President's Message

Take 5 Minutes…

Past President Kevin Freber made an impassioned plea during the Awards portion of the 55th Annual Conference Banquet last October.  Did it resonate with anyone?  He simply asked that members take 5 minutes annually to nominate someone for one of the 6 regional Operator of the Year, or one of the four major Association awards.  It’s time once again to think about awards nominations, so I’d like to echo Kevin’s request— and expand upon it— as this issue’s President’s message.

Let’s start with Association and Regional awards.  Can you fit 5 minutes into your day to submit a nomination to acknowledge a co-worker or longtime Association member’s contributions to WWOA?  Nomination forms are available at https://www.wwoa.org/events-awards/annual-awards.

Sadly, too many members simply shrug it off and say “Aaaah…nominations aren’t due until August; I’ll get to it later”.  Except all too often, “later” never happens.  I don’t need to remind anyone that the work that you do with respect to wastewater treatment is not generally appreciated.  The general public doesn’t even give a thought to it… until it bubbles up into their basements.  We can only count on ourselves to recognize and honor excellence.  That’s why it’s so important that every one of us takes time to honor someone’s efforts.  Receiving an award at our conference is an absolutely genuine, emotional moment for that individual that their efforts have been noticed.  It’s also the supreme motivator.  Every award recipient that I’ve spoken with feels elation and a burning desire to even strengthen their efforts now that they have been validated.

So, look around…nominate someone you know, who consistently gives 110% effort or has successfully tackled a huge project, for Regional Operator of the Year.  The WWOA Board even expanded these regional awards to cover folks involved in all aspects of the treatment plant, including lab staff and collections systems.

With respect to Association-wide awards, consider the people that consistently work to improve WWOA and if they have never received the award (check out recipient lists on the website) nominate them.  Many time we believe that someone surely has been honored with a specific award only to find that that is not the case.  Is someone routinely providing assistance through talks, training, sharing knowledge, or just neighborly assistance with other plants? Might they be worthy of the Koby Crabtree Research and Education award?  Is there some unsung individual that has routinely pitched in and made things happen for our conferences or the organization? Somebody that fits the criteria for the Albers-Templeton Service Award?

But let’s not stop with awards!  Surely you can find 5 minutes while driving home, to work, or wherever to ponder some other things.  We all can find 5 minutes of downtime each day.  It’s what we do with those 5 minutes that count.  For example…

There is always room for improvement.  It’s the basic concept of Continuous Quality Improvement, or CQI.  I’d be rich if I had a nickel for every time someone mentioned to me that it seemed crazy that their plant does ABC, when they could instead do XYZ and be more efficient or see significant savings.  Some are bold enough to ask the question, “Why don’t we try…”, but unfortunately, the answer is often, “That’s the way we’ve always done things”.  And it ends there!  There is always a better or more efficient way to do things.  Take 5 minutes and ask yourself… “What can I do better to improve this task, advance my team, or help my plant?”

What we often forget is the multiple interactions each of us has with co-workers each day and how those interactions affect the whole team.  Maybe you’ve had a bad day or you have some non-work issues pressuring you and you took your frustrations out on a co-worker.  Positive attitudes and building others up are so much more powerful and effective than tearing people down, sniping, and even bullying.  While it doesn’t happen often, these attitudes can quickly make a team dysfunctional.  Everyone has to do their part to keep the team focused and positive.  Isn’t it worth taking 5 minutes and asking yourself, “Can I take pride in my actions and attitude…today? …this week?…this month?”

We all have bad days; we all have gripes with the way things are going on the job.  No plant operation is perfect, each has its own unique set of personalities and challenges.  But can you take 5 minutes and ask yourself, “Am I part of the problem, or part of the solution?”

There are so very many elements involved in working together as a team to effectively and efficiently treat wastewater to the levels that you all do.  Most of your discharges are cleaner than the receiving waters upstream of your discharge point.  You all take great pride in what you do, but sadly, wastewater treatment is an under-appreciated job and career choice.  It’s up to each of us to help paint a more accurate picture of what you do.  No one else is going to do it for us.  Can you take 5 minutes and ask yourself, “Is there anything I can do to improve the public’s perception of wastewater treatment plant operators?”

For managers, supervisors, and team leads out there, take 5 minutes and ask, “What are my team members’ skills?  What piece of the puzzle do their skills provide in our treatment plant operation?”   

Many of you have experienced the difficulty in finding well qualified people to fill positions within your facility.  I’ve heard a number of stories to this effect.  Are we seeking whatever warm body that is available?  Or are we setting our standards higher?  I’m not saying it’s easy, given the current employment climate.  Just this summer I was appalled to see Burger King on Cape Cod offering a starting wage of $16/hour, when I know some wastewater operators earn less than that!  Is it worth taking 5 minutes and asking, “What can I (or management) do to ensure that the appropriate value is placed on the role of wastewater treatment operators?”

I know…I’m asking a great deal of you.  And some may say, “What difference does it make if I take 5 minutes to ponder things?  Nobody listens to me anyway.”  And to that, I point to the managers out there and ask you all to take 5 minutes and ask yourselves, “Am I fostering a work environment where my staff feel that their ideas or concerns will be heard and fairly considered?”  Are you a big enough person to acknowledge that sometimes you don’t have all the answers?  Are you secure enough in your role to accept that the best managers know that they themselves don’t have all the answers, and that on any given day, any team member can come up with a great solution to the problem of the day?

Can you look back at your 5-minute ponderings and say, “I’m proud of what we accomplished?”  Because you should be proud!  I’m proud of what each of this state’s wastewater treatment operators routinely does to effectively clean up the water…something that the public doesn’t want to discuss.  And any chance I get, I take 5 minutes to let people that don’t understand know about what you all do.