We're Still a Community

By Abigail King

Senior, English/Chinese Studies, IUPUI

It’s easy to create community in the workplace when everyone is physically present; questions can be answered by turning to your coworkers, and phone calls and conversations can be heard throughout the office. Before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, I was one of two student coordinators in Taylor Hall’s office of Academic and Career Development where I helped shape the office community alongside my best friend Kaija. Over the two years we worked together, Kaija and I built a solid relationship and climbed through the ranks to become leaders in the office.

Our sense of community extended outside our office doors and into the lobby, which we decorated, moved the furniture around, and set up computers for students to help register them for courses. But behind the big desk in the lobby is where most of us hung out.

It was like our own little home within the office where we chatted about life or school. Sometimes we’d get into heated debates about whether or not cereal could be considered a soup, or one of us might ask a student who came into the office to break a tie on the Disney vs Pixar March madness board.

And though we had fun goofing around in the office, we also worked hard, making sure everyone was up to date on the changes throughout the office, covering a shift if another peer had a test during theirs, or jumping in to help if someone didn’t know a question. No one was left on their own; everyone had each other’s back.

Once the coronavirus hit it was a mad scramble to figure out how to move all of us to virtual workspaces. While some campus offices and employees were used to the online format, our office relied heavily on face-to-face interaction.

I don’t think we realized how isolating working remotely would be. No longer would there be a physical place where we would all be together, cracking jokes, talking about life, or debating. I couldn’t turn around and ask Kaija or Daniel to come help with a question. Community was the glue that held all of us together but working remotely threatens that bond.

We still have our expected roles of training peers on how to successfully do virtual drop-ins, scheduling students through a new system, and navigating technology. But our focus also turned to figuring out how to create that community aspect everyone knew and loved for the new remote work lifestyle.

Already we’ve had major changes with our team. Some have returned home to focus on their families. Others have had to quit because moving to remote work caused a reduction in our hours. Unlike me, where I could lean on my family for help if I had financial issues and needed help with bills, some couldn’t. With all these changes not only to the way we work but to our own team, I’m feeling the loss of community deeply.

Our job will always come first, so we still log every phone call we receive, every student we see on a drop-in, and any project or question we have. But we’ve found a way to make these quick updates engaging. In “20 Ways to Engage and Connect with Your Remote Employees” by Smarp, an organization that focuses on employee communication, one way to foster community among employees working remotely is by encouraging continuous engagement; it’s #8 on the list. We use a program called Slack where we can create custom emojis or send a quick gif or memes straight from the website. So, instead of plain messages, I can decorate the message with a dancing Iron Man to show support, or Shirlyn can add a red alert icon when the message needs an immediate response.

Sending engaging messages is one way to keep some sense of community; another is just checking in. As student coordinators, we took it upon ourselves to link our Zoom rooms to our clock in posts so the peers can have someone to chat with like we used to in the office. Kaija will talk about how her family is starting to drive her nuts while I’ll show off my cat Pepper. On slow days I’ll open up the USA Today Crossword and Yavat and Daniel will collectively give our best guesses to solve the puzzle. When it’s busy I’ll sit in silence enjoying the presence of another peer only muting ourselves to pick up phone calls. No matter what, we want everyone to be able to feel a sense of belonging.

Other offices on campus had to shift to remote working and advising as well. The First Year Experiences office is one such group. Their office focus is preparing IUPUI for Summer Bridge (a short summer program for incoming freshmen) by ordering t-shirts and communicating with professors, while also keeping track of how many students are enrolled in those classes. Before the pandemic hit, their office community was as lively as ours was.

“We would usually sit together and talk while we did projects, or we would walk together to get lunch on most days,” Myrna Amin explained. Myrna, a Senior Program Assistance, shared her large, open-area concept office with six others. Her team of girls felt free to discuss relationships and debate who was hottest among celebrities. Even their supervisor Andrea could be found making small talk or joining the debates. Even though they had their own projects they still found time to bond together.

Now, Myrna and her crew check in via Zoom every Friday to see how everyone is handling the transition to remote work, how their families are doing, and how school is going. Though Myrna doesn’t hop into Zoom whenever her co-workers are working during the week, knowing she gets easily sidetracked, it’s still nice to know she can join once she’s done with her project. But she is never out of the loop as they also use GroupMe, a messaging app to keep their communication lines open all day. So, if she has a question or just wants a break from staring at the computer, she can quickly shoot a message to her friends. Sometimes they use it to share memes to keep the morale up.

Though it’ll never beat working with them in person, utilizing resources such as Zoom, GroupMe, Slack, and other similar apps, helps keep us in constant communication so we’re not alone. I know we call it social distancing but in reality it should be called “physical distancing.” Keeping that community feeling is making this transition to remote work smoother and make me and others feel we’re not alone in this process.

We are still a community even though we’re far apart.