029 - Managing Move-In Chaos

Transcript

Speaker: Welcome to the Swakuho podcast. I'm your host, Ricky Harris. Move-in season in housing and residence life departments is one of the most operationally intense times of the year. Months of planning, training, and preparation culminate in a matter of days, putting immense pressure on logistics, facilities management, customer service, and team leadership.

Speaker: But behind every successful move-in operation are humans trying to navigate extreme workloads and burnout. Today, we're looking at both sides of the coin, the professional strategies from staff training to bottleneck management and the personal strategies, how leaders and frontline staff can manage stress, maintain boundaries and avoid post-move-in exhaustion.

Speaker: Grab your drink of choice, turn up the volume and let's get into it.

Speaker: Today, we have two guests with over 50 years of combined experience in higher education and campus housing. First is Haley Minton. Haley serves as a senior director of housing operations at the University of Texas at Dallas, bringing 29 years of higher education experience and a passion for creating exceptional student experiences.

Speaker: With a background spanning university housing, facilities management, strategic operations, staff development, and residence life, Haley believes that great leadership is about building strong teams, solving problems, servant leadership, and remembering that behind every challenge is a person who matters.

Speaker: A firm believer in teamwork, mentorship, and finding joy in the work, Haley loves connecting with colleagues, supporting new professionals, and making move-in a memorable experience for students and their families.

Speaker: And speaking of memorable move-ins, one year Haley was handed a selfie stick and took 153 selfies in just three days with parents, students, co-workers, and even the cable TV repair guy.

Speaker: Proof that in housing you never know who will end up in your next team photo, or how many memories you can make in a single move-in. Welcome, Haley. And our second guest is Greg Suttle, a.k.a. Santa Suttle.

Speaker: Greg recently completed his 23rd move-in with Southern Methodist University, and move-in remains one of his favorite times of the year. Over the years, he has had the opportunity to serve SMU in a variety of roles, including facilities technician, district manager, and lock shop manager.

Speaker: Since 2019, he has proudly served as the associate director for housing operations. His educational background includes a bachelor of social science and a master's in dispute and conflict management.

Speaker: A fun fact about Greg is the that he has been married to his wife for 21 years. They met the day after Christmas, just one day before his birthday on December 27th, so the holiday season has always been extra special in his family.

Speaker: Combine that with his love for being a member of the Santa Claus Texas chapters since 2020. Welcome, Greg. Welcome.

Speaker: All right, we're going to get started with a discussion about preparation leading up to move in. So my first question, and y'all can just hop in as you would like, When does your move-in season really start as far as preparation and things like that for you in your current role?

Speaker: For me in my current role, I would say my move-in prep really starts the moment we start planning sign-up and re renewal for the next year because that is what's going to drive my summer drive is to get ready for move-in every year.

Speaker: so So for us, it's kind of an ongoing thing. i mean, ah for our main move in right now, we have a COAT committee closing opening action team that we go through kind of an agenda, preparing, you know making sure that documents are ready, of all that stuff.

Speaker: But basically the big, big move in is kind of also once we're getting kind of the occupancy um set, stuff like that.

Speaker: Let's talk about how you might audit your previous year's move-in season, operational bottlenecks, whatever it might be, so you aren't fixing the same logistic problems year after year.

Speaker: Is there a process at your institution to do that? And if so, what what does it look like? So for SMU, ah we do it mainly for first years. We do a move in survey for the ah the freshman class, the parents.

Speaker: um We'll get that ah review. And then we have a committee from our AI team that kind of puts that together. Right about here in October is kind of when we get the results and it's presented to us. So we'll look at that and kind of see, you know, what are things that we're doing good? What are things that we're doing bad? What are things that are bad, but out of our control?

Speaker: Right. We can't control weather. As much as we try, we can't control an elevator going down because kids are propping the doors open.

Speaker: And with a building with one elevator and you have 200 plus people moving in, it becomes a bottleneck. So we'll look at that. We've had things that have come up where we've made implement changes as far as for freshmen. Now we offer a concierge service where we have a third party vendor come in and we do unloading.

Speaker: We move that to their room. We let them unload and then, uh, we don't unload anything. So we just dropped the cart with them.

Speaker: so that's given us some good, positive, uh, reviews and stuff. So, um, we always have a followup meeting kind of, you know, with us, with our partners of, you know, what was good on our end.

Speaker: what was bad on everybody's end or good for everybody. And then try and make changes each year to kind of address some of these parent student concerns.

