The Importance of Not Drinking Coffee in the Office

During my first internship in behavior analysis, I was worried that I wasn’t going to make it as a behavior analyst as it seemed one of the most critical skills was drinking coffee in the office, and I don’t drink coffee. When I was at that internship, I would joke with my girlfriend (now wife), Cheryl, that I didn’t drink any coffee at the office.

That was way before there was a BCBA certification, but often you will find there are some BCBA’s that rarely work with the actual individuals being served. They are always in the office drinking coffee. The “office BCBAs” might be doing valuable and necessary work. We all need to be in the office some of the time for report writing, data analysis, planning, training, administrative tasks, and or some types of Deep Work.

But too often BCBAs become consultants who attempt to make organizational changes mostly in the office. Some are extremely reluctant to ever work with a client. The thinking goes that my job is to “expand capacity” and to “train the trainer” so that more clients can be served. Those are fine activities and well worth pursuing. But in my view, there are at least four reasons that BCBAs should be actively working with clients at least some of the time:

Often staff and parents don’t respect people who can’t work with a client. That’s especially true if you are talking about something like toilet training or dealing with problem behaviors. If you want to be an effective trainer, you have to be able to demonstrate the skills you are suggesting.
New research comes out and best practices change over time. If you haven’t implemented a procedure in many years, you probably are not on a Poogi.
Some cases are complicated and require high-level expertise. The best outcomes sometimes require the BCBA doing some of the therapy.
It is fun to work with clients. If you don’t enjoy working with clients and just want to direct others, you are probably in the wrong profession.

It is easy to get distracted by a variety of contingencies that keep you away from the clients. That might happen from time to time and isn’t usually a problem. It is also not a problem if a BCBA decides that their individual goals are somewhere different; like financial management, administration, systems, or even university teaching that might not require much client contact.

Just don’t be the person that only wants to tell staff and parents what to do and never actually work with a client.

Behavior analytic services should only be delivered in the context of a professional relationship. Nothing written in this blog should be considered advice for any specific individual. The purpose of the blog is to share my experience, not to provide treatment. Please get advice from a professional before making changes to behavior analytic services being delivered. Nothing in this blog including comments or correspondence should be considered an agreement for Dr. Barry D. Morgenstern to provide services or establish a professional relationship outside of a formal agreement to do so. I attempt to write this blog in “plain English” and avoid technical jargon whenever possible. But all statements are meant to be consistent with behavior analytic literature, practice, and the professional code of ethics. If, for whatever reason, you think I’ve failed in the endeavor, let me know and I’ll consider your comments and make revisions, if appropriate. Feedback is always appreciated as I’m always trying to POOGI.