One of the first things I did when I joined my new team was set up a Knowledge Base. It seemed the logical thing to do, discovering that there was little documentation for any process or task.
Indeed it seemed that I was basically their knowledge base, having supported the team for so many years from over the fence. If any new stater needed guidance on anything, they would inevitably just ask me.
I suppose I am so thoroughly institutionalised by now that I’m one of the few people who knows why things are done a certain way, having witnessed the whole damn thing for a decade and a half. I’m a most reliable cog in the machine.
It’s disappointing to return from a week off work then to find in my inbox a bunch of attachments from colleagues asking me to add information to the Knowledge Base for them, completely missing the point. But that’s not completely unsurprising.
In my short time with them, I have brought order to their filing system, got them using Kanban boards to manage tasks, and reinvented their intranet as a self-help resource for the organisation. Mind blowing stuff.
Yes, that was sarcasm. I’m not claiming to be a hero here; this is all extremely basic. This is purely context for these strange early morning encounters with my email inbox. All around me, complete chaos.
A salutary reminder, first thing in the morning, that my job now is to attempt to bring about some order, one small step at a time. Hence my kind but constructive reply to the colleague asking me to do their work for them.
It’s 7.30am right now. Let’s see if this calm and collected approach to work can carry me past 9.00am.
Last modified: 22 September 2024
