9/24 Weekly Email + Employee Development Day
Hi all,
I have a few new updates and reminders, in the following order this week.
Member Meeting Updates - City Council
Adopt a Path Reminder
Retirement Expo
Tempe Pride
Tempe Family Day - Deadline Reminder
Nationwide Investment Feedback
Employee Development Day Notes
Member Meeting Updates: I have attached a copy of the minutes from our September 17th Member’s Meeting. I also want to announce that we have confirmed 2 Tempe City Council Members will be attending our October Member’s Meeting. Councilmembers Brooke St. George and Bobby Nichols have confirmed they will be attending and Vice Mayor Arlene Chin has expressed interest (but is currently unclear on availability). We have asked the attendees to talk about what they’re working on in Council and answer questions from members - we’ll then summarize the meeting in a weekly email in case members are unable to attend.
Please submit any questions you have for the City Council Members in advance at this link. Please remember that Council does not exhibit direct oversight over the daily operations of Tempe departments (and are effectively barred from doing so under Tempe law) - questions about department operations may be better directed to the City Manager. City Council’s primary role is setting Tempe policy/strategic objectives, approving budgets, and exhibiting oversight over roles like that of the City Manager, City Clerk, and City Attorney. More information about the distinction between City Council and the City Manager’s roles can be found in Article 2 of the Tempe City Code.
As a reminder, the October In-Person Members Meeting will be on Thursday, October 15th from 12-1PM at the Don Cassano Room on the second floor of the Tempe Transportation Center (200 E 5th St, Tempe, AZ, 85281). There is one hour free parking in the City Hall Parking Garage or free parking on 6th St if you arrive in a City vehicle. You can rsvp at this link until Thursday, October 8th at 5PM.
The October Virtual Members Meeting will be on Wednesday, October 21st, from 12-1PM. You can rsvp for that here until Thursday, October 15th at 5PM.
Adopt a Path Signup: UAEA is currently planning to do our next Adopt a Path Cleanup on Saturday, September 26th, from 7-9AM. We meet in the Tempe Parking Lot on the southeast Corner of Curry and Miller (approximate address is 1325 E Curry Road, Tempe AZ 85281, see attached photo), then walk north up our path to Mckellips Rd. Breakfast, drinks, safety gloves, trash pickers, and trash bags will be provided. Please bring a hat, sun block, and/or sunglasses. This event normally takes 1.5 hours to complete, is eligible for community wellness points, and is a great opportunity to meet members of the board and your fellow union members. If you’d like to attend, please sign up here by tonight at 5pm.
Retirement Expo: Tempe will be hosting its annual retirement expo from 10-2PM on October 20th at the Tempe Library’s lower level. Representatives from Tempe HR, Nationwide, AZRS, and Galloway will be there to answer questions and give presentations. This is a useful event for all City staff, regardless of how close you are to retiring - proper planning now can make retirement come much sooner or be far more comfortable. No rsvp is needed to attend.
Tempe Pride Parade: Tempe PRIDE is once again participating in the Phoenix Pride parade this October 11th. Employees and their families are welcome to attend whether or not they are active members of Tempe PRIDE - you can either ride on the float or walk alongside. I’ve attached an email with more details - interested parties can also register (and request a free tshirt) at this link.
Tempe Family Day: Tempe is hosting a Family Day again this year on Wednesday, October 7th. Parents can bring their children in from 8-4:30PM to participate in a wide range of activities and learn more about the City. Click on the link for more information and to signup. Registration must be done by tomorrow, September 25th.
Employee Development Day: I attended Employee Development Day at the Tempe Center for the Arts last week and took some notes on the breakout sessions I attended. Since there were 3 sessions scheduled simultaneously each hour I could not attend everything - I did get a copy of the Tempe Professional Development Network’s slides though, if people were interested in the content of their session. I also did not see a lot of new information about the Educational Partnerships, so I’m copying and pasting similar content to what I shared last year.
