Our Focus on Autonomy

FOX Optimal Living Exercise Physiologist Peter Calandra, EP, gives his perspective on how FOX’s focus on autonomy as impacted him. This breaks down into two categories for him: how he treats and how he schedules his work.

Transcript

I still remember one of the most interesting things I got hired as an exercise physiologist for FOX. I got brought on and we were shown — you know — this is where you need to be, and these are the types of things you need to do, and you need to run this exercise class for these people.

But, that was it.

Make your exercise program.

OK. Sounds good.

I know how to do that because I was taught how to do that.

But there wasn’t any, “Well you should really do squats at this point because of this reason,” or, “You probably shouldn’t go over this because of,” — whatever reason it may be. It’s — there’s a trust that, with the education, you know those types of things and you know what you need to do.

[FOX] Optimal Living is a great example because we have a community of 95 people. And so, one exercise class doesn’t fit all.

So we have higher level classes, lower level classes, seated classes, standing classes, Tia Chi, yoga. It’s just a big spectrum. And, it’s up to me to decide who can come to what. And then even within that class structure, there’s, over the course of two years, the higher level class has seen a more capable group in attendance and a less capable group in attendance. And, I have to kind of change that on the fly depending on who can come — or depending on who comes. It’s not only the fact that they can do the higher level: There’s variability within that high level and then that goes across the board for the other classes as well. So it’s nice to be able to tailor things as I see fit.

It adds a level of accountability.

Not so much accountable to someone else, but it’s no one’s fault besides your own if the job isn’t getting done and the outcomes aren’t there because you’re the one responsible and you’re the one who has to figure out how to get it done.

So, it has to be a type of person to be able to do that. And, FOX is good at finding those people I think.

It’s intellectually stimulating, I guess you could say. Because for example: If we have — say there’s a wheelchair-bound group of folks or, when they do walk, they really need a hands-on contact guard. You want to be able to stimulate the cardiovascular system. So if you do a seated exercise class, it becomes a little tricky. So figuring out how to progressively challenge the musculature while also stimulating the cardiovascular system — but, you can’t just simulate the cardiovascular system for five minutes. The data shows that you need to get a stress for a good half hour. So, not only that but how much because these people are compromised folks. So, it’s a fun formula to tweak it to get the best outcome.

And FOX leaves it up to you to get what you need to get. So autonomy in executing my job is really something I value and am appreciative of. Autonomy and making my schedules really nice. We have the flex time. So, if I have a dentist appointment or I need to go meet someone for whatever reason and maybe, I can scoot out of work as long as I arrange my schedule appropriately with All American and come back and maybe stay a couple of extra hours later or come in on the weekend for a half a day.

They’re really good with that. As long as I’ve gotten whatever I need to get done, no one has ever said anything to me about how I’m getting it done.

It’s just the fact that: I do my job. And FOX embraces that. And I think when you make the hires — when you hire the right people, we thrive under those circumstances.