Speaker: Right. Recap meetings are great. The assessment you talked about is really great. um Pardon my ignorance. You said the AI team. ah So it's, I don't know what they're... It's not artificial intelligence. No, it's not artificial intelligence.

Speaker: Yeah, it's... Could be, you don't know. Yeah. So they do all of kind of like the data and then put it into nice spreadsheets and, you know, results and stuff like that for us.

Speaker: like an assessment team. Yeah, assessment team. So at UTD, a couple years ago, we changed how we do our freshman move-in. We went from a process where um we unloaded all of their stuff and took it to their rooms and unloaded in their rooms to a process where we They will come. They come to a centralized location. They get their keys.

Speaker: They go around to a parking lot. We hold them in line. Then we have golf carts that lead a line so many cars over to each building. And then we provide orange carts and staff, but the student and the parents, whoever's with them unload the items. They have 10 to 15 minutes to unload of the car into two orange cars. They take it up to their rooms, unload. Then we have cart gatherers that will bring the carts back down and we keep going and we have,

Speaker: a four day process that we are our move in last four days. So this year was our second year of this move in process that we changed and we our first year went great. We found a few things that we needed to change. We need to have a better bad weather plan or lightning plan.

Speaker: we We started communicating more. We created ah a move-in web page. We did a lot of stuff in this two-year process. But similar to what what Greg was saying, we um we will have assessments that will go out. So we'll survey all of our students after move-in. How did your move-in experience go? what were What were great things? What are things that were troublesome for you? Things like that. Then we also survey all of our staff as well. So asking those same kind of questions. um So after our first year, we did that, we did those surveys and then we came together and we met and we figured out what things we needed to relook at. So as we went into planning for this year, we pulled all of those results back up that our assessment person for housing put together. Karen Hollweg, addressed all of those things to be ready for this year's move in and this year's move in was was smoother we eliminated some of our. Hollweg, places where we had staff, so we could better utilize our staff we communicated some things differently did some signage differently that came out of the survey and had an even smoother process this year so it's it's worked well and we, we have a move in committee that is.

Speaker: led by an assistant director and has staff that help him. And then we have an executive level moving committee that that staff brings to our executive level. And then we make some higher level decisions and review everything. And so our process the last couple years has worked really well for us.

Speaker: I would also say for us, the majority

Speaker: Well, it's probably 100% of where freshmen are checking in is card access. The only keys that we have are is in our apartments and are fraternities.

Speaker: So that makes check-in a lot easier. And then we also utilize an interactive campus map. where we put that on there. We share that link. We have a poster boards all throughout campus with the QR code to kind of help parents um to kind of scan that QR code. And it can show you where you need to go, where you need to go to park, our parking regulations, stuff like that. So that's helped over the last couple of years.

Speaker: But I would say getting rid of physical keys also has made the move-in process a lot easier. Yeah, that sounds like a dream. Yes. I think you know when it's little things like that, that not that keys are little things, but when you can eliminate some of those steps to make things smoother, it is really helpful. One of the things that last year, we handed out so much information and packets of information at our initial check-in that it felt like it was taking us too long to get that and then explain that and hand that out. So this year, when we scanned their QR code, it immediately checked them into StarRes, which then immediately sent them an email with a link to go get all of that information digitally. And so that saved time at every check-in table to do that. So it's just figuring out what those nuances that move in that you can make everybody's life easier.

Speaker: We used to also do that handout, a whole bunch of information, the fire safety information, different information. And it it seemed like it was just kind of scattered throughout the building, left in carts that you're just handing this to parents with all this extra information. And then it just gets put in a cart and stuff like that. And they're never really seeing it.

Speaker: And, you know, the students don't really check their emails where everything's supposed to be going. So that's one of the kind of things that we kind of emphasize at school.

Speaker: their check-in tables is, you know, do your room inspection, check your emails. That's where we'll be communicating and stuff like that. So a follow up question about the surveys that all talked about. i know Haley, you mentioned a staff one, which I think is great feedback to get. And and in of course, the resident ones, just wondering, obviously, when you put out a feedback survey, could you get some crazy stuff. So what's the craziest things you think you've gotten that you have no control over?

Speaker: I don't really remember anything crazy that we got. One of the things I think that was frustrating for me in one of them was nobody knew where to take their trash.

Speaker: And I have trash signs out everywhere and huge roll offs, like four huge roll offs right out like in front of the buildings, but nobody could figure out where to take their trash.

