Internal · issued to all colleagues
The colleague handbook.
Extracts. Your full copy is in your room on the day you arrive.
Hours
The Call Center is staffed around the clock. Shifts rotate, and every colleague works some portion of the small hours over a year. Colleagues frequently report that the night floor is their favourite — quieter, kinder, and the light is better.
The wellness policy
There is a curfew. We think of it as a wellness policy, and most colleagues come to look forward to it. Being out after it is not an offence. A constable will simply walk you home and ask, kindly, whether you are sleeping.
We have never lost a colleague. Not in the whole history of the campus, which is longer than the records go back.
Colleagues who are repeatedly not sleeping are referred to the clinic, which is a support and not a mark against you.
How we address one another
First names only, at every rank and without exception. Surnames are not used in Providence, do not appear on the roster, and are not required on any internal form. New colleagues find this strange for about a fortnight.
Gratitude is not optional. We say it out loud, at meetings and in corridors, and we mean it. Applause goes on longer than you will expect. You will find your own way of waiting it out, and everyone does.
Your wellbeing
Section 9 covers rest, shift rotation, and what colleagues sometimes notice during the small hours. The clinic asks that every colleague read it once, early, so that nothing in it is a surprise later.
Raising a concern
Colleagues who are unhappy about anything at all should say so. There is a form, and there is also a door, and Personnel would much rather you used the door. Concerns are logged, reviewed, and closed.
Ask any of them. Our colleagues cannot remember the last time they had a complaint.
Leaving
The ferry sails on the company timetable and carries colleagues both ways. No permission is required and none has ever been withheld. Colleagues who wish to visit the mainland should speak to Personnel, who will find them a sailing.
We like to say that nobody ever wants to leave. Nobody ever does.
Renewal
Section 12 covers continuance of position, personal effects, and what colleagues may expect. It is reprinted unchanged each year, at the request of colleagues.
Forms
The appendix lists every colleague form, what it is for, where it is held and how often you will be asked to complete it.
From colleagues
I came here with nothing. Fourteen months later I have a house, a garden, and people who clap for me. They clap for a long time. I have learned to wait it out and just be thankful.
Donations, Tier II · fourteen months at Providence
My interview went well. A little too well, honestly — I kept waiting for the part where they said no. They never did. Nobody here ever says no to you. You stop noticing after a while, and then one day you notice again.
Donations, Tier I · second year
First names only, that's the rule. It took me a month to realise I had never been told anyone's surname. It took me a year to realise I had stopped wanting to ask.
Facilities · length of service withheld at colleague's request