Originally, I was going to talk about why being detailed-orientated is never overrated. Actually paying attention to what you’re doing and rechecking information is something that we all should do. If you have taken on the responsibility of completing a task for a group project or a larger organization, you better make time to do your job correctly. Just don’t do things wrong. However, I think that all of this pressure to not mess up is a really bad thing. Being wrong and making mistakes is normal, and it’s admitting to an error and trying to fix it that’s important. It doesn’t matter if you’re bad at your job as long as you’re open about it and trying to improve.
This came up because of recent financial miscalculations, such as SGA’s budget excel sheet mishap and Student Life not charging the accounts listed on the p-card recon form. It’s really easy to feel frustrated about these two situations, and it’s even easier to feel compelled to point fingers. Sure, I could just blame SGA Treasurer Jacob Vanderbilt and Student Life Financial Coordinator Brielle Melillo, since these were their responsibilities. I could criticize them, tell them to do their jobs better, and make them feel bad for their oversights. But I’d rather appreciate them for doing something right – which is not being afraid to admit that they were doing something wrong. In Jacob’s case, the budgeting committee made internal SGA cuts instead of going back through to cut funds from RSOs. With Brielle, she fixed the amounts charged to each account. It’s great that when these issues were noticed, they were talked about.
I think being wrong is so stigmatized that admitting to messing up becomes hard, and admitting you don’t know something is even harder. It doesn’t make a person stupid or lazy, but it makes a person a person. I struggle with this a lot every Wednesday when I TA Design II. Students ask questions that I don’t know the answers to. It’s not a great feeling. I originally wanted the job because my TA didn’t help us and that sucked. So I was really excited to be a great TA and for my students to leave the class having a more in-depth understanding than I had after taking the course. However, there was no training for the job, and no resources, and I wasn’t given any direction. It makes me feel like I suck and that I’m doing a disservice to these students. The way I handle this is by asking the head TA or whoever else is around any questions that come up. Now, it’s really challenging when my questions are usually answered with sarcasm and a sense of degradation, but I think it’s good that I am being a proactive TA. I just really hope that my students see that they’re asking good questions and that I’m not afraid to tell them I don’t have all of the answers.