Speaker: So. This year I have five roll-offs and more signage. So who knows? The one we got last year, ah because it either rains on move in move out, is that ah one of the responses was that we did not notify them that it was going to rain.

Speaker: So this year we prepared and we had ponchos ready. at each check-in area just in case it rained that we can have that.

Speaker: But that's once again, you know, you can step outside and see that it's cloudy and, you know, know that, hey, there's this chance of rain. travel

Speaker: So something else that's important for move-in activities is the idea cross-departmental collaboration, you know, working with campus partners.

Speaker: How do you align priorities that you have with campus partners that don't necessarily report to you? So for us and what we've been doing over the last couple of years is ah we have a MOP process pretty much managed by facilities. That's the move in operations ah where we'll meet a April, something like that. i hope kind of preland.

Speaker: look at it and then we'll have kind of couple more meetings right before we uh put it out to our campus community it's kind of like where are the dumpsters located when do the dumpsters need to be out uh what's the pickup process uh do kind of like uh different kind of signage and stuff need to be placed um stuff like that so In the past that has been run through facilities, our facilities partners. I think this year our leadership is wanting to kind of look at that since it's more of a us process and us manage it in-house and then

Speaker: ah they work with us to kind of make sure that their sections are being addressed but i think that's helped us overall you know as far as okay here's where the dumpsters are going this is when they need to be set here's the date that they have to be picked up and then all the other kind of rolling pieces that are associated with that

Speaker: For us, what we do is um that move in, that first level of move in committee that I talked about, they start gathering who are all the players that take a part in move in and then who needs to be contacted. So the police department with our traffic control and helping with that, we start having meetings early with them and that head of that move in committee starts setting those up with the traffic maps and seeing what their priorities are and what we need to do. We talk with dining about when the first meal will be. Then within our own jobs, like I'm the one in operations that does the roll-offs and the trash, and so I get all of that scheduled. So everybody schedules those things within their own area that they're responsible for. And then things that affect all of us start coming from that move in committee and then that executive level, then we also, if need need to, we'll meet with the police and dining and whoever we need to do. And then

Speaker: Matt, as our head person, well our SHO will also reach out to Student Affairs to get volunteers to come in and help. So everybody everybody has a part right in the partnerships that they've developed on campus and who is the best contact for those partners.

Speaker: Do y'all also include grounds on y'all's? No, because I have my own grounds crew. So at UTD, we run our own maintenance facilities, and that includes housekeeping, grounds, maintenance techs, HVAC, all of that. So that all comes through housing operations. Okay. i will partner with facilities management though because one of the things i ask them to do is there's so much of a volume of boxes and trash and everything that come in that they'll bring it back over and smash down my roll-offs for me yeah at the end of the day or in the morning so partnership like that um i'll get with them about things like that because we'll make sure that grounds isn't watering

Speaker: They can water at night, but not during those times. And we've had it before where there's got the sprinklers going right when kids are moving in. And it's like, got it we can't have that.

Speaker: Yeah, we do. We do. We do have a third-party landscaping company that that comes through operations that I do coordinate all of that stuff with as well. And we're not to be mowing. like People are moving carts through, and let's not be mowing at that time. Yeah, I've dealt with the mowing before.

Speaker: It was really what's going through your mind. So how can supervisors, y'all supervise, keep your staff energized and focused leading up to move in without you inflicting through training, through prep in the halls, whatever it may be, without inflicting pre-move-in fatigue to a significant level?

Speaker: You know, think one of the ways to do that is communicating for early on with them. um I think one of the best things for me is and visualizing what I want move in to look like, look like um looking at that with my team and then working ourselves backwards so that we're creating that plan to get where we want to be. But then everybody knows what we're doing each step of the way. And then they also need to see me preparing for move in, right? Like they don't need to be out there busting it all the time, getting ready for move in and thinking that I'm not doing anything. They have to be able to see me doing my part for move in. um Move in, I mean, we're in Texas, so move in is hot, right? Everybody's doing it in August and it's hot. And so we have outside shifts. And so I will always...

Speaker: If there's an extra outside shift that somebody needs to take, I'll always volunteer for those because I want my staff to be okay and not be ah outside any more than they have to be. So I'll take that so that they can see I'm willing to do all of the things that I'm asking them to do.

Speaker: And I think that can help with burnout. We're all going to be hot and tired, but the attitude in which we get there is what makes the difference, I think. I would say the same thing is it it comes from leadership up. ah I think within our leadership that like our director, she's out there greeting people, driving around to the different check-in tents, meeting families, meeting our students. That's first year returners.

