How to Change Things at Work as an Employee

I had written a while ago, about 'What to do when you like what you do but you don't like what's around you'. That was about tension between new staff and old staff and how they can learn to communicate with each other, so new staff doesn't just 'change things' because they think things will work better, when in fact they are negatively affecting others.

This entry is about liking your work, but getting tired of things that seem to fall through the cracks over time and lose value, changing newly implemented rules, etc. We should be able to constantly evolve in our positions to keep things fair and interesting so we can focus on our work, rather than bicker about the problems in secret, hush-hush hallway meetings.

I am an instructor part time at a career college and I really like my work there. I have held the position since 2001 and it was a goal of mine to get and sustain the position as part of my overall career goals. Well, since I have been there a while, I have seen a lot of faces come and go, from fellow instructors to new directors, administration staff, etc.

We had met, as a group, a few years ago and basically agreed to do things in a certain way - including course content, marking sheets, exam values, etc. Then, we were given spreadsheets, emailed from the front desk, for marking that we could email back to the front desk when we had filled them out. They were nice because they had all the students names and all the values automatically adding up in the final columns when a test score was entered and it made our task much easier (the paper sorting can be a nightmare on it's own, nevermind fiddling with spreadsheet formatting). We were also given three weeks to complete the marking, which was adequate for those of us who had more than three classes.

Problems
Eventually, the front desk person quit and was replaced by somebody else, who wasn't trained fully and left out some little details about the spreadsheets - they often showed up blank with no formatting and not when we expected them. Then, we were given only two weeks to finish marking. Then, yet another person replaced the front desk position and we were given one week after exams to mark. Clearly, this needed rectifying.

It was hard enough to get marks in order, prepare for a new term to start and figure out how to format spreadsheets to begin with, but then the due dates kept shrinking. This was a situation which needed some attention, so I acted.

Solutions
I had a small meeting with the director and another instructor bout other matters and at the end of the meeting, I asked about the ever-shrinking due dates. She explained why she changed the due dates and after that, she asked: "Why, what would you like to see happen?" I asked for an extra week and she said: "Fine, you go it." without hesitation. I thanked her and went on my way.

I then approached the front desk person, who was fairly new at the time, and explained how the marking sheets were handled in the past and how the changes to them were slowing down the process. After carefully reviewing the situation, she helped me come up with an even better way to use the sheets, then she sent them out at the same time every term. I asked someone else, who knew a lot about formatting, to show me some tips and tricks so I wouldn't be stuck.

Summary
The process is still in place and it has made things easier for all concerned. I know that without interdepartmental communication, people sometimes just accept a 'new 'way' because a memo was sent out or someone has been replaced. So, changes in the workplace must be addressed and not simply followed if they are proven to slow down productivity.

In the case of shortened due dates, there is more chance of making mistakes as people scramble to get their marks in on time and those mistakes can ripple through a good part of the new term and cause more problems, so they can't be left alone.

How to Make Changes:
- keep records of any meetings
- talk to the person responsible for the changes and explain how they are affecting you
- encourage different departments to visit each other at least once, so they know what each other are doing and how they are doing it
- question all memos
- stay calm when things really irk you, otherwise people won't listen to you
- suggest new ways for improvement that will benefit everybody

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- Buck Moore