Blog Assignment: Learning from a Project “Post Mortem”

Project:

Just recently, I had to gather Veteran’s Assistance (VA) information for our senior staff. This information included how many of our student’s used their VA benefits to fund their classes, more specifically, how many courses each took during the fiscal year, 2009 -2010 (July 1st to June 30th).

I was given this project on a Tuesday afternoon; it was due at 5:00 PM in two days, on Thursday. Between the three campuses, I was the only employee who had access to the VA Ounce System. I literally had to go in each students’ (200) VA Ounce accounts, to see how many units they registered for during the summer, fall 1, fall 2, spring 1, and spring 2 (2009 – 2010). This work was considered tedious and time-consuming.

History:

Now bear in mind, that in all of my years with my employer, I have never learned to do the VA for our students. I volunteered to do this because two colleagues that provided the VA assistance left their jobs at the same time. It took at least a couple of months to replace my two colleagues after they resigned. There was ultimately no one who could do this job without a volunteer. This job certainly had to go on, as tuition and students needed to be paid. Therefore, I volunteered to take over the VA until my new colleague was trained adequately. I performed all of the aspects of VA as I went along; I had only minimal help at best. Lastly, I performed this job along with the other position that needed to be filled, plus my own position.

The Project’s Success and Failure:

On top of everything that I had to do, I was not sure that I could complete this project by 5:00 PM on Thursday. I would certainly do my best to meet the prescribed deadline.

I came into the office early on Wednesday and Thursday to complete, and worked on throughout both days when I had the chance, but that did not work. I needed extra time to complete, as during business hours, students’ needed immediate help in regards to their accounts and registration. My supervisor let two of my colleagues take vacation at the same time during this very same week. In the meantime, two brand new colleagues started this very same week, neither had access into anything.

I informed my supervisor that I could not get the project completed by 5:00 PM on Thursday. He told me that I should have put everything else aside to complete this project. I respectfully disagreed with him, I told him in all of my years working in the customer service arena, I must serve the student first.

Additionally, because of the current situation, my first priority was to help the student no matter what. Honestly, I would have done this again if the project and the circumstances surfaced again. I finally completed the project at noon on Friday, that was the very best that I could do under the circumstances, I felt very bad.

Conclusion:

I felt very proud of myself, I was a day late in completing and submitting the project. I served every student in a prompt, efficient, and excellent manner who required my assistance. I satisfied almost everyone without pulling every hair on my head out and maintaining my sanity.

My Frustrations:

1. My supervisor should have never let my fellow colleagues go on vacation at the same time, knowing the circumstances.

2.The senior staff requesting this information could very easily obtain the very same data through our system.

3.The senior staff should have been more on top of what was expected at their meeting way beforehand. The project data was needed for their meeting with the VA senior staff, and come to find out, they needed additional information (I will save for another story).

4.My supervisor not fully supporting my efforts.