#learn to be resourceful people

This statement is true for both the working professional and for students. 

As a current graduate student, I’m honestly a bit … annoyed at the number of Slack posts where the answer is easily found through:

• Email inbox - At least 50% of the Slack posts are things like “Hey, sorry - when’s the orientation again?” Or “What readings are required before the first day of class?” Don’t get me wrong, it’s great that people feel comfortable posting on Slack and that it promotes discussion. But I just get annoyed when people can’t be bothered to read their emails for simple information!
• Google- If the information isn’t found through sent emails, there’s a big chance googling will help. Some Slack posts are like “Hey, are campus libraries open?” or “What’s the address for scholarships to be sent to?” 
• Graduate Advisor - If you’ve exhausted your inbox and Google, then the best contact to find information is our Graduate Advisor. I am surprised at how many posts ask for information, and then I’ll go email our advisor (who will respond within 15 minutes usually), and then I’ll comment on the Slack post with what I found. Is it SO hard for the original poster to do that?! (I am a big advocate of sharing information so everyone has access to the same resources, but people gotta learn to be resourceful and have initiative.)

Look - I get it. I would rather have an active Slack channel with stupid, redundant questions than a completely inactive Slack channel. But surely, there must be some in-between area? I’ve found that even though we are all were admitted to UCLA and that indicates we have passion and great work ethic, some of us are just … lazy. Or I mean, selectively lazy. 

… And this same concept applies to people in the workforce, too. 

Maybe people just get lazy in their positions after a couple of years OR feel entitled/superior either due to position or their age. It’s probably both. I also do think ageism is a thing. I work at a small company where most of the employees are mid-40s. As someone in my mid-20s, I absolutely hate it when employees ask me about IT help when we have a dedicated IT team. They assume that because I’m “young”, I am well-versed in IT - and that assumption is often correct. But I also have a busy workload and cannot help with IT requests, especially considering we have hired help for that exact purpose! 

Another thing my manager does is ask me to look up the contact information for a client or review peoples’ calendars to see the best time to schedule a meeting (often times, I’m not even in the meeting!). These are tasks that should not be delegated to me and are things that she is simply too lazy to do. And too lazy to learn to do herself.

Anyway, if you made it this far - congrats! This is the end of my rant, haha.