Do You Have What it Takes to be a Supervisor (Not the Elected Kind)?

 Human Resources Manager Anne Calle speaks at the well-attended "So You Want to Be a Supervisor" workshop in March.

Do you have strong character? A love of working with and mentoring other employees? A positive attitude? All are critical attributes to have as a supervisor at the County, according to a panel of experts at a recent workshop titled, “So, You Want to be a Supervisor?”

Being a technical expert isn’t always the most important aspect of supervision. Supervisors and managers spend a lot of time on big picture questions.

“You could be a technical expert,” said Anne Calle, a Human Resources Manager and Business Coach. But “when you’re a supervisor, it’s your role to teach other people to have that expertise.” Contrary to what some may believe, keeping the knowledge to yourself is not powerful, Calle said. If you want to look good, put the knowledge and expertise of your team in the spotlight and let them shine.

These were just a few pointers speakers shared at the well-attended workshop earlier this month. Organized and hosted by the County’s Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) and the Department of Human Resources, the event took place at the County Operations Center and was the first of its kind. Calle led the workshop. A panel of Senior Human Resource Analysts joined her, including Erica Bayles, Kathleen Murphy, Tim Mathues, Nameh Rezvan, Adriana Matsuhiro and Zenobia Howard.

Israel Garza, Vice President of the San Diego County Latino Association, said the County’s Employee Resource Groups hope to organize more workshops like this in the future.

Among the advice shared:

-At least as important as your skill level is who you are as a person, Calle said. “I’m talking about character, I’m talking about who you’ve become,” she said. Opportunities open up for people who demonstrate integrity and character.

-Being a great supervisor means a lot of interaction with people. You are helping your employees, and inspiring, nurturing and developing them. When supervising is in your title “that means that you are overseeing people, overseeing their careers,” said Calle. If you prefer to work independently, without interruption, supervising may not be the best fit. As a supervisor, your role is to develop, guide and support your team.

-Strong supervision is having the ability to make high-level strategic planning decisions by using your technical knowledge along with understanding the big picture.

-Having a positive attitude is one of the most important attributes a supervisor can have, Mathues said.
“Be upbeat, informative and inquisitive,” he said.

-Self-awareness of strengths and weaknesses is very important, Bayles said. How do you present yourself? How do you react to situations? And work to improve your areas of weakness. “Look for opportunities to get out of your comfort zone,” Murphy said.

-Build and maintain your credibility. When you don’t know the answer to something, ask for more time to research it, for example, rather than guessing. It’s much better to be honest, said Rezvan.

-Be innovative. Managers are looking for people with creative ideas who can also apply them.

-Be able to make decisions independently, Howard advised. “If you are in a supervisory position, you need to be able to make decisions,” she said. “There are going to be critical times when you have to do that and you can’t wait until your supervisor comes back from vacation.”

Speakers also suggested that employees consider their motivation for wanting to become a supervisor. There’s a difference between wanting power and control versus wanting to inspire, empower and develop employees.

As a supervisor, “it’s not about you,” Calle said. “It’s about leveraging the successes of your team.”

For more information on the County Employee Resource Groups (ERGs), visit the ERG InSite page.

LGBT and Allies Association Officially Launches

 The County of San Diego Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Allies Association is the latest employee resource group. About 140 people attended the launch party March 27 at the County Operations Center, including Chief Administrative Officer Helen N. Robbins-Meyer, Supervisors Greg Cox, Dave Roberts and Ron Roberts.

For more information about the LGBT and Allies Association, contact cosdlgbtandalliesassociation@gmail.com.

HHSA Employee Saves Stranger’s Life

Velia Fematt has donated about 10 gallons of blood.

She has donated blood most of her life. Now 53, Velia Fematt has been doing it since she was 18.

So when in 1995, Fematt was asked to donate an extra vial to submit to the national bone marrow registry, she did not think twice about it.

She registered and heard nothing about it for almost a decade. But about 9 years ago, Fematt got a call that changed her life and the life of a stranger forever.

It turns out Fematt’s blood stem cells were a perfect match for a woman in Florida who was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, cancer of the lymph tissue.

Fematt wanted to share her story as the County gets ready to launch its annual blood and bone marrow drive next week. Joining the registry these days requires no more than a mouth swab. And Fematt says we all have blood and our donation can help save a life. Hers did.

Back to the story.

