Mary George Opperman sits at a round wooden table in the middle of her bright corner office in Day Hall and fingers a circle of clunky, primary-colored beads.
They're magnets. She fiddles with them when she thinks.
Opperman, associate vice president for University Human Resource Services since July, is responsible for the delivery of services, benefits and programs to the university's 1,500 faculty and 8,000 staff members on the Ithaca campus.
She laughs, bouncing the beads on the table. "I'm an open book," she says. She laughs, then quickly frowns.
We were talking about strengths and weaknesses and Opperman says some people call her a worrier. "Perhaps I care too much. I really care about how people feel -- a lot -- and sometimes to my own detriment.... It keeps me up at night." She explains, for example, that such things as making changes in the office would be much easier if she didn't care so much about the impact on the office staff. But that's definitely not her way.
And her worrying nature obviously is also her greatest strength, she concedes. "I think I have a good feel for people. I'm a fairly good listener. And I always try to treat people as I want to be treated," she says. "I was taught that very strongly as a child; it's a real touchstone for me."
And how does that translate into her on-the-job management style? "I would say, I generally come in with an idea or set of ideas and validate or correct them through discussion with people I work with and for."
She calls it a "humanistic approach. It matters a lot to me that people who work at Cornell feel that they work in an environment where they are treated fairly," she says. "I'm also planful but action-oriented. I like to think through situations, try out ideas. Then, if it doesn't work out, well, I'm not above saying I made a mistake and will try something else."
Opperman came to Cornell after 13 years in human resources administration at Harvard, most recently as director of employee services and employment training. She was ready for a change and was looking for a vital intellectual environment. She was attracted to Cornell by its reputation for excellence.
In addition to excellence, she says, change is what she encountered and still is wrestling with at Cornell. It used to be that the field of human resources was mostly about wages and benefits. That's no longer the case, she points out.
"Now it's all about work and nonwork; the importance of work on your life and on your personal life. The whole relationship of the organization to the community and to the individual's personal life is different now. The organization stands at the intersection of all those things," she explains. "Families come in all shapes and sizes. Few families have an adult staying home to care for children or elderly parents or to do community volunteer work. Yet those responsibilities must still be met. This comes at the same time that employers are asking workers to do more with less. The stress can be significant."
Opperman says she also chose Cornell because she was intrigued with the idea of being part of a new administration engaged in reshaping the university for the 21st century. President Rawlings is committed to further strengthening the academic environment by promoting creative, cross-disciplinary cooperation, and she says that will mean significant change throughout the university.
In part that involves Project 2000, the effort to improve administrative services and reduce costs through redesign of organizational structures and business processes.
"Cornell is a place in transition, and like most places in transition the change needs to be managed very carefully and very sensitively," she says. "There is heightened anxiety around Project 2000. How we deal with it and what we say to people needs to be very carefully calibrated. At the same time we must be honest. The university does need to save money and improve its systems. These realities mean changes for staff and faculty."
She stresses, however, that "at Cornell I've found very loyal, committed people who consider themselves part of the community, and as we go through change we need to do it in a very fair and reasoned way."
So with that in mind, what does she see as top priorities on the job?
First, she says, she is involving herself in Project 2000 in order to help manage its impact on the university's staff. "I need to play a leadership role in all of those discussions so issues of staff are considered." Last month's announcement of a joint partnership between Cornell and Tompkins Cortland Community College to provide greater opportunity for staff education and development at Cornell are a result of those discussions.
Second, she says, is the "recalibration" of human resources services. That means "realigning the human resources delivery mode across Cornell so that services are most efficiently delivered."
To do that, she explains, she will eliminate duplication of services between her central office in Day Hall and the local human resources offices in colleges and units. That will allow the central office to respond more efficiently and effectively to employees about benefits and services while concentrating on overall workplace issues and on labor relations. She plans to have a new model ready early in the new year.
Further, she is "working with the deans to formulate a set of guidelines for managing the changes the next century will bring. . . . The guidelines will help us to manage change in a humane way." For example, she says, the guidelines address how employees are to be retrained for new jobs in the changing workplace and how attrition and layoffs are handled, among other things.
Her third priority, Opperman says, is total compensation, including benefits and pay. She says declining federal and state appropriations and increasing health care costs have made this a difficult area for everyone, and that while the university needs to contain overall costs, "Cornell is looking at the whole mix between direct pay and benefits. In the long term we would like to increase people's choice in how they use their benefits dollars."
But her basic goal, Opperman says, is to "arm people to function and stay motivated and optimistic during uncertain times. The challenge for people is to accept that universities are changing because they have to change.
"I've come to realize that I can't take away the worry people feel. I can try to influence the environment and provide them with opportunities to learn and grow, but in the end every person has to decide for him- or herself how they will approach their work and their workplace as things change. I believe that most people prefer to look at things positively and be part of the solution. But it is easy to feel out-of-control, and that can lead to a pattern of negative behavior. So part of my role is to get out good information about change and to arm staff with new skills to adjust to, and thrive in, a changing environment."
She takes the arming part seriously and spends what little leisure time not devoted to her family arming herself as well, both professionally and personally. When not reading professional material she likes to read about spirituality, and one of her new favorites is The Good Book by the Rev. Peter Gomes, about the Bible. But she also likes romance novels "as escape." She laughs and admits it's "a very odd combination."
That odd combination curiously defines Opperman herself. While mired in the nuts and bolts of university human resources administration on a daily basis, dealing with health plans and pensions and labor negotiations and retirement issues, she clearly sees her role at Cornell within a spiritual context. She really does care.
Better yet, like most romance novels, she's pretty sure there's a happy ending ahead. And she's determined to help forge it.