CHAPTER 2 Adulting: Being a Professional in the Workplace

© Toria/Shutterstock

CHAPTER 2

Adulting: Being a Professional in the WorkplaceDr. Teri Clemons and Dr. Tonya Dantuma

CHAPTER GOALS

After reading this chapter, you should be able to:

1. Articulate several ways to present yourself as a professional.2. Outline the basic hierarchy of medical and public school SLP and

audiology settings.3. Describe some common challenges of each setting and possible

solutions.4. Consider a professional response to familiar life challenges.

▸ Overview

The word “adulting” has gained recent popularity as a term used to describe all the aspects of life that are expected of an inde-pendent, responsible, and self-sustaining adult. There is a lot

of information associated with each of the previous adjectives, so in preparing to write this chapter, we crafted our own definition as it relates to the clinical workplace.

adulting: /ә´dαltiŋ/ (vb): the practice of acting professionally and in a way that everyone expects of you, but no one teaches you.

While there is some resistance to this particular word “adulting” there is a recognition that a set of skills that is expected, is per-ceived as missing in new professionals. This chapter aims to explic-itly discuss what is expected in a professional context in order to equip SLPs and audiologists to succeed in conducting themselves as professionals.

One reason that young professionals struggle with profession-alism is the expectation not only to follow explicit rules but also to understand implicit rules. Explicit rules are those that are written in employee handbooks, posted in workplaces, communicated in codes of ethics, or mandated by laws. While we may agree or disagree with these rules, the benefit of explicit rules is that we can know what they are. Implicit rules are trickier. Implicit rules are unwritten and usually not communicated at all. Implicit rules must be learned by observing the work environment and understanding relationships, dynamics, and workplace structure. Observing and following both explicit and implicit rules is essential for a professional. It is the goal of this chap-ter to shed light on explicit and implicit rules in order to teach readers how to present themselves as professionals.

We will discuss how to present yourself as a professional in a variety of ways and how to function effectively within the work-place hierarchy. In addition, we will talk about some common life situations that may interfere with work, and how to handle each in a professional manner. We will be referring a lot to professionalism in the workplace, but keep in mind that this discussion applies not only to the workplace but also to any educational internship settings that may be part of a training program. Every internship or clini-cal placement is an opportunity to show how you will operate as a full-fledged professional someday. Often, internship placements are long-term interviews with people who may want to hire you in the future! Think of this chapter as a guide for how not to ruin those opportunities.

While reading this chapter you may find yourself feeling uncom-fortable, perhaps thinking, “that’s not me” or “I just can’t do, act, or be like that.” If you feel that way, that is fine. What we mean by “fine” is that it is fine for you to be however and whoever you want to be away from the workplace. However, in the workplace, there are certain standards for being professional that are expected if you hope to be successful. If you have trouble with the standards at your workplace, you need to adjust to your workplace. You should not expect your workplace to adjust to you. So, let’s dive in.

12 Chapter 2 Adulting: Being a Professional in the Workplace

▸ Being a ProfessionalBeing a professional goes far beyond what you look like. It involves how you communicate, move, develop relationships with colleagues and clients, manage time, organize yourself, and utilize technology. How you present yourself professionally influences the way others will judge you and your competence in our fields. In this section, we will discuss professional communication, professional time manage-ment and organization, professional rapport, professional use of tech-nology and social media, and professional appearance.

Professional CommunicationCommunicating as a professional is not just one thing. It is a skill that requires agility, confidence, and appropriate word choices for differ-ent situations. You may be reading this and envisioning a very stoic, unanimated professional; however, that is not at all appropriate. In fact, in caring professions such as ours, stilted, detached communica-tion styles are rarely useful and often harmful. Professional commu-nication enhances relationships by setting the foundation for effective therapeutic and collaborative relationships.

One characteristic of professional communication is vocal quality. Vocal quality includes characteristics such as pitch, loud-ness, prosody, and intonation. As a professional, there are expecta-tions for each of these characteristics. A professional speaks loudly enough so that all listeners can hear; speaking too softly communi-cates lack of confidence. A professional uses appropriate pitch and intonation. While appropriate is difficult to define, inappropriate pitch and intonation are readily identifiable. High-pitched voices with a lot of intonational variance are used when speaking to infants and young children. This is called motherese. Professional pitch is lower with intonation patterns that are less extreme. Speakers with higher-pitched voices who use severe intonation patterns are judged as less mature and less capable by listeners (Watson, 2019).

Another characteristic of professional communication is the pace at which one speaks. We tend to speak quickly when feeling anxious or if we are unsure about what we are saying. Early in one’s profes-sional career, an SLP or audiologist may benefit from rehearsing what they need to say to clients, their families, or colleagues if they feel they might be anxious. In order to manage anxiety while speaking, a professional can pause before answering a question, providing a

Being a Professional 13

response, or making a comment. This pause allows you to organize your thoughts and may minimize the anxiety of not knowing exactly what to say. Pauses are also useful between phrases or at natural punc-tuation spots in conversation as a method for slowing one’s speech rate. Managing one’s pace when speaking is an important part of pre-senting oneself as a professional.

