Leader/ Follower Relationships at Milford City Hall

While there is just one main “leader” in my team, there are many smaller leader/follower relationships both within the team as well as relationships outside of just my office. Within city hall there are 2 main offices: the office of the mayor and the office of the city attorney. Because I work in the office of the city attorney, I mainly focus on the work that happens within the office. However, because there are so many different types of government offices, every day I interact with people from other departments such as health, planning and zoning, police, etc. For the most part, leadership styles are fairly hands-off. Each department works on its own pieces of collaborative projects and trusts the other department to carefully and accurately take care of its own parts. Within my direct team, the city attorney is very casual with followers and creates a sense of camaraderie and personal relationships within the office. While this may have no direct impact on the actual quality of work, the indirect impact is a happy and enjoyable workplace. Co-workers are friends, enjoy their time working together, and are able to casually bounce ideas and problems/conflicts off of co-workers. Although I am the intern and obviously hold the least authority within the office, co-workers always include me in conversations and genuinely value my opinion instead of just delegating the easy, unimportant tasks to me.

Although I was not present in the office prior to the pandemic, and do not know how things have changed on a day-to-day basis, the actual tasks and roles of the job have shifted to include much more pandemic-related projects. For example, one of the women in my office was hired last October (2020) with the job title “special projects manager”. Andretta has been in charge of coordinating the money and logistics surrounding government relief as well as handling the legal implications of the new executive orders and changes in legislation. Currently, she is managing the large sum of money that was just granted to the town of Milford (about $35 million). I have had the opportunity to work with Andretta and participate in some of the meetings that have taken place. Many different departments all come together to brainstorm ideas of ways to utilize the funding in order to bounce back from the financial and community deficits of the pandemic. One of the main focuses is increasing tourism and making the city a more accessible and enjoyable vacation spot.

Finally, because the work is all done in person, I have had the opportunity to form relationships with many people that I would not have been able to. In virtual meetings, people tend to spend the majority of their time focusing on the topic of the meeting and then leaving the virtual call as soon as matters have been wrapped up. Meeting in person allows leaders to include everyone and hear everyone’s opinion. Additionally, there is a sort of socialization that happens prior to and following the meeting. This has allowed me as a follower to learn more about my leaders, and my leaders have also showed a genuine interest in learning more about my internship, my education, and my personality as a whole.