Circadian

I took a chance at work the other day.

I sent out an email – a personalized email – to every director, executive director, and supervisor that I work with directly. In it I spoke of the impending start of the school year, and inquired as to whether I had forgotten to do anything for them that I’d promised to do, or if there were any other issues under my control that were keeping them from having the best, most streamlined start to the year that they could have.

The others in my office would, I’m pretty sure, never take a risk like that. Heaven forbid that they be reminded of all the things that people are still expecting them to do. Don’t get me wrong, I worried about it too, but realized that the benefits of having asked would outweigh the work that was generated from it. In fact, our transportation department had two minor issues – issues that I invested about an hour in solving, total – and our HR department had a couple issues that I was either able to fix, or was able to get a software vendor to fix.

And, most importantly, our Executive Director of Student Achievement declared it the nicest, most solicitous email she’d received in a long while.

I don’t understand why the rest of my team have such issues with these sorts of things. I mean, yes, we’re in IT, and IT is notorious for having really terrible people-skills. I’m an exception rather than a rule, I understand that. But these aren’t all your typical tech geeks, either. They come from varied backgrounds, and some of them even from the classroom. And yet, I feel like I’m the only one who has the sort of relationships to be able to do this successfully.

Add that to having just completed a day where I felt less like a total fraud than usual – like I really knew what the hell I was doing, and had all the answers – and I’m feeling pretty good about the results of the summer.

My office is going through the toughest part of the year – the month leading up to school starting – right now. And the stress is starting to show.

We’re not the happiest bunch of people on Earth at any time (well, they aren’t – I usually am), but given the push to get everything just right before the teachers come back, and shortly after them the kids, makes everyone a little short of fuse. Unfortunately, that comes out as negative attitudes towards our users and occasionally towards one another. I’ve never had anyone blow up at me, but I wonder sometimes just how I’m talked about when my back is turned. Given some of the things I’ve heard them say about people they work with every day, I’m sure I must be lambasted on a regular basis as well.

It’s dispiriting, when you get right down to it. Our boss always pushes us towards greater levels of customer support, and I’m the first in line with our standard mantras of “no negativity” and “what’s best for the kids?” but I’m a lone voice in a pack of howling wolves, most days.

Come tomorrow, our new teachers start arriving. They’re kept pretty busy, but all will be wanting and honestly needing their network and database accounts set up, their PCs cleaned up and prepared for another year, and every other technological need they see as useful to the education of our children. And in another week, all the teachers will return. It will be a crazy few days, from the 10th to 12th, but then on the 13th, come 8:35 AM, the doors on the classrooms will close, the roll will be taken, and our team, amongst others, will finally be able to take a breath.