On the Topic of Role Ambiguity

JLSpinner wrote: I assure you I would never talk down to you Ari. What was the infraction? I've only been made aware of the Edu updates.

First we have this. An open job snatching of what should have been done through the Librarian position. Straight up taking of what is clearly defined as one person's job, taken by another. I couldn't care whom is updating links, but this is something that fits to one job and not another.

And that isn't event the first time this has happened for this position.

So obviously the roles are not clearly defined enough, if someone can come in and take control of something that, at least by my eyes, is stated in clear text as not being their job.

But again, I wonder why I'm even trying and wasting my energy. We all know whats gonna happen. People will say things are going to change, and we'll be right back here in ~3 months.

I'm sorry you're disheartened. Truly. We've started discussions now on defining the roles thanks to your words. We all have differing perspectives on things and perhaps some clearer defined roles will help avoid variations in interpretation. The link in question was a personal project Akkarin started back when he was Librarian. Perhaps he was unaware of the implication that the project remain tied to the office. I can't speak for him though. I just hope we can help avoid such frustration going forward.

Why is it such a big deal? One of the things I've learned in my time serving here is you don't need to fret over details, things will work out, just chill, it's all fine. There isn't any need to get so stressed out by stuff, trust that people know what they're doing and we can all benefit from their work - no one needs to "own" anything, we're working together.

There was an article which could be updated and made better so I updated it and made it better. I didn't tell Zenchi beforehand when it would have been more considerate to do so. While looking over some Ed.Admin posts I was reminded of the TotJO:2015 and how it was now due an update so I volunteered to do it myself again without informing Zenchi beforehand.

But the point isn't who does the improvements, the point is that the improvements get done. Do we care more about having the improvements done or do we care more about which particular person does them?

Akkarin wrote: Why is it such a big deal? One of the things I've learned in my time serving here is you don't need to fret over details, things will work out, just chill, it's all fine. There isn't any need to get so stressed out by stuff, trust that people know what they're doing and we can all benefit from their work - no one needs to "own" anything, we're working together.

There was an article which could be updated and made better so I updated it and made it better. I didn't tell Zenchi beforehand when it would have been more considerate to do so. While looking over some Ed.Admin posts I was reminded of the TotJO:2015 and how it was now due an update so I volunteered to do it myself again without informing Zenchi beforehand.

But the point isn't who does the improvements, the point is that the improvements get done. Do we care more about having the improvements done or do we care more about which particular person does them?

To be fair, there may be a point to having some better communication and organization in things - NOT because of territorial issues though (I think that needs to be ironed out for people taking an office, honestly), but more so because without knowing who is going to be doing what, it mixes things up where two people might jump at doing the same thing and confuse each other (and others). Inversely, there are things that might never get done if no one is certain who ought to be doing it and are afraid to be jumping on a project that might belong to someone else, not knowing that someone else won't be working on it.

Overlapping may not be much of an issue as long as people communicate so that we know what's going on.

There are a lot of tasks at the temple that need attention. With the growing number of people coming here and starting projects or take up roles it becomes more and more complex. It is well within possibility that more and more roles will overlap or cross paths. It has happened with the IP team and the IP checks, for example.
However when things do overlap it is up to the respective individuals to clearly communicate and to find a way, together. I always felt that this will work, especially here where people are asked to respect each other and aid each other.

We will never be able to clearly separate all roles and offices we have. This isn't possible and it isn't the goal, in my opinion. The goal is to work together and give aid, as well as accept aid, to move forward.

Akkarin wrote: Why is it such a big deal?

Perhaps because instead of Apologizing and approaching Zenchi (and those effected aver-sly) with a mind set of open communication and improvement....everyone is sitting around saying "I offended someone, so what? whats the big deal?"

Maybe a bit more understanding of the offense and willingness to hash out ideas would be a better approach?

At no point did totjo offer exclusivity. It has never been an exclusive role. No role at totjo has exclusive control of anything. Executive decisions get redecided by council. Etc. Totjo is not anyone's autocratic little country. No matter how much those who complain it is while demanding/threatening 'or else' try to make it.

Zenchi learned quite early on he does not have sole control of the information on totjo. He also learned he does not control who has what rank, a realisation that was instrumental in his departure.


The end.

ren wrote: The end.

Yes. And it is this kind of response that will continue to keep me from volunteering and helping this temple out. Rules are great and important. But not at the cost of being rude and offensive - which is so common here. "Rules or the highway and we don't give a damn about your feelings." Such an awesome way to run things really....

Ideas, not people, Ren. Please help set a better example.