The Case for Room for Growth at Work
And why I never used my desktop printing calculator
When I showed up for the first day at my job, there was a desktop printing calculator on my desk. If you have never seen one before, which I had not, a desktop printing calculator is a calculator that is about 8 inches wide and 10 inches in diameter with a digital screen, large buttons, and a roll of paper at the top. As you enter numbers, they are printed on the roll of paper.
The woman that trained me on my first day could tell right away that I was intimidated by it. I worried that I would punch in the wrong numbers and would have to start all over. Fortunately, she told me that I could just as easily use Excel.
So, I never used the desktop printing calculator. Later that week, I removed the calculator from my desk and stuffed it into a cabinet in the hallway.
I never understood the thought process behind choosing to use a machine that had been invented in the 1960s, when there was a modern desktop computer at the same desk. Familiarity perhaps? I struggled to come up with any positive reasons for that matter, other than being stuck in the past.
It was obvious to me from the very start that the non-profit I had just begun working at had a lot of room to improve. Fortunately, the new leadership that started around the same time that I did was forward-thinking and open to change.
Over the next two and a half years, I watched the organization take leaps and bounds into the future, and reap the rewards as a result. Our marketing team ushered in a new logo and branding which gave the organization a fresh look and feel. The director of the fundraising department regularly came up with new and inventive ways to raise money. And the new Executive Director took an approach to leadership that focused on values and employee-centered.
After developing a full understanding of my position and all that entailed, I took steps to bring my own position into the twenty-first century wherever I could. Slowly, I found ways to automate the processing of donations, which freed up time was spent on running credit cards or entering data for time that I could spend on more creative projects of my choosing.
I spent hours learning our Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system that housed the names of our donors, learning the system better than anyone. A combination of the state of my position at the time I started, my interest in process improvement, and the freedom I had to organize my time, allowed me the opportunity to make a tangible difference in the non-profit organization itself. I left in October of last year knowing that all recurring donations would automatically be processed, something that had to be performed manually when I first walked in those doors.
A lot of value can be gained by putting trust in employees and allowing them to grow their own positions as they see fit. Treating employees as people that sometimes have bad days, extenuating circumstances or a need for flexibility is key. I am grateful that this organization allowed me the room to make these changes and to be a small part of improving the organization for the better and the long term.
It was fulfilling to leave the position in a place that was a far reach from where I found it, while I myself had grown in a multitude of ways. Recruiting new employees into an organization where processes have become a little stale, allows for the opportunity of new ideas, inventions, and growth for all involved.
Janay Wright is a freelance writer who draws on her human experience to explore ideas related to everyday life, personal growth, and social justice. More from Janay:
