Re: [Wikimedia-l] [discovery] Interactive Team putting work on pause

[Anna Stillwell]

Pine,

>
> This email is probably a little harsher than I would like it to sound. I
> admit to being frustrated -- not so much about this particular case, but
> the general situation of the very mixed levels of WMF staff responsiveness
> to requests for information.
>

Heard.

I'll be ready to talk ideas about this at the end of Q3, but not before.
I'm not promising a course of action yet, I'd like to understand a lot more
first. Might I reach out to you at that time and understand your thoughts?
Anyone else willing to let me ring them and ask them questions?

/a

>
> Pine
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-- 
"If you have knowledge, let others light their candles in it." - Margaret
Fuller

Anna Stillwell
Director of Culture
Wikimedia Foundation
415.806.1536
*www.wikimediafoundation.org *
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] [discovery] Interactive Team putting work on pause

[Anna Stillwell]

Hey Kelly,

Nice to hear from you. Glad you've chimed in.

I know a lot of people on this team. They have all seemed reasonable to me
in addition to being well intentioned. They're competent people. My bet is
that they have this handled, but there's a lag in communication time for
some reason and that they are working on that.

And contributors are enthusiastic about software. Claro que si! This is
obviously a good thing and we very much want to listen to what they have to
say and understand their needs.

I just stepped in at the last minute to see if people were willing to give
them a bit of time. The credit belongs elsewhere, but it's nice to hear
your voice and I hope your new role is going well.

Warmly,
/a



On Wed, Jan 25, 2017 at 7:33 PM, Kelly Battles 
wrote:

> Anna thank you so much for handling all of this.
> You do a great job and I am very appreciative of that...
>
> > On Jan 25, 2017, at 3:53 PM, Anna Stillwell 
> wrote:
> >
> > You make substantive points, Tim. Thank you.
> >
> > "An employee should not experience their time off as a period where his
> > [her/they] work load is just temporarily buffered until his [her/they]
> > return, but where colleagues will step in and take care of business."
> >
> > I take this point seriously and don't wish you to think otherwise. In
> > theory, I absolutely agree. In practice, sometimes we all face
> constraints.
> > There are roughly 300 of us (order of magnitude). Every now and then,
> there
> > are not enough of us to go around on everything on a timeline that meets
> > the legitimate need that you present here. We'll continue to work on
> this.
> > But, to clarify, no one ever said it was a "useful practice" nor did
> anyone
> > suggest that it was generalized across the org.
> >
> > What I was wondering about in my previous email and now reiterating in
> this
> > one too, are people willing to grant their request: a bit of time and
> allow
> > for one person to return to work?
> >
> > Does that seem like a way to move forward?
> >
> > Warmly,
> > /a
> >
> > On Wed, Jan 25, 2017 at 2:50 PM, Tim Landscheidt  >
> > wrote:
> >
> >> Anna Stillwell  wrote:
> >>
> >>> […]
> >>
> >>> I also hear that the pause on the interactive work is temporary. I’ve
> >> heard
> >>> them request time. I am comfortable granting that request, but no one
> is
> >>> required to agree with me. They’ve also said that the person with the
> >> most
> >>> information is on vacation. As someone who has seen employees go
> through
> >>> considerable stress in the last years, the entire executive team is
> >> working
> >>> to establish some cultural standards around supporting vacations. We
> want
> >>> people here to feel comfortable taking proper vacations and sometimes
> >> that
> >>> can even need to happen in a crisis. People often plan their vacations
> >> well
> >>> in advance and may not know that something tricky will come up. Just so
> >> you
> >>> understand one bias I bring to this conversation.
> >>
> >>> […]
> >>
> >> I concur with DJ in his initial mail that this is not a use-
> >> ful practice, and I doubt very much that it relieves employ-
> >> ees' stress.  It conveys the organizational expectation that
> >> employees are SPOFs without any backup.  An employee should
> >> not experience their time off as a period where his work
> >> load is just temporarily buffered until his return, but
> >> where colleagues will step in and take care of business.
> >> Especially such a major decision like "pausing" a team
> >> should not depend on the inner thoughts of one employee, but
> >> be backed and explainable by others.
> >>
> >> Tim
> >>
> >>
> >> ___
> >> Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/
> >> wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines
> >> New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org
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> >> 
> >>
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > "If you have knowledge, let others light their candles in it." - Margaret
> > Fuller
> >
> > Anna Stillwell
> > Director of Culture
> > Wikimedia Foundation
> > 415.806.1536
> > *www.wikimediafoundation.org *
> > ___
> > Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/
> wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines
> > New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org
> > Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l,
> 
>
>
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] [discovery] Interactive Team putting work on pause

[Pine W]

Thanks for the summary, Chris.

