Oklahoma Corrections Professionals

Muskogee Community Corrections Center

The Need to Change - and the Need to Stay the Same

J’me Overstreet, Legislative Liaison

On Friday, July 23, 2010, representatives from the Oklahoma Corrections Professionals (OCP) had the distinct pleasure to spend time with employees at the Muskogee Community Corrections Center (MCCC).  The employees were engaged in a “staff appreciation” luncheon.  These same employees were also engaged in sharing stories of good times they had shared with each other as they ready themselves for the closing of a place they have called home for many years.  After 36 years, the MCCC is closing.

The OCP would like to recognize all of the employees who have walked through the doors and spent some of their careers working at the Muskogee Community Corrections Center.  Thank you to each and every one of you for your dedication, for making a difference, and for providing the community a level of service that we all respect and appreciate.

As you might expect, the employees shared their fears and apprehensions regarding their unknown futures as they work through a difficult process.  I urge all OCP members to write a note of appreciation to the employees at the MCCC thanking them for their service to that facility and community and acknowledging their need for support as they go through this difficult process.  Please go to the OCP website and send your notes of appreciation to them by emailing us and we will post those so all employees can read and share your thoughts.  www.o-c-p.org

Although you may not be an employee at the MCCC, I urge you to read the rest of this article concerning company change.  No company is exempt from the need to change to survive.  No employee is exempt from the fear and anxiety that evokes when they are personally impacted.

Companies have come to accept that continual change is required to survive in today’s changing economy and that change is required to stay alive.  You can change equipment, change policy, change uniforms, but regardless of the changes the company must initiate, it requires that the employees change.And that is where the road gets bumpy.  As the company is travelling at the speed of light down the newly explored highway, the employees most affected present pot holes in need of repair and slow the company’s progress.  Pot holes do not go away on their own, they need repair.

The company responds by asking, “What happened?”  “We had a plan, and we were going to travel down the new highway at the speed of light.”  Scratching their heads as they now sit in a traffic jam, wondering how these unexpected pot holes will affect the goal…No company is exempt from this experience and from addressing the repairs that are necessary.

Whether the company is a Fortune 100, a modest not-for-profit, a family business or a professional organization, the problem is that people fear change.  This fear manifests itself into resistance and feelings of being undervalued. 

Change equals loss:

The primary reason for this fear is that change equals loss.  When things change, employees affected lose something.  They may gain something as well, there may even be opportunities that lie ahead of them that they haven’t even seen yet, but first you must acknowledge that they are experiencing fear and loss.

The 4 C’s:

For employees to accept change the first step is to understand what, from their perspective, they feel that they’re losing.  There are four factors that help in promoting the acceptance of change:

1. Caring.  Listening and responding to people’s reactions is just as important as explaining the reasons for change.
2. Control.  People want input into how change will be implemented.
3. Choice.  Employees feel better if they are given options as a part of the change process.  The more choices they have, the more they feel in control.
4. Competence.  Employees are happier about change if they feel they have the skills and abilities to succeed after the change.

Understanding:

It is important that employees understand what is changing and why. They want to know what the change will be and when it will happen, but they also want to know why. Why is it happening now? Why can't things stay like they have always been? Why is it happening to me?

It is also important that they understand what is not changing. Not only does this give them one less thing to stress about, it also gives them an anchor, something to hold on to as they face the winds of uncertainty and change.

In conclusion, when a situation engenders pain or fear in us, we need to open ourselves up to these feelings and thoroughly "engage" with them, undertaking the process of working through them. As the saying goes: "The only way out is through."

One employee from MCCC would like to share the following:

“I would like to say that I have never enjoyed a job as much as I have enjoyed working for Northeast District Community Corrections and particularly Muskogee Work Center.  If I had been working for the income, I would have moved on long ago.  But I stayed because I loved the job and the people I worked with.  We are a family here at the center and will continue to be family no matter where we may wind of working.”

A Note From Your Legislative Liaison, J’me Overstreet

I would like to begin by quoting Noah ben Shea, Pulitzer Prize winner and author of The Journey to Greatness and How to Get There.  Noah ben Shea reminds us that, “Things don’t have to be good for you to be great.”  I think that message is one we should all remember and continue to embrace as we continue to work together to meet the challenges of the FY 11 budget year and its operational impact.

And as many of you have experienced in the past, challenges can bring opportunities.  Opportunities for positive change.  Opportunities for career advancement.  Opportunities to let go of the past so that you can embrace the future.

We’ve all been braced for the worst over the past four months of the legislative session, expecting budget cuts anywhere from seven to 12%, but in the end, the Legislature came through as they promised and held both agencies to much lower budget cuts for FY’11. The Pardon and Parole Board ended FY’10 with $2,334,162 and that’s exactly where they’ll stay- a 0% budget cut for FY’11!  DOC will take a 3% cut to its new base.  This means the agency ended FY’10 with an appropriation of $476,225,000 and will begin FY’11 in July with an appropriation of $462,141,777, a decrease of $14,083,223.

While these cuts are much better than they could have been, the fact is that both agencies will still be operating at budgets far below their fully functional levels.  So what will these FY’11 appropriations actually look like for each agency in the upcoming year? 

With just two weeks left in the legislative session, things are happening very quickly.  There is still no budget agreement, but the word around the Capitol is that it could be announced very soon.  OCP is continuing to work on your behalf, informing legislators of just how damaging substantial budget cuts could be to the DOC and PPB, with the hope that they remember how important it is to protect the public safety.  See below for information on two important bills: one would affect your health insurance and one could affect your annual leave.  If you plan to contact your legislators about either of these, please do so as soon as possible, as time is running out!

"My Take" by OCP Legislative Liaison, J'me Overstreet

To our valued public servants: 

On behalf of the Oklahoma Corrections Professionals Board, Executive Director Amanda Ewing, and I would like to say once again, “thank you”!!  Thank you for your continual dedicated service and commitment to public service.  Thank you for making a difference in lives each day, protecting your community and fellow workers and being a part of something bigger than all of us.