Hi Shenette, Clumsy Conversations sound awesome! I'd love to hear more about how you structure these.
Some things that we do at Mona in Hobart (a large and very complex building with some confronting artwork that can be very challenging for some visitors) are:
We have staff training (in person and online) that they're paid to attend. For example:
-A session that focussed on emotional intelligence and things like amygdala hijack, which detailed how people's brains work and therefore how they behave when they're in a threat state. It has helped to remind our staff that they're not personally responsible for someone's upset, some skills to practice if they are confronted by someone with a complaint or upset (e.g. CARP), and understanding that the staff member isn't a robot and may get upset themselves, and that this is understandable and valid. Learning about the amygdala hijack, threat state, etc was empowering for team members who learned that this isn't about them doing anything wrong.
-We use a platform called EdApp for skills development and introducing staff to new roles and ideas. Staff members do this training outside of work hours, so they are paid for the time it takes them to do this training. It's another way of demonstrating our commitment to their learning and engagement.
In cases where we have had difficult customer interactions (e.g. I had a panic attack one day thanks to a creepy man coming up to me and talking directly into my ear - it was awful), our supervisors and managers have always had our backs. In that situation, I was able to get off the floor, no questions asked. I was replaced in my position and not forced to return to the floor. My supervisors went looking for the man with the intention of removing him from the museum.
We have several neurodiverse staff members who know they can step away if they're overstimulated, need to decompress, etc., and they'll be supported. This culture of support has benefited the team greatly.
I used to train new staff and a few things I'd always say, to ensure our staff felt confident and supported, were:
-People are not angry with you; they're being angry in your general direction because you're a staff member. You're wearing the uniform. You probably did nothing wrong and you're just there at a point that they've reached their limit. This is about them, not you. You don't need to take it on board. - This one is especially relevant for younger women, who have been socialised that everyone's upset is their problem to fix, and often feel personally attacked. This isn't helped by larger, older men who use their physicality and loud voices to try to intimidate (they often pick the smallest person in the room).
-You are the expert in your workplace" - empowering team members that they know their stuff and can be confident communicating with visitors. We also talk about how everyone's reaction is as valid as the next person's, and that not everyone who visits us woke up in their own bed this morning, so they probably already felt discombobulated before they even arrived
These are all part of our culture of looking after each other in what can be a very tricky environment to work - a place that pushes buttons and challenges people, who don't always respond well; a place that can get very crowded, loud and overwhelming. We look after each other first, so we can look after our visitors. I have worked at Mona for ten years and it has just always been like this! One other thing we do is celebrate successes - supervisors read out positive feedback and devices in our morning briefings.
I might have strayed off topic a bit there but I hope this is useful!
Hi Shenette,So good to meet you virtually. I work with Roundabout Theatre Company in our Audience Services Department and our additional brand Criterion Ticketing. This is something our management team is very passionate about and I'm happy to share about what we've done to combat this.
A big addition was our company crafted an Audience Agreement that is shared in all of our pre-trip emails, along with being posted in our Ticketing Polices on our website. They also ensure that this is published at various areas of our venues for review and so our house staff can direct our guests to, when engaging.Additionally our Audience Services Department created its own Culture Statement that we shared with our colleagues internally. This shared our department's values and how we intend to interact with patrons that challenge said values. We shared it with the company as a way to affirm our intentions but also empower the other departments that engage with our audiences that their practices would be in line with our overall service. It included not only our ethos about customers, but also how we intended to support our staff and their identifies.Also our Call Center Manager team adapted materials we'd received in our DEAI sessions regarding Dismantling Microaggressions, and focused it on when customers were committing the microaggressions against our phone and box office representatives. We shared the materials along with hosting training sessions to discuss how to interrupt these moments and call in the actions. This in particular empowered our reps to address behavior with customers rather than feeling like they had to accept it and find ways afterwards to manage the after effects. And our managers ensure that they are there not only to support the staff if needed with the customers, but also ensuring that our staff have the resources they need for any after care. This sometimes means making sure other departments understand this might look like having a coloring book at their desk, knitting, or needing to step away for extended periods of time. We're always challenging the concept of "professionalism" and interrogating if certain accepted behaviors are actually necessary to the role. The work continues off of this and we're actually in the process of another Well Being check in with our staff about the resources they're looking for in their roles. Last year we scheduled conference room times and meetings, but when the group came in we played board games while we hosted discussions about the workflow and challenges in the department. This year we're starting with a survey first to find the topics to target and then we'll schedule some individualized sessions from there. But finding ways to not make it feel like it's an interrogation and ensuring people do feel like they can be vulnerable in their feedback.