I spoke to all of the colleges (ASU/NAU/GCU/UofA) that were present - each is part of our educational partnership program. Almost every college offers several dozen completely online degree programs which you can complete at your own pace. These programs either cover your tuition or reimburse you for educational expenses up to $6,500/year - while that isn’t a huge amount, it can go a long way towards a degree at a community college or could cover one of the educational partnership programs, such as the Masters in Public Administration cohort. Many of the main colleges (NAU, GCU, and ASU) all offer transfer opportunities - you can finish your degree at a cheaper rate at a smaller school and then transfer to those schools so your final degree is from them, not a community college. There also are a few partners that offer non-degree programs such as educational certificates - ABL IT Cyber Academy, for instance, offers a variety of IT courses and a Project Management Certification (PMP). PMP certification can be helpful in a variety of fields - it is internationally recognized proof of project management competency. One thing to keep in mind is that college classes can either help you with your career goals or allow you to make a complete career change. As I mentioned in last year’s email, many of Tempe’s senior leaders have obtained at least one degree during their time with the City - investing in yourself now can make a big difference to what level of the organization you end up at over the course of your career.
After the keynote I attended the “5 Pillars of Selfcare Session” hosted by multiple members of the Tempe Counseling team. This session reviewed the symptoms of burnout and ways employees can address them. Burnout manifests as a lack of motivation, procrastination, increased irritability, withdrawal from social activities, and decreased performance. There are various stages of burnout and employees can assess their respective level with tools like the BAT (Burnout Assessment Tool). I’ve linked a copy in this email and encourage stressed employees to review it. Depending on how you’re being impacted and the level of your burnout, there are generally 5 aspects of wellbeing that people can use to help resolve or cope with burnout feelings. These are:
Physical - Having a healthy diet, drinking lots of water, exercising regularly, and sleeping the recommended amount
Emotional - Acknowledging your feelings and emotions, setting boundaries, and processing difficult emotions.
Professional - Setting Work/Life Boundaries, pursuing learning opportunities, and exploring career pathways
Mental - Stimulating your mind, practicing meditation, seeking therapy, and reducing screentime.
Social - Maintaining healthy relationships with friends, family, and social groups.
I then attended “42 in 42,” a rapid fire series of employment tips from various City staff. One panelist was unexpectedly unavailable - the session was thus “35 in 42.” I attempted to capture each tip in this writeup, but may have missed a little nuance. The panel leader, Patrick Maurer, also noted that there is an upcoming Employee Development class called “Habits and Hacks” that covers similar content to this - if you’re interested in attending, the next session will be on November 5th.
Utilize “ROW Thinking”
Reality - “What is the reality of a situation?”
Options - “What are the available options?”
Way Forward - “What is the best path given what I know?”
Protect Your Energy
Recognize your energy levels peak and dip throughout the day - schedule high energy tasks to coincide with those peaks
We are all Contagious
People’s emotions heavily influence others around them. Infect people with positivity.
Pair Resourcefulness with Resilience
Exhaust all resources available to you before seeking more
Learn Before Giving Your Ideas.
Learn the policies and preferences of a workgroup before giving ideas. Everyone has ideas - yours can stand out if they already account for the limitations or capabilities of your team
Do the Best you Can, Even if the Work is Unpleasant
You can stand out as an employee by always giving 100$ and engaging with the work others find unpleasant
Build for Failures
Have backups of your work and plans for the worst-case scenario. Think about things like “what do we do in our team if we have no power?”
Be Crazy
You can try different ways of doing things. Limitations are a projection of one’s inner self.
Utilize an Equity Lens
Think about marginalized groups - who will be impacted and benefited by any decision your team makes?
Keep Your Ego in Check
You don’t always need to speak or have the right answer
Know Your Season
Know where you are in your life and where you want to be
You Can’t Pour Empty
Put your oxygen mask on first. You are less helpful if you are not taking care of yourself.
Embrace the 3 Keys to a Meaningful Life
Learn from Past
Embrace the Present
Plan for the Future
Read More Fiction
Fiction books increase vocabulary, builds empathy, and strengthens emotional intelligence
You Don’t Have to Know it All/Don’t Have to Do it All
10 Words or Less
Don’t explain things if you can’t concisely articulate an explanation.
Think Systems
Look at patterns and problems. Turn any repeated work into a system.
Complete the Circuit
Resilience is not pretending everything is okay. Complete the circuit by acknowledging bad things. Don’t bury stuff in toxic positivity.
Adopt Annual Career Check-Ins
Update resume and look at job postings. Analyze the career trajectory of people you like/admire
Reflect Before Responding
Take a beat to think through your opinions and responses.
Find your Sages and Sprites
Find smart people around you who know more about certain things than you do.
Lead with Compassion
Think about doing it for people, not just a generic mission
Compose Your Character
Character is built in quiet moments through actions. Don’t explain your character - just live your values
Reality TV - Watch Some
See how alliances form, how conversations can be misinterpreted, how people react under stress.
Don’t Take Yourself Too Seriously
THINK Framework - Use It
Before responding to something..
