SOLVING TASK SATURATION &TIME POVERTY

ONE OF THE MOST SERIOUS—YET ALMOST ENTIRELY UNADDRESSED—PROBLEMS IN THE FIELD

“TASK SATURATION”task saturation means you are overworked–not enough time, tools, or resources to accomplish the mission.

Murphy, James D. (2000) Business is Combat: A Fighter Pilot's Guide to Winning in Modern Business Warfare. New York: Regan Books pp. 130-3.

“TIME POVERTY”we are always short of time & running behind personal and/or professional deadlines even as we cram more and more activities and tasks in our day than previous generations.

Schor, Juliet B. (1991) The Overworked American: The Unexpected Decline of Leisure. New York: Basic Books, p. 5;

cf. Copperwiki.

http://www.copperwiki.org/index.php?title=Time_poverty

WHITE ELEPHANT INACTIONSILENCE

INACTION SILENCE Task Saturation SILENCE INACTIONSILENCE

INACTION

WIKI PROBLEM STATEMENT Museum Workers as Fully Loaded Camels Standing in a Rain of Straws

Abstract

Museum workers are faced with exponentially increasing levels of expectations from all stakeholders in a situation characterised by a chronic lack of time, tools, and resources necessary to meet these expectations.

In their efforts to close the growing gap between expectations and available resources, museum volunteers and paid staff work at increasingly— and now unacceptably—high levels of personal sacrifice and stress.

MUSEUM WORKER “OCCUPATIONAL DEVOTEE” WORK OVERLOAD CAUSES

ETHICAL ISSUEThe unreasonable expectations & related exploitation of museum workers is an ethical issue.

Both the International Council of Museums & the American Association of Museums assert that museum governing authorities have a responsibility to protect the human resources that carry out their missions.

International Council of Museums (2006) ICOM Code of Ethics for Museums, Paris: International Council of Museums, p. 1; American Association of Museums (2000) Code of Ethics for Museums, Washington, DC: American Association of Museums, p. 2.

ELEVATED EXPECTATIONS COMMON IN MUSEUM FIELDLord Cultural Resources (largest museum consulting firm in the world) President Barry Lord has asserted that, as “information workers,” we in the museum field “must expect fifteen hour work days.”

Lord, Barry (2010) Comment following Museum Management session at the University of Toronto Master of Museum Studies programme 40th anniversary conference Taking Stock: Museum Studies and Museum Practices in Canada, Toronto, ON, 24 April.

EMERGING PROFESSIONALS NEED TO BE CONCERNEDJulie Hart (2009), AAM's Sr. Director, Museum Standards and Excellence writes for attribution:

Certainly, we hear this concern repeatedly from our own members. However, there are still more people clamoring to work in museums than there are positions to accommodate them [emphasis added].

In other words, this says to entry level workers: “Yes, let's continue to build the museum railroad by relying on a continuous stream of enthusiastic young coolies & let you become “hopelessly overburdened” too.

Hart, Julie et al. (2009) Personal communication via e-mail to Paul Thistle, 28 October.

SOLUTIONS:

MUSEUM WORKERS NEED NOT FEEL ALONE. INDIVIDUAL & COLLECTIVE ACTIONS CAN CHANGE THE UNACCEPTABLE SITUATION

READ THE BEST BOOK FOR FULLY LOADED CAMELS

William Ury, Director of the Global Negotiation Project at Harvard, presents a workable strategy based on first saying a positive “Yes” to the worker's own values and core interests.

PARTICIPATE IN THE TASK SATURATION WIKI

TRY SOLUTIONS! SUGGESTED BY EXPERIENCED MUSEUM WORKERS

ADDED AT AAM CONFERENCE 2012

• most important thing is to avoid the idea that we as museum workers have “failed.” The task saturation problem is not our failure. [Rather, it is a Post-Modern, contemporary socio-economic, & significantly IT-driven problem. See the “Problem Statement” document in the Files page on the Museum Worker Task Saturation Wiki site for a critical analysis of the origins of task saturation and time poverty in the museum field.]

ADDED AT OMA CONFERENCE 2009• Remember that you set a dangerous precedent when you do something heroic [i.e., be realistic about what can be accomplished given available resources. More broadly, this impacts expectations, not only of your own future performance, but others' as well.]

• Management is about deciding where you put the museum's capacity. If a newly suggested project is not in the current budget, do not permit discussion of the project until the next budget cycle [vs. “management by the next bright idea”]. Cross-reference priorities. Get budget priorities in writing and establish initial consensus. Base decisions on the budget. In budgeting process, get staff to tell management what they are able do . Stop holding out a large laundry basket and asking people to throw things into it. Record lists of the bright new ideas for future consideration.• use the museum's strategic plan to avoid newly proposed ideas that will add unplanned tasks to workloads: “If it's not in the strategic plan, we are not going to do this [now].”• leadership teams need to identify goals and priorities [& “stay the course”]• ask your supervisor “What would you like me to let go [in order to carry out this new task as an already fully loaded camel]?”

WIKI SOLUTIONS! DOCUMENT• museum HR departments as employers need to become true “Resources for Humanity”Elaine Heuman Gurian asserts:“Even if impaired work performance were not the outcome of unabated staff stress…[there is] a better reason to pay attention to staff needs. If our work in museums is evidence of our collective commitment to enhancing the quality of life for society, then we must be attentive to maintaining a high quality of life for our work community.”

Gurian, Elaine Heuman ed. (1995) Institutional Trauma: Major Change in Museums and Its Effect on Staff. Washington: American Association of Museums, pp. 20-21.

FOLLOW THE SOLVING TASK SATURATION BLOG

Museum workers exist as already fully loaded camels standing in a continuous rain of straws (read rising and altogether new expectations). We must manage this expectation inflation in a humane manner if we are going to be able to preserve our own physical, mental, spiritual health––to say nothing about our ability to achieve the missions, goals, and visions of our institutions.

The focus of the blog is sharing hints, individual & collective strategies, more or less subversive approaches, self-affirming attitudes, positive perspectives & philosophies that will help museum workers overcome rampant time poverty & task saturation.

EXPECTATIONS ARE INCREASING EXPONENTIALLY

BE AWARE OF THE TRAPS

YOUNG WORKERS AT RISK

IN SHORT, “ALWAYS ON” IS NOT SOMETHING EMPLOYERS REASONABLY CAN EXPECT REGARDING YOUR SMARTPHONE.

TURN OFF YOUR SMARTPHONE AFTER WORK

Volkswagen does!Brazil has a law forcing employers to pay overtime to staff dealing with after-hours messages.

employers cannot make progress with respect to employee well-being and work/life balance unless they attend to changing their organisational cultures