Speaker: We used to have a whole bunch of move-in days. We're trying to cut those down, you know, one because you know, just the fatigue of being out there in that heat kind of gets exhausting day after day. So we've kind of shortened that a little bit.

Speaker: um But it's, you know, everybody has a role to play. We have some that love being out there. ah welcoming the families, you know, with the microphones, going through their little speeches, stuff like that. I'm running around in my cart trying to, you know, fix everything that needs to be done last minute or just being out there greeting families. I think that's one of the best things about it is just making them feel welcome, you know, and that we're glad that they're there.

Speaker: And that's from top to bottom. Well, now let's move into navigating the moment professionally. Let's talk about being in the moment.

Speaker: Frontline staff and sometimes even student workers, they can absorb a lot of the verbal collateral damage from stressed out parents and families. How do you coach your team in your respective areas to not take rudeness personally, especially when they're already exhausted?

Speaker: You know, one of the things that we remind our staff of every year is that by day three or day four or day two, you're hot and you're tired and you've done this repeatedly now.

Speaker: Um, but whoever that parent and that freshman standing in front of you, that's their day one, they're fresh and ready to go on their day one. And it doesn't matter if it's our day three or four and that we're tired. yeah We should give them the best that we have for their day one, just like we did on the real day one for us. And so, um, making sure that we're all sending the same message and that we are, um,

Speaker: We are showing that ourselves helps that we're, you know, we're showing up on time, we're putting in that extra effort. And then also, also validating that they guess they're tired and yes, that they are exhausted and showing that we, we understand that.

Speaker: And we see that and that everybody's job matters. It doesn't matter if you are a senior director or you're a grounds or housekeeping person, you have as much to do with a successful move in experience as anybody else.

Speaker: I think for for us, we had like our front desk person, this was her first year. So i think it was just kind of, um letting her know that we're going to have some parents who are going to come in you know, they're going to complain that their bed wasn't lofted and they have to have the bed lofted. So, you know, here's kind of the policy regarding all of that, that, you know, we can't do that or just some other wild ah things that parents are going to ask for either there or at the tent. I think it's, you know,

Speaker: having our staff, like you said, that on day four, we're giving the same day one experience to everybody that, you know, we're there to help. I think our motive this year was kind of yes, more yeses instead of nos, ah what that means and how that plays out. You know, i had one last year that moved into a single as a double. So,

Speaker: What that is, is that your room is set up for two beds, but you bought it out and we can't remove that furniture And the mother was just panicking of how she was going to set it up. And I was like, well, let's just go to the room. I'll show you what needs to be done and take that time to kind of, here's how you can rearrange the room. Now you get a pretty much a queen size bed, you know, for this room. Yeah.

Speaker: yeah We'll push it this away and then we can take the extra dressers. We'll put it under. it So just taking that extra time, to kind of realize that as parents, you're in crisis mode because you don't want to leave your son or your daughter in anything that you know may cause conflict or something like that with you know them being able to set up their space.

Speaker: So I think she actually wrote a letter you know, thanking me for that. And I saw him this year and we talked about that. So that was nice. A personal touch. I think really does make a difference, especially in such a fast paced world that we live in. yeah And that's really nice. yeah That's really nice. They gave you that letter. That's, that's meaningful.

Speaker: I think the other thing is if you have somebody really out of control, like not this year, but last year we had lightning delay. And so, we had parents in our in our visitors area that where we pick up the keys and do our initial check-in. When we shut everything down, we shut that part down too, because there's no point in giving out all of those move-in packets to have them move ah drive over to the holding area where they were all just going to sit there in their cars. And so some people were not happy and got a little irate with the staff over there. So I think what's important is then in housing leadership, you have to go to where the problem is. You have to show up to support your staff and take the brunt of that. Not that I make the...

Speaker: mega bucks, but I do make more than, you know, the people I supervise. So I should be willing to go over and take the brunt of that. And so that's what I did in that case. I went over and then I just started making large announcements. And when you say, you know, when you explain the lightning policy and that we just like the parents want their student to feel safe and be safe in that move in process is why we had to hold. And then what are they going argue with me? I don't want my students to.

Speaker: So then, you know. But sometimes when you go over and you take the lead on that, then it also shows your staff how to respond and what can be said or not said and give them another example of the next time they're faced with that, what they could do.

Speaker: So this year, because we learned from that last year with our new lightning plan, Matt, Ryan and I all had a specific location. If we had to shut down, we all went to a specific location to be on hand to handle those things.