Is it True?
Is it Helpful?
Is it Inspiring?
Is it Necessary (to share)?
Is it Kind?
Find the Way
Think through what paths exist to an answer. There may not always be one and you have to pave that path.
Find the Lesson in the Fall
Sometimes failure is just failure. Sometimes there’s a lesson though.
Join an EAG
Tempe has many Employee Affinity Groups. Find some ways to show support or start your own.
See the Strengths in Others
Practice Mary Oliver’s Rules for Living
The work we do is inspiring - be an inspiration for others
“Past You” Wins
Thank your past self when your past self sets you up for success. Similarly, set your future self up for success.
Be Someone’s Light
Smile. Be nice to others.
Document Your Wins
Write down your successes.
Find Your Passion
If you ever are getting bored, find ways to vary your work or start working on something new.
I wrapped up the day by attending the “Financial Wellness for Public Employees” session led by University of Arizona Financial Faculty Lead Arturo Mendez. Arturo talked a little about how housing/rent, food, and energy costs have been driving inflation across the economy, and had a few general tips for improving the finances of municipal employees. These included:
Smart Budgeting - Tracking your expenses over 2-4 weeks and using that data to make decisions about places to potentially cut back
Income Growth - Investing in yourself with training, certificates, or degrees to become more attractive in the job market
Value-Preservation Habits - Focusing on making your home/dwelling energy efficient to save money, shopping sale items, and reducing your household waste (and thus your food costs) through things like re-arranging your fridge to make perishable items more visible.
Leveraging Municipal Benefits - Taking advantage of employer matches for things like HSAs, 457 Deferred Comp plans, and AZRS contributions.
Arturo also stressed the importance of building an emergency fund to cover 3-6 months of household essential expenses. These can be most easily built by automatic transfers of $25-$50 from your bank account to a high-yield savings account on paydays - the less someone has to think about it, the easier it is to work into your budget. Emergency funds are good both because they can cover unexpected expenses but also because they help people avoid high-interest debt from credit card spending that would be used to cover your emergency needs. Arturo was not inherently opposed to debt - he says it is important to understand that some debt, like mortgages, student loans, and low-interest loans for appreciating assets, is good for people, as it is a cheap way of investing in things longterm. Other debt, like credit card debt, payday loans, and high-interest personal loans is less good because it doesn’t allow someone to build wealth. Arturo says that debt should always be prioritized when you’re paying things off and noted there are generally 2 effective ways of tackling debt, the “snowball” approach and the “avalanche” approach. The snowball approach has you paying off the smallest loans first - small wins like this can help build momentum and energy to continue prioritizing debt payments. The avalanche approach instead has you target your highest interest debt first before anything else - this reduces the total amount you’ll have to pay over time, but may be more expensive initially.
Arturo wrapped up by talking about certain education loan programs like the Public Sector Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program. While it is not available to everyone, it can be very lucrative if people qualify - it essentially wipes away your education debt if you work for a public sector employer for 10 years while making payments. He also ended by noting that financial empowerment is not easy and requires a lot of long-term commitment, but that small-scale incremental lifestyle changes could help ease the burden. He said small changes are better than none and encouraged everyone to do one of the following steps (researching high-yield savings accounts, listing all debt with balances and interest rates, tracking all expenses over 7 days, or enrolling in financial educational resources like mymoney.gov) in the next month just to start somewhere.
Just to wrap up this section, I was happy to see so many non-supervisors show up this year to the event - last year’s event attendees seemed to mainly be supervisors and managers. I had some great conversations with UAEA members and was happy to see active participation in each of the sessions. Tempe has some great educational opportunities and, as Arturo points out, investment in your skills and knowledge can be an effective way to build long-term wealth through career growth. Even if you don’t have any immediate interests, I would encourage you to take a look at the upcoming Employee Development classes - there are some great resources and tools being made available to staff at no cost.
Blood Drive: The next Tempe Blood Drive will be on Wednesday, October 7th, from 9AM-12PM at the Escalante Community Center. Employees can register here. The American Red Cross declared a state of emergency in July over critically-low blood donation levels - you can help support sick and injured people across the US by donating. As usual, the good deed can be reward enough, but Vitalant also awards points for donations that can be redeemed for giftcards or movie tickets.
