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by Judy Jackson

She spent the first morning of her new job in employee orientation, where she learned, among other things, how to fill out a time sheet, where to go in case a tornado approached and that, if she ever had a suggestion, she should write it down and put it in the suggestion box.

On her lunch break, out of curiosity, she went to look for the suggestion box. She couldn't find it. The next day, she asked her supervisor where it was. The supervisor thought it was around somewhere, but she couldn't find it either. It seemed that the suggestion box, a venerable Fermilab institution, had vanished. No one could remember exactly when or whence it had disappeared, but it was definitely gone. Fermilab was a suggestion-free zone.

Was the vanishing suggestion box in this true story a symptom of the overall communication gap at the laboratory that some Fermilab employees identified in a 1999 workplace survey? Or did it simply move to make way for a Wilson Hall gala event, and never return to its rightful place? Whatever the case, the suggestion box is back. First it appeared as a converted wooden disk-holder with a slot in the top. Now it's a built-in fixture on the northwest atrium wall of Wilson Hall. (A recent suggestion: Label the Wilson Hall atrium with the points of the compass, in tasteful lettering, so that people can see which way is north. Response: Good idea. The letters for "North," "South," "East" and "West" have been ordered and are on their way.) The box has made a comeback.

The traditional physical suggestion box, for hard-copy suggestions, is now joined by an electronic version on the Fermilab Web site (http://www.fnal.gov/directorate/public_affairs/suggestion.html). Suggestions from both sources will go, not directly to the shredder, as some skeptics have suggested, but to the Office of Public Affairs for forwarding to appropriate members of the Fermilab community for response. A suggestion to add trees to Wilson Hall parking lots went to the Facilities Engineering Services Section, for example. (Response: Good idea, but Roads and Grounds staff is too small to allow for the increased maintenance in summer and the snowplowing complications in winter that trees would add.)

Unless the suggestor requests otherwise, suggestions and responses are posted both on the Free Speech Bulletin Board in the atrium, above the suggestion box, and on the Web. Both electronic and hard-copy suggestors can remain anonymous if they choose.

Any questions?

Of course, the now-you-see-it-now-you-don't suggestion box was never the only mechanism for the expression of questions or concerns. Question periods at Fermilab Director Mike Witherell's All Hands Meetings in December gave another opportunity for employees to speak up about what was on their minds. Often the responses required a bit of research. Some examples: