Learning To Fly - Post 15
No Quote of the Day today, but a little announcement:
The release date for Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows is July 21st, 2007.
[That made not just my day or my week but my year...haha. Yes, I'm OBSESSED.]
It's Friday, 5 PM, and after a very unproductive day, I've decided to just give up on trying to get work done.
I'm just hanging out in the office now...waiting for it to be 6 PM because that's when I told my staff I would go to dinner with them.
With not being as busy this semester, I've been having a lot of time to think - not always a good thing, let me tell you - and the more think, the more confused I get.
Here are some of the topics that have been roaming around in my head:
1) A lot of my colleagues are thinking about leaving the institution - either after their second year or even their first. Now, I've always been told that three years is the perfect time for you to stay in an entry-level position. I also didn't enjoy the stress of job searching last year, so the longer I can avoid going through that again the better. And you know, it concerns me that my colleagues are all ready to get out - not necessarily because they feel like it's their time to move on to bigger or better things (which would be fine) but because they feel it's time for them to get out of here. And that's a concern! What's going to happen to our department if nobody stays for more than one or two years?
So why do all these people decide to leave?
a) The live-in position: I know many of them are getting frustrated with living in. The being-on-duty 24-hours a day. While we have a staff member on duty for the campus, my institution has this culture where you're expected to be available for emergencies in your building after hours. Your staff will call you first before they call the staff member on duty. I highly doubt many of mine even know that phone number. And then there's the fact that our office phone lines also ring in our apartments. Bad idea! How are you supposed to have balance when you're expected to be available 24-hours a day, 7 days a week?
I think there could be some relatively simple answers here...don't have our office phone lines ring in the aparment for one; change the culture so that the staff member on duty is the first person to be called in an emergency; build apartments that are a little bit more separated from the building (Mine was just renovated this year but now it's in a men's corridor...actually right across from their bathroom...I'm sure you can imagine what Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights are like when my residents return from off-campus parties at 3 or 4 AM.).
b) Frustrations with the position: Mmmm, this one's harder to address.
There's the stress-factor. We all were insanely busy in the Fall semester. This semester is going better, but still....
Then there's the feeling of being unable to change anything. Yeah, we're still new here - mostly new professionals straight out of grad school - so it's understandable that we don't have a say in everything. And we are given quite a lot of autonomy when it comes to our buildings (at least compared to my previous institution), but when it comes to department-wide things you often feel like "things are done to you" instead of "you doing them." I'm talking about training for example...suddenly, a central staff member has to be involved with each training presentation. While we all know that our student staff training is AWFUL and our staff doesn't learn anything in those big lecture-presentations, we don't really get an opportunity to change that. And I'm even on the Training Committee. But it seems like my role consists more of reserving rooms and making the program look pretty. What a waste of time!!! (Sorry, I'm extremely frustrated about this, in case you haven't noticed.) And sometimes, you just feel powerless - unable to say what you really think or try to improve something or provide constructive criticism - because you know all ResLife departments are all about politics and who likes who and maybe the person that you're frustrated with is good friends with an Associate Director.... Yeah, those politics.... Wouldn't life be AMAZING without that???
It's tough. I like my job (most days) and I love the students here (or at least the student leaders, like my RAs and the RHA Exec Board). But I can definitely understand why some people are thinking about leaving....
Here's another topic I've been pondering:
2) Why are we so competitive with each other? Why can't we just be happy for each other?
You have those colleagues, who're supposed to be not just colleagues but friends. But as soon as it's about your placement for next year or a departmental or even regional/national award or just positive feedback from your coordinator, we turn into hyanas and stab each other in the back.
I've attracked some pretty nasty comments lately - and I'm not even sure if my "wonderful" colleagues are realizing how hurtful these have been.
So I've gotten the placement for next year that I wanted. And let me tell you, I really really wanted it. So I followed every step in the process and did everything anyone suggested. Which meant talking to my supervisor about my preferences for placement, meeting with the central staff members who work with that community and based on their suggestion meeting with another staff member in the division of Student Affairs who is also active with this community. Now, you need to know something about me: I don't like networking. I am awful in these "social" situations where you're supposed to make professional advances. I will never "suck up" to anyone...not because I don't want to but because I'm physically incapable of doing so.
And was very self-conscious when setting up any of these meetings and had to literally force myself to do that.
So when I got my placement, I was obviously exstatic. And not much could get to me...but a well-placed "Yeah, you were playing the politics for that one..." did leave a little scar.
I know we won't all be friends - I'm not that naive - but why can't we at least be civil. We're in Student Affairs. We should be SUPPORTIVE of each other!!!
