My first example of a healthy organization is my current organization, I came to this organization because of the health and the culture. This organization is a private non-profit agency, one of 21 Regional Centers in California. They create vendors in California to partner with by sending them clients with developmental disabilities to receive services, resources, and support. We have a state contract with the Department of Developmental Services, they provide the funding for our organization to fund our vendors to operate for the client's needs. The Regional Center I work for has a collaborative work environment, and tons of access to resources to do your job, Service Coordinators are not micro-managed. We are empowered to provide human services and are supported by our Community Services Managers if we need help. They have great benefits, pay isn't great to start but you move up, and they have options to move up to community managers or specialists. We are offered a hybrid work schedule, and when we do come to the office it's more like a college campus with cafes and a gym. We have every holiday off, and every weekend and are required to perform no work duties on our off time. Business owners and employees alike want to have and work for organizations where health, well-being, and purpose have become the core of their culture and where inspired employees find meaning in their work and are willing and able to give their all because they care and feel cared for (Starr, 2020).

The company that is my second example of an unhealthy company is the one I previously worked for, I took a pay cut but it was worth it. The company is a for-profit healthcare company that operates care homes, they have a few operations throughout the U.S. The company is stressful, no communication from higher-ups, no work-life balance, and work roles don't align with duties and work actually done. There was never any time off, there was someone always calling and texting you, and employees calling in which meant the QIDP had to go in. My actual role as QIDP was to case manage the clients that stayed in the home not provide direct care or supervise employees. There were no real benefits, and everyone was underpaid except Execs and QIDP which caused conflict. DSPs and Managers being underpaid caused a lot of conflicts when the QIDP tried to supervise them. A business world that never turns off, forces constant stress, exhausts balancing acts, and causes serious change fatigue (Starr, 2020). Workplace stress is at an all-time high, as individuals we suffer physical alignment ailments, mood issues, and behavioral challenges, and our organizations pay the price with increased absenteeism and low productivity (Starr, 2020).

Despite the pace and intensity of our work, organizations need to create workplaces that are people-centric, and that focus on well-being and creating purpose (Starr, 2020). In doing so we can make our business more competitive and financially sound (Starr, 2020). To begin to refocus on changing to positive outcomes for the unhealthy company they need to start by taking away the supervisor portion from the QIDP. Let the QIDP focus on the case management portion for clients and let house managers supervise the DSP that provides direct care. DSPs need to be paid more and offered more benefits to maintain employee retention and lessen call-ins. Better communication and respect for a person's time off would be another start of refocusing the health and culture of the company.

QUESTIONS:

• Ask a question about the examples of healthy and unhealthy organizational cultures that your colleague described.
• Ask a question about or share an insight you gained from the practices that either contributed to or detracted from the overall health of the organization your colleague described.
• Provide an additional recommendation for how an unhealthy practice your colleague identified could be handled differently to yield more positive organizational health outcomes.