Daryl Grigsby

His Work: Public Works Director

 “I do love my workspace primarily because I created it for the way that I want to get my work done.”

Mr. Grigsby tells me that “Everything here I set in a spot to get my work done. So it’s a combination of work and personal mementos.” I ask Mr. Grigsby to tell me about his workspace and he says “Well, first of all I love my workspace. As you can see I have a lot of junk in it but it all has meaning and it’s important to me, first of all, this is my work history right here, these pictures up here. So it’s important to me to have those because they all come from past jobs and they all mean something. I used to have, in all of my other jobs, I always had lots of maps like this one you see behind you. I used to have maps everywhere. The maps were not just of the city that I work in but also of the region that we were in and it just helps to keep things in perspective.”

I ask Mr. Grigsby what he likes about his workspace and he tells me “I like that my things are here” “my pictures of my kids are here, my music is here, and I have my books— a very important component. To me it just kind of reeks of information.” He later tells me that “being able to have music is a big deal.”

Daryl Grigsby tells me stories about contrasting work styles, someone who has everything put into shelves and organized, someone who works with their papers strewn about, so I ask him what he thinks his work style is. He says “I’m not sloppy I’m junky, I have a lot of junk no doubt about it but I love having all of that stuff over there because all of it has some kind of meaning. But I try to stay relatively organized.”

With two walls of windows I am slightly surprised when Mr. Grigsby tells me “I don’t think that I’m that much into the view.” “I’ve had offices that have had windows that looked out onto the parking lot, the view is not that big a deal to me. In fact if I had my way I’d have less window space and I’d have more wall space because, really to be honest, I’d rather put my stuff up. I’d have more maps up. Yeah, I’d be totally happy it wouldn’t matter to me at all.”

It is a sunny day out and I notice that his blinds are closed and he tells me “I don’t even open my blinds” “when the suns out it’s too bright.” He tells me “I don’t turn the lights on. I never turn the lights on because that artificial light just seems to be glaring and overwhelming.” Daryl Grigsby says “I much prefer natural light.” He told me earlier that he would rather have less windows so he could put his maps and personal belongings on the wall so I ask if that interferes at all with him enjoying the natural light. He explains to me “If I had half this window space I’d still get enough light. I bet it’d be plenty.”

I ask Mr. Grigsby if the windows are important to him and he tells me “I’ve never been that much into like “I got to have a corner office I got to have windows” but since I’ve been a manager I have had windows and it is nice, it makes a nice difference.”

Once a week, Daryl Grigsby works at the Maintenance Center and stations himself at a cubicle with the administrative staff.  He tells me “my favorite day is to actually be out of my office a lot of the day. Because so much of what I need to know is not in here.” He says “I could read reports about what we’re producing for a week but just going down there and talking to people is really where I hear and see what’s going on.”Making sure he spends a day at the Maintenance Center seems important to him and he tells me “I like it because I, A) get a lot done and, B) get to see a lot of the field workers who don’t see me as often and sometimes feel like city hall is far away, so that’s a good thing.” Mr. Grigsby tells me that he tries to go and physically see the projects when he can about once or twice a week. Being able to work other places is important to Daryl Grigsby. He says “to me this workspace has more value to it when I’m not in it all the time. Because the more I think about it I am more productive if I have been out in the field and then come in here and have time to gather all that information and then I can get my work done. If I was in here all the time it would be a drag, I would not be as happy.”

I ask Mr. Grigsby to put his experience with his work into a few words and he says ““Satisfying.” “I feel this work has meaning, quite a bit of meaning, not just for me. I just feel like it’s important to make sure that everybody who works here has the opportunity to grow and be fulfilled and be developed.” He says to me “I feel fortunate to have landed in this field because to me it’s one of the more fulfilling and unsung careers around.”

The work environment seems to be a positive one and Mr. Grigsby tells me “to me the workplace is kind of like your family, if for no other reason given how much time you spend there.” I ask him to tell me more about this and he says “I do sort of consider the people that work here as sort of family because I do see them every day it’s kind of wild. If you think about how much time I see these people—it’s wild. And through thick and thin, good times, bad times, people having babies, people getting married. You’re part of people’s lives.”