ANNE: The RICH TIES that we have as an organization far outweigh anything you may see on that other side of the street.

NARRATOR: Hello, I'm Chelsea, and this is the "Mayo Clinic Employee Experiences" podcast, where we build trust and belonging through the authentic storytelling of our Mayo Clinic staff. In this episode, you will hear Anne, a senior project manager, and Steph, a nurse manager, discuss their experiences leaving and then returning to Mayo Clinic as employees. Anne, will you tell us about your experience? {tighten the extra pause with music}

ANNE: I'm a senior project manager with the Center for Individualized Medicine.
My role is to really lead teams in their implementation of a project, everything from research to implementing something new in Epic or bringing new clinical lines into Mayo Clinic.
I had been living in Arizona before I went to Rochester for this project management assignment. And Arizona is absolutely my happy place. And while I love that small city of Rochester, I was really, really needing to get back to my home in Arizona.
And a friend was a hiring manager for a medical company, asked me to come over and work in sales with her. I did it because she said I could work remote and I could go back to Arizona. So I'm like, yes.
I joined the small company. They got acquired not once, but twice. And you know what was really interesting, Steph, is that I felt that something was missing. These companies, they didn't have that culture. They didn't give me goosebumps every day. You know, back in the Plummer Building, you know how you can go out and downstairs there's a piano and people are playing, or you could go through the Mayo Clinic and they have the piano.
And all those patients and staff are listening to this music. I tell you, that was just so inspiring to me. And the work that we were doing and how it affected the patients, it really touched me and I missed, I missed that culture. And so I kept looking, do I go back into Rochester when I really want to be in Arizona? And then a position opened up in Arizona. It was a true blessing.
So here I am today, you know, as a senior project manager for the Center of Individualized Medicine. And I am working on such transformational projects and such meaningful projects, and I still get my goosebumps every day. I'm so happy to be back. I'm so happy to be in service to Mayo Clinic. And I feel the love, and I love working with people like you, Steph.
How about you? What do you do?

STEPH: I am the nurse manager for the inpatient outpatient home dialysis, all of those areas and the Chronic Kidney Disease Clinic. I'm new to dialysis, so it's been a journey.
I started at Mayo back in 2008, and I felt blessed to have been selected because I was told by my hiring manager that 144 candidates applied for the position that I was selected for. So, imagine how I felt. You chose me out of 144, but I was blessed. I feel to have been chosen out of those, I'm sure, very capable candidates.

ANNE: I had an introduction to Mayo as a patient. In 2009, I needed some spine surgery on my neck and it was really, really scary to me. And my family lives in Rochester and I thought, well, you know what If I'm going to need some help or have surgery on my spine, I'm going to go to Mayo. The patient experience was beyond description.
I came in 2012 and was an associate project manager in research administration. We were implementing a series of maybe 50 different courses for the graduate program for our researchers and fellows.

STEPH: You put new meaning to the needs of the patient come first with your experience with Mayo as a patient that impacted you so much that you came back to be a part of the greatness or the wonder of Mayo.

ANNE: But then you left Mayo at some point, Stephanie, right?

STEPH: Yes, I left Mayo. So when I was here in 2008, I was in the invasive cardiology department. I worked in the cath lab, the EP lab. I left and I did a cadre of things. I worked for a hospice. I started in primary care.
I just did things that I had interest in at that time and things that worked for my family at that time. Because if anybody is familiar with the cath lab, you're on call and you're on call quite a bit if it's a busy cath lab. And at that time that did not work for my family.
I left about 2013. I came back in 2018. I came back to the cath lab with some familiar faces. I felt blessed because they wanted me back. I was coming back from Baltimore at that time. I was a primary care manager there. I worked in invasive cardiology. I then got an opportunity to work as a team lead in family medicine for primary care, which I really love.
And then I got an opportunity to work as a COVID line manager, nurse line manager. COVID was new. This was a new experience for Florida having a nurse call line, and I was instrumental in getting that set up and getting that started. And then I got this opportunity in dialysis to work as a dialysis manager, something I've never done. My experience at Mayo is every step for me was a stretch. It was something that allowed me to see what I had in me that could help the organization and things to help me grow.

ANNE: Oh, that's very cool.

STEPH: I enjoy working with people, with you, and I'm glad you came back to Mayo. What if you had anything that you would impart to someone who is considering leaving Mayo? What would that be?

ANNE: I think it has to be the culture. The RICH TIES that we have as an organization far
outweigh anything you may see on that other side of the street.

STEPH: I would agree.

ANNE: Don’t do it. We need you; we need you. Talk to somebody if something is not working for you. Right.

STEPH: I would agree with that. I would agree because when I left the first time, I wish I had had that person to have a conversation with me and say, wait a minute, what's going on? I guess my message would be the organization is big enough to find the small fit. What works for you? You belong here. And I encourage any staff members that are having challenges to find a work confidant, a mentor, someone that you can feel safe with having those conversations to help you process before and to help you process before leaving the organization. I just think that Mayo is a great place to work, and I love that you pointed out our RICH TIES, because that is who we are as Mayo Clinic staff.

ANNE: Exactly. The other thing for the supervisors out there, as you're looking on these Zoom and Team meetings, look at your people. Are you seeing that they're happy? Are you seeing that there might be a disconnect? Reach out to them, ask them.

STEPH: Great advice. And that's great advice for me as a manager. I know that when I am in other meetings, I tend to scroll. If there are 200 people, I probably see every face that is on screen because I scroll through to see who's there. And I do look at those expressions. You sometimes you can tell whether someone's disengaged. So as a manager or a supervisor, please make sure your staff are engaging. You engage with them. People leave for many reasons. We need to make people feel like they belong. And if they don't, let's support them. But we really want you to stay at Mayo. Let’s support whatever their endeavors are, because for my team, I want them to be happy, I want them to grow. And I try to encourage that and my door's open to them and I want them to know that I'm here for them and I appreciate them being here for me.

ANNE: That's amazing. You know, and as a project manager, my role is to ensure that my team feel valued and that the work that they're doing is really contributing to something big, something that's going to touch our patients, touch our clinicians, touching the technology that is supporting the data that is needed to bring treatments to our patients.

And I just want to make sure that they feel that they are valued and are a part of a team.
STEPH: I have had such amazing opportunities. I want people to know that there are so many opportunities here at Mayo. Just look around.

NARRATOR: Thank you, Steph and Anne, for sharing your experiences of leaving Mayo Clinic for personal reasons and coming back as engaged employees. Sharing experiences like these increases our understanding of one another and ultimately contributes to finding connections, belonging and inclusion at work. For more stories, subscribe to Mayo Clinic Employee Experiences on popular podcast apps.