Communicating as a professional also involves word choice. Not only must we think very carefully about the words we choose to use, we must also consider which words not to use. Try this: explain, either out loud to yourself or to a partner, the purpose of assessing diado-chokinetic (DDK) rate as if you were explaining it to a family mem-ber. If possible, record your explanation. Think about the words you used in the explanation: Did you use words that someone who has not studied communications sciences would understand? Did you explain what those words mean? Communicating as a professional involves using words that are appropriate for the situation and the person with whom we are communicating. As a professional, one needs to be able to use the vocabulary associated with our profession and also be able to talk about our profession without using our “big words.”

In addition to knowing what words to use, a professional knows what words not to use. We hope that it is obvious that curse words are never appropriate in the professional setting. However, in addition to curse words, professionals should omit slang from their vocabu-lary. Words that were developed as less-offensive versions of a curse word such as darn, fudge, crap, and heck should not be used in a pro-fessional setting. Descriptive words or phrases such as cool, rad, lit, or gnarly should be avoided and tags such as dude, missy, or mamas should be used with discretion.

Trendy phrases, phrases associated with pop-culture, or words or phrases from a movie or a song do not belong in professional com-munications. I will forever remember the day in an Individual Edu-cational Meeting (IEP) when a school psychologist reported on her classroom observation of a 4-year-old boy by saying, “He moved from activity to activity, destroying all in his path, like an evil spawn.” She was referring to a television show that was popular at the time; how-ever, hopefully, we can all agree this was not a professional presenta-tion of her observations. What are some current trendy phrases that might be used in informal conversation, but should not be a part of a professional communication?

Another set of words that should not be a part of professional communication are filler words. Words such as like, just, really, so,


and you know and vocalizations such as um, ah, and er should be omitted. This may seem easy, but go back and listen to your recording of DDK assessment and document how many filler words were used. We tend to use these words to create space or time for us to think of an appropriate word for our sentence. So instead of using a filler, just pause until the appropriate word comes to mind. Go back and try to explain DDK assessment again. This time try to keep the above rules of professional communication regarding vocal tone, pace, and word choice in mind.

Another characteristic of professional communication and one that is often overlooked is agility in communication. When a speaker is agile, they are able to change their vocal quality, word choice, and pacing to accommodate their listener in order to build a better rela-tionship. In helping professions such as speech-pathology and audi-ology, communicative agility is necessary for interacting with various people in different contexts. You cannot use the same tone with an adult that you use with a preschooler and vice versa. When speak-ing with a colleague who understands your profession you would use words associated with the profession without adding explanation; when explaining information to family members who are not part of your profession, you would speak differently.

Professional Organization and Time ManagementOne of the fastest ways to lose credibility as a professional is to be late to work, treatment sessions, or meetings. Arriving late in the work-place communicates a message that you do not take your job seri-ously, and you do not value another’s time. This is an area where you have to adjust to the expectations of your workplace. If you are not a morning person and have trouble getting out of bed, try establishing some new habits in your morning routine to help you get out the door on time. If you have a commute with unpredictable traffic, always prepare for the worst-case scenario and give yourself plenty of time to get to work. Do what it takes to be on time.

The same holds true for managing time while at work. If you have sessions scheduled back-to-back and tend to run over, set a timer to go off when it is time to begin wrapping up the session. While it may feel generous to give one client a little extra time, you are stealing time away from your next appointment. In addition, if you as the specialist are habitually running over in your sessions, patients will begin to habitu-ally arrive late to appointments, and the impact will be magnified.


In most of the settings where SLPs and audiologists work, including schools, hospitals, and private practices, it is necessary to hold tightly to a schedule in order to see all patients. In medical settings there are pro-ductivity standards that have to be met, and there is often pressure to not accrue overtime in order to complete work. Professionals must figure out how to get work done in a timely manner to meet the expectations of the workplace. This may be difficult to do at first and you may have to consider ways to adjust in order to get everything done. Some ideas include preparing for treatment sessions the day before or coming in a little early to get organized before the day begins. Be encouraged that over time you will get faster and more efficient with preparing for treat-ment sessions and completing all of the required paperwork.

Time management is not the only aspect of organization associated with presenting oneself as a professional. Organization of materials, paperwork, and oneself is critical to presenting oneself as a profes-sional. Keeping assessment and treatment materials organized and accessible during and in between sessions allows specialists to access information quickly and provide a distraction-free environment for the client. Many patients can become easily distracted by excess mate-rials and visible distractions. It is always a good, professional habit to put away one activity, that is, remove it from sight, before bringing out the next activity in any diagnostic or therapeutic session. Do not let materials and activities pile up in the space surrounding the session. In addition, between sessions, put materials back into their place so that the next time they need to be used they can be easily found.

With the introduction of digital record keeping in many places of employment, physical paperwork has decreased. However, there are still files, data collection sheets, and client and family handouts that must be organized. Keeping pre-printed, informational hand-outs in organized, easily accessed files will help the therapist provide information to clients and their families in an organized, professional manner and avoid the awkward “let me locate it” shuffle. Transfer-ring data into session notes by the end of the day helps the therapist avoid having several sheets of data floating around. And closing and replacing files, whether digital or paper, at the end of each work day prevents lost information or time loss while trying to find a missing file. Taking a few minutes to organize paperwork at the end of each workday will save many more minutes caused by disorganization.

