction we’re drawing when we use the expression “make a house a home.” One is simply a place. The other captures a complex set of feelings about your well-being. In the same way, we want San Diego to be more than a place people live – we want them thriving. Living a high-quality life.

For many people, volunteering is an important source of that kind of enrichment. So while our volunteers do help us in numerous ways, we’re also happy to give them opportunities for rewarding, thriving activity. I know managing a volunteer force that’s double the size of our regular employee workforce is no small task. My thanks to everyone who plays a part in recruiting, training and coordinating all our volunteers.

While I’m at it, let me also salute the volunteer spirit among all of you. I know many of you, on top of all you do in your County jobs, head off to spend time with countless charities, schools, sports teams, civic and faith organizations, and on and on, touching even more lives.

Then there’s all the pitching in you do on County efforts. The Point-in-Time Count of homeless people. CECO. Our Employee Resource Groups. The Live Well 5K. Employee Poll Workers.

(Note on that last one – it’s that time again. We need you for the June and November elections. Details coming soon on InSite.)

None of these events or organizations would be as successful as they are without your participation. I thank all of you who’ve taken on those duties.

Going through all these examples of volunteerism is really inspiring. So many people pouring all that energy into so many causes, doing what they can to make San Diego better. I’m unbelievably proud to work in a place that is a hub for that positive force, and I’m excited we’ll soon have new tools empowering us to make our community even stronger.

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