We just came out of a very busy season in my organization. April is the busy season for tax professionals, and August is very busy for those in higher education trying to enroll students in college. However, there is a normalcy for those who have done this before. You know what’s coming, and you know when it’s coming. Some things remain constant if you have been in the field for years. In higher education, it is the realization that the closer you get to the start of classes, the more chaotic your world becomes.
In higher education, the place that often refused to transition to online, remote, alternative work and virtual spaces, many of our business processes have been flipped upside down, and we are still adjusting. While we have embraced technology like never before, some people are fighting to hold onto business as usual. It is a true learning experience to witness up front and personal. I truly believe the new way will be won by the Gen Z team members entering the workplace who will demand change using policy and collective bargaining as their weapon of choice. I do believe times will indeed be changing sooner rather than later.
A few weeks ago, while in our busiest season, we faced a huge technology challenge. Quite simply, nothing was working. We couldn’t send emails, systems were freezing, and things we depended on to do our work were malfunctioning. Staff members and customers were frustrated and angry, so we sent staff home to work. These issues did not occur at home. What was wrong?
This continued for several days, and staff members grew increasingly frustrated daily. We had internal surveys simultaneously, which was part of the normal process to determine how things operate during this busy season. The survey responses showed 100% dissatisfaction with technology. We submitted tickets as we were informed to do when there were challenges. Tickets and screenshots were submitted each day, several times a day. Nothing changed.
After a week, I instructed my team members to stop sending tickets. We were, quite simply, DONE. There were Zoom calls, Team calls, and phone calls. There are only so many ways to keep saying the same thing. One day, after being exhausted with everything and everyone, I calmly (through clenched teeth) informed my supervisor that I would not be sending any more tickets. I shared that my hope and desire is for someone to physically come into our space to visually see the challenges and to decide what is wrong based on participant observation. In other words, stop calling me and using virtual tools to determine what is wrong; I need you to use good old-fashioned in-person skills to fix this problem.
A team entered our space the next morning and stayed for almost five hours. They got on Team calls with others and did Zoom calls with our CRM provider to determine what was wrong. Ultimately, they figured it out. They came back the next day and finished tweaking all of the issues. We were up and running with virtually no issues for the remainder of the week.
What did we learn? Technology has become our go-to way of doing so many things. We offer virtual services and in-person services, and most of our forms are now electronic – we are saving the trees. We have alternative ways to work and can be competitive in the hiring marketplace now that we have additional ways to do our jobs. However, there is one thing we cannot forget as we engage with customers and colleagues. We have to remember the golden rule of “people over process.” People and interactions are far more important than processes and tools. It definitely should not have taken an almost adult temper tantrum to get people to see what we were experiencing in person.
I LOVE this new world of work where we are incorporating more technology and implementing more alternative work practices. However, there are moments when we have to simply pause and say, “Human interaction still has a place in the world of work.”
Crystal Smith is a lifelong educator who currently serves as an administrator at a community college on the East Coast. Crystal is a graduate of both Hampton University and The College of William and Mary, where she received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Sociology. Her area of expertise is in the fields of family and gender studies and research and development.
Crystal started her career in human resources and worked with Fortune 500 companies, including Lockheed Martin and Arthur Anderson Consulting. This work led her to consider education and teaching as a possible career goal. After an amazing career teaching in the K-12 system for five years, she decided to pursue a career in higher education. Crystal has been a higher education professional for over 20 years and this work led her to start her own consulting firm that specializes in leadership development, strategic planning, and branding development.