In addition to organizing materials and paperwork, present-ing oneself as a professional involves organization of oneself. What does this mean? Organizing oneself involves having a plan for the


workweek, workday, and the next event. Organizing oneself for the week involves looking over the week to see what is coming up and determining if any special planning or preparation needs to occur. Is there a rare case coming up that you need to research? Do you need an interpreter or to consult with another professional? Do you have an intern or new employee starting? This type of weekly organization helps one avoid the stress of unexpected glitches that diminish the trust of clients and colleagues.

In addition to taking time to look over one’s week, it is also a good habit to review the day ahead before beginning each new day. What types of patients will you see? Where are some chunks of time for documentation or treatment planning? Have there been changes made to your schedule that require a change in your plans? If possi-ble, assemble all materials required for the day and have them ready in a manner that allows you to move quickly from one appointment to the next. Daily organization is different for each professional, how-ever, each professional should develop a habit that fits their own work situation and personality.

Organization for the week and for the day are essential for present-ing oneself as a professional, as is organization for the next task. Because of productivity requirements in medical settings and private clinics and high caseloads in public school settings, clinicians may be tempted to fly from one activity to the next without reorganizing themselves. I did this once and it did not turn out well. I had prepared myself for the day and had read the files, scheduled interpreters, asked for a physical therapist (PT) to assist on one of the cases, and gave a colleague money to buy me lunch. I had three different intake assessments scheduled and the second one was waiting for me when I finished the first. I said good-bye to the first family, grabbed the second file, and went out to meet the next family without taking a second to reorganize myself. The dad was carrying the child I was to assess from the reception area to the assessment room. I asked the dad to “put Lily down so I could watch how she manages the steps as we go up.” This was a common method we used to determine if the child’s gross motor skills seemed intact or if we should call for a PT consult. Had I taken a moment to reorga-nize myself before rushing out to greet this second family, I would have seen the note I highlighted in the file that said, “Parents are concerned because Lily does not yet say any words and she is unable to walk.”

Reorganizing oneself as a professional involves taking a moment between tasks and remembering details about the upcoming task. Things like: “The child does not walk; PT will consult during


assessment,” “Family requested information regarding transitional placements,” or “Gather end-of-treatment-period data.” Reorganizing oneself may be a breath, a conscious shift from one task to the next, or a pause to re-acquaint yourself with the next patient. Whatever it is, it is an important discipline to develop in order to present one-self as an organized professional. Asking that father to have his child walk up the steps ruined my credibility with that family and I had to work extra hard to regain trust and help them see me as a competent professional. That could have been avoided had I taken a moment to reorganize myself before going out to greet them.

Building Professional RapportRapport is established when the patient trusts the healthcare pro-vider. Merriam-Webster defines rapport as “a relationship character-ized by agreement, mutual understanding, or empathy that makes communication possible or easy.” (Merriam-Webster, 2019). It may seem odd that developing rapport is included in a list of requirements for being a professional. However, research from clinical disciplines shows that building rapport in patient–provider relationships pro-vides many benefits. Because the patient feels heard and understood, building rapport motivates clients to adhere to the treatment plan prescribed (Lang, 2012). Better follow through and buy-in creates stronger therapy results and higher patient satisfaction (Leach, 2005). All of these benefits can be realized simply by being intentional about developing a relationship with your patients.

Research also shows that the opportunity to build relationship with patients, impact lives, and interact with others are the aspects of the profession that SLPs in school find most rewarding about their jobs (Caesar & Wolf-Nelson, 2008). Speech pathologists and audiolo-gists work the jobs we do because we enjoy helping people. We enjoy the relationship, and when the job gets difficult, it is this reciprocal, harmonious relationship, this rapport, that keeps us going.

Rapport is beneficial to clients and to clinicians, so how do we build rapport? Behaviors associated with rapport include being warm and friendly, affirming and understanding, and giving time to peo-ple (Lang, 2012; Leach, 2005). Practically, rapport building is a lot of really small behaviors that make a big difference.

From the first time one meets a client and family, there are oppor-tunities to be warm and friendly, starting with how you introduce yourself. Greet the patient professionally, with a handshake, make eye


contact, and say your name and position slowly and clearly. It is also often helpful to let the patient know what they can call you, for exam-ple, “Hi, my name is Sally Speechy, I am a speech pathologist. You can call me Sally.” A warm, friendly introduction can set the tone for further interactions.

It is also important to learn and use the names of your clients and their families. Dale Carnegie, a renowned business author and speaker, in his book, How to Win Friends and Influence People, wrote, “A person’s name is to him or her the sweetest and most important sound in any language” (Carnegie, 1936). When we use someone’s name, we demonstrate to them that they are important to us, a unique individual, not just another patient. Learn and use the names of your patients and their family. (Hint: I often wrote the names of family members on my patient’s file or my note pages in case I could not remember.) This little thing is a big thing to people.

