Father-Daughter share experiences working at Mayo Clinic

In this episode of Mayo Clinic Employee Experience, you’ll hear from two employees at different points in their career. But they’ve known each other for many years. Doug Holtan began his career at Mayo Clinic on the grounds crew during his summer breaks from college. Twenty-eight short years later, Holtan is chair of the Department of Facilities and Support Services. His daughter, Nora, was recently hired as an intern at the Dan Abraham Healthy Living Center. The father-daughter duo recently sat down to discuss their experiences working at Mayo Clinic.

DOUG: What I’ve always told people is that Mayo Clinic is a really special place where you can change your career many times, without changing employers or changing where you live.

NARRATOR: Hear from Mayo Clinic colleagues as they discuss their experiences in Mayo Clinic Employee Experiences. Featured in this podcast, Doug, a 28-year Mayo Clinic employee and Nora, a summer intern, sit down to share career-related experiences, ideas and dreams not only as Mayo Clinic colleagues, but as father and daughter.

DOUG: Well actually Nora, I worked three summers in the grounds crew when I was going to college so it took me a while to even get inside a building to work. But after I graduated, I was able to start in the Business Office. I did that for about a year. Then I went back to get my master’s degree. I came back to what is now known as the Administrative Fellow Program. From there, I progressed through some different positions and, again, from operations eventually into Facilities.

So Nora, what exactly are you doing with your work in the internship? I know there’s Wellness Wednesdays.

NORA: Walking Wednesdays.

DOUG: Walking Wednesdays. As you can see I’m very engaged in the Walking Wednesdays.

NORA: Every Wednesday we go out and have a wellness stop on Second Street. We have over 1,000 people signed up in Rochester alone. Not all of them obviously participate, but they are getting the emails that I’m helping create as well as the Champions program, which is implemented in a lot of different departments in Mayo. People step up to make wellness a priority in their work space for their fellow employees. I’m getting included on a lot of different enterprise-wide opportunities, which has given me a lot of variety, which I’ve enjoyed.

DOUG: I’ve been at Mayo 28 years. It’s changed a tremendous amount since I started here. The growth has been just tremendous. I never thought I’d be doing what I’m doing today when I started at Mayo.

What keeps me around and what I like best about my job is definitely the variety of work that I’m blessed to do. The people I work with at all different levels of the organization are just tremendous. I mean, it truly is the common mission that everyone holds to make Mayo as best as it can is tremendous and is unlike many other places I’ve been at.

We work as a collaborative group, so definitely different voices, different opinions really lead to a better outcome. And working with different people, from all levels of the organization, getting different perspectives and being open to those is really special. I think many places you may go to, you find that people may not be as open for opinions or feedback or suggestions. At Mayo, I think people really feel that whatever we can do to make ourselves better, make the area we work in better, is going to give us the outcome that we’re looking for.

NORA: That’s something I’ve enjoyed with my internship is the enterprise-wide work I’ve been able to already be a part of. Or those Skype meetings I’ve been introduced to by seeing how collaborative everyone is even with the distance as a barrier.

DOUG: You know, Arizona and Florida, growing campuses, again, the Mayo mission, the Mayo values carry through down there.

What’s the best part of your day, other than riding to work with your dad?

NORA: I think my favorite part of the day is interacting with the people I sit with in the back. They’ve been very inclusive.

DOUG: You form these relationships, you know, throughout your career and, again, that’s I think what makes it really kind of neat as you work in an organization like Mayo. Where do you expect to be in five years? And I really hope you don’t say living in my basement.

NORA: I don’t really know. I guess I’ve kind of wrestled with that, which is also why I’ve looked into opportunities here this summer at Mayo to explore all the options there are. I definitely have thought about going into occupational therapy. I’m on the track through Gustavus [Adolphus University] to do that. Hopefully, I will be doing some shadowing in that department. I’ve enjoyed my time so far here and I love Rochester, so staying close to home is important to me. What do you wish for your kids if they come into Mayo?

DOUG: No matter what, I want our kids to do the kind of work they want to do. I hope they have a passion. But I also know that the first thing they start may be not what they’re going to be doing down the road. I guess just the willingness to try and they kind of look for the kind of more altruistic views of what you want to do that could be better for the overall good. Of course, I want our kids to be happy and continue to be contributing members to society.

And to take care of me in retirement, too.

NARRATOR: Nora, the second of nine children, will begin her senior year of college at Gustavus Adolphus University this fall and is not 100 percent convinced her dad will ever be able to retire. She’s encouraged by her dad’s experience that where you start isn’t necessarily where you’ll end up in your life-long career at Mayo.