Too Much Work!

 

I have to say that the biggest complaint I receive from other Technology professionals is that they have too much work. The second would be that they do not have enough staff. Of course the third is that they are underpaid.

 

Pay is an issue I will touch on, but not in dollars. The lack of staff is actually a part of having too much work and that is what I wish to discuss. Exactly how do we calculate how much is enough and how much is too much? It seems as if most technology staff feel they are overworked if they have to stay at least 3 hours late on a daily basis.

 

How do we measure "too much" work? If the rest of the organization works 40 hours, is too much 44 hours or 48 hours? Is it 50 hours? You know that some administrators would let you work 24 hours a day and others would stop you at 45.

 

I guess my pet peeve is when administrators work you way over 40 hours per week and tell you it is OK because you are paid more than teachers. They then remind you that you are paid for twelve months, not ten as a teacher is. Yet you are only paid the same per day price as a teacher. I often wonder if they think we are fooled when they say this. The twelve month contract pays for the extra days we work, not the extra hours per day. I have even had my contract extended from eleven months to twelve months and was told I received a raise. I asked how much my daily pay went up and had a blank stare returned. (The "raise" was the extra pay for the extra days.)

 

In other places my pay had nothing to do with teacher pay and was based on the rest of the administrators. When I watched the others I noticed that some barely work 40 hours per week on a hard week and some work 60 to 70. How does that compare? Should we bring it down to dollars per 40 hour week? I can tell you that the hardest working administrator that I have seen was an Executive Director of Operations. Basically he handled the buildings, janitorial, and transportation. I think he works 90 hours a week. He is still one of my best friends, although we never seem to have time to get together.

 

Then we have administrators that tell you to "take off early" or "don't work so hard" or "don't worry about it - just whenever you get to it" or ... What does all that mean? It sounds nice, but then a little while later they give you another deadline or ask you why it isn't done. Still, I do not get the impression from administrators that they are the problem. When I talk with administrators they feel that most technology people just work extra because they are addicted to the job and/or technology. They tell me that the technology people add more work to themselves than the administration does. As I examined my past I saw a lot of truth to that.

 

A good example of this is Open Source Software. I am a fan of Open Source as both a money saver and as a more flexible platform. Yet every time I would bring some Open Source in it would save the organization money, but cost me and my department time. Time to learn the software, time to install the software and time to train others on using the software. Now I calculated the costs for all of this, in most cases. I also planned the changes when we were going to have to retrain for an upgrade, most of the time. But, did I check to see if we were too busy to bring on this change? If I would have stayed with what we had I may have had less money, but I could have had a lot more time. Was it worth it?

 

Of course there always is the open mouth syndrome. Someone is discussing a problem at a meeting and you hear "Hey, isn't there some software that will do that for us?" and everyone looks at you. If you say no, they think you are not up on things. If you say yes, they want it done now for nothing. What can you say?

 

I know that you also want what is in the best interests of the students. That is why students have the newest computers in the district and the most updated software. Let's give the old computers with Open Office to the staff. Probably a good place to use those dot-matrix printers also. Or is your office staff one of the areas that consume time and resources? The question I have here is do you spend the same amount of time on the office staff or more? Does the teacher get a note and the secretary a detailed demonstration? What about administrators?

 

I guess the whole issue comes down to saying no sometimes. What are the proper methods for this? I used to be terrible at this. I would try to work a little more and fit it all in. Most of the wonderful time saving procedures I use came from trying to fit more in.

 

One of the best methods I know of is the list. When the administrator comes along with the additional work you pull out the list. You ask them when they need it done and then proceed to tell them which projects will have to be rescheduled to make that possible. When a staff member brings you work you take out the list and show them all the work ahead of them.

 

The list and other methods may help contain your work load. They help lower expectations on the delivery side, but will they actually cut your work load? Will they help you acquire more staff? Probably not. Though this can be the first step in documenting a need for more pay or more staff.

 

The direction seems to be in showing others that we are working to capacity and if they want more done there needs to be additional staff. If we constantly suggest new things for the Technology department to do, then they will think we have the time to do it. If we do not suggest new things, then they may think we are behind the times.

 

One approach I find very successful is to include our time calculations in the discussion of the new items. When we make the suggestion, we need to also comment on the projects that would be put on hold and make an estimate of the man-hours involved. When we are asked if we can do it, we need to say - yes, but the man-hours would be more than the department can currently handle unless we drop some projects or duties. Once they understand the limits in terms of their projects, then they will make the necessary choices. Although you may not like the choices.

 

This is a personal area. Some people can not work for a boss that they feel is always making the "wrong" choice. Others just shrug their shoulders and move on. Everyone must find their own comfort zone, while realizing that we all work for someone.

 

This too is one of our problems. When we create something we do not wish to let it go. I had a beautiful web site that I had to turn over to someone else so that I could work on another project. The web site went to heck. That was my boss' choice, yet I had a hard time accepting it. If we are to survive with a work schedule that is reasonable we must commit to accepting these types of decisions.

 

It is our job to present accurate information to our adminstrators so that they can make informed decisions. It is not our job to agree with them on all the decisions. I encourage all of you to come forward with more approaches to this problem that you have found successful.

 

Good day,

 

Dirk D Dykstra