April 24, 2014

It is almost towards the end of the semester and the end of the TLT Internship. After learning about how to handle the site, how to handle issues and proper procedure, we focused on how to manage the 80+ consultants and may or may not be our friends.

A lot of the workers in TLT have some sort of personal connection. We are all co-workers but we are all friends as well. It is very hard to mange your friends. Ming asked me “what makes a good consultant?” I gave her a laundry list of the qualities that make a consultant good. This ranges from doing their work, making sure they follow proper procedure and read the handbook. This also includes cleaning, making sure all machines are working, making sure there are enough supplies, tending to client’s needs and making sure they are on their toes and they are working hard.

Next we discussed about expectations and reality. Most of the time, we expect our workers to do their jobs. Most of the time, that is not the case. In reality, not everyone reads the handbook or know the procedure of how to handle issues. If this happens to be someone you are personally close with, what can you do? I feel that in the future, there are some standards that should be set. Make sure that we all do our work and if the senior consultants have to separate personal and professional attitudes towards a person that isn’t doing any work and is their friend then that must happen. I have worked in various areas on campus and it seems that professional and personally attitudes are very hard to separate.