A short — On Change Fatigue
At 5am this morning I was standing at the counter, eyes half open, trying to figure out if the hotel staff had replaced the coffee for the in-room coffee maker. While rummaging in the 3 or 4 places I’ve seen them leave it before, it suddenly hit me —
Is this what our customers feel, when they log in and see tiny changes in our system?
I’m rounding out my 3rd week in the same hotel. It has a small kitchenette for making meals, a table that I’ve commandeered as a desk, and a view of Juarez, Mexico out the window.
For the most part I’ve hulled myself up in the room every day — answering tickets, taking video calls, and writing. Some days I venture out, and when I do, I take down the “Do not Disturb” sign, and let them clean the room.
When I come back, it’s always so nice to have clean dishes, a made up bed, and new towels.
But it’s also disorienting.
Everything is moved slightly. The place looks just a bit different. And, even after 3 weeks of this process, there seems to be no standard work.
Each room cleaning leaves things a little different. Some people replace items that others don’t. Sometimes they grab the trash that is leftover from my lunch by the couch, while other times it is still left there. Then there are days where it seems they came in and made the bed and walked back out.
At first, it seems fun — oh look! Someone made a change! But eventually, it has started to wear on me. Did they move my shoes? That’s odd — they didn’t fold this blanket this time, even though they did last week…and…most pressingly…I wonder if we got more coffee?
…And for our customers…
Now..where did that button I used to click every day move to?
Change to software is good, important, and necessary. It’s also disorienting, and a moment of doubt and reorganization. It’s staring at the computer trying to grab a piece of information that used to be right here…I swear.
