Organizational Culture
Since I work remotely, it is really hard to nail down the “culture” of my workplace/organization. However, we communicate through conference calls and a business messaging app, Slack. I communicate directly with my boss and additionally in the summer intern channel and with the two other interns for the summer. I have observed that the conversations and overall feel of Slack has gotten more casual as the weeks progress, but not in a bad way. Everyone is very direct, honest, and asks good questions that we can all benefit from.
Although it is really hard to observe the culture of my workplace given I work remotely, everyone shares the same values and has a positive attitude. We are all very hard workers, partially because we need to be in order to stay motivated and accomplish things on our own, and partially because we are working with very sick people who really benefit from our help. Since the co-founders both tragically passed away rather recently, the CEOs in Richmond and at Wake Forest have taken over and have large shoes to fill. They had to take over rather suddenly, and Bonny, especially, has a lot on her hands given she is leading the charge in creating the Richmond Chapter, which is an extremely hard thing to do (create a branch of a non-profit that is a unique approach to healthcare).
The fact that everyone who works with TTF is doing so as a volunteer and is so driven and passionate about helping patients is a large strength of the organization. However, we do not have an office space, a common meeting space, or any face-to-face interaction with each other, which obviously is a huge loss. It is lonely and hard to remain motivated when you work alone all week, every week. Until we are approved to work in the hospital we are all on our own. I take the lead in all of my projects, and don’t have a ton of guidance from my boss or the Richmond fellow (the only two people that work with TTF so far in Richmond, besides the other intern). It can be really hard to communicate my ideas and thoughts and understand others’ ideas and thoughts when the only time I’ve met the others was the first week during training. Hopefully we get into the hospital soon…
Definitely sounds like it can be a challenging environment in which to work sometimes. As you continue, it may serve you well to consider differences between working remotely this summer and past experiences you’ve had working with organizations on site. With the ever-increasing developments in technology, remote/virtual work seems to only increase, but it would be interesting to study how the experience is different (the good, the bad, the ugly) from working in a more traditional office setting; how it impacts individuals, morale, production, client interface, etc. Given the unexpected nature with which individuals assumed leadership roles, it is probably hard (at this time) to measure whether the nature of the leadership is a result of the circumstances (the unexpected deaths), the individuals who hold the roles (their personality/style), or a product of the type of work the organization does. This would be something worth reflection as you continue.