That’s me on the right and Jim Bergstrom on the left. Jim was, as of last Friday, July 14, an officer in our Police Department. Last Friday was Jim’s last day of work for the City of Eden Prairie. Jim’s lovely wife Julie snapped this photo of Jim and me just before we sat down for his exit interview.
I do exit interviews for all of our full-time employees when they leave employment. When Jim and I sat down for his, the first thing he told me was that he enjoyed his time working for the City, but he didn’t really know if he had much to say in an exit interview. Bergie has had an interesting career in law enforcement. Plus, he’s a colorful individual. I knew he had something to say. After a little coaxing, we talked about his career and the history of the Police Department for an hour.
Conducting exit interviews is one of the more interesting things I do in my job. I almost always learn something unexpected in my exit interviews. They are free flowing. I don’t work from a list of questions. I ask people what they liked about working here? Do they have any suggestions for how to improve our operations here? Is there anything we should have done that we didn’t, or did do that we should not have? Usually these questions are enough to carry a conversation at least thirty minutes, sometimes longer.
The exit interview is also important to the employee. It is their last chance to say something to the boss they’ve always wanted to say, but repressed it for some reason. It’s a safe opportunity as you’re going out the door to get something off your chest.
I’ve been doing a few exit interviews recently for long time employees. Jim Bergstrom is among those. He started working here on January 1, 1980. I did an exit interview for Engineering Technician David Olson two weeks ago. He started working here January 21, 1974. I have an exit interview scheduled for Building Inspections Administrative Assistant Barb Bach next week. She started here on October 10, 1974.
Among them, these three employees have just over 90 years of collective experience working for the City of Eden Prairie, which reminds me of the most the important function of the exit interview: saying “Thank You” to a person for dedicating the best years of their life to public service to the citizens of Eden Prairie.
