Employee Connection

As Thanksgiving, and the end of our Gratitude Month celebration, approach, I wanted to write one last time with the announcement of the annual Citizen Satisfaction Bonus. This year, as we have done in the recent past, the Council and I are pleased to provide a bonus based on the most recent citizen satisfaction survey results. Employees earned an overall 91% (the average of our satisfaction scores for employee courtesy, work performance and City services) of the base amount ($250 for eligible permanent full-time employees and $125 for eligible part-time and WAE employees). Thus the actual awards will be $228 for full-time employees ($250*91%=$228) and $114 ($125*91%=$114) for eligible part-time/WAE employees.  These amounts are net of taxes, so you will see the full bonus amounts in your pay deposit on Friday, December 3rd.

Eligibility for this bonus is as follows:

• Permanent Full-Time (PFT) employees must have been hired on or before March 31, 2021 and in a paid status for the pay period ending December 3, 2021 
• PPT/WAE employees must have been hired on or before December 31, 2020, averaged at least 15 hours for the period of June 27, 2020 through March 19, 2021 and be in a paid status for the pay period ending November 26, 2021

In addition to the monetary bonuses, I also would like to share with you that city employees will have Friday, November 26, 2021 and Thursday, December 23, 2021 off as administrative/bonus days.  As always, those employees who must continue to work on those days will receive additional time off with pay to use at a later time.

I hope you have enjoyed our celebration of gratitude for you and the work you do this month. Although we focused the wellness day and bonuses during this one month, please know that that our appreciation extends all year long.

As I close, I want to list a few things I am particularly thankful for this Thanksgiving. 

• I am thankful that we have successfully navigated the COVID challenge together. While the pandemic is clearly not over, we have done so much as a team to make our work place and City safer.
• I am thankful for those of you who work on holidays such as Thanksgiving, spending time away from your loved ones to keep the larger community safe and to help us with our needs.
• I am thankful for our first responders who run into burning buildings or fight crime or put themselves into other dangerous situations every day. I am grateful that you are willing to put yourselves out there for all of us day in and day out.
• I am thankful for the 911 tele-communicators who get the first responders to the scene promptly and with the necessary information to be successful upon arrival.
• I am equally thankful for all of the rest of the workforce too. I know that the COVID has added stress to all of our work lives, but most of you have valiantly stepped up to the plate, continuing to take on more for the betterment of our community. It is not easy to maintain a positive attitude in a stressful situation. However, I do know that most of you do and I am very grateful for that. I know most residents are similarly thankful and appreciative. You come to work and put your heart and soul into the work at hand because you truly care. You exemplify what is great about this organization.
• I am thankful for our front line supervisors, mid-level managers, department heads and assistant city managers. You have taken on more responsibility over the last couple of years. You help to set the tone for our organization and where we are going.
• I am also thankful for our City Council Members who put themselves forward, also sacrificing much time away from family, friends and professional work life to serve the community. They do so because they are driven to make our community an even better place to live, learn, work and play. They rarely get thanks for what they do either but they do not fret about that. Their reward is in seeing our collective successes over time.

As you can see, I am grateful for many things (and I haven’t even mentioned the most important - my family!). Thanksgiving has a way of making you stop, think and celebrate those things. It brings perspective. It is good to celebrate these things once a year; but, the real trick is to celebrate them all year long. I hope I show my gratitude for the things that are right in my personal life and in our collective work life throughout the year - just in case I don't share them often enough, thank you for letting me express them more clearly here. 

I would love to hear what you are thankful for when you have time to jot me a note. I truly hope everyone has a great and wonderful Thanksgiving!

— Mary