Unexpected Silver Lining of A Worldwide Pandemic: Student Workers Working From Home

Abstract

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, our university leadership charged our department to shift academic and career support for our 20,000 ground students to a virtual modality. Through 100+ student workers, our department maintained similar service levels and outcomes to pre-pandemic times while working remotely during the pandemic. This reflective practice explores four working ideas for how and why our student worker team succeeded in remote work, including: organizational culture, departmental culture, adapting an existing technology model, and training. Ultimately, all four working ideas likely contributed to our team’s success. However, it is likely an incomplete picture of what truly influenced our team’s success working remotely for 18 months.