Speaker: those students or parents or whoever was going to be upset, we were in place ready to go. We didn't have any lightning. We only had heat this year. But if we had, we would have been ready. So bouncing off that a little bit, you know, talking about going out there, being that servant leader, putting yourself into the situation.

Speaker: um Leaders can often try to be everywhere at once. What is a moment you realized you needed to step back from the front line so that you could actually see the bigger picture of the whole operation?

Speaker: um Honestly, for me, it's when everything starts annoying me. Right. Like I move in days are my favorite days of the year because I am the calmest on move in days because I have done all of the preparation. I have done everything that I can do in my job to be ready for move in. So then when move in actually happens, I'm ready to go. I'm ready to see the excitement of freshmen and their parents.

Speaker: I take all of the pictures for parents so that their kids can cringe and have their picture taken with mom and dad. And and it's great. I love it. But when I get to the point on a move in day that I everything annoys me, somebody can look at me. And if I get annoyed, then I know it's my moment to step back and not react and take 10 minutes to drink something cold, get out of the heat, whatever it is, and look and just watch all of my staff or all of the housing staff.

Speaker: Look what we put in place and look at the amazing job we're doing and reframe my point of view and then go back in there.

Speaker: I think for me, you know, that I enjoy moving so much. I think when it starts to kind of get a little hectic, for me, one of my pet peeves is that ah we've had all these room checks. We've had RA's room check.

Speaker: We've had all this done a week before kids are moving in. And then I get a call that there's not a chair in a room. It's like, okay, seriously how, but then it's just, okay, put it back on the building staff that, Hey, y'all start walking halls. You're going to find a chair, most likely three feet from the door of that room, go find that chair.

Speaker: And then when I kind of get that, what I'll do is I'll actually start walking buildings inside, meeting parents, asking them questions, you know, have you done your room inspection?

Speaker: Is there any questions y'all have for me? ah welcoming them, you know introducing myself, getting to know you know them kind of ah at that spot.

Speaker: And that kind of helps calm me down. so But I'm pretty relaxed anyway. It takes a lot to kind of get me upset, which is, i guess, my superpower.

Speaker: Sounds like a good superpower to have. Yeah. Well, let's transition in talking about taking care of ourselves during the chaos. um To begin, what small non-negotiable habits, whether it's sleep routine, drinking water, stepping away, what habits help you feel grounded during this chaos?

Speaker: um I think for me, what habits I've developed start a couple weeks before move in. I will make sure that I have everything at home that I need for that week, right? Like whatever we're supposed to wear, I have it ready to go. i have water bottles ready to go i will have anything coming up in my personal life that I'm going to need to take care of ready to go. And um so that that is not a stress for me. And then it,

Speaker: At work, um I try to to practice what I preach to my staff. so if We're nowhere outside. i will alternate between drinking a bottle of water and a bottle of Gatorade and just make sure that I am constantly drinking because that's what I'm telling them to don't get dehydrated. And so I make sure that I have always have that on me.

Speaker: And then I feel the need to mother everybody with sunscreen. So occasionally I'll put sunscreen on myself. Just those things that what I what really do is I think about how I want a staff member to take care of them themselves to be OK. And then I do those things for myself.

Speaker: yeah One of the good things that we have is that for opening, we get a whole bunch of water delivered that was set out at tents. We have a mother's and dad's club that set tents out for freshmen move in. So there's always cold water.

Speaker: There's when I'm driving by, I'll have my big water jug. that I carry, but I'm always grabbing some water or some Gatorade so that I can stay hydrated.

Speaker: um we get shirts, new shirts, uh, every year, with new designs, uh, this year they were a little bit thicker. Uh, so, you know, uh, so that's nice being able to get i have this shirt this day, this shirt this day, and then another one the other day, and then I can wash and repeat.

Speaker: Um, We have for those big move in our department buys us lunch. So we get a catered box lunch.

Speaker: So that's nice being able to, okay, get my lunch, come in here, relax, get some air conditioning, stuff like that. But it's also letting going in and checking in with our RAs that are inside the buildings, making sure that there there's no issues, that they're doing good, and just touching base with them.

Speaker: one One thing that I added to my routine this year is I had a little cooler filled with ice water and I had those neck wraps and I put it on my golf cart. And so, which is always somewhere close by. And so then I could just switch those out.

