Skills learned at work can be used to enrich out-of-work activities, and the reverse can be just as true, several Corrections staff have found.
Auckland Central Remand Prison (ACRP) Manager Mack Herewini was halfback for the New Zealand Maori rugby team for three years, and worked promoting rugby in schools.
He also represented his country in touch rugby for 19 years - 11 of these in the open grade, and most involving a leadership role - but retires this month to focus on work.
“Few people know about my sports background, but it taught me how to work with people and teams on a day-to-day basis and on a person-to-person basis, and that has been invaluable,” says Mack, who started work as a probationary prison officer in the early 1990s.
“I travelled a lot, learnt about different cultures, and learnt lessons about life which I continually draw on working in prisons.”
Last year, Christchurch Prison youth unit Principal Corrections Officer Rob Risdon took a Cycling New Zealand team overseas,looking after the elite women and under-19 men’s teams.
“The boys were a bit uneasy when they heard what I did for a job, but my experience at work helped and it reflected well on Corrections,” says Rob.
“I was basically getting the cyclists to do what I get the boys here at work to do - set goals and work as a team in order to achieve.”
Hamilton Probation Officer Steve Turfrey studied medicine in Colorado, USA, and went on to be in charge of Denver’s busy air rescue service.
He’s since joined the volunteer fire brigade in Morrinsville, where he now lives.
“From time to time my responsibilities intrude on my day to day life; I was called to car crash recently where a number of people were killed.
“Medicine and pharmacology also helps understand and work with a client who is emotionally or mentally disturbed.”
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ISSN 1178-8453