My staff of student workers is like a team, and there are some fundamentals of teamwork that are very important which we will adhere to.
We may not be recognized by the NCAA, but the Building and Shop Student Workers are an important team at MSU. As a team, every member has a role to play for the benefit of the team, and is counted on to do his or her job.
There are two important aspects of teamwork that are necessary for a winning
team, priorities and communication. A third important aspect is dependability,
i.e., being counted on to do your job.
Priorities
The problem with priorities is that people normally have two sets, their own, and those of their team. The team's priority may be to win the game, but your personal priority may be to get the most assists. Sometimes, we are torn between personal priorities and team priorities.
As a student, your studies are very important. They are important to me, too. If you fail, for example, you may need to drop out of school, and then you would also have to leave the team. So your personal priorities are also important to the team. You should feel free to ask for time off for important school work.
On the other hand, sometimes the needs of the staff, e.g., seeing that the
shop is open from 8:00 to 5:00, are so important that you should not feel
that you can just stay out of work. When there are conflicts between personal
goals and team goals, sometimes a compromise can be arranged. For example,
it may be possible for you to do your study in the shop, but not be working
on particular RT tasks.
Communication
Just as two basketball players need to communicate to perform an alley-oop
pass-shot combination, we all need to communicate to be successful.
For example,
if your job is to unlock the building, it is your responsibility to either
unlock it, or to see that it gets done in the event you have a
situation that prevents you from doing it, yourself.
Dependability
We depend on you to keep your schedules or give advance notice when you can't. I must have dependable people on my staff. If you can't be dependable (both in keeping schedules, and in notifying of problems), you will not be able to keep your job at ECE.
-Coach Chapman