A Day in the Life of Jim Rolla, SVP, VNS Health Personal Care

Welcome to “A Day in the Life”—the Frontline series that follows team members from different parts of VNS Health as they go about a typical day fulfilling our organization’s mission—to improve the health and well-being of people through high-quality, cost-effective health care in the home and community.

As Senior Vice President, Personal Care, Jim Rolla is responsible for managing thousands of VNS Health team members—including approximately 6,000 home health aides (HHAs) as well as HHA supervisors and schedulers, the nurses who do assessments and draw up and oversee Personal Care clients’ plans of care, and other team members in various support positions. To learn how Jim keeps everything running smoothly, we asked him to walk us through his typical day.

5:15 a.m.

I get up at the same time every day. If this was the weekend, I would go to the gym now. Since it’s a weekday, however, I start wrapping my head around the coming day. The first thing I do is pick up my phone and check my calendar for the day, including the meetings I have scheduled—usually there’s a lot of them. Then I shower and eat breakfast. If I have time, I’ll make something savory like cream cheese on toast or an egg sandwich—but if I’m short on time, which I often am, I’ll just have a bowl of cereal.

6:30 a.m.

I usually leave the house around half-past six and drive to the train station in Deer Park, a town near mine on Long Island, to catch the 7:06 train to New York City. The trip into the city takes a little over an hour. Before VNS Health Personal Care’s recent move from the 42nd Street office to 5 Penn Plaza, I would change at Jamaica and get on the 7:51 train that goes into Grand Central. But since I’m traveling to Penn Station now, which is right next to our new office, I no longer have to switch trains. I’ll start reading and sending emails during my train ride. I want to start igniting things that need to get done that day, so I like to get those messages out first thing. My team knows that I’m up early and that I commute into the city by train, so they’re used to getting early morning emails from me!

8:20 a.m.

I usually arrive in the office by 8:20 or so. Even with remote working, there are always a good number of team members in the office every day. I’ll usually start by checking my emails again and reading the responses to my earlier emails—which sets the course for what the majority of my work will be that day. From there it depends on what the day’s agenda is. Every day is different, but I’ll usually have a number of meetings scheduled, often beginning as early at 8:30.

9:15 a.m.

At some point each day when I have a break in my schedule, I go around and greet everyone who’s in the office that day. This is an important part of my daily routine: Every morning, I walk around the whole Personal Care office (which actually now covers two floors since we moved to 5 Penn Plaza in late October) and say hello to everybody. I’ve become sort of famous for this—not only have my team members come to expect it, but if I miss them for some reason, they’ll let me know! I really like this time, because it’s a chance to learn what people are doing and how they’re feeling. If someone mentions that they’re having a problem, we’ll arrange on the spot for them to come see me later that day, when we can have a longer conversation and hopefully resolve their issue. I’ll always make time to meet with a team member, even if that requires moving things around on my calendar.

10:00 a.m.

As I said, I typically have a number of meetings throughout each day, both within VNS Health—including leadership meetings and meetings with my own team members—and also with outside groups. I might have a meeting with the 1199 SEIU union in the morning, then in the afternoon I might attend a board meeting of the New York State Association of Health Care Providers, which is the trade association for New York’s licensed home care agencies, or I’ll be on the phone with a colleague from another health care organization. A big part of my job is strategizing on how to move Personal Care forward, so it’s essential that I keep up with what’s happening in our industry. Outside meetings like these allow me to do that.

I also check in regularly with my own team members. I meet often with the VPs who manage the different parts of Personal Care, including our private-pay side, as well as team members at the director level and our representatives from HR and Finance. I also schedule time to meet with groups of frontline team members. What we try to do here at Personal Care is to take a bottom-up approach to everything that we do. I want everyone to feel that they have a say in what we’re strategizing about and where we’re aiming to go. For example, the other morning, I was at the union headquarters to discuss some matters with union officials, then as soon as I was back in the office I attended a skip-level meeting with the members of one of our units. I didn’t come to the meeting with an agenda of my own. This meeting was an opportunity for the unit members to tell me what they are feeling—what’s on their mind and any worries they might have.

1:00 p.m.

I always reserve the 1:00 to 2:00 time slot on my calendar for lunch. Having time to eat is important to me. If I don’t have food, I’m not in a good state of mind. I typically bring my lunch with me in the morning and eat it in the office. I like to eat healthy, and that’s harder to do when you eat out a lot. If I have a meeting during that time slot for some reason, I’ll eat in the meeting. Usually, I’ll have a sandwich with some kind of side dish. Then I finish every meal with a Hershey’s chocolate kiss.

2:00 p.m.

A good portion of my day is spent following up on different projects and correspondence. I don’t like things to pile up—I like to go home and know that I did everything I needed to do today. So I set aside time each day to finish up any tasks that are pending. When we were still at 42nd Street, I would also make a point of going down from time to time to the 41st Street entrance that the HHAs would use when they come in for training or orientation, and escort one of the HHAs up to our office. It provided a nice chance to have a conversation and get to know that aide a little bit as we walked through the building. At 5 Penn, aides no longer need to be escorted into the building, so instead I make sure to say hello to any HHAs who are visiting as I’m walking around the office.

3:30 p.m.

Another thing I try to do each day is remind everyone of our mission, and that we’re all working together to carry out that mission. If one of our schedulers tells me in the middle of the afternoon, “I need an aide in Staten Island and I can’t get anybody,” I will make it my business to go out into the office and help spread the word to see what we can do to help her. What we do, working with vulnerable populations, isn’t easy, and when people feel like you’re in it with them, they’re more willing to go that extra mile. I think this is one of the most important parts of my job.

4:40 p.m.

I try to avoid meetings that go beyond 4:30, because I know I need to leave the office by 4:40 to catch the train home. I’m super-disciplined at managing my time during the workday, and that carries over to my daily commute. If I don’t get my regular train to Long Island, everything is off for me. I use that time on the train ride home to finish up my day. I try really hard to ensure that whatever it is I need to get done that day is completed by the time I get home, because I need that separation and that balance. That way, when I walk in my house, I’m ready to focus on my home life, and recharge for what is sure to be another busy day tomorrow.