Risk & Associates County Civil - April 2020

Risk & Associates County Civil - April 2020

COUNTYCIVIL.COM

APRIL 2020

Keeping Busy and Staying Happy

HOW RICK E. RISK STAYS RELAXED WITH A HIGH WORK ETHIC

W hen I found out that April was National Stress Awareness Month, it made me think. I have to admit that I thrive in high- stress environments. I don’t like idle time too much — being busy and active fits my personality and, overall, makes me happy. When I’m under pressure, I thrive. But that doesn’t mean stress relief isn’t important. See, everyone needs a way to relax. How are you going to be productive if you don’t have a way to unwind? For me, that’s spending time with my grandkids or working on projects. Both leave me exhausted in a good way, of course. I like to joke that my grandkids are the only ones who can make me run. I’ll do anything to keep up with the little ones, but — and any grandparent can agree — the best nap comes after they’re picked up by their parents. Besides babysitting, working on DIY projects at home or in the office actually relaxes me. I think there’s something really fun and soothing about getting things done, and people might be surprised by the kinds of easy projects they can do to relax. (I have some suggestions inside!) I know things like meditating is relaxing to some, but taking time to get projects done is what helps me the most.

Personal stress relief isn’t the only important thing to me. At work, what’s really important is keeping a happy atmosphere and having mutual respect for everybody. A big part of stress relief can be eliminating stress before it even happens. Keeping people involved from the bottom up and getting input on difficult decisions is super important to me for keeping stress down. That’s why I keep things a bit spontaneous at work every week. Whenever I feel like it, at least once a week, we’ll have a joke-telling or trivia day. We’ll either go

I’ll let you in on another secret, too. I live about 200 feet away from our office, and we have a pool in the back. In the peak of summer, sometimes our building gets unbearably hot. One day, I decided to invite everybody to my pool for some barbecue. We have plenty of mothers who bring their kids, and we all just have a lot of fun. That’s been a small office tradition ever since. I hosted three barbecues last summer, and it gave me a lot of happiness. Our team is amazing and hardworking, and spending time together makes all the difference for team cohesion and connection.

“I hope you spend some time for yourself this month, friends, even if it means keeping yourself busy.”

around sharing jokes (appropriate ones, of course!) or I’ll hold out a $20 bill and ask people trivia. I enjoy taking a break from work with my employees and having a giggle together. We never prank, except for random acts of kindness like surprise parties. Last month, my operations manager had a birthday, and we decorated the whole office without telling her. Even her friends came to join us, and we were excited to set that up.

I hope you spend some time for yourself this month, friends, even if it means keeping yourself busy. Happy April!

-Rick Risk

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616-374-7170

Published by The Newsletter Pro • www.TheNewsletterPro.com

Digging for the Truth

The Freedom of Information Act, commonly

Rosenfeld filed a second lawsuit in 2007 accusing the FBI of withholding information during former President Ronald Reagan’s presidency. Five years later, he was awarded $479,459 in attorney fees. Rosenfeld is known for having some of the longest-pending FOIA requests and has received over 300,000 pages of FBI documents since the 1980s. THE SCOMM SCANDAL In a landmark FOIA settlement concluded in 2013, the federal government paid $1.2 million to settle a suit brought by several civil rights groups over the Secure Communities (SCOMM) Immigration and Customs Enforcement program. The litigation exposed a plan to create a multi-agency >Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4

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