Center for Workplace Happiness

Do you have a dog? Two? More? Are you dogless and get your dog love from friends’ dogs? Or maybe you’re someone who just doesn’t see the appeal of dogs?

If you love dogs, you’ll probably love this article. If not, read on anyway because there’s probably something here for you despite your distaste for this nearly-perfect being. (Oops…my bias is showing!)

In the early part of the 20^th century, Will Judy, the editor of Dog World Magazine, who was a WW1 veteran and an ordained minister, devoted his life to helping people understand what he saw as a spiritual bond between humans and dogs. Of dogs, Will Judy wrote, “The most loyal thing in the world is your dog. Whether you come home from Congress or from jail, whether you have lost your fortune or made a million, whether you return home dressed in fashion’s heights or in rags, whether you have been hailed as a hero or condemned as a criminal, your dog is waiting for you with a welcome...

Is your hospital having a stressful day?

I do now and then, especially when I find something fun to chew on and mom loses her mind!

Sometimes it feels like everyone is a gas can and you’re all waiting for someone to toss a match, right? That’s a terrible way to feel and a worse way to try to care for patients.

Can you all take 5 minutes at lunch to just sit and breathe? Put the answering machine on, lock the front door and all of you get together, shut off the lights, sit quietly and take long, slow, deep breaths.

Call a “take 5 breath break” daily if you can and watch the stress fall off of you and your team like hair falls off of me.

I’m Kacey and I love veterinarians!

Is life feeling a little bit chaotic today? Mom got me a Standard Poodle to play with – man is he tall!! And he doesn’t want to play the way I want to play and sometimes snapping happens.

Oooooh…did I hit a nerve there?

If there’s chaos in your hospital today and people are snapping at each other, try Mom’s way of handling things – encouragement. Encourage team members to be kinder to each other, to remember that everyone’s doing the best they can do in the moment, and if all else fails, stick em in a crate until they calm down. That seems to work pretty well around here.

I’m Kacey and I love veterinarians!

Great relationships happen because people choose where to focus. People get along for a while and then they start noticing things they don’t like. Instead of focusing on what they do like, they get fixated on what they don’t like. Before you know it, feuds are happening on the team, feelings are getting hurt, and more accidents and absenteeism plague your hospital.

Here’s a way to help get your people focused on each other’s strengths – praise one person a day behind their back. Tell the receptionist how good the kennel manager is at following each pet’s protocol. Tell a technician who’s assisting you what a great job the hospital manager does at juggling the schedule. Make sure the praise is true, and that the people you tell and those you praise change daily.

By demonstrating how you focus on your team’s strengths you model great behavior for your staff. They'll get it and they'll do it, too.

I’m Sandy Weaver and just like...