After the woman’s diagnosis, she learned she would require high doses of chemotherapy and radiation to kill cancer cells. The problem is they can also destroy the bone marrow, where blood cells are made. Transplants are used to restore the stem cells when the bone marrow has been destroyed. 

The bone marrow registry tested the woman’s two daughters, but neither was a good match. Her father was too old to be considered.

Fematt was the perfect match on all six stem cell markers. She agreed to be a donor, but first she had to go through a battery of blood tests to make sure she was healthy and still a match. Days before the harvest, she was given injections to help her produce more stem cells. She was in discomfort and pain, but her resolve to be a donor never wavered.

“She was only 58. She had her whole life ahead of her. She had grandchildren. How could I not be a donor?” said Fematt, who has worked for the County for 25 years, 23 of those with the Health and Human Services Agency. “My father always donated blood, and I am sure if he had been a match he would have donated stem cells or bone marrow if needed.   It’s something we have that is free to give and also my way to honor my father.”

The woman’s age, her name and other aspects her life are details Fematt would find out after her donation since the bone marrow registry forbids any contact between donor and recipient for at least one year and facilitates an interaction only when both parties agree to connect with each other.

Fematt finally did get in touch with Marilyn Halberg-Diem, 67. They’ve become friends on Facebook and maintain contact via email or phone.

Halberg-Diem said she tried to stay positive throughout her ordeal, but when she learned the registry had found a donor, she tried to take “it sort of matter of fact.”

Her brother died from AIDS. Her mother had died from cancer. Her husband did too.

But, she said, deep down, she was thrilled.

“I was very happy that they did get a match,” said Halberg-Diem from her home in Delray Beach, Florida. “I knew I could go forward with my life.”

Halberg-Diem is now cancer free and enjoying her life with her two daughters and two grandchildren. She got emotional when asked why she opted to meet her donor, but said that is something she knew she wanted and would try to do from the moment she learned they had found a match.

“She saved my life. I wanted to thank her for being so compassionate and understanding. For giving me hope and for giving me a life,” said Halberg-Diem.

Fematt was contacted by the bone marrow registry about a second donation and she agreed once again. The registry later found a better match but if contacted again, Fematt said she would donate blood or stem cells every time she is called.

“I would do it in a second. You always hope that it’s not going to be your niece, nephew, child of family member who will need the blood,” Fematt said.  “Your gift could really make the difference. That’s somebody’s family or loved one.”

For more information about the blood drive or to sign up, visit the County Employee Blood Drive Web page or the San Diego Blood Bank website or call 1-800-MY-4SDBB (469-7322). For info on the marrow registry, contact Shelley Baker at Be The Match at 714-296-8479 (cell) or sbaker@nmdp.org or visit the organization’s website.

Taking 'Lead Well by Living Well' to Heart

Deanna Zotalis before and after her 90-pound weight loss inspired by Live Well San Diego.

After a lifelong struggle with weight, Deanna Zotalis has lost 90 pounds and kept it off for the past five months, crediting both a diet plan and some inspiring words from the CAO.

Zotalis, the operations chief for HHSA in North County, had tried diet after diet for more than 30 years searching for the answer to her quest for a healthy weight. But she finally found the right motivation in a message from Helen Robbins-Meyer to “Lead Well by Living Well.”

“I love that expression. County employees are in a leadership role in our communities,” she said. “So I decided to take steps to improve my own health.”

Zotalis said she had been on every diet you can name since she was 10 years old. When she finally got to the Medi-fast plan, she found a diet that worked for her. Beginning in April, she’s going to be featured on the diet system’s website as a success story. In her five-minute video she touts the County’s Live Well San Diego initiative.

“I was successful in losing weight with all of the diets I tried, but eventually always gained it all back,” she said. “Live Well helped change that.”

With her current diet plan, she has weekly weight-loss counseling sessions and monthly body scans that pinpoint the changes in the body’s composition.

“They helped me identify a goal of 80 pounds to lose,” Zotalis said.

She began the program in January 2013. She met her goal in November, and has lost an additional 10 pounds since then.

“If I can keep the weight off for a year I’ll be successful, and it’s been five months now.”

The weight loss has meant improved health all around for Zotalis.

“I had heel spurs and had to wear special flat shoes with expensive inserts,” she said. “And now I can wear heels again!”

She also developed sleep apnea as a result of the excess weight she was carrying. That has disappeared, as has slightly elevated blood pressure.

