Blog · · 3 minute read
DSP Recognition Week, and the other fifty-one
DSP Recognition Week runs September 13 to 19 this year. By Tuesday there'll be a tray of something in the break room, and by Wednesday it'll be gone. Here are a few kinds of thanks that last longer.
Say the actual thing
“Thanks for all you do” is kind. It's also the line on the banner, the email and the sheet cake, so it tends to slide right past.
The thank-you people hold on to is specific. Thank you for staying until Dana got there on Saturday. Thank you for catching the count that was off at four in the morning and calling the nurse. The new hire you trained last month mentioned you by name.
A day, a thing they did, one sentence. It's no longer to say than the general version, and it tells someone you were paying attention.
Then put it in writing. When a nurse mentions that someone on evenings handled a rough night well, text the person and copy whoever writes their review. The written one is still there at review time, and now and then it ends up saved in someone's camera roll.
Take it to the shift
If the celebration is at two on a Wednesday at the office, it's a party for day shift.
The awake overnight is asleep. The weekend crew is home, because it's Wednesday. Day program staff are out with the van, and the float was at a different house that day.
So bring it to them. Drop something off at ten at night with a note that names the person on overnight. Do a second round on Saturday morning. Leave a card on the dashboard of the van.
A director standing in a group home kitchen at 10pm, holding a bag of something warm, gets talked about at handoff for a while.
Let the next shift say it
Some of the nicest thanks in a house travels from one shift to the next. The morning person who writes “kitchen was spotless, thank you” on the handoff sheet. The evening crew who leaves the good pen where the overnight can find it.
Make it easy to do on purpose. Tape a sheet of paper up next to the posted schedule with one question at the top: who made your shift easier this week? Tie the marker to it with a string, because otherwise the marker walks.
Read it on Friday. There may be a few names on it the office doesn't hear often, and every one of them was put there by a coworker.
The schedule says it too
Some of the best thanks never uses the word. It shows up on the schedule.
Post it early. Early enough that someone can say yes to a birthday party without checking with you first.
Remember what they asked for. The Saturday someone mentioned back in June, handed to them in September without a reminder.
Give the dependable ones a quiet week. When a shift opens up, it's easy to call the same three people first. The person who always says yes has earned a week where nobody asks.
Take the first no. When someone can't pick up, “no problem” is a complete answer. Asking a second time makes the first no cost something.
After the tray is empty
The week is a good excuse to start. The habit lives in the rest of the year, on ordinary Tuesdays, at shift change, in a two-line text.
And if you're a DSP reading this on your break: thank you. For the Saturday, for the count at four in the morning, and for every new hire you walked through week one.
Try it on this week See what it costs
Fourteen days, your real schedule, no card. $20 a month plus $1 per staff member.