3 types of staff pooping the bed 💩 - You asked for it!

Sept 12th, 2024

Not a threat–last week you asked for “help supporting my most difficult staff–eek” from the poll.

Handy tools for when you’re at your wit’s end. (PART 1 OF 2)

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Nothing grinds my gears like having worked my ass off to make camp happen and then seeing the staff I’ve trusted to take care of it… suck?

You. Are not. Alone.

These tools will help you get set up for next summer. You will have difficult staff again, but it can be easier.

Jack Staff Training Update

I travel all over the country training camp staff. I'd love to help train your team. Example of what a day can look like.

Reach out now and help me stress less about my schedule

Some places I will be so far in 2025

Early June - North Carolina & Colorado

Late June - Maine/New Hampshire

Memorable, fun, and effective - so you can focus on crushing the rest of training.

Reply to this email - "Jack can we talk about training?"

Back to supporting difficult staff!

Three categories of “difficult staff”

Staff who don’t really understand their role and/or camp

Staff who aren’t motivated to be with kids or do what’s important

Staff who kind of make everyone else’s life miserable (this will be in next week’s email!)

Painting with a broad brush. Every staff member is different

Staff who don’t “get it”

But you’ve explained it so often!

The job requirements are in the contract that they signed! Yet, there they are, blaring music as they’re coming back after curfew at 12:15am

You’re ready to pull your hair out!

I. GET. IT.

It is so frustrating. Here’s what you can do about it:

Illuminate the hidden curriculum - the unspoken rules

You’re probably good at this, and it still might not be enough. Our reference points are so different from our staff’s for a million reasons.

Define expectations hyper specifically during training. What do “curfew” and “supervision” mean? Imagine explaining it to someone who’s looking for a loophole.

Act out a day of camp as your cabin staff and take a notebook with you. Write down each time you knew to do something without explicit instruction (like being quiet during announcements, cleaning up your table with your cabin). Name them during training.

Assign assistant directors to spend some extra time going through things one-on-one with every new staff member. Give them a list and have them report back to you.

You’re busy and this seems like a waste of your time, but these can be positive interactions that sweeten your relationship with them.

Check in! You know when you are stressed and pissed and you get fired up and ready to confront someone and they’re like, “Yeah can you help me? I’ve been struggling and I want to do well,” and then you’re the asshole? Checking in gets to the point without creating an unnecessary conflict.

Be gentle. Maybe your staff member who didn't wear shoes doesn’t know that that’s not what you do. This is a skills deficit, not negative intent. They messed up and it's annoying, but for some staff it's just cause they didn't know. You covered a lot during training

Come up with a different communication strategy. Like a secret code. None of us like to be reminded in front of people when we messed up

I’m a big fan of kids’ secret codes.

Say, “Hey I’ve noticed that you sometimes do x. When I see that happening, I’m going to yell something silly to your cabin to give you time to readjust. Does that work for you?”

Establish that they can also say, “Hey if ever you hear me ask for bananas, it means I need a break,” or whatever makes sense for your camp.

Staff who don’t give a fu–

They know what they’re supposed to be doing AND IT IS NOT! hiding in a hammock on their phone when they’re “supervising.” Oooooh you could be so passive-aggressive right now and it would be so satisfying!

Again, you’re not alone.

I have a very specific face in my mind as I type this, and no the satisfaction from being passive-aggressive did not last long enough to be worth it.

Unlike staff who don’t get camp, this is a motivational problem. We have 3 options.

Have a stern corrective conversation - more on this in a future email

Just deal with it - It is what it is... and we gotta run camp, but we get what we put up with

Fire them - some times that's the best option, and its hard to do when we barely have enough staff to start with

Try to harness their motivation - this is what I want to talk about today

Harness their existing motivation

It exists, I promise. Maybe they love being on stage or getting laughs. How can you shift their role so they can get a little more of that?

Figure out what motivates your staff! Ask them about themselves, connect with them. More connection = more buy-in = more motivation.

Carolyn at URJ Jacobs Camp, uses a “Facts, Feelings, and Futures” conversation template. She says

- These are the facts right now, how do you see it?

- How are you feeling? I am feeling...

- What can we do in the future to make a change?

You can use Restorative Justice circles. You can say, “Hey, I feel like you’re not too stoked on your role and I need you to show up in these ways. How can we make that more fun for you?”

Note: This is not rewarding bad behavior. It’s negotiation, which is important for business!

Define what “motivation” looks like

Sometimes it’s a clarity issue. If I’m kicking ass during activities and kind of check out during cabin time, I might see that as a net positive but my boss might be disappointed.

Try stoplight scheduling. That’s it, that’s the tweet!

Approach it with facts. Instead of, “Hey, you don’t care about camp,” try, “Hey, I noticed you kept checking your phone during lunch. Is everything good?” Followed by "I want to support you, and you can't be on your phone at lunch."

Be painfully honest.

If your staff member is checked out, being direct will garner more respect than skirting around the subject or being passive-aggressive, full stop.

Tune in next week for staff that make everyone's life worse

Got a success story about a time you turned things around with one of your difficult staff members? Send me an email with a one sentence summary of what you did!