Another way to build rapport with clients is to notice what is important to them and make that important to you. With younger clients, play with them and show interest in their interests. If they have an Incredible Hulk on their shirt, let them know you notice it. Maybe your adult client is a fan of a certain sports team so you start paying attention to the score of the game the night before. If a client misses a session because they were on vacation, ask about it. Learn about their hobbies, their family, and whatever else is important to them. Another way to learn about what is important to your client is to ask relational questions of them. Ask about their families, hob-bies, pets, and other small pieces of information that will establish a connection.

In addition to learning about your client, it can be beneficial for building rapport to share some things about yourself with clients and families; it helps you seem human. For example, when working with adult clients in the hospital I often had to have honest conversations with families who had loved ones with advanced dementia and had to make challenging decisions about their care. I would often share that my own family had walked through this same kind of experi-ence with my grandfather, and I understood what they were going through. This type of sharing should be used carefully so as not to influence a decision, but instead, to communicate an understanding of the difficulty of these decisions.

Another way to build rapport with clients is to provide space for them to ask questions or share ideas without feeling judged. Using phrases like, “I’m going to stop and let you ask questions now,” “you


look like you have a question,” or “stop me if you have a question” provide an invitation to ask. In addition, when clients share ideas, try to include the idea into the session or treatment plan. In this way collaboration can be established and the client will feel more invested in the therapeutic process.

Other small, big things you can do to build rapport might include some of the following:

■ Adjust the pillows of a patient in a hospital bed to make them more comfortable before starting therapy.

■ Provide a toy or activity for a sibling who has to wait in the wait-ing room.

■ Hold a door open when someone maneuvers a stroller or wheel-chair through it.

■ Provide tissues for the patient who gets teary during a session. ■ Prepare cold water for the student coming to speech after recess. ■ Remember birthdays, special events, or milestones.

These little, big things and others like them go a long way to estab-lish the type of rapport that has a positive impact on the therapeutic process with clients and their families.

So far, we have been discussing rapport with clients and their families; however, it is also necessary to acknowledge that being a professional involves building rapport with colleagues. Recently, an SLP friend was talking about a conversation she had with a CF she was supervising. The SLP said to the CF, “The teachers and staff at the school all agree that your clinical skills, report writing, and IEP management are all very good. However, they also say that you are ‘all business’ and they just don’t know you.” The CF responded by saying, “You mean I have to be their friend?”

The answer is, no, we do not have to be friends with our colleagues, but we should be collegial and make efforts to build rapport with them. Building rapport with our colleagues is similar to building rap-port with clients, and offers some of the same benefits. Clinicians will have much more success asking nurses, teachers, and others to follow through on therapy goals if rapport has been developed. Scheduling challenges, room changes, and help with paperwork can all become easier if one has developed rapport with office and support staff. And, more importantly, collaboration and positive workplace interactions are benefits of building rapport with colleagues. Going to work with people you enjoy, and people who enjoy you is a lot of fun and helps combat burnout (Cesar & Wolf-Nelson, 2008).


Similar to establishing rapport with clients, building rapport with colleagues involves the little things that make a big difference. Eat lunch in the common area and interact, don’t just stare at your phone. Ask relational questions, share appropriately about yourself, notice and talk about their interests. Greet everyone by name, attend some of the social events, participate in the office gift exchanges, and be friendly. Go above and beyond sometimes. When working in a school and doing push-in therapy, help the teacher transition the class from your activity to the next thing, don’t just walk out and leave the teacher with a disorganized class. If you’re working in a hospital and your patient asks for the water container to be refilled and nobody is around, refill it for them. Pick up dropped things, clean up the break room, and be positive. Do the small things that make a difference.

Building rapport with colleagues also involves not participating in negative conversations. If you join a colleague in gossip or com-plaining, that colleague will not trust you to be positive about them when they are not around. If there is a workplace problem to be discussed join the conversation with a problem-solving mind-set, not just to complain. If you are present when a conversation turns to gossip, be intentional about changing the subject or exiting the con-versation. Building rapport with colleagues should never involve gossip or complaining.

Developing rapport with colleagues also involves a clear under-standing of the landscape of one’s workplace. Hospital and medical settings have a particular hierarchy that is important to understand and the structure of school settings is different altogether. Each will be described further; however, it is important to remember that even between hospitals, nuanced, implied rules about how to maneuver and interact appropriately should be noticed and understood.

Hospitals and Medical SettingsMedical settings have many layers of policies and procedures in place to ensure quality, safety, and patient care. The hierarchy of medi-cal settings can be complicated. Most hospital hierarchies have an administrative branch that focuses on the financial and business side of the institution and does the hiring for the general hospital staff. At the same time there is a separate leadership team led by the chief of staff, who oversees the doctors who work at the hospital. What many


people do not know is that, with the exception of hospitalists, most doctors do not work directly for the hospital. Most doctors operate as independent entities that usually have their own office where they see patients and also have privileges at a facility. They typically have privileges at multiple facilities at once; thus they are very busy. When it comes to medical staff there is a hierarchy whether we like it or not, and doctors are at the top of the food chain. The reality is that you have to operate around the availability and schedule of the doctors.