HI Shenette,
This is wonderful to see. Training and support in dealing with conflict and aggression is critically important for front facing staff and also important internally. In our Safety Managment Group we have been organising training and adapting risk logs with regards to fatigue, burnout and aggression on an organisational level. My role includes advocating for Front of House, Box Office, Ticketing Systems, Analytics and Insights and Database teams and there is a lot of overwork, stress and customer negotiation in that team. One of our best active strategies for managing burnout has been to increase support between teams and adjust labour.
In the Box Office and Front of House having empowered managers that can pick up and swap out the load when needed. And an acknowledgment of work done and debriefing incidents. We have an Employee Assistance Program but that doesn't take that place of internal support and care over a longer period. We regularly have training on Conflict Resolution for our Customer facing staff and the focus varies. As we have little staff churn in our FoH team in the last 12 months our training included training on dealing with intoxication. This was also built into business strategy for the commercial operations and venues team when looking at business growth.
If you didn't attend TLCC Orlando this year or missed the talk, I recommend checking out Caleb Roman and Corey Smiths Upgrade your customer service toolkit: Addressing customer rage and using CSIs for patron service management talk.
For the Manager/Exec there are a few things that I've seen that contribute to burnout and can be avoided - the biggest one is someone else's emergency and in so many cases the other party has known this is coming for some time. Having a planned roadmap of upcoming activity can give you a good idea of what overhead you have in your team for taking on additional work. Sales campaigns, build and upgrade testing, training and maintenance are all items that should be predicable. Flex for cancelled shows, illness and injury, and tactical opportunities are things it's worth building a buffer around. Once you have your own roadmap planned as best you can - requesting early requests from the other the teams will give you a feel for what is coming your way. However, one of the most important pieces of armour for your team is protecting turnaround times. I want to help people out as much as anyone, but it needs to be clear what the turnaround time will be. If someone has emergency, other things need to get bumped. Puling an all-nighter to get it ahead will lead to overtime being all the time. If you think that it's very hard to push back on requests from Senior management, you are right. With all good project teams, you need your senior manager (Director) to act as sponsor your team and protect your needs.
Box office can often work under resourced when big events or cancellations hit or in times of illness. Getting through that needs to be acknowledged (by the executive especially) and doing a quick debrief into was anything avoidable. Feedback/debrief sessions are really helpful. They add agency to the team and allow them to be empowered in constructive ways.
The US Surgeon Generals Framework for Workplace wellbeing is a great piece for guidance and speaks of a lot of the above.
The Arts Wellbeing Collectives new Work Well- Guide is a great guide to starting down this path and the conversations to have.
The Black Dog Institute has a good worksheet for self-care.
Neurodivergent burnout is a big and important topic, and different to commonly regarded Workplace Burnout and has different causes, manifestations and recovery.Shelly Binkley (she/her) and I wrote a few articles on it here with some good links. The best starting point for reducing ND burnout is creating a sensory supportive space. Also reducing cognitive load by making instructions clear and simple. Burnout tends to leave folks with limited executive functioning and high distractibility. Plus clarity is just good practice.
In recovering from all kinds of burnout, contact with a community you identify with is key. When we are considering the diversity of our staff groups like ERGs can be very helpful. On the way back from TLCC this year I was fortunate enough to swing by DCs Kennedy Center and talk to the wonderful Barbara Polk and team on their work on employee support and the implementation of their ERGs. There is a little bit in the TLCC recording here. Tessitura have virtual affinity groups as well that meet up regularly.
Thank you for this topic. Beau and Caryl and I got to do our presentation a week ago at another conference so it's front of mind at the moment.
So many great nuggets in this response! Thank you so much, Olivia!
Thank you so much, Shenette! This is such an important conversaion and topic. I am glad to know that an organization so close to the North Carolina Museum of Art is addressing it, as well. Please also feel free to reach out to me at janis.treiber@ncdcr.gov to get together and chat in person. Our Visitor and Retail Experience Team just finished reading and discussing, Unreasonable Hospitality by Will Guidara. It is an excellent read and catalyst for growing and supporting the need for universal hospitality and support for staff sharing it on a daily basis. Love to chat more!
Janis Treiber
Director of Visitor and Retail Experience
NCMA
Hello! I wanted to make sure everyone is aware of the Townhall on Burnout happening next week.
We'll continue the conversation started by this thread about what other people and their organizations are doing to combat burnout in the workplace.
There are two meeting days/times to choose from:
Thank you all again for getting this important conversation started!