Last updated: December 14, 2022
Article
Names
I have always liked names. Names tell a story. Your name has so many implications – who named you, where, and when? Why was that name in particular chosen? My first and middle name are family names – Emma, for my great-great grandmother Emma Englehartson, whose parents were immigrants from Norway in the 1880s, and Louise for my great aunt Louise. My family name, Rockenbeck, is a deliberate Americanization of the German name Rockenbach. My distant Rockenbach relatives still run a Riesling winery on the Mosel River to this day. My Oma (German for grandmother) is a genealogist, who has passed her love of history and genealogy on to me. That love of history and its preservation is one of the reasons that I am so passionate about the National Park Service, and its mission to preserve historic landmarks for use in educating future generations.
As a Workforce Management fellow, one of my placements is with the Mid-Pacific Servicing Human Resources Office (MP-SHRO), which services National Parks Employees in the Pacific West Region of the United States of America. One of the best parts about working for the MP-SHRO is that I get to spend all day looking at names. The SHROs recruit, hire, and onboard new employees and process personnel actions. Managers send us requests, called "tickets", and we process them. These tickets include actions like placing employees in periods of pay and periods of non-pay, giving employees pay increases, termination and resignation actions, and processing awards. Awards are my favorite thing to process because I get to read the descriptions of how employees exceed the standards set forth by the NPS mission, and sometimes even the heroic services they performed.
Seeing the names of the employees as I process their actions inspires me creatively, as names always have. The names make me think about the people and their lives. I wonder if these names are their given names, or names they chose for themselves later in life. I wonder what kind of people they are, where they grew up, where they have lived. Sometimes I see a long record of service with the NPS and am inspired by their dedication. Sometimes I see that they have worked with various parks around the country and wonder about the adventures they must have had. Sometimes I look at the diversity of names from different cultures and languages I see in single a day and reflect on the diversity of people working for NPS. I feel a sense of connection to the people I process actions for. Their names are just one small part of this. By processing people’s actions, other SHRO employees and I are performing a necessary service that helps keep the gears of the service running. More than this, however, we are bridging the gap between the people working on the front lines as rangers, law enforcement officers, office managers, and educators to name a few, and the online databases that make sure these people get paid for their service. This sense of connection extends not just between the MP-SHRO team and the employees we service, but between the team members themselves. Even though most of the Human Resources Specialists and Human Resources Assistants live in different cities and states, we are constantly popping onto Microsoft Teams calls, as if we are in the same building, popping our heads into each other’s offices. I am incredibly grateful for the opportunity to work for the MP-SHRO and am excited to see what other connections I make as a Workforce Management fellow in the months to come.
Article written by Emma Rockenbeck
for "A Day in the Life of a Fellow" Article Series
National Park Service - Workforce Management Fellow
in Partnership with Northwest Youth Corps
As a Workforce Management fellow, one of my placements is with the Mid-Pacific Servicing Human Resources Office (MP-SHRO), which services National Parks Employees in the Pacific West Region of the United States of America. One of the best parts about working for the MP-SHRO is that I get to spend all day looking at names. The SHROs recruit, hire, and onboard new employees and process personnel actions. Managers send us requests, called "tickets", and we process them. These tickets include actions like placing employees in periods of pay and periods of non-pay, giving employees pay increases, termination and resignation actions, and processing awards. Awards are my favorite thing to process because I get to read the descriptions of how employees exceed the standards set forth by the NPS mission, and sometimes even the heroic services they performed.
Seeing the names of the employees as I process their actions inspires me creatively, as names always have. The names make me think about the people and their lives. I wonder if these names are their given names, or names they chose for themselves later in life. I wonder what kind of people they are, where they grew up, where they have lived. Sometimes I see a long record of service with the NPS and am inspired by their dedication. Sometimes I see that they have worked with various parks around the country and wonder about the adventures they must have had. Sometimes I look at the diversity of names from different cultures and languages I see in single a day and reflect on the diversity of people working for NPS. I feel a sense of connection to the people I process actions for. Their names are just one small part of this. By processing people’s actions, other SHRO employees and I are performing a necessary service that helps keep the gears of the service running. More than this, however, we are bridging the gap between the people working on the front lines as rangers, law enforcement officers, office managers, and educators to name a few, and the online databases that make sure these people get paid for their service. This sense of connection extends not just between the MP-SHRO team and the employees we service, but between the team members themselves. Even though most of the Human Resources Specialists and Human Resources Assistants live in different cities and states, we are constantly popping onto Microsoft Teams calls, as if we are in the same building, popping our heads into each other’s offices. I am incredibly grateful for the opportunity to work for the MP-SHRO and am excited to see what other connections I make as a Workforce Management fellow in the months to come.
Article written by Emma Rockenbeck
for "A Day in the Life of a Fellow" Article Series
National Park Service - Workforce Management Fellow
in Partnership with Northwest Youth Corps