Therapy departments or rehabilitation specialists often encom-pass other disciplines outside of SLP including occupational therapy (OT) and physical therapy (PT). Within these departments there is typically a therapy manager and/or a department lead who helps to oversee these disciplines. SLPs work closely with other therapists in these settings and each discipline has something unique to bring to the table. Good communication, rapport, and a team-oriented approach benefit the patients. One important thing to note is that most reha-bilitation departments do not include audiologists. SLPs working in medical rehabilitation departments must be very aware of the hear-ing needs of their patients and advocate for audiology assessment if needed; other medical professionals may not have a keen understand-ing of the need for audiology evaluations.

With other staff in a medical setting the hierarchy may be less clear. There are many team members who each play a role with patients; these include nursing staff and nursing assistants, lab techni-cians, dieticians, neuropsychologists, maintenance and cleaning staff, and doctors with a variety of specialties. It is essential to remember that everyone plays a crucial role in the care of patients, and each person should be treated with respect and kindness. Building good rapport with other hospital staff and physicians is crucial for quality patient care and professional satisfaction.

Another important fact to remember as you develop relationships with colleagues in a hospital setting is you will likely work with the same people over and over again with different patient situations. That nurse or doctor that may be challenging to work with this week will likely be caring for another one of your patients next week, so handle the situation with care. The same is true with therapy staff. I often tell my students that the therapy world is a small world. I have numerous examples in my career when someone I worked with in a medical setting pops up again when I moved to a new workplace. It is important not to burn bridges with other staff; you never know when you may be working together again.


School SettingsThe landscape of school settings is different from hospital settings. One of the challenges of school-based audiologists and SLPs is that there are a lot of people on the team. School-based clinicians must be intentional about relationship and rapport with the team as they will need to work collaboratively with this team to gather information from many different people, create schedules, and come to consensus on intervention planning. The job of everyone on the team is import-ant to the success of the student. Conveying value to each person will establish this culture of respect and collaboration that is necessary to build rapport.

One important relational challenge that school-based SLPs and audiologists may face is a lack of understanding of what it is they do. Consider the view from a classroom teacher’s perspective. They are responsible for 25 or more students from 8:15 am to 2:45 pm, all at the same time. They have to provide differentiated education to accommodate the struggling low-performing students, those func-tioning at accelerated pace, and the ones who are performing at grade level. They manage the behavior and emotional well-being of each of these students. Their success is measured largely by how this group of students performs on standardized tests. (Read that sentence again. Can you imagine if your success as an SLP was measured on the improvements some of your students made on standardized language tests?) Enter the school-based SLP or audiologist who takes one or two students to a small office and works on a set of skills or conducts an assessment, and then brings the child back. In our best attempt to be collaborative, we provide this teacher with some strategies to help this student meet their IEP goals and ask the teacher to implement these in the classroom—special tasks or behaviors to implement for one or two of the 25+ students. From the perspective of this class-room teacher, school-based clinicians work with one child or small groups of children for short periods of time and then provide class-room teachers specialized instructions for those children. At some level, that is an accurate description of what we do.

There are some things we can do as school-based clinicians to improve this collaboration process that are not within the scope of this chapter; however, one thing to understand is the importance of rapport with this teacher. If this school-based clinician has been inten-tional about establishing rapport with this teacher and has shown some small kindnesses, this teacher may be more willing to collabo-rate with the clinician. If this clinician is a stranger to the teacher, or


worse, has ignored, or previously dismissed the teacher’s concerns, this teacher is not likely going to implement any strategies or requests by the school-based clinician. Be intentional about building rapport before you need to work with a particular classroom teacher.

Professional AppearanceWhile there are things about one’s appearance that cannot easily be changed such as height, body type, or skin color, there are some things that can, and should be managed in a professional manner, including clothing choices and personal style. There is not an exact formula for appropriate dress in every work setting. In a medical set-ting you might be required to wear scrubs, you might work in a clinic that has a business casual dress code but allows jeans on Fridays, and your workplace may or may not have rules about tattoos, piercings, or hair color. One key to a professional appearance is learning what the rules are for the setting you are in and abiding by them.

Another crucial element of professional appearance is dressing appropriately for the context you are in. This is a lesson I (Tonya) learned early in my career while working in Head Start Preschools in a lower income school district. I was a new specialist and was work-ing two jobs, one on the preschool team, the second in an adult, out-patient clinic. I made the mistake of trying to dress once for both jobs. For the first few months of my jobs, I wore professional trou-sers, nice blouses, and low-heeled shoes to my preschool job. While this was absolutely appropriate for my work in the outpatient clinic with adults, it was not appropriate for my work in the preschools. In addition to my professional clothes and shoes, I am almost six feet tall and I have very pale skin and blue eyes. I looked very out of place in the almost entirely Hispanic, low-income preschool; and more than just looking out of place, my appearance, both things I could and could not control, made it difficult for many of the parents and teach-ers to confidently approach me. I was mortified and offended when one of the teachers suggested to my supervisor that I consider dress-ing “more appropriately” for my work setting. My response was, “I am dressed very professionally.” And I was; however, I was not dressed appropriately for my work setting. The next week I started wearing nice jeans or casual pants, a polo shirt with our district’s name on it, and tennis shoes to my preschool job. I did have to change into other clothes on my way to my outpatient clinic job, however, the incon-venience was worth it. Within just 2 weeks I had better rapport with families and teachers at that Head Start Preschool, and, incidentally,


the teacher who suggested I “dress more appropriately” became one of my favorite colleagues during my time at that job. Understanding the explicit dress code rules of a workplace is important; however, understanding implicit rules and dressing appropriately for the work context is just as important.