UAEA Nonprofit: The UAEA Board has been tentatively exploring the possibility in recent months of creating and running a nonprofit (501c3) in tandem with our existing organization. Nonprofits offer several advantages that our current corporate structure cannot provide, including the ability to accept tax-deductible donations or gifts and the ability to run many of our annual events and initiatives tax-free. Many Police and Fire Unions around the country have non-profit wings that they use for fundraising, and we think establishing one would greatly assist our organization’s resilience in the long term.
With that said…nonprofits are also a lot of additional work, and would require an additional governing board beyond the current UAEA Board. While there could be some overlap between our current board members and the board of a non-profit, the non-profit would need to have some additional people sitting in board seats. Before we make any major organizational changes we would like to see if any of our members are interested in participating on the non-profit board - if we can’t get interest, we’ll probably table the idea for the time being.
Non-profit participation would be a great resume builder as well as an opportunity to positively shape UAEA for years to come. While we couldn’t guarantee this in the first year, our long-term plan would be to get all board members both a monthly stipend and UB hours to do union business. We estimate the total time commitment would be no more than a few hours per month, and major responsibilities like accounting would be handled by a professional accountant serving as the treasurer.
If interested in sitting in a UAEA non-profit board, please fill out the following form by Thursday, October 1st. If you have any additional questions about our tentative nonprofit plans, please feel free to reach out to president@uaeatempe.com.
Group Chat: If you are interested in being a part of a UAEA group chat, please fill out this form. Please make sure you have reviewed our rules and policies concerning conduct and content. Signups will be open indefinitely and we will put out some resource guides showing how people can download, install, and use the app once we have a better idea of how many want to participate.
Personal Cellphone/Email: If you would like UAEA updates to be sent to your personal email or phone number, please fill out this survey. We’ll get you added within a week or two to our contact lists.
UAEA Member Retirements: UAEA’s Board would like to start recognizing the retirements of UAEA members. If you’re planning to retire, please feel free to shoot us an email or fill out this form and we’ll send you some nice thoughts to close out your time at the City. If you’d like, we’d also appreciate if you could fill out our exit survey before you go - there’s an option to indicate interest in that in the survey as well.
Free/Discounted Summer Activities: If you’re looking for free or discounted things to do with friends or family this summer, this webpage has a list of activities in and around Phoenix.
Besides free days at certain museums, don’t forget about the Culture Passes offered by Maricopa County libraries. These offer free entry for up to 2 people at places like the Desert Botanical Garden, the Arizona Heritage Center, Reid Park Zoo, and the Phoenix Art Museum. Passes are first-come, first-served, for library patrons, but I just learned that their websites can tell you which are available at every branch.
Community Resources: UAEA is aware of rising fuel prices and how this is impacting members. We are having some internal city discussions about possible workplace changes, but also wanted to post some resources for members who may be struggling to make ends meet. This is a similar list to what we posted in November with a few new additions. Please feel to reach out if you have additional recommendations about local resources.
AZ Food Bank Network: This link contains information about dozens of food banks and assistance sites across Arizona. You can search by the directory and the zipcodes they provide services for to find food banks in your areas.
AZ Medical and Nutrition Assistance: This is an Arizona-State run program that can help connect people with Arizona State programs that provide assistance for people who need medical coverage, WIC support, or additional access to nutrition. I do not know all that the program entails.
Maricopa County Utility Support: This is a Maricopa County program that can help people receive assistance paying for utilities. Some cities have unique offerings while others are covered under one umbrella program.
AZ 211: This is a Arizona-State run help line that can help people connect with a variety of resources and support they may be unaware of in their area.
Tempe Employee Relief Fund: This is a Tempe-run program (paid for by employee donations) that can provide support of up to $1,200 to assist Tempe employees with unplanned emergency bills (housing, mortgage, utilities, etc).
Employee Assistance Program: If you have insurance through the City of Tempe, you can take advantage of the EAP, a group of resources which can provide free therapy, legal consultations, or classes on stress management.
Cheap Recipe Guides: These are two free cookbooks designed for cooking high-nutrition and easy meals on a budget. Even if you’re not a fan of the recipes, there are some good tips on stocking a kitchen with affordable and long-lasting staples.
Free Transit Pass: This contains information on how to obtain your free bus, streetcar, and lightrail pass as a Tempe employee.
Sun Bucks: This program offers direct payments in the summer to families whose children receive free or reduced cost school lunches
Discount Grocery Stores: This link provides a few examples of discount/salvage grocery stores around Phoenix that resell food that supermarket chains don’t want (everything is still good, usually stores get rid of items that are out of season or past their best-by date, even if still viable).
Thanks for a great week, everyone!