Transcript

Aditi:

Hi Onsite Listeners. I'm Aditi Chakravarty and I'm one of the hosts of Onsite Insights, a podcast from Berkeley Lab created specifically for the incredible managers and supervisors supporting onsite work activities during the COVID pandemic. I, along with hosts, Marcia Ocon Leimer, Tina Clarke and Janie Pinterits are excited for you to listen to this podcast and this trailer as a sneak peek into what to expect.

During each episode of Onsite Insights, you're going to hear expert advice, success stories, and honest conversations about what it means to be leading onsite teams and doing onsite work safely and effectively at Berkeley Lab. Our goal is to give you as onsite managers and supervisors, opportunities to exchange knowledge, tools, and information that you need to make your day to day work easier. We're also going to feature many guests from across the lab who will offer diverse perspectives, experiences, and wisdom. So who better to welcome you then our leader and lab director, Dr. Mike Witherell. He's here to talk a bit about this podcast and to offer his support to you, our onsite managers.

Dr. Witherell:

Welcome listeners to Onsite Insights. Thank you for tuning in. I'm Dr. Mike Witherell. I want to start by recognizing how much each of you has taken on this year. As we've returned to onsite work at Berkeley Lab, it has been a difficult year and you have been the backbone of our lab community modeling what it means to come together in spite of the challenges presented by COVID and the many other disruptions we face today. You are the managers, supervisors, and employees who are transforming our COVID pilots to an evolving new normal. You are the ones who are ensuring that we continue our mission to advance innovation, make new discoveries and produce scientific solutions for the world.

You are the ones who have shown your deep commitment to upholding our mission, safety culture, and operational excellence. This podcast, along with the resources you'll find through the return to work and lead your line newsletters is designed specifically for you. It is intended to give you the chance to hear from colleagues across the lab are managing a wide range of complex situations like communicating effectively when witnessing unsafe behavior, supporting employees with health concerns, leading partially remote teams and navigating challenges with space and collaboration in the COVID world.

Finally, let me say how excited I am to engage with you in this new platform. The Onsite Insight's podcast is a way for our community to exchange knowledge and information with one another beyond Zoom and email. And I'm looking forward to hearing your feedback.

Our highest priority is the health and safety of our lab's people. Onsite supervisors who lead teams and serve as role models for other employees are critical to helping us achieve this important goal. Our success so far in minimizing the risk of COVID-19 transmission at lab sites, for instance, is due to the everyday efforts of supervisors and their employees are closely following the lab's COVID controls, committing to the lab's health pledge, and promoting a culture of safety, adaptation and appreciation.

In other words, you are leaders and agents of change within our lab community. I look to each of you to safely steward our lab's people, research and resources and to lead others using the principles of diversity, equity, inclusion, and accountability. Your daily efforts and resilience are an example of stewardship and leadership to others across the lab.

Given that we live in a time when nobody can predict when we might return to a sense of normalcy, I find it helpful to lean on two practices, appreciation and dialogue. Back in August, I wrote to you about renewing our culture of appreciation here at the lab. I want to remind you of this again now. Send a note of appreciation when someone helps you out, remind yourself that we are all doing our best and that we will get through this difficult time by leaning on and appreciating one another.

Secondly, I want to underscore the importance of two-way dialogue and communication for all employees, especially those of you who are on site. Talk to your employees and hear their concerns. And by the same token, talk to your own supervisors, managers, and leadership. Make sure that information and feedback is flowing in both directions. And please tell us what is top of mind for you and what you need. Your experiences and perspectives on what is needed to do work safely and successfully on the ground are invaluable as we continue to implement our return to work pilots.

Stewardship and leadership especially during this time require a lot of thoughtfulness, collaboration and attention to wellbeing. You help your employees do this every day, and we are here to support you in the same way. I am so proud of your continued service to our community. And I'm grateful for all that you do.

Aditi:

Thank you again, Dr. Dr. Witherell for joining us. Onsite listeners, please tune in for episode one, which will be a deep dive into manage your responsibilities and the art and science of practicing integrated safety management and gathering feedback under our new normal. We'll be joined by guests, Dr. Horst Simon, Berkeley Lab's Deputy Director of Research, Ellen Ford, our Deputy Director of Operations, Chris Lundell, our Return to Work Project Manager, Tina Wang, the Director of Lab Operations at Emery Station East and Lady Idos, our Chief Diversity Officer. It will be a jam packed episode and we look forward to having you with us. Thanks for listening and until next time. Stay safe out there.