The release date for Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows is July 21st, 2007.
[That made not just my day or my week but my year...haha. Yes, I'm OBSESSED.]
It's Friday, 5 PM, and after a very unproductive day, I've decided to just give up on trying to get work done.
I'm just hanging out in the office now...waiting for it to be 6 PM because that's when I told my staff I would go to dinner with them.
With not being as busy this semester, I've been having a lot of time to think - not always a good thing, let me tell you - and the more think, the more confused I get.
Here are some of the topics that have been roaming around in my head:
1) A lot of my colleagues are thinking about leaving the institution - either after their second year or even their first. Now, I've always been told that three years is the perfect time for you to stay in an entry-level position. I also didn't enjoy the stress of job searching last year, so the longer I can avoid going through that again the better. And you know, it concerns me that my colleagues are all ready to get out - not necessarily because they feel like it's their time to move on to bigger or better things (which would be fine) but because they feel it's time for them to get out of here. And that's a concern! What's going to happen to our department if nobody stays for more than one or two years?
So why do all these people decide to leave?
a) The live-in position: I know many of them are getting frustrated with living in. The being-on-duty 24-hours a day. While we have a staff member on duty for the campus, my institution has this culture where you're expected to be available for emergencies in your building after hours. Your staff will call you first before they call the staff member on duty. I highly doubt many of mine even know that phone number. And then there's the fact that our office phone lines also ring in our apartments. Bad idea! How are you supposed to have balance when you're expected to be available 24-hours a day, 7 days a week?
I think there could be some relatively simple answers here...don't have our office phone lines ring in the aparment for one; change the culture so that the staff member on duty is the first person to be called in an emergency; build apartments that are a little bit more separated from the building (Mine was just renovated this year but now it's in a men's corridor...actually right across from their bathroom...I'm sure you can imagine what Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights are like when my residents return from off-campus parties at 3 or 4 AM.).
b) Frustrations with the position: Mmmm, this one's harder to address.
There's the stress-factor. We all were insanely busy in the Fall semester. This semester is going better, but still....
Then there's the feeling of being unable to change anything. Yeah, we're still new here - mostly new professionals straight out of grad school - so it's understandable that we don't have a say in everything. And we are given quite a lot of autonomy when it comes to our buildings (at least compared to my previous institution), but when it comes to department-wide things you often feel like "things are done to you" instead of "you doing them." I'm talking about training for example...suddenly, a central staff member has to be involved with each training presentation. While we all know that our student staff training is AWFUL and our staff doesn't learn anything in those big lecture-presentations, we don't really get an opportunity to change that. And I'm even on the Training Committee. But it seems like my role consists more of reserving rooms and making the program look pretty. What a waste of time!!! (Sorry, I'm extremely frustrated about this, in case you haven't noticed.) And sometimes, you just feel powerless - unable to say what you really think or try to improve something or provide constructive criticism - because you know all ResLife departments are all about politics and who likes who and maybe the person that you're frustrated with is good friends with an Associate Director.... Yeah, those politics.... Wouldn't life be AMAZING without that???
It's tough. I like my job (most days) and I love the students here (or at least the student leaders, like my RAs and the RHA Exec Board). But I can definitely understand why some people are thinking about leaving....
Here's another topic I've been pondering:
2) Why are we so competitive with each other? Why can't we just be happy for each other?
You have those colleagues, who're supposed to be not just colleagues but friends. But as soon as it's about your placement for next year or a departmental or even regional/national award or just positive feedback from your coordinator, we turn into hyanas and stab each other in the back.
I've attracked some pretty nasty comments lately - and I'm not even sure if my "wonderful" colleagues are realizing how hurtful these have been.
So I've gotten the placement for next year that I wanted. And let me tell you, I really really wanted it. So I followed every step in the process and did everything anyone suggested. Which meant talking to my supervisor about my preferences for placement, meeting with the central staff members who work with that community and based on their suggestion meeting with another staff member in the division of Student Affairs who is also active with this community. Now, you need to know something about me: I don't like networking. I am awful in these "social" situations where you're supposed to make professional advances. I will never "suck up" to anyone...not because I don't want to but because I'm physically incapable of doing so.
And was very self-conscious when setting up any of these meetings and had to literally force myself to do that.
So when I got my placement, I was obviously exstatic. And not much could get to me...but a well-placed "Yeah, you were playing the politics for that one..." did leave a little scar.
I know we won't all be friends - I'm not that naive - but why can't we at least be civil. We're in Student Affairs. We should be SUPPORTIVE of each other!!!
posted by StudentAffairs.com at
1:33 PM
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