Meet NWSEO Member Bradley Schaaf
(August 15, 2024) In this member spotlight, we feature Bradley Schaaf, the Lead Forecaster at the Medford, OR office, who is soon stepping into the role of Warning Coordination Meteorologist. Bradley has been with the National Weather Service (NWS) for 10 years and is a big proponent of unions.
Hi Bradley, why did you join NWSEO?
I joined NWSEO because it was the smart thing to do. When I joined the NWS in 2014, my steward approached me and told me the benefits of joining NWSEO. It took me a while to get my finances in order from a big move across the country, but I was able to join soon after that. I was immediately impressed with the community of NWSEO members and, in particular, the feeling of folks looking out for one another. Through NWSEO, I could see a community of meteorologists larger than my office and my neighboring offices and felt connected to the agency as a whole.
What about NWSEO has impacted you most?
NWSEO has impacted my career path in a large way. When I was first hired into the NWS, I assumed my career stopping point would be at the Warning Coordination Meteorologist level as that position fit my skill sets and interests. However, as I grew in the agency, I learned about some ongoing issues from local management and NWS Headquarters and saw how people didn’t feel like they could belong. This sparked my interest in joining the Western Region, Belonging, Inclusion, Diversity, and Equity team in 2016 and the NWSEO Diversity Committee in 2023 to change the agency's culture. However, as I repeatedly encounter the same issues of exclusion, NWSEO has helped me realize my calling to become a Meteorologist in Charge (MIC). This will allow me to expand my sphere of influence and help make the NWS safer for everyone to bring their authentic selves to work.
What challenges do you face as a parent and working rotating shifts?
Juggling parenthood and rotating shift work was about 20 times harder than I imagined. My husband and I began fostering twin babies in 2020, and we adopted them in 2021. From the first phone call to now, I have found myself trying to play catch up during the entire process. However, what surprised me the most was the lack of empathy from my office. When I mentioned that I was taking the courses to be able to foster kids, only a few people shared the excitement with me. The response that will stick with me the most is, “Brad, are you sure you’re ready for kids?” Acting management at the time did very little to prepare for my FMLA leave associated with parenthood, leaving it to a brand new MIC (it was her first day in the office) and sharing their relief with me that they “didn’t have to deal with it.”
As a result, I felt like I wasn’t allowed to share my happiness with the office, which has been really hard to move past. To my new MIC’s credit, when I told her the news, she smiled and told me congratulations, not to worry about anything, and to go enjoy my children. I really hope my story is unique, but I have a suspicion it isn’t.
The other aspect of rotating shift work that is difficult to navigate is planning activities and being present for your children’s lives. As a lead forecaster, I work many midnight and evening shifts. As such, I put a lot of strain on my partner to be the one who can always take the kids to school and extracurricular activities. There are also times when I’m sleeping while the kids are home. If I had to put myself in his shoes, I think I’d feel like a single parent at times. This is an extremely unfair situation that I ask of him. And while he does it with a smile, there has to be a better way. These aspects are another reason I want to be a MIC. So, I can work to facilitate a better work-life balance for shift workers across the board like NWSEO is doing with supporting shift flexibility and the 6 shifts per day initiatives.
Would you recommend joining NWSEO to others?
Absolutely! Even as a future manager, I will continue to encourage everyone eligible to join NWSEO. The group helped me gain confidence and grow into myself by connecting and learning from others in this group. I highly recommend attending the union convention and participating as much as possible. My one regret is that I only got to attend one union convention and that I could have participated more. There will always be real issues that the NWS has to face, and a strong community of bargaining unit members will only help drive the positive change that the NWS needs to stay relevant.
-NWSEO-
No one cares more for National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
employees than NOAA employees.
No one works harder for NOAA employees than NOAA employees.
We are NOAA employees. We are NWSEO.
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