A Plea for Resources

 

My name is Michaela Andersen and I'm the founder of Custom Admin Solutions. Although we offer a variety of services to small businesses, by far my favorite part of the job is training young new support staffers. 

 

Through my time with these young, green professionals I've personally experienced the value they add to the office environment. They are enthusiastic about joining the workforce, they learn faster than any generation before, they work harder than our colleagues, and they don't mind being the last ones to leave. Perhaps most surprising, they offer interpersonal skills and emotional insights that have lacked in the professional world for far too long. 

 

In a nutshell, they are the polar opposite of the zombie-like, selfish, lazy creatures we've been taught to dread working alongside. 

 

All of that being said, they are not successful. After months of digging into the backgrounds of a few precious, incredible, skilled, intelligent, and hopelessly discouraged new admins, I believe I have finally figured out at least an aspect of why they keep failing. 

 

They have absolutely none of the basic skills required of support staffers - and it's not their fault.

 

Schools are failing our future admins tremendously. They've abandoned Microsoft Suite in favor of open-source, web-based options like G-Suite. They've stopped teaching typing, a highly technical skill that without proper training causes typos, longer work-time, and injury. Grammar reviews after elementary school are often abandoned due to an assumption of universal spell check. Two out of the three admins I'm currently training have never opened file explorer. Their schools used Google Docs. 

 

This means that when they enter an office environment they are entirely lost, and due to their age and the prejudices generations have formed about each other they are then disregarded and often discarded altogether. These young people don't have a fighting chance. When I am brought into to train I have a limited number of hours with each new admin, during which they're expected to become proficient in every aspect of a job they've never done while they're becoming used to a brand new environment. Instead, I spend our time attempting to hunt down open-source learning resources for them while fighting off the business owners who just want to start over with someone over 30. 

 

This is where Kahn Academy comes in. 

 

Your organization got me through high school, along with the vast majority of my peers. In fact, Kahn Academy got my teachers through most periods because they literally don't have time to make lesson plans anymore. 

 

Now we need you more than ever. There is an entire generation of young adults who need resources. Specifically, we need the following:

• Typing classes that include the proper form (the carpal tunnel is real)
• Remedial grammar (you have this, and I have an admin in it, but it's still a massive challenge)
• Excel and PowerPoint tutorials
• Organization and professional note-taking
• Management principles
• TYPING

 

I hope to speak with someone from your team soon!