I heard this one again today, so my guess is it’s picking up steam. I heard it first from friends in the community, and it’s been repeated since on campus. It goes something like this: “UTMB knows it wants/needs to cut 3,000 jobs and Navigant is a ruse, a way to get it done. The decision’s already been made.” It’s a juicy and scary rumor, so I can understand why it’s spread, but the bottom line is that it’s not true. If you think it through, why would we invest so much money (more than a million bucks) if the goal was to end up just swinging the ax? If we knew that’s all we needed to do, anyone on campus could probably make up a dozen ways to “justify” it for free. Remember, we’re not in dire straits and not on the verge of going under. We’ve been working hard and making hard decisions, and getting by year after year. What Navigant is supposed to help us do–what they’ve done for other well-known academic health centers across the country and across Texas–is to help us move from “getting by” to really doing great. In some cases that may mean reducing costs and increasing efficiency, and that can/may translate to job cuts. But there’s only so much you can cut, and we’ve been that route before. Making cuts doesn’t enhance revenue, doesn’t bring in new dollars to do more things for the people we serve. Being great means making investments in your best people and programs, growing to meet new opportunities, having the facilities and resources to make good things happen. That’s the future for UTMB that I hear people talking about and planning.
This whole Navigant thing smells like a RIF to myself and many that I work with, some managers included. The university has chosen to throw money at multiple problems in the past, only to find out that the solutions were already there. Ask your employees, we aren’t all complacent, empathetic idiots. There are as many ways to increase efficiency at this facility as there are people that work here. Why does 1.2 MILLION DOLLARS need to be spent to figure out this problem? I think that this is the issue that needs to be addressed. We pay good money to our own people to make this happen already. If they aren’t doing their jobs, give THEM the axe. I think that you as a group (in the Ivory Tower) will find that you might not like what these folks have to say. They might tell you some of what I have written here already.
The clinical staff has repeatedly been asked to do more with less, and we have. We are also exhausted from our efforts. I no longer have any interest in anything but a hot shower and a soft bed when I get home. Many of us are parents who care about our families, and they suffer because of our mental and physical state. I love my job and the people that
I work with, but I have to wonder what the motivation is to drive the staff into the ground.
It has been almost 3 and a half years since some of us have seen a pay raise. Why? It seems almost like nurse recruitment has a stranglehold on that angle. All the rest of us are just “camp dust” as Lavrenti Beria would have put it. Go google that one up if you are not well-read.
Getting to work and back home again is getting increasingly more difficult due to rising fuel prices, with little hope of relief in sight. I doubt that the state legislature is willing to give us a raise. There are those who have said that they are going to have to find jobs closer to home and some have had to call-in because they can’t afford to come to work.
I am by nature a suspicious person, sometimes to my undoing. I do not, however, feel as if my feelings toward this Navigant situation are unfounded. I also do not feel as if the happy, shiny face that has been placed upon it is warranted. Tell folks what the score is. It is demeaning to delude such a large group of intelligent people such as the employees of UTMB. This has always been a fault that is unpalatable to many here, yet we continue to tolerate it for some reason.
I surely hope that my comments do not get edited, but they probably will by someone. If they do, this is proof that this whole situation is a ruse, as well as this blog.
Thank you for the ability to comment on this situation.
Ghost in the Machine
Ghost, thanks for your comment. You’ve put into words what many are probably thinking, and it’s good to hear and be able to address your concerns. There’s value in getting this on the table. Your comments carry a lot of heart and feeling and frustration, and probably some fear that goes hand-in-hand with uncertainty.
First, let me be clear up front on one issue. You mentioned my putting a “happy shiny face” on the Navigant process. I would not want to leave anyone with the impression that there will not be pain in reducing expenses to meet some important UTMB financial targets. Let’s face it: when 60-70% of our budget is tied up in salaries, when you talk about a “program” much of what you’re talking about is people and jobs. That’s about as blunt as I can get. The point I was making in an earlier post is that the institution has been through this cost cutting process several times in the decade I’ve been here. We’ve got to do something different; the things we’ve been doing have been getting us by, but how long is “getting by” sustainable, especially when you’re wearing out people in the process?
You said that when you get home all you want is a shower and your bed. I know that feeling and can attest that it’s not a good way to live. There’s got to be a better way. Navigant has shown other institutions a lot like us the path to the resources to get to that better place, to real excellence in clinical care, research and education. It’ll be up to us collectively to have the will and the guts to get there.
I think we will. I’ve seen the people of UTMB do unbelievably wonderful things, most often when faced with the greatest adversity (attacks of 911, hurricanes, plant explosions). Ghost, you say that there are as many ways to increase efficiency as there are people working here, that all we have to do is ask. Consider yourself (and others) formally asked. There should be no one at UTMB too proud or too “smart” to listen to and consider a good idea from anyone. Send it to employee.suggestions@utmb.edu.
As for the folks in the “Ivory Tower,” remember they’re the ones that asked Navigant to come here, to put themselves and us under the microscope, to compare UTMB to institutions that are like us. That’s what we’re paying for: an outside, objective, hard look at everything, based on data and benchmarking. I think leadership realizes that for UTMB to be stronger in the future, we’ll have to make tough decisions now. Memories of one of those recent decisions, a reorganization at a very high level (the elimination of the Executive Vice President’s Office) suggests to me that there’s the resolve to do the right thing at any level, and that this isn’t just about regular guys and gals working in the ranks.
You started to drift into pay raises, and as both of our comments are long, I promise to go into the issue of compensation in a separate post; I might even do a category for it.
Finally, I can say one thing with absolute certainty: UTMB is NOT responsible for $3 a gallon gasoline. I don’t even think we can blame Navigant for that one. wink. But we know this is a serious issue that’s putting a dent in family budgets. About half of UTMB’s workforce lives on the mainland, and between fuel costs and bridge construction, the commute’s getting to be most unfun. I heard that there was some interest in looking for ways to help people with this aspect of life at UTMB. I’ll see what I can find out.