Personal comfort or style may be important to you, but dress code rules and appearance are not an area where you want to push the envelope; it is simply not worth it. My (Teri) first few years out of graduate school I lived and worked in Southern California. My room-mate at the time was a California girl through and through. As a Cal-ifornia girl, her primary wardrobe staple was her flip-flop sandals. She wore them everywhere, and was shocked when she was hired as a receptionist at a law firm and was told flip-flops were not acceptable with the dress code in the office. Despite investing in some new shoes for work, some days she still made the choice to go to work in her flip-flops. She was written up for it more than once, and eventually was fired from her job. Remember, if you have trouble with the standards at your workplace, you need to adjust; your workplace does not do the adjusting. Instead, figure out how to adapt your style to the expecta-tions of your workplace.

Professional Use of Technology and Social MediaSocial media have many benefits for both clinician and client; these include growing a private practice, development of support groups, resource-sharing, and collaboration (Moorhead et al., 2013). How-ever, being a professional involves being very deliberate about how and what type of information one posts on both professional and per-sonal social media platforms. Maintaining a professional page and a personal page is a good habit for clinicians, however, one must always be very careful, even with what is posted on their personal pages.

Part of being a professional and an adult is being consistent with who you are in every sphere of your life. This includes social media. Social media has become a normal part of daily life for most people. Employers routinely check social media sites when vetting a poten-tial employee, graduate schools will often look up the social media accounts of applicants, and even clients may check the social media accounts of their clinicians to see who they are. It is crucial to clean up your social media sites and remove any questionable content that may portray you in a way that you do not want or is unprofessional.

Social media is never the appropriate place to complain about work, your supervisor, clients, or colleagues. This kind of behavior


is very unprofessional and can have repercussions down the road. A good rule of thumb is to never post anything, whether on a personal or business page, that you don’t want your mom, priest, client, boss, or co-workers to see. Many people have posted something that has later come back to cause them problems.

Never post pictures, names, or any identifying information about clients on a social media page. This is a clear violation of the ASHA Code of Ethics (ASHA, 2016). In addition, do not make comments about a client, a patient, or a supervisor. “My last patient today is a real pain! I met his dad and now I know where my client gets his bad attitude from.” Even without using their name, they, or someone close to them, may be able to identify who you are talking about based on the information posted. In addition, anyone reading that type of post on a clinician’s feed will have doubts about the clinician’s level of con-cern for other clients and families.

Cell phone behavior is another area that must be managed well by professionals. Hopefully it goes without saying that taking a call or responding to a text message while with a client is not acceptable pro-fessional behavior. But we use cell phones for so much more, and what about when we are at work, but not with clients? Many of us use our cell phones to check the time; however, a client or colleague does not know we are looking at our phone for the time and may assume we are responding to an alert. Professionals should either wear a watch or place a clock somewhere visible in order to manage time. Really. We have only had one student asked to leave an internship placement. Her supervisor’s reason was “unprofessionalism.” Specifically, this student was using her cellphone during sessions, even after being told not to. When I met with the student, she told me that the first time she was reading a text, and she understood that was not acceptable. The second time the student was looking at her phone to check the time. Neither her client nor her supervisor could tell the difference between reading a text and looking at the time. She was asked not to return to that internship.

Another misuse of cell phone often occurs in meetings. Whether in a meeting with colleagues or a meeting with clients and their fam-ilies, clinicians should have their phone silenced and put away in a pocket or bag. If there is an emergent situation where you are waiting for a text, apologize in advance and briefly explain the situation. “I apologize that I will be responding to a text, I’m waiting for infor-mation from my doctor.” In other situations, you should not have your phone visible during meetings. This type of professional behav-ior communicates to clients, colleagues, and supervisors that you are fully present and ready to participate in the meeting.


Up until this point in your career you may not have given much thought to how your social media and technology use appears to those with whom you work. But now you know. Take some time to review your social media pages and feeds. Eliminate anything that may diminish opinions that employers, colleagues, and clients may form of you based on your posts. Consider your cell phone habits and how you might change those in order to be fully present and profes-sional in your workplace.

ConclusionWe presented five areas involved in presenting oneself as a profes-sional; they are:

■ Professional communication ■ Professional organization and time management ■ Professional rapport ■ Professional appearance ■ Professional use of social media and technology

While none of these behaviors involves knowledge in the areas of communication sciences and disorders, audiology, or speech- language pathology, all of them impact clinical work and professional credibility. Read through the list again. For each bullet point think of just one professional behavior you want to develop based on your workplace and current level of professionalism.

