Aug
2012
“It is not what it used to be” – Oh yeah, for sure!
The summer is winding down and we are all getting ready for the start of yet another academic year. As always, there are noticeable changes that will affect our faculty and students when they get back. Some will see them as welcome changes whereas others will see them as annoyances. In a few cases, the changes we have to make are out of our control, but the users don’t necessarily care. We are getting ready to communicate these changes.
I attended a day long meeting last Monday in Northampton organized by NERCOMP. The program committee which plans the annual conference met in the morning and I was assigned to one of the most boring tracks – Policy, Regulations and Security. We were a fun group so it was OK. One of our tasks was also to come up with the theme and suggestions for keynote speakers for the upcoming conference. Because of the topics I suggested, I may have earned a nickname “The Disruptive Technologist”. No, I was not disrupting the proceedings, but earned the title based on the topics I was suggesting.
During the subsequent discussions, I heard more than once, “Working in Higher Ed is not what it used to be”. I have a feeling that some of what I was proposing prompted the others to mention this to me. I was stressing on the urgency for us to realize that we cannot get too comfortable with what we do, instead, we need to be extremely agile and develop constantly in new areas. I totally agree with this statement. In fact, who wouldn’t? More importantly, isn’t this true everywhere we look? Isn’t it also true that it has always been this way, it is just that it has been accelerating more recently?
As I have said many a times, I began my career in Higher Ed IT in 1986. That was the time when a network engineer would go and unplug a connection or reboot a device without letting the users know & not worry about the work that would be lost by this action. That was also the time when we were so independent and were engaged in all sorts of cool projects. I remember spending a fair amount of time to customize the editor called emacs for the VMS operating system so my boss and I could use these enhancements. We actually spent a lot of time having Babyl for emacs work with our email system at that time. We were the only two on campus who were using emacs! I learned so much from this, I should say. Slowly but steadily, this began changing in the late 80’s and early 90’s and now we find ourselves at a point in time where, it is no longer what it used to be!
Always, our point of reference is our counterparts in other industries. I have never worked in a place other than Higher Ed, so I am not an authority on working elsewhere. But based on what I hear from all my friends and others who work in various non-higher-ed workplaces, they are saying exactly the same thing! We have known several people who worked/continue to work in IBM’s prestigious Thomas J. Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights, NY as well as AT&T Bell Labs. These were coveted places to work for during the 80s and now, Bell Labs is practically non-existent. If you are not careful about your search, you will be taken to a rodent control company. IBM’s Watson Research Center is still functioning, but the nature of the work that happens there is so different from the fundamental scientific research that was happening there early on. Similarly, I have many friends in the Pharma and Biotech industries, who have seen tremendous changes in their respective work environments.
What I heard around this subject from the colleagues there is what one hears all the time – how the hyperconnectivity is creating many issues for those who support our users and how the compensation structure and benefits is biased towards a particular group of individuals. Both of these are extremely important and real issues that we all face. My view on the first subject can be read here. In terms of the second, it was pointed out that benefits of Higher Ed such as the flexible schedules & the number of vacation days, is not something that is appreciated and applicable to every staff member. That is true, except, this cannot be a unique problem in Higher Ed. I am not aware of any place where such benefits are tied necessarily to an individual. It is always based on general rules and the type of positions.
What the colleague told me was that a preferred system would allow one to trade certain number of vacation days towards extra pay. I can see how this whole idea can be complicated in terms implementation as well as tax implications. I know several younger staff members in my previous places of work, who actually worked elsewhere during some of their time off. I can also see how this may be workable for some, but not to all. Though I agree that there is some validity to the statement, I beg to differ that this is a Higher Ed only problem or that it can be simple to implement.
I also want to point out that our own personal lives have gone through monumental shifts in the past several years, which should prompt one to say “It is not what it used to be”. I am sure many of us have heard this from elders. This statement is reminiscing the past and implies that there is something wrong with where we are relative to the past. Unfortunately, going back is not an option in most cases and we may not be able to control where things are going.
For these reasons, I look at this statement with a positive tilt because I don’t worry about things I don’t control. Instead I try to be agile and adopt changes.