Information for Managers and Supervisors

Dear Managers and Supervisors,

The Women at Work Retreat is a UCSC tradition which provides an annual opportunity for university staff to enrich their personal and professional skills and knowledge in an off-campus educational retreat setting.  We believe it is an inexpensive, high impact way to reward, retain, and retrain your workers. Previous retreats have included workshops on time and stress management; effective communication skills; ergonomics; balancing work and family responsibilities; and increasing job satisfaction.  Follow up evaluations from both past participants and their supervisors have reported significantly increased job satisfaction and motivation.

This year will be the 24th Women at Work Retreat, themed “Accepting the present; building the future”.  This particular theme will foster better working environments by providing positive methods to create and sustain happiness, which can be applied on a daily basis.  The workshops and activities will enrich both personal and work lives for employees, and will encourage staff to remain hopeful and positive during these times of economic concerns.

The two-day retreat is open to all non-probationary career status employees in any job classification, up to and including Professional and Support Staff Grade I (equivalent to Administrative Analyst), and to casual staff employees in eligible classifications with at least two years of cumulative UCSC service.  This year’s retreat will be held on May 5-6, 2011 at the St. Francis Retreat Center in San Juan Bautista.

What do you have to do?

Consider our request to give your staff time off for the Retreat. Eligible employees will soon receive application materials, which they can submit to you for approval.  It is up to you to make your determination.  The retreat is planned and implemented entirely by staff volunteers (over 30 of us!), under the auspices of the Women’s Center.  Major funding also comes from Staff Human Resources, Equal Employment Opportunity/Affirmative Action, The Women’s Center, and the money received from the hard work of our volunteer fundraising committee.  The cost per participant is $120, plus two days of paid release time. Limited partial scholarships are available.

If you have comments or questions, please contact Sabrina Shaver at 9-1853 or sashaver@ucsc.edu
 
We thank you for your support of this important event.

Sincerely,

Laura McCann, Sabrina Shaver, and Becky Klein
Co-chairs, 2011 Women at Work Retreat

P.S.  Here are a few quotes from past participants…

“I am grateful UCSC allows me to attend an event like this.  UCSC really cares a lot about employees by providing this type of program.” – 2008 participant

“The retreat brings together women in an atmosphere of exchange of ideas and time spent in the company of strangers – yet colleagues.” – 2008 participant