UMW’s IT operations manager Jamey Long spends most work days training staff about new technology or helping resolve computer issues through the Help Desk. But several days each year, he manages to slip away from his high-tech duties to volunteer at a Woodbridge elementary school. Long, a UMW alumnus who received his MBA in 2005, reads to the impressionable young charges and helps them write their own class books.
“I love working with the children,” says Long, an author who has written a series of children’s books about the mischievous antics of an opossum. “The kids seem to like it too. They all want to be writers.”
Long not only enjoys the satisfaction of inspiring the pint-sized authors. He gets paid for it.
He uses a leave option offered to all state workers who want to give back to the community. Full-time employees at UMW, as well as other state agencies, are allowed to take up to 16 hours of time off with pay during each leave calendar year to provide volunteer services through eligible nonprofit organizations within or outside their communities.
He’s among 13 UMW staff members who received paid leave for 117 hours of service this year, ranging from chaperoning a school field trip to assisting the United Way. Since 2004, UMW employees have donated almost 500 hours service during their regular work days.
But that’s a drop in the bucket to the impact UMW can make.
Long believes that every UMW employee has the responsibility to volunteer, whether it’s ringing the bell for the Salvation Army, delivering food to the elderly or building houses for Habitat for Humanity.
“The fact that the state wants its employees to give back to the community is great,” Long says. “It’s a real waste if people don’t take advantage of it.”
To find out more, contact the Office of Human Resources at 654-1046 or visit https://www.umw.edu/hr/whats_new.