http://generoche.net/blog/2008/08/28/how-bad-is-it/ The Times They Are A-Changin' Tue, 06 Jan 2009 13:03:24 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.7 hourly 1 http://generoche.net/blog/2008/08/28/how-bad-is-it/comment-page-1/#comment-36285 Laura Mon, 01 Sep 2008 12:40:15 +0000 http://generoche.net/blog/?p=301#comment-36285 This kind of thing happens to us all the time. I've seen it happen to me a great deal over the last few weeks. I do think the root cause needs to be addressed. In our case, I've seen two main root causes--one is communication and the other is under and mis-staffing. Communication is a hard one to fix because it involves people. But I do think people need to be reminded of the proper communication lines. It also might mean that some people in the organization need to be proactive rather than reactive--anticipating issues and sending out an email at just the right time or walking the building. Under- and mis-staffing are longer term problems in that they involve requesting lines from administration or retraining some staff. I've seen gaps in our skill set and in some cases those gaps can be filled by giving an existing staff member new skills, but often it requires hiring a new person. In tough budgetary times, either of these solutions might be hard. What you lose is time, because the employee who fills the gap might take longer to do a job they're not trained for, and eventually you might lose that employee if they become frustrated by doing so much work that doesn't "belong" to them. This kind of thing happens to us all the time. I’ve seen it happen to me a great deal over the last few weeks. I do think the root cause needs to be addressed. In our case, I’ve seen two main root causes–one is communication and the other is under and mis-staffing. Communication is a hard one to fix because it involves people. But I do think people need to be reminded of the proper communication lines. It also might mean that some people in the organization need to be proactive rather than reactive–anticipating issues and sending out an email at just the right time or walking the building. Under- and mis-staffing are longer term problems in that they involve requesting lines from administration or retraining some staff. I’ve seen gaps in our skill set and in some cases those gaps can be filled by giving an existing staff member new skills, but often it requires hiring a new person. In tough budgetary times, either of these solutions might be hard. What you lose is time, because the employee who fills the gap might take longer to do a job they’re not trained for, and eventually you might lose that employee if they become frustrated by doing so much work that doesn’t “belong” to them.

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