She now exercises three times a week with her daughter: 45 minutes of cardio, 30 minutes of strength exercises and swimming.

“It used to be very difficult to exercise because my back hurt,” Zotalis said. “Even doing housework my back hurt.”

In Zotalis’ office, Live Well has meant people bring in healthier options for pot luck and share healthy recipes. Her office has a salad club where they take turns bringing in a large salad to share.

If she has her way, the changes won’t stop there.

“I’ve been exploring forming a support group at work for people who struggle psychologically with weight loss,” she said. “I want to share with others who struggle.

“If you stick to your diet for a few days, you can do it. I feel much better now.”

HHSA Social Worker Goes Behind Bars to Touch Lives

Sara Otto was the recipient of the 24th annual Jay Hoxie Award, given to the a County social worker for commitment to others through volunteering in the community.

Most people wouldn’t pick a maximum security state prison as a place to volunteer. But Sara Otto is pretty fearless in her determination to help children - both in her job and on her own time.

Otto was honored yesterday as the winner of the 24^th annual Jay Hoxie Award, presented to a Health and Human Services Agency (HHSA) child welfare services social worker for commitment to others through volunteering in the community.

For four years, Otto has boarded a bus with San Diego County children to head to one of California’s prisons. The program, run by the Center for Restorative Justice, allows children (and a caregiver) to visit their mothers and fathers in prison.

“It encourages parents to be doing things in prison knowing that their children are waiting for them when they get released,” she said. “They have someone important waiting for them.”

The program provides the children with a photo taken with their parent, a travel bag and their meals for the day. On the way home, they are given a teddy bear with a letter from their parent and post-event counseling.

It’s a pretty powerful experience, according to Otto, and has provided some touching moments.

One boy came all the way to the prison with his grandmother when they learned she didn’t pass the background check. Without a guardian, he wouldn’t be allowed to see his mother. Otto stepped in to accompany him.

When it came time to take the photo with his mother, he insisted Otto be in the picture.

“I was trying to avoid that, but he kept insisting I be in the photo,” said Otto. “That’s the motivation to volunteer.”

On another trip, she got to witness a 13-year-old meeting his father for the first time. The father had been sentenced to prison before his son was born.

Otto also volunteers with older adults. It’s a little more light-hearted than the prison visits.

Once a month, Otto can be heard singing karaoke for residents in a convalescent home on 54^th Street in San Diego with a church group.

“They tap their little feet and get into the music,” she said.

Her favorite songs to perform are “Crazy,” “Blue Bayou” and “The Rose.”

“I’ve seen people crying when I sing ‘The Rose,’” Otto said.

She spent her first four years with the County working out of the Escondido Child Welfare Services office. She recently was promoted to supervising protective services worker in the Oceanside.

County Social Workers were honored at appreciation event held at the Jacobs Center. From left: HHSA North Regions General Manager Chuck Matthews; Jay Hoxie Award winner Sara Otto; HHSA Child Welfare Services Director Debra Zanders-Willis; Hoxie Award finalists Jennifer Whitton, Melissa Straus, Ashley Harden and Leticia D. Rodriguez; and HHSA Director Nick Macchione.Child Welfare Services eligibity workers Bernard Cook and Linda Cornejo were honored at the appreciation event.

You’re Just Somebody’s Type!

Be part of the County’s long and proud tradition of saving lives.

Starting Wednesday, April 2, the County will launch its 30th Annual Blood Drive. This year, the event will also include a Be The Match marrow registry drive, to benefit patients fighting more than 70 different diseases including blood cancers or sickle cell anemia. Registering for a marrow database is as simple as having your cheek swabbed. The County Blood Drive is the third largest in the region.

Sign up now! Just visit the County Employee Blood Drive Web page and scroll to the bottom to find the time and location that best suits you. The drive will visit 11 different County offices throughout the month of April, from Chula Vista to Vista and stops in between. The first stop will be the County Administration Center in downtown San Diego on Wednesday, April 2 from 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.

Donating blood takes about an hour and the drives are open to employees and the general public.

Appointments are encouraged but prospective donors can also drop in.

No appointment is necessary to join the Be the Match marrow registry, and the process takes about five to 10 minutes. The nonprofit is seeking donors between the ages of 18 and 44.

The help is critically needed. Each day, the San Diego Blood Bank needs to collect 380 units of donated blood to meet the needs of patients in area hospitals.