Communications problems with WMF are a sore spot for me, as I've suffered
through a number of them. Despite years of talking about improving
communication, I've seen mixed results to date. I think that the community
liaisons have been valuable, but there is still much room for improvement,
particularly when it comes to how unpredictable WMF staff are in responding
to talk page and email inquiries.

Narrowing focus a little bit to to expand on my earlier point on the value
of having the decision-maker available to answer questions: if the
decision-maker is unavailable for a good reason (and I don't mean a
scheduled vacation, as a decision to pause the work for a team should have
been thoughtfully considered prior to its announcement, and there is every
good reason to budget an hour or two to prepare communications before
announcing decisions like this), I think it's reasonable to expect that
someone else with full access to the facts should be available for Q
That might be a communication person or a technical liaison, or the
person's supervisor. The impression I get is that Dan was making a
good-faith effort to answer questions but did not have access to all of the
facts. I hope that in future cases where the decision-maker is unavailable,
that there will be better planning so that someone who does have access to
all of the facts is available for Q

I'm going to be frank. A scheduled vacation isn't an excuse for poor
planning. I don't mean to say that in a punitive way (I've made planning
errors myself), but rather in the sense that I hope that there will be
thought invested in how to do better planning in the future for
communications surrounding significant decisions when the decision-maker
will be unavailable. Looping back to the beginning of this thread, I agree
with DJ: "2: It shouldn't matter that Katie is on holidays, I'd assume/hope
someone takes over her duties while she is away (Likely Dan himself and/or
Wes Moran). Providing information on topics like this shouldn't have to
wait until someone returns from a (likely well deserved) holiday." I've had
similar frustrations with unresponsiveness from other staff, and I'd like
to see some meaningful effort invested in ensuring that every good-faith
inquiry gets a timely and well-informed answer.

This email is probably a little harsher than I would like it to sound. I
admit to being frustrated -- not so much about this particular case, but
the general situation of the very mixed levels of WMF staff responsiveness
to requests for information.

Pine
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] [discovery] Interactive Team putting work on pause

[Kelly Battles]

Anna thank you so much for handling all of this.
You do a great job and I am very appreciative of that...

> On Jan 25, 2017, at 3:53 PM, Anna Stillwell  wrote:
> 
> You make substantive points, Tim. Thank you.
> 
> "An employee should not experience their time off as a period where his
> [her/they] work load is just temporarily buffered until his [her/they]
> return, but where colleagues will step in and take care of business."
> 
> I take this point seriously and don't wish you to think otherwise. In
> theory, I absolutely agree. In practice, sometimes we all face constraints.
> There are roughly 300 of us (order of magnitude). Every now and then, there
> are not enough of us to go around on everything on a timeline that meets
> the legitimate need that you present here. We'll continue to work on this.
> But, to clarify, no one ever said it was a "useful practice" nor did anyone
> suggest that it was generalized across the org.
> 
> What I was wondering about in my previous email and now reiterating in this
> one too, are people willing to grant their request: a bit of time and allow
> for one person to return to work?
> 
> Does that seem like a way to move forward?
> 
> Warmly,
> /a
> 
> On Wed, Jan 25, 2017 at 2:50 PM, Tim Landscheidt 
> wrote:
> 
>> Anna Stillwell  wrote:
>> 
>>> […]
>> 
>>> I also hear that the pause on the interactive work is temporary. I’ve
>> heard
>>> them request time. I am comfortable granting that request, but no one is
>>> required to agree with me. They’ve also said that the person with the
>> most
>>> information is on vacation. As someone who has seen employees go through
>>> considerable stress in the last years, the entire executive team is
>> working
>>> to establish some cultural standards around supporting vacations. We want
>>> people here to feel comfortable taking proper vacations and sometimes
>> that
>>> can even need to happen in a crisis. People often plan their vacations
>> well
>>> in advance and may not know that something tricky will come up. Just so
>> you
>>> understand one bias I bring to this conversation.
>> 
>>> […]
>> 
>> I concur with DJ in his initial mail that this is not a use-
>> ful practice, and I doubt very much that it relieves employ-
>> ees' stress.  It conveys the organizational expectation that
>> employees are SPOFs without any backup.  An employee should
>> not experience their time off as a period where his work
>> load is just temporarily buffered until his return, but
>> where colleagues will step in and take care of business.
>> Especially such a major decision like "pausing" a team
>> should not depend on the inner thoughts of one employee, but
>> be backed and explainable by others.
>> 
>> Tim
>> 
>> 
>> ___
>> Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/
>> wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines
>> New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org
>> Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l,
>> 
>> 
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> "If you have knowledge, let others light their candles in it." - Margaret
> Fuller
> 
> Anna Stillwell
> Director of Culture
> Wikimedia Foundation
> 415.806.1536
> *www.wikimediafoundation.org *
> ___
> Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: 
> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines
> New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org
> Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, 
> 


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