▸ Being Human and a ProfessionalBeing SickAs a human you will get sick and as a professional, it is important to know how to handle illness. First, it is important to understand the explicit sick time rules for your workplace. Who do you contact? How many sick days are allowed? Who is responsible for scheduling missed meetings and appointments? In addition to explicit sick time rules of a workplace, there are some implicit rules about sickness that one must consider.

One implicit rule is understanding what constitutes sickness, and what does not, when is it appropriate and necessary to call in sick. Opinions on this subject vary by person, so you may disagree with what you read here, but here are some general guidelines. It is pro-fessionally appropriate to call in sick when you have a condition that is contagious. Call in sick if you have a fever, stomach flu, contagious

Being Human and a Professional 27

cough, or the like; in fact, coming to work and sharing these illnesses is unprofessional, not heroic. Call in sick if you have an injury that would be made worse by or which prevents you from doing your job. And call in sick if the doctor tells you to stay off work.

There are some conditions that make us feel horrible, but may not make it necessary to call in sick from work. If you have a cough or cold without a fever, menstrual cramps, a minor headache, have a child or pet that kept you awake the night before, or are hung over, then go to work. Unless directed differently by a doctor, return to work a day or two after most sprains, stitches, or minor bone frac-tures so long as you can do your job with minor modifications. And, do not use sick days simply because you do not feel like going to work; save them for when you really are sick.

Medical appointments are often categorized by employers as “sick time.” While it is sometimes impossible to do so, work as hard as possi-ble to schedule medical appointments around your work schedule. If an appointment must be made during the workday, consider the time of day that would cause the least disruption for your workplace. Also, inform supervisors and colleagues as soon as possible about the appointment so that the impact on clients and colleagues can be minimized.

What about those “in-between” things? There are some times when you are not well, perhaps not contagious anymore, but genu-inely sick. What is professional in those situations? One way to make a good decision is to consider the impact an absence would have on your colleagues, clients, or yourself. Do you have an important meeting or a client who would not be able to reschedule? Does your absence increase the workload for a colleague? Will missing work cre-ate a situation where you will fall behind at work in a significant way? Each person and situation is unique, but it is important to thought-fully consider the ramifications of a sick day if some cold medicine, ibuprofen, or chicken soup would make going to work possible.

Sick FamilyBeing human and a professional also means you will have family members who get sick. Many workplaces allow employees to use sick days to cover days missed for ill family members. We firmly believe in putting family first; however, putting family first does not always mean missing work. If you have children, it is incredibly helpful to develop a support system of trusted family, caregivers, and friends to help care for your children if they get sick. I reserve missing work for when my children are seriously sick, but when they have one of the


countless colds that kids get throughout the year, I have others I trust to care for them as their own.

Working with a partner and developing a strategy or plan in advance is also important. For example, my workweek is set up so that my heavy workdays are two days out of the week. If my kids are sick on one of those days, then my husband is the one who misses work that day. If they are sick on one of my lighter days, then I am likely to be the one to take the day off to care for my family. This arrangement allows us to share the load and missed workdays. Different arrange-ments will be needed in each situation, but planning ahead is helpful.

As mothers of young children, missing work when children are sick is often guilt-producing. Alternatively, being at work when a child is sick, is also guilt-producing. We can attest to the fact that mom guilt is a real thing. Trying to strike the balance between work or school life and family is challenging, especially when the little ones get sick. It can feel like you are failing in every sphere of your life. In reality, we are often our worst critics as parents. It is likely that although you may feel like a failure, you probably are doing just fine. Fortunately, one of the great benefits of our profession is that there are often opportunities for creating work schedules that work with the needs of your family. As a parent, when you have those opportunities, take advantage of them!

Unfortunately, children are not the only ones who get sick. Some-times parents, spouses, and siblings have significant medical issues that require us to be present with them, and we should. In these diffi-cult cases, being up front with employers and colleagues is essential. If possible, create strategies and systems that allow you to balance care of a loved one and work; perhaps some flexible time, telecommuting, or other creative methods may be options. Sometimes in very signifi-cant situations, it is necessary to take a leave. Employers have policies and states have laws that govern family medical leave. As a profes-sional, these are there to be utilized in these types of life situations.

Emergencies, Big and SmallBeing human means there will be emergencies and bumps along the road of life that interfere with work. Car accidents, major plumbing leaks, and other things will occur and we need to handle those in a professional manner. Do not make any major decisions during a cri-sis; instead, make day-to-day arrangements with your employer until the crisis is over. Unless you consider your supervisor a friend, do not over communicate. Tell them enough of the situation to communi-cate the emergency, but not all of the details.

