Helping people prepare for, find, and keep good jobs is what Goodwill is about.

Hi Everyone –

A happy Thanksgiving to all of you – I hope that for each of you the day is filled with all those people and things for which you are most grateful, even as we spend this holiday protecting our lives and the lives of those we love by physically distancing. Thanksgiving is a complex holiday – for many Native Americans, it is a day of mourning as it marks the arrival of settlers in North America and the centuries of oppression and genocide that followed after. I ask that you think about both sides to our Thanksgiving story this year, and honor both the gratitude and grief inherent to our history. It is a good time to be reminded that the land we live on was the land of the Pottawatomi and Ottawa indigenous people.

COVID-19 continues to be top of mind as hospitals fill with those who are sick. Mercy Hospital performed 4,000 tests last week and 25% of those tested were positive (remember that a 3% positivity rate indicates that we are managing it well). In spite of health department workers being overwhelmed in their contract tracing efforts, our magnificent HR team is not, and they perform our own contact tracing efficiently and thoroughly. You can rest assured that if you have been in close contact with someone at work who has tested positive, you will receive a call from the HR team. We are absolutely doing everything right and have from the beginning. Our efforts in using all safety precautions consistently and well means that no staff member has contracted the disease at work. We can feel proud of our efforts at work, and use those efforts as a guide for what to do to keep ourselves safe when we are away from work.

Benefits enrollment has begun. You have been sent an email giving you instructions at either your work or home email. Once again, our HR team extraordinaire will be in contact with you if you have neither of these options. For those eligible, you must choose your benefit options – it will not default to your previous selections. We are self-funding this year in an effort to reduce costs in a way that will allow us to provide better and more affordable insurance to more of our Goodwill team members.

Annual planning for 2021 is underway and the 2021 budget is nearing completion. As is always the case, this work gives us the opportunity to look back at the year and take stock of our accomplishments and experience. What a year! We have all dealt with an enormous amount of change, grief, and adversity that will all continue for the foreseeable future. We are all tired and probably more than a little stunned by the reality we find ourselves in. Find ways to safely care for yourself in the days to come. Take heart in our resilience and in one another.

My best –

Jeanette