Speaker: I had four or five of them and I would switch them out. And that made a big difference on the days that I was outside, which really was about four days in a row. So keeping that with me every day was very helpful. Now, is that something that your department buys for your staff that are out there also? Because I know we did that a couple of years ago and we still have tons of those that we'll grab ah and use for move-in days.

Speaker: Yeah, so I mean, really, it's just ones that I've collected over the years. We have bought them in the past. um And so it was just ones that I collected over the years. And then my my little cooler that I used was one of the exec sec board gifts one year of it when I was on the exec board and has my name on it. So nobody could say, I didn't know that wasn't yours. It's right there.

Speaker: How can leaders foster a culture where staff feel comfortable speaking up and saying, I need a break, without them having to worry that they're letting the team down or the process down?

Speaker: You know, I don't know that... you will ever have a culture where everybody feels comfortable doing that. I think that is a very personal thing, especially with new young professionals, because they don't want to be seen as not being able to keep up or that they're not doing their job or whatever those things are. But again, like so many things that we've talked about, I think it comes from the top down. And I think we have to be able to say, i need a break or I'm overheated. I need to get out a little bit and then go do that and come back and then checking in with our staff. We need to have a culture of care with our staff so they know that it's okay to say, hey, I need a break. Can somebody cover me? One of the things that we do is when we're scheduling our staff, we have floating staff.

Speaker: And so we're all on radios. When somebody needs a break, they call out on the radio. Can I have a floater come cover me for 10, 15 minutes? that and they And then there's golf carts available. That person goes and covers somebody, but then we'll take the golf cart and go get out of the heat for a little while. And so having that floating staff is just a way to show that we we know it's hot. We know people need breaks. And so we build that into um our staffing plan so that we can provide that.

Speaker: Yeah, we have that also where we'll have floaters, but I would also say that I think that kind of, I think it begins kind of throughout the year where you're meeting with your supervisor, you're comfortable enough to kind of, you know, so talk about those things. And then when you're in that moment where,

Speaker: hey, I need a break, you're not afraid to ask or you're not say, you know, well, I don't want them looking down on me because, you know, I can't be out here for two hours in this 110 degrees. But that's just human nature. We're going to get hot. We're going to need to go to the restroom. We're going to need to kind of stand up and step aside. And knowing that your leaders, your co-workers are there to support because we're all going through that.

Speaker: sometimes it's saving people from themselves and making people go take breaks, honestly, because there are people that just will not or won't feel comfortable. And so then paying enough attention to seeing somebody who, you know, they haven't had a break or, you know, they look hot and calling a floater over yourself for that person. And then having that conversation, like, I appreciate everything you're doing, but I also need you to take care of yourself and helping them take care of themselves.

Speaker: Or that's just what I start mothering everybody.

Speaker: So how do you work at home with whether it be just family, significant others, whatever it may be to her how do they experience that chaos and how do you try to protect their well-being?

Speaker: Whether it be because of your stress or or whatever.

Speaker: ah Well, for me, i got married about 10 years ago. And so I kind of have my move in chaos pre being married and after being married.

Speaker: And so pre being married, one, my family knew then and knows now nothing will ever happen in August. I will never travel in August. Nobody should ever birth a baby in August because I'm not coming to those birthday parties and and stuff. So.

Speaker: so ah setting out those expectations ahead of time is helpful. And then pre being married, one of the things that I would do is people that else that worked in housing as well, one of the things we would do is we would meal prep together. And so we would each Well, not necessarily together, but we would meal prep, like whatever that is for dinners and make so many. And then we exchanged them.

Speaker: So like my person that lived next door to me when I lived on campus for three years, I would make so many dinners. She would make so many dinners and then we would make that many for each other. So then you weren't eating the same thing, but then your meals for move in or for training or whatever those weeks are, we're already covered. So that was one way that I did it pre being married.

Speaker: Then when I got married, I chose very wisely because I don't do anything at home during the week of move He does it all, which when I told him I was doing this podcast, he said, please make sure you point that out. But I will he we communicate ahead of time and he knows now what moving is like for me. And so he takes care of our animals. He takes care of meals, laundry, whatever those things are. He knows that that week.

Speaker: I'm not really going to be contributing much and he takes care of it. And then, you know, when he has weeks at work that he has stuff, then I take care of things. It's that, that give and take, but I think the communication of it is the key.

Speaker: When I started, i was started as a tech and the first thing that we had was move out. Well, me and my wife, we got married in May, May 25th,

Speaker: ah That's right at move out. So it's always for our anniversary. We really can't do a lot those two weeks because we're moving out.