Since the mid-1980s, the County has partnered with the San Diego Blood Bank on the drives, in all collecting more than 15,000 pints of blood. Each pint benefits three people, said Juan Olmeda, a cancer survivor and County employee who has chaired the County Blood Drive for the past nine years. The County began holding joint drives with Be The Match last year.

For more information on the marrow registry, contact Shelley Baker at Be The Match at 714-296-8479 (cell) or sbaker@nmdp.org or visit the organization’s website. For more information about the blood drive or to sign up, visit the County Employee Blood Drive Web page or the San Diego Blood Bank website or call 1-800-MY-4SDBB (469-7322).

Giving Back – On the Job and Off

Making a difference is an everyday occurrence for three County employees, but for them it just isn’t enough. The threesome recently traveled to Huatulco, Mexico to help with conservation efforts at turtle nesting beaches.

Why spend your time off helping others?

“All of us have a passion for service, not just locally, but internationally,” said Housing and Community Development’s Megan O’Dowd. “There’s a lot of camaraderie and close friendships, we have similar mindsets for improving communities and for the long term.”

If that name isn’t familiar, you may recognize her last major project. O’Dowd recently coordinated the County’s participation in the annual count of homeless people. HHSA’s Shelly Tregembo deals with integrated care contracts involving physical, behavioral health and substance abuse. HHSA’s Anita Darling helps procure and monitor county behavioral health contracts.

“My nine-to-five work is very technical and very dry, it’s funding-based and I basically help contractors adhere to funding regulations,” said Darling. “I help people in roundabout way; I like a more hands-on approach.”

Back row, second from left, Shelly Tregembo, third from left Megan O'Dowd, fifth from left Anita Darling

One at a time, all three joined San Diego’s Uptown Rotary Club. The small group of about 18 volunteers regularly performs community service projects.

“I’ve always done volunteer work," said Shelly Tregembo. “I joined Uptown because it provided more structure to my giving back to the community as opposed to having great intentions to do charity work. At Rotary, we’re doing projects once a month.”

When WILDCOAST talked to Uptown about a great way to connect with nature, help a community and have fun doing it, well OK, but then…

“If you look at a baby sea turtle and your heart doesn’t melt,” said Tregembo.

All three were hooked. All paid their own way. Temperatures expected to be in the 90s were actually in the 100s and with 85 percent humidity. Tarantulas, geckos, and iguanas abounded. But the scenery was breathtaking, miles and miles of undeveloped coastline, coral reefs and small villages relatively untouched by tourism.

‘The area is so amazingly beautiful: jungle, then sand, then ocean,” said Darling.

The key is to maintain that beauty. The volunteers created bilingual signs on how to keep the area clean and stressed the ecological importance of the shoreline. They took advantage of what is now the dry season and picked up trash in a stand of mangroves before the debris could be washed into the ocean.

“You realize how delicate the ecosystem is,” said Tregembo.

The volunteers visited a school and helped create a mural highlighting the different marine animals found offshore. They also stressed the importance of conservation to the grade schoolers.

“They live at the beach, it’s a way of life,” said O’Dowd. “We emphasized this is really their community and conservation is key.”

At one time, turtles were slaughtered in this region for their meat. Now an aquarium and conservation center raises baby turtles until they are old enough to be released into the wild. 

“For every 1,000 eggs, only one survives to adulthood,” said O’Dowd.  

Seeing the natural environment where turtles breed proved to be a highlight of the trip. Each of the three was able to set a young turtle back into the sand near the shore and watch it return to the sea.

Now the whirlwind trip is over and all three Rotarians are back at work but they’re already working on their next project.

“We’re all running in the Hot Chocolate Race, a 15K, to benefit the Ronald McDonald house in two weeks,” said Darling.

Naturally. They’re doing what they like to do: give back to help others, again.

Seeing Green: Trees Planted at CAC

  

The first true signs of a park were planted at the County Administration Center (CAC) over the weekend. Queen palm trees now stand outside the south entrance and tipu trees are lining the walkway to the building.

Tipu trees are native to South America and are grown here in Southern California to be used as shade. Project Manager Suzanne Evans said that the tipu trees will eventually get big enough to provide a natural canopy over the walkway on the south side entrance of the CAC.

The Waterfront Park is one tree closer to opening day, slated for May 10. Stay tuned for video on the new greenery gracing the CAC. 

