THE RESERVOIR
From Me to We: Renewing a Culture of Community in the Workplace BY MELANIE OTERO
T
he year before COVID-19 struck, the documentary The Great Disconnect told the story of another pandemic impacting our health and wellbeing: loneliness and social isolation. This timely documentary raised the question: Is it possible to overcome our culture of disconnectedness and rediscover how truly essential we are to one other? Fast forward to 2021 and the exponential effect of COVID-19 on loneliness and isolation and the emotional distancing brought on by politics and events in the news, and it’s easy to see that we are increasingly becoming a hyper-individualistic society at great detriment to our own health and community wellbeing.
We asked three professionals on the frontlines of supporting the Palm Beach County community to weigh in:
Nowhere is this more evident than the great disconnect in our workplaces. As employers and employees navigate how they come back together again, there is a deeper recognition of the importance of social connections inside and outside the workplace to support mental health, while balancing the imperative for performance to keep organizations afloat. Employers and employees need to be constantly and honestly communicating with one another to figure out, how do we renew a culture of community?
Tammy Fields: The separation has been difficult for me personally, and our employees. I see and feel the stress they are experiencing. Their stress is compounded by the difficulties their clients are experiencing. It weighs on them because they care. We’re also navigating how we communicate about race relations. Our staff is very diverse, which is one of our greatest qualities and helps us serve our community best. When racial incidents happen in the news, we have to recognize that people are responding in different ways, and we have to develop under-
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THE WELL OF PBC / OCT ISSUE 2021
• Tammy Fields, Director, Palm Beach County Youth Services
• Ljubica Ciric, PsyD, Vice President Child & Family Mental Health, Community Partners of South Florida
• Tawanna Pollock, Child and Family Therapist, Community Partners of South Florida
The Well: As an employer, what changes have you seen in your workplace culture?
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