During my sophomore year in college, I worked as
a facility assistant at Campus Recreation. Campus Recreation manages all the
recreational facilities and programs on campus (Activities and Recreation
Center, Campus Recreation Center- East, Ice Arena, Complex Fields, Outdoor
Center Fields, and Illini Grove) and employees many undergraduate and graduate
students within their organization. The organization consists of different
departments for each facility and programs that the school offers.
As a facility assistant, I got to work in the
facility management department where I swiped the students into the ARC
and CRCE, conducted light cleaning on the workout machines, and restocked
inventory. During my time at Campus Recreation, I was able to see how
structured this organization was and how quickly the dynamic within the
department changed with new management.
When I applied to Campus Recreation, the hiring
process was quite long and tedious. Before getting interviewed, I had to fill
out an application where I answered several behavioral questions and was
required to go through an online training and quiz. It took a couple weeks
before my application went through and I was able to schedule an interview. The
interview was a lot more formal than I expected in that I was asked additional behavioral
and logistical questions by the assistant director of member services,
assistant director of facility management, and the facility manager.
Because injuries are quite common in workout
facilities, new hires needed to complete a CPR and first aid training as well
as attend a lecture on blood borne pathogens to learn how to properly clean up
any bodily fluids we many encounter. In addition, human resources required new
hires to complete separate training about acceptable behavior within the
workplace. Before I could finally start working, I shadowed a facility
assistant working the opening shift and ran through a final test of all the
procedures within the facility by one of the managers.
My job wasn’t too challenging and got monotonous
at times, but the people I met through this job kept me going. I didn’t know
everyone at the organization, but I was able to build relationships with
coworkers in my shift. There was a sense of collegiality where my coworkers
were willing to go out of their way to help me out when I was confused on how
to assist a patron or respond to a maintenance request. Through this gift
exchange, the work environment was pleasant and there was high productivity in
that we were able to help patrons quickly and efficiently.
However, during my last semester at Campus
Recreation, a new assistant director of facility management was hired and
various changes were being implemented. One of the biggest problems I observed
was how little effort went into maintaining the workers within facility
management. What I mean by this is that the turnover rate dramatically
increased and rather than trying to combat this problem, new employees were constantly
being hired.
It was evident that these new employees didn’t go
through the same hiring process which resulted in less prepared new hires. The
unpreparedness and constant change within the staff made it more difficult for
the coworkers to build relationships. This ultimately led to an unproductive
cycle where the financial incentive was simply not enough for the new hires to
stay and the assistant director had to hire more employees. Many didn’t feel
the need to build relationship because no one was sure if they were every going
to see each other again. Personally, I went from knowing a handful of people at
work to almost none when I decided to leave. Like many employees, I couldn’t
stay motivated at a job with simple tasks and an uncomfortable team dynamic.
Through my time at Campus Recreation, I learned
how impactful gift exchange and collegiality can be in a workplace for myself
and the productivity of the organization. It taught me the type of worker I
wanted to be in the workplace and the type of organizations I wanted to be a part
of in the future as well.