Getting Real About Ethics

Even just the word “ethics” can sound lofty and intimidating.

But if you think about it, ethical questions come up all the time, in forms both big and small. How often do we ask ourselves if we are doing the right thing? Or if others around us are?

March is Ethics Awareness Month, but questions like these can arise anytime: Is it OK to accept a gift at work, paid for by an outside vendor?

What about letting a vendor pay for a conference registration?

Cool for a co-worker to attend a charity event on work time? What if the event benefits the County?

We’ll get back to those specific questions in a moment, but the point is, sometimes we need help with the answers. That’s where the County comes in.

The first place employees can turn if they have a concern about possible unethical, illegal or unsafe activity is their department’s chain of command, said Joe Cordero, Director of the County’s Office of Ethics and Compliance (OEC), formerly the Office of Internal Affairs.

If an employee isn’t comfortable going to a supervisor or other manager, or if their concern relates to a supervisor or manager, they can call OEC or the County’s Ethics Hotline at (866) 549-0004. The hotline is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week and is operated by a third party. So employees can report concerns anonymously. Employees can also report concerns online.

So far this fiscal year, the hotline has received about 30 calls. The County looks into issues raised in each one. Where necessary, departments have then taken preventative or corrective action on issues raised including alleged abuse of authority, hostile work environment and sexual harassment.

The reality is, ethical breaches can happen in any workplace.

“For a County this big, we don’t have a lot,” Cordero said. “But we have a few.”

And there’s a strong system in place to deal with them when they happen.

A recent example: a former employee is currently serving a three-year jail term after pleading guilty to grand theft. Perhaps you heard about it in the news. The employee, it turns out, stole printer ink cartridges worth a total of $360,000 over about a six-year period. The behavior was reported by another County employee through the chain of command, and from there action was taken.

Cordero emphasizes that he and his staff at the OEC are available as a resource to employees. They are available to answer questions--and they often do. In addition to conducting investigations when necessary, the department’s mission is to be accessible to employees when they need information or advice about the full range of concerns.

“We’re not here to teach employees to be ethical,” Cordero said. “That would be presumptuous. And we handle more than formal complaints. We’re here to serve as a resource for employees, to help them in making those ethical decisions.”

As for those other questions:

Is it OK to accept a gift at work, paid for by an outside vendor? It depends. In one recent example, a few County employees won iPads and Kindles in a raffle through the Department of Human Resources’ Employee Wellness Program. The prizes were paid for by the County’s health insurance carriers. But the employees weren’t in a position to select the carriers as vendors, so there wasn’t a conflict.

As far as letting a vendor pay for an employee’s registration at a professional conference, the answer is: it’s better to say no.

And finally, what about a co-worker attending a charity event on work time? What if the event benefits the County? The answer is not straight forward. It depends on the situation. Employees can talk to their supervisor and call the OEC for advice.

Free, On-Site Health Screenings Filling Up Fast

Get your health checked on site and get $100!

The County’s popular wellness screening incentive is back. Employees can once again this year get key health indicators, like blood pressure and body mass index, checked for free. And get paid for doing so.

Starting March 11, employees can visit the Kaiser Permanente mobile health van at one of its 11 stops at County office locations. There, employees can get the screening, regardless of which health insurance provider they use, then be eligible for a $100 payout by following a few additional steps.

Employees just need to complete the screening, get a signature from medical personnel, then go to their health care provider’s website and fill out a Health Risk Assessment. Then they can send a confirmation form and the form signed by a medical provider to Human Resources’ Benefits Department. For more detailed instructions and the required paperwork, visit InSite’s Employee Health and Wellness Incentive Program Web page.

The mobile vans will make a series of visits to County offices from Vista to Chula Vista March 11-28. For details on when and where they will stop, check out the schedule.

Appointments are filling up quickly. As of Monday, slots were all booked at the County Operations Center, Health and Human Services Agency South Region office in Chula Vista and the East County Regional Center in El Cajon. Appointments were still available at the Duffy Administration Center in Kearny Mesa, Rosecrans Health Services Complex and County Administration Center. Appointments were almost filled at the North County Regional Center in Vista and Edgemoor Hospital in Santee.

To sign up, employees can call Kaiser Permanente at (619) 641-4536 between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m.

If you can’t make it to these screenings, stay tuned for more information on additional free screenings to be offered at some County sites in April. You can also be eligible for the $100 if your own doctor performs the screening and you complete all the steps.