Previous Landscape: A Walk at Bates College Encourages Spontaneous Gatherings |
Next |
June 5, 2009, 08:13 AM ET
Ann K. Newman: With Each Early Retirement, Colleges Lose Knowledge
Ann K. Newman, who was April’s Buildings & Grounds guest blogger, is head of the planning group at Shepley Bulfinch Richardson & Abbott. She is a psychologist by training.
Ann K. Newman
Recently I was talking with a client who told me that at her institution, nearly 5 percent of staff members had decided to take early retirement. The institution loses, on average, 20 to 25 years’ worth of knowledge and history with each retiree, she said. For the past few months, staff members who aren’t retiring have been in back-to-back meetings trying to download information from those who are. But the staff members who are staying don’t know what they don’t know — and may not for a while, until some system somewhere goes bad and they realize that no one left knows the tricks for getting it going again.
Virtually all of the institutions we work with are having large layoffs or early retirements. The math boggles the mind — each college is losing hundreds, if not thousands, of collective years’ worth of knowledge of how things run. While there certainly has been administrative bloat at many institutions over the years, the loss of so many long-term employees, especially in facilities and information-technology departments, will no doubt create some real problems. —Ann K. Newman
What's going up, what's coming down, and why—Buildings & Grounds offers news about campus architecture and facilities.
Add Your Comment
Commenting is closed.