Mental Health and Your Representatives
Mental Health and Your Representatives in Economic Development
Economic development positions around the State of Kansas, the average employment time is one to three years. The first time I served as the Republic County Director, I made it a year and a half. I love the communities I served, the work that I was doing, and the people I was serving.
So, why are tenures in economic development so short?
Economic development is a slow and political process. There are often at least four bosses to keep happy:
- City Council
- County Commission
- Economic Development Board
- The public.
All work has to be diligently tracked, results have to be proven every year, and nothing ever seems to move fast enough. Often these positions are thankless. Criticisms of the work are plenty. Compliments and thanks for the work are few.
After my husband Jay and I got married, Republic County was always our end goal. The place we loved the most and the people we wanted to hang our hat with. He and I spent six years in another County before we made a plan to make our way back. Part of this plan was to follow my passion and to pitch working again for Republic County Economic Development as a business this time, not an individual person.
I had taken the knowledge from when I worked in economic development the first time and made a solution that would allow the position to work better with more longevity. This included a team of workers that could support one another, implementing toggl.com to be able to track work done by the minute to make reports, implementing flex hours so that the person in the position was not encumbered with working sixty-hour weeks, and more. All items that have made the work more manageable and the position more stable.
October is depression and mental health awareness month.
I have always said that it is the most political position that I’d ever want to go into. Please remember that people in positions like economic development, Chamber of Commerce, city council, county commission, State officials, and National officials are PEOPLE first. These people are commonly the people who care the most about the community. They have feelings, they hear the criticism and it hurts, they love to hear thank you, they appreciate getting the benefit of the doubt (even in situations of disagreement), and the majority of the time they genuinely want what’s best for the community. Be kind always, you never know what battle someone else is fighting.
Jenny Russell
