Terry Murphy has had over 13 years of chaplaincy experience in the fire service before joining the MCE team.
Having only started in October, he has now a employees who are reacting very positively to the having him as a chaplain around them in their workplace. He even has employees requesting to be friends on Social Network sites.
What Does A Typical Day Involve?
Working two hours a week, Terry begins by reporting to the receptionist. Here he’ll ask if there are any specific issues that he should be aware of or if any of the employees needs his immediate attention.
After that Terry begins his tour of the building, walking through the kitchen area past the maintenance man and other staff who are engaged with the daily running of the business. The staff come from predominantly Eastern Europe, although there are also a wide mixture of ethnic cultures including Muslims and Hindus on the team.
Sometimes Terry says, it may feel as if nothing much is going on. The staff are engaged in their work which obviously takes precedent. However, just as a people see a policeman on duty, they know where to turn to if they have something they need to talk about.
Terry knows that part of this is down to his visibility to the staff. He always wears the MCE badge which tells staff he is a member of the Care Team and he has noticed that as the weeks go by, so the easier it is for staff and employees to open up to him about the issues they are facing.
How Have The Employees Responded?
Recently, Terry was able to engage with a worker who emigrated from Eastern Europe. After offering several times to help, the man took Terry up on his offer of helping him sort out his child benefit.
Meeting up outside of work hours, the employee can now bring his family to come and live in the UK with him.
By continually being visible and offering genuine and sincere advice, Terry has been able to integrate himself successfully alongside the employee team. They now accept him as someone to go to as an independent ear, but more importantly they can also go to him as someone who will help them both inside the workplace and outside of it.