Being Human and a Professional 29

Being a Professional and Being Human Requires Grit and ResilienceWhen we started the SLP graduate program at our university, one of my roles was placing students in their adult externship sites. I was also there to provide support for the students and supervisors for the duration of the internship experience. A few weeks into the new semester, I got an email from one of our students who was com-pleting her internship in an acute hospital setting. This student was without question one of the strongest students in her cohort. She was dedicated, hard-working, smart, and she always had a positive atti-tude. So, I was surprised by her email which basically communicated “I’m not sure I can keep up with this.” She shared with me that her internship schedule coupled with the two classes the students were taking that semester was overwhelming. She said that she was allow-ing herself to take off only one afternoon a week and otherwise her time was completely filled with her internship, studying, and com-pleting assignments. She said she had very little time to see her family, friends, or boyfriend, and that all of her meals were being eaten from plastic containers. She asked me for permission to reduce her intern-ship from 5 days a week to 4 days a week. I said no.

This response may seem harsh or lacking compassion, but rather than making her circumstances easier for her, I thought what would be more beneficial to her growth as a professional was to use this as an opportunity to develop grit and resilience. Duckworth (2016) defines grit as “perseverance and passion for long term goals” (p. 6). Grit and resilience are what help us to push through, to keep doing hard things when we want to give up. Part of being an adult in a professional set-ting is having the tenacity to endure hard things.

What helps us develop grit and resilience to do the hard things that it takes to be an outstanding professional? First, perspective is key. You can do anything for a temporary season in your life. If the pace and intensity of a job is overwhelming for you in your long-term career, you might need to find a setting that suits you better or make a change for better quality of life. However, if this is for a specified period of time like an internship, keeping the perspective that this will not last forever can help you endure the challenges in the short term and keep pressing on.

Another key to developing grit and resilience is practicing good self-care. You have to make sure that you are being intentional about fueling yourself so that your body, soul, and mind can endure hard things. Self-care involves practical things like getting enough sleep,


eating healthy food, and exercise. It can also involve taking the time to do things you enjoy or that help you relax like getting a massage, spending time with friends, reading a book for fun, or enjoying some time outside. Whatever self-care looks for you, being intentional about carving out time and space for it will set you up physically and mentally to persevere in the midst of challenging circumstances.

Developing grit and perseverance does not mean pushing through everything on your own. Part of maturing as an adult is learning to recognize when you need support and reaching out for help when you need it. This means leaning on the people who love you and let-ting them know how you are really doing. It may involve reaching out to a mental health professional to help you be emotionally healthy. We were not meant to live life on our own strength.

▸ ConclusionPresenting oneself as a professional requires an individual to be aware of explicit workplace rules and also be keenly attentive to implicit rules. Observing and following both explicit and implicit rules is essential for a professional. It was the goal of this chapter to illumi-nate the explicit and implicit rules in order to provide readers with an understanding of what is expected of them in the workplace. While none of this chapter involved sharing knowledge specific to the fields of audiology or speech-pathology, the way one presents oneself as a professional significantly impacts one’s credibility with colleagues and clients.

Chapter Wrap-UpKey TermsAdultingAgilityExplicit rulesImplicit rules

PaceRapportVocal qualityWord choice

ActivitiesWhat elements of time management are the most challenging for you? What are some new habits you can incorporate to help you better manage your time?

Chapter Wrap-Up 31

What forms of self-care are the most helpful for you? What are some practical ways you can incorporate self-care into your week?

Below are the areas described for presenting yourself as a professional.

1. For each, write one new concept that you had not thought of or known before.

2. Think of just one professional behavior you want to develop based on your workplace and current level of professionalism. Be specific.

3. Discuss your answers with a classmate or colleague.• Professional communication• Professional organization and time management• Professional rapport• Professional appearance• Professional use of social media and technology

ReferencesAmerican Speech-Language-Hearing Association. (2016). Code of ethics. Retrieved from

www.asha.org/policy/Caesar, L. G., & Wolf-Nelson, N. (2008). Perceptions of job satisfaction among school-

based SLPs: Challenges verses rewards. Retrieved from https://pubs.asha.org /doi/10.1044/sbi9.4.126

Carnegie, D. (1936). How to win friends and influence people. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster.

Duckworth, A. (2016). Grit: The power of passion and perseverance. New York, NY: Scribner.

Lang, E. V. (2012). A better patient experience through better communication. Journal of Radiology Nursing, 31(4), 114–119. Retrieved from https://www.sciencedirect.com /science/article/abs/pii/S1546084312001423?via%3Dihub

Leach, M. J. (2005). Rapport: A key to treatment success. Complementary Therapies in Clinical Practice, 11(4), 262–265. Retrieved from https://www.sciencedirect.com /science/article/pii/S174438810500071X

Merriam Webster Open Dictionary. (2019). Retrieved from https://www.merriam -webster.com/dictionary/dilettante

Moorhead, S. A., Hazlett, D. E., Harrison, L., Carroll, J. K., Irwin, A., & Hoving, C. (2013). A new dimension of health care: Systematic review of the uses, benefits, and limitations of social media for health communication. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 15(4). Retrieved from https://www.jmir.org/2013/4/e85/

Watson, S. (2019). The unheard female voice. The ASHA Leader, 24(2), 43–53. Retrieved from https://leader.pubs.asha.org/doi/10.1044/leader.FTR1.24022019.44


CHAPTER 2 Adulting: Being a Professional in the Workplace

Documents

Transcript of CHAPTER 2 Adulting: Being a Professional in the Workplace