As I hope this post’s title indicates, I love The Lord of the Rings universe. I also love duty and on-call work. While I always hope that students never experience crises, it’s important that we are able to be there and facilitate the community’s navigation through these impactful moments. I find on-call work an engaging element of our work to train and supervise on, a fascinating topic to research, and a facet of my job I am genuinely open to jumping into at a moment’s notice.
The only part I have never enjoyed and tend to still dread is scheduling.
I do not know that I have ever entered or exited a duty scheduling meeting, whether for a month or a whole term, whether I am on the rotation or facilitating the space, feeling energized. I give as many kudos as I can to you if you have done so. Maybe it’s my own priming, because I can never shake the feeling that throughout the gathering, everyone in the space is a human being giving away their free time – person by person, shift by shift. And by the end, someone is usually “stuck” with a shift they’d rather not have, more shifts than someone else, or both. As a human with extroverted leanings and a strength in empathy, my soul loses some energy.
While I doubt that you can 100% protect your soul in duty scheduling facilitation if you bring similar sentiments to me, I do believe that you can lead and facilitate this process with intention and humanity. As Galadriel once said to Frodo, “this task was appointed to you, and if you do not find a way, no one will.”
“What about second breakfast?” – Make Everyone Aware of Important & Impactful Dates
Everyone has certain breaks, holidays, events, and more that they want to avoid when selecting duty shifts. And while yes, in the end, you do need someone to be on duty on those dates, I think it still does not hurt to have as many of those denoted on the schedule ahead of time. When I am constructing the duty schedule for the coming semester, I try to include everything I can think of – major campus and housing events, popular conferences, institutional holidays, religious observances I am aware members of the team hold, and more. Some of these I intentionally note due to procedural impacts, while others I just want to include to help decrease the potential for surprise later. I also at times have invited the team on the rotation to add whatever notes they want and think could be important for others. I find this especially helpful for staff members new to the team – it not only lowers some of the homework they may need to do to prep for their first scheduling experience, but also may help them understand what may be the “busier” shifts.
“A wizard is never late…nor is he early” – Timing the Process
I believe there is a “sweet spot” in the calendar for the time period for which you are scheduling. Staff need to know when they are on duty so they can plan the rest of their lives, but they also need to know their plans so that they can make informed choices on shifts. It feels as though there’s some adage about chickens and eggs that applies here…so I like to complete the schedule about a month ahead of the first shift for which I am scheduling. I find it reasonable to ask staff to both be able to plan a month in advance and to be flexible a month in advance.
But this is not the only timing to consider – I also try to get the blank/template schedule out and the scheduling session on staff members’ calendars at least two weeks before the scheduling meeting. Staff members need to talk to their people – family, friends, caregivers, acquaintances who said they were going to visit but still haven’t set that date, and more. And you’ll thank yourself in advance too, since you’ll be that much more prepared to facilitate!
Finally, as you actually facilitate the process of scheduling, I recommend both taking your time and allowing anyone to pause the process or ask for time to consult their schedule. As someone who generally needs a moment more than others to process and make a decision, I have always appreciated this when participating in a rotation, and so I try to pay that kindness (and facilitation skill in what can be a more tense space) forward.
Don’t “keep it secret, keep it safe” – Transparent Communication & Clarity
No matter the size of the team serving on the rotation, you’re going to have a process for their selecting shifts. Even if that process is “I am going to leave the room and ask you all to work together to make sure all shifts are covered,” that’s a process, and I recommend telling them in advance so they can best prepare for the space. (As an aside: I generally do not advise that as a process, but I have too many colleagues who swear by it to discount it as an option.) Moreover, if you know that some staff members will have more shifts, nights, weekends, etc., let them know ahead of time. I also recommend making and communicating any decisions or philosophies you have related to “fairness” of what may be an imbalance for the team on the rotation; for example, I try to state both in the meeting prep e-mail and again in the meeting that “not everyone will have the same amount of time on duty, and while I will do my best to even this out in the next term, I cannot guarantee that due to inevitable staffing changes over time.” That may not be true for your structure or the team for which you facilitate, and still no matter your reality I recommend transparent framing ahead of time on this topic.
And of course, do not forget to take opportunities to share any other updates related to your duty structures through this process, whether that be phone handoff times or procedures, how you navigate academic breaks, or other changes. Framing this ahead of meeting and then reminding in the space may save you questions mid-process or after scheduling is completed.
“I can’t carry it for you, but I can carry you.” – Flexibility with Humanity
This is more related to leading or supervising a duty rotation in general, but it intersects with scheduling so here it goes: figure out your base expectations, purpose for folx being on duty, and non-negotiables, and stick to them. Care less about everything else, because on-call work has so many variables, the staff members serving on duty are humans, and humans and life are beautifully messy, so a thousand different questions will arise throughout a year in duty. If the rotation(s) you oversee are too structured, you will have many, many more difficult decisions to make and actions to take, and you will spend more time than you possibly want to monitoring and responding.
I feel an example helps here: My baseline expectation as a professional overseeing duty rotations is that someone is holding, answering, and responding to the phone when we say to residents that someone will be doing so. Who is listed as “on duty” on the schedule matters when the phone is not answered or covered; otherwise, I am fine with being surprised in the moment by who answers the phone as long as they are trained and able to do what is needed within protocol and their position description. This means if someone needs to step away to be who and where they need to be, they should feel free to do so as long as a colleague is covering. It also means that if a handoff does not happen at the exact default time in the manual, it is fine as long as everyone is on the same page and the phone is still being answered. This is not to say that I do not expect that some follow-up may be necessary for these and similar situations; rather, I am saying I do not expect five steps of approvals and real-time schedule adjustments for them to move forward.
As far as how this applies to scheduling, I believe some flexibility can be injected into those human moments when no one wants to take an open shift. This can and does happen, and while everyone has almost certainly signed or acknowledged an agreement that makes you able to pick names out of a hat, assign the shift, and be done with it, I find it important to recognize the very human reality of not wanting to work or be restricted to a building or campus at a time that may be important to you or others in your life. So, work with the team to find a way forward. Can multiple staff members split the shift? Can the next level of duty cover a few-hour conflict that one person has? Can someone take it in exchange for having first pick or one fewer shift the next term? Maybe none of this is possible in your context, but maybe this will help you both inject some teamwork, team decision making, and just general back-up plans into your process.
I recognize that a lot of the above comes down to empathy and communication, and maybe that says more about duty as a structure in residence life than anything else. We tend to just approach and accept duty as “part of the job” – a part that many dislike the most – and so we do not question when an aspect of it, such as duty scheduling, simply doesn’t feel great. But I think it’s important to question and challenge our assumptions. Let’s be optimists, like Samwise Gamgee, who states “There’s some good in this world, Mr. Frodo, and it’s worth fighting for.” I’ll challenge you here to take just one piece of guidance above, and fight for some additional good in your duty scheduling.