Speaker: Her birthday is August 14th. no. Yeah, August 14th, which is move Yeah. So it's that, okay, we really don't get to kind of, I don't get to take off on that, but we'll be like, okay, well, that weekend or that Sunday we'll go out or I'll cook dinner for her.

Speaker: when we get home. um I think for move in for me, it's kind of that week. It's okay. Granted, I'm going to have to stay a little bit later. ah i may be planning on leaving at five. There may be something that comes up that I'm having to stay. So this is your 23rd year, you know, just reminding her that things happen, things come up.

Speaker: I may be delayed. You know, I get here sometimes at five o'clock in the morning. I'm moving into that's normal time kind of for me to get in during the summer anyway.

Speaker: So it's those longer extended hours, but then it's also, okay, once we get past this, we go on a trip. We get out and relax and just kind of unwind ah together. so that's ah That's a good point. I think it doesn't, that taking care of yourself doesn't stop at moving, right? Like you have the time after move in to recover from that, and what are things that you do for yourself afterwards. We do that as well. We'll take a trip about the third week in September almost every year to just kind of get away from everything. My husband's birthday is in August as well. like We will never do anything extra special for his birthday. But in September, we will. Yeah.

Speaker: Where'd you go this year? This year, we went to Boston and Maine. Oh, yes. i did that last year. Very nice. Greg, what's ah what's been a recent trip for you?

Speaker: of

Speaker: we We always go to Broken Bow. We'll go back to Broken Bow. But we take a week-long vacation in June. kind of like Once I get through with the madness of move out, doing all pretty much the fraternity checks, we'll go to the beach and and just pretty much just turn my phone off ah and we've been lucky the last couple of years that we're right there on the beach front. So, you know, we don't, and we rented a golf cart this year, nice which was our first time. So having that was great.

Speaker: um But I think for us, it's now doing more trips, stuff like that. So we have our December one, we have our other ones that we do. And now we're,

Speaker: trying to add another one just so that we're able to take off more because I accumulate so much vacation time from being here so long that if I don't use it, I lose it. So, right. But I think that's important. And I think that's with even within our department that that's kind of expected that, you know, after move in, okay, let's start taking a couple of days to kind of, you know, relax, you know, and getting ready for the remainder of this year. What's your beach community of choice?

Speaker: Surfside, Freeport. Is that Texas? Yeah, Texas is kind of an hour away from Galveston. um Weekends are pretty busy, packed, but come Sunday night, it's calm. Nice.

Speaker: The Sunday through Friday evening is just hardly anybody. So. Thank you for telling me about your trips, small tangent. So let's ah let's talk about recovering after the fact.

Speaker: First, how do you shift your team's mindset to go from 100, 150% back into standard academic year routine? back into a standard academic year routine

Speaker: You know I think for us that doesn't really start until mid-September probably. That mindset to shift because we will have late move-ins or we'll have people moving around or we'll have the influx no matter how much we prepared. We will have influx of work orders that will come in. And so we will keep going full steam ahead until second or third week in September. And then it's shifting back into that academic year. And so...

Speaker: One of the things, just like Greg mentioned, as a department taking time off, that's one of the things that I do every year is around that time, the beginning of September, i will prepare a report that will show how much vacation each person is getting per month. what their total is, what they will have by August of that next year, how much time they have to use so they don't lose it. And then I sent it to all of their supervisors to talk, have a conversation with them and say, Hey, we already know there's a blackout period in June, July, August, May, whatever those are, where we don't allow certain staff in operations to take as much vacation time. So start using it now, don't lose it. And so,

Speaker: promoting that culture of taking care of yourself, using your time. That's what it's there for. and We want people to use it. But for me, having a lot of housekeeping and maintenance fall under operations, they may not be on the computer as much or know how to find that information and or even pay attention to how much vacation they have or could lose what that maximum is. So doing things like that, providing that to them,

Speaker: can help indicate that I want them to take it off. i I value the work that they just did through the summer for turn services and for move in, and I want them to stop and take care of themselves. And so doing things like that is, I think, helps shift back into this is our regular year. Let's let's start back into getting people the time off that they need.

Speaker: i would say the same thing. I think it starts kind of calming down to regular, to 110, 120 normal. uh, percentage is kind of once we get finished with loft requests are closed.

Speaker: Uh, so we have to have our third party vendor modify, raise lower beds that, uh, we don't allow students, even though they're going to do that.

