“Do we have anyone else who is lifeguard certified who can stay at the pool today?” I heard a colleague ask.
Despite the fact that it would be far out of the bounds of my FLIA job description and that I had a long list of tasks on my to-do list, it took a lot of willpower for me not to offer up my services as a Red Cross certified lifeguard. The truth is, I like being able to help fill the needs of the people around me when I can, and sitting in my office on my computer in the middle of the fast-paced, chaotic environment of an understaffed summer camp in its first few weeks after a year with no in person programming due to COVID felt like the antithesis of helping. However, I knew what my job was, and I knew that focusing on it would be just as beneficial to the camp in the long run as helping out with an immediate need. Additionally, staff at Camp Fire Heart of Iowa knew what my job was and despite the fact that they were short-staffed, they assured me that they had enough people to be able to figure out some way to solve problems without my help. It may have felt like I was doing less urgent work at that moment, but I knew that if I didn’t focus, my project would not get done by the end of the summer.
Pictured is my designated office space.
Listen and observe
When I arrived, I was given my own office, so that’s where I did work for the first week. I was told that if the phones rang, I shouldn’t worry about it because they would be transferred to someone else if no one was here, and basically that I didn’t need to worry about helping out with anything other than my project. Even though I felt a bit uncomfortable sitting in the middle of all the chaos, as I mentioned above, I knew that by just sitting in my office doing my job, I was doing what was expected of me. During this time, I could hear what was going on outside of my office and mentally took notes on how things are run - figuring out who has a walkie talkie and what warrants using a walkie talkie call, what people’s different communication styles are like, what the normal daily schedules and tasks look like, etc.
Venture out of my office/comfort zone, ask questions
Once I had gotten a general sense of how things run around the camp and had become friendly with the other people working in the office with me, I accepted the offer of my office manager to come do work out at a table in the main office, where there was more sunlight and where there’s always a pretty constant stream of people. This is where I have ended up doing most of my work when I don’t need to be in a quiet space for a zoom meeting.
Pictured is the table where I’ve been working at near the front desk area of the office.
Be able to make informed decisions on what extra work I can take on and when
After spending some time working in the main room and chatting casually with the office manager about the daily goings on I felt like I had a good enough idea of what various tasks would require and when there really weren’t enough people to get them done, and offer to help out if it came at a good break time in the work I was doing.
I think this simple process for adjusting to a new work environment, while not applicable to every scenario, will help me navigate future situations so I’m hoping it will be useful to others as well.