3 minute read
A Thank You is Enough
On an easy day, it is relaxed and calm in the School of Science and Engineering Dean's Office until a landline phone rings or an email notification's ping fills the room. Once the sounds cut through the serenity, the work begins. The person calling might be a SOSE student, faculty, or other staff member clarifying institutional processes or requesting papers, data, or endorsements to start a project, stage an event, and finish their tasks. Sometimes, it is Arianne Ferrer, the SOSE Dean Office's Administrative Assistant, who assists them, and other times Grace Berganio, the SOSE Dean's Assistant.
They function in tandem: Ferrer assists Berganio by arranging her schedule and helping her oversee SOSE events, and Berganio, as the point person, handles everyone's requests for whatever papers or information they need. It is a dynamic dependent on communication, which, in SOSE, begins as an obligation and evolves into close friendships.
The department held its team building on the third week of April 2023,and Berganio looks back on it fondly. "We see each other as family... after about two or three years, we could only interact like that again now," she explains in a mixture of Tagalog and English.
The shift back to onsite allowed Berganio and Ferrer to reunite with their colleagues while making their work more manageable. "[Onsite] you are personally talking to people or [sic] it's easier for you to talk to other offices about concerns, or walk over or call on the phone when you have a request," Ferrer elaborates. After all, online, where most contact is via emails, messages, or calls, it is normal for responses to be slow.
Furthermore, it was hard to create boundaries between their personal lives and occupational lives online. Berganio and Ferrer experienced people emailing, messaging, or calling on holidays and late at night when they worked online.
Yes, the return onsite restored some sense of normalcy for the two, but their jobs are still jobs, so they remain quite busy. Ferrer says that the second semester of every school year is the most tiring as most SOSE events occur here. They juggle plans for campus tours, the Director's List Scholars Reception, SOSE week, and the SOSE open house, with write-ups and requests from students and faculty.
Of course, they take breaks to talk to each other and eat together so that the work does not become overwhelming. To get further motivation, Berganio thinks of her family and the warmth of the SOSE community. Ferrer focuses on the positive changes her job can have on the systems of SOSE and student and staff experiences. However, the most encouraging and rewarding thing to them is a simple "Thank you" from the people they help daily. It is a small gesture that tells them they are seen and remembered as helpful, kind, and important.
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Text: Francessca Abalos
Photos: Trisha Tarnate