Speaker: Um, So once we get kind of past that, that big rush where, you know, before move in we have the loft request that, you know, and then it shuts down and then we'll open it back up like that second week of school to where now you can modify or you can request your bed to be raised or lowered back lower you that you need a ladder. So once that kind of calms down, then it gets back to kind of the normal, um,

Speaker: work order routine that we experienced. like you said, no matter how we prepare, ah there's still going to be things that are missed. you know A light bulb was working when you went in there and now it's not working. Somehow an outlet cover was broken where it wasn't inspected. A chair was broken because nobody's really sitting at them.

Speaker: and notice that, okay, there's a little crack, stuff like that. So I think once we kind of get to that point, then it's the normal operations of what we deal with throughout the year.

Speaker: So we talked a little bit about the trips y'all take and using that as a time to disconnect, but what does intentional recovery look like for you in the week or two short term after the chaos ends?

Speaker: Um, I think for me, I probably take more naps on the weekends than I would normally. Um, I do feel, i mean, one, this is my 29th year in housing. So I do feel the heat probably more than I did earlier in my career. And so being mindful of that and making sure that I'm not planning a lot of things to happen right after that, right? So making sure that I'm taking time to rest and still hydrating and those kinds of things. Like move-in has stopped, if that doesn't mean that recovery for yourself whether it's catching up on your emails, catching up in your office stuff, or personally catching up on things. None of those things have really just stopped. So making sure that I am intentional about what I'm scheduling and what I'm not scheduling and taking time to, to still take care of myself during that timeframe.

Speaker: Same thing. i'll I'll take more naps on the weekends. And then it's trying to,

Speaker: relearn my body, I guess, in a sense to not wake up at four o'clock. Get here early. ah ah still get here early. ah How early? and and i want to tip During the summer, I try and get i get here about five o'clock because that gives me three and a half hours of uninterrupted time to start walking buildings. And it also depends on kind of where that building falls or where it's been scheduled to walk it for painting.

Speaker: ah And I can walk a building in a couple of hours and identify the painting and different stuff. And I like that. I like to be here early. to kind of get that out of the way because it's the schedule I set for myself. And then it's afterwards, you know, learning, hey, I don't have to wake up at four, okay, go back to sleep um and then get here and, you know, just be able to kind of walk around campus um and stuff like that.

Speaker: That getting to work early thing is where Greg and I are not similar whatsoever. you I've been doing that for a long time now, so... It's, you know, I mean, it's where my body's now, even during the summer or on vacation, I'm up at four o'clock.

Speaker: And if we don't get a two room suite somewhere, then, and that's a given that pet friendly that when I wake up, I can go out or something like that. So that I don't wake her up.

Speaker: I think I'll probably some days I like getting to work when the building's quiet. That's really peaceful and nobody's going to bug me. But that doesn't happen too often. I like my sleep. so All right. Some quick questions. Don't think too long on them.

Speaker: What is one word to keep in mind when your day gets chaotic?

Speaker: Kindness. Breathe. Good. Yeah, I like both. And then... What are the top three essential items every staff member should keep in their move-in survival kit? Pilotol,

Speaker: water, a charger, an additional charger. i would agree. i was going to make that point earlier about what I carry around on move-in days, and it's an additional charger. So, yeah. Tile and all water and a charger. So we're in agreement on that. Perfect. Well, are there any final thoughts either of you would like to share about move-in chaos, managing it before, during, and after anything?

Speaker: You know, i think my final thought is don't let yourself miss the joy of moving. I think, like I said, moving is one of my favorite times of the year and you can let yourself get so caught up in the chaos or the the frustrated parents or the heat or just all of those things that come up with it that you will miss the joy of freshmen coming in and starting their college experience and and even with the staff i i love the additional time around staff there's very rare times during the academic year when all of housing is together i mean we're all always trying to do it for the common goal of student success but the common goal of move in it can be very unifying and so don't get so caught up in all of it that you really miss

Speaker: the joy and the, and it and can, it can be fun. And the laughter of just being around additional staff members. You don't usually get to be around and being around the excitement of moving.

Speaker: All right. Well, thank you both for joining today. really appreciate you bringing your expertise and your really insightful thoughts to the discussion. As we wrap up today, I want to leave you with one final thought.

Speaker: The work you do during move-in season sets the tone for your communities and often your entire campus. But it should never come at the expense of your own well-being. Excellence in leadership isn't about running yourself into the ground.

Speaker: It's about building systems that support both your teams and yourself. Thank you for joining us for this episode of the Swakuho podcast. Take care of yourselves out there and we'll talk to you next time.