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News | April 14, 2016

DLA encourages its workforce to become more resilient

By DLA Distribution Public Affairs DLA Distribution Public Affairs

Daily life is constantly throwing us curve balls. Work and home life do not always go as planned. Your boss assigns you an important project with a short suspense date. Your toddler comes down with the flu and is unable to go to daycare. Now you are at home with a sick child and your work is piling up on your desk. Add to that, you are leaving for a business trip in three days.

How we face the challenges thrown at us is just as important as completing the tasks at hand. Resiliency is defined as how an individual deals effectively with pressure, ambiguous and emerging conditions and multiple tasks. The individual, who remains level-headed, optimistic and persistent, even under adversity or uncertainty, will likely be the person to recover quickly, anticipate changes and learn from mistakes.

The DLA enterprise offers an extensive selection of resiliency resources for its employees. Workforce resiliency is both a DLA core value and a primary objective of the People and Culture goal in the strategic plan. While core values are being emphasized, resiliency is the least understood. Fortifying resiliency represents the things done within DLA to assist members of the workforce to become more effective in their professional and personal lives.

DLA’s resiliency model offers four areas of focus to help employees understand what resources are available to them: mental, physical, social and spiritual. Programs like the DLA Fitness Program, Employee Assistance Program and Life Connections have been available for years to assist employees gain a better work-life balance.

Additionally, there are several agency programs that fall under resiliency: Morale, Welfare and Recreation, Equal Employment Opportunity and the Chaplain’s Office all offer programs of support to employees, and are managed by Human Resources.

“Resiliency is something we each have to work on for ourselves,” said Polly Charbonneau, acting director of DLA Distribution Organizational Management/J9. “It is our responsibility as an organization to ensure our employees know about the resources available to them.”