The back-half

One of the most frequently asked questions that I would receive as an interpreter or as a National Park Service employee would be how I got my job. Depending on what job I was in at the time would depend on the answer; interpreting for private enterprises is much easier to get into than getting into the NPS, for example. They are usually asking for themselves or for friends or relations that want to get into "this sort of thing." As I talk more and more about my experiences, it becomes clear that the giving programs and talking to people portion of the job is the only part that they see. Speaking with new employees as well, giving programs and tours only were what they were expecting in a job. Having a high demand "fun job" is the "front-half", the part that everyone sees, but there is another part of the job the public does not see, the so-called "back-half". The back-half is where the office politics and meetings and paperwork resides. The essential part of the business that sees the interpreter as an employee, rather than a public figure. It is a necessary evil as without it, nothing would get done; there would be no budget, no paper towels, no approval for programming, no clean up. New employees are so often thrown off balance by this whole other world on the other side of the wall which frequently they are unprepared to meet that it has become clear to me this must be addressed before more new employees are burnt out from their encounter with the back-half of being an interpreter. Therefore, I have decided to share some tips about surviving in the back-half.

First, what do I mean by the back-half? The back-half is home to office people. Depending on the organization it could be a building complex or a cubicle or two in a trailer. Often there is a head honcho of some sort. The exact name will be different depending on the organization but that person could be called a president, supervisor, owner, superintendent, or executive. There are also secretaries, budget and accounting people, Information Technology (IT) and graphic design people, Human Resources (HR), and supervisor managers. The climate controlled jungle is their turf and the interpreter, used to being outdoors and in all forms of weather, usually treads here but very little, usually to pick up checks or to called into meetings or performance reviews. Often these kinds of people simply do not understand what it is that you do and there can be some tension in expectations. For example, the "numbers" people want you to provide them with numbers, things like how many people went on a tour or participated in a program. As a result, the interpreter must not also give a program but track how many people participated in it. However, sometimes they ask questions that cannot be tracked. For another example: asking why more visitors visited during the month last year compared to this year. It cannot be done. The people who visited last year are gone. The ones who visited this year do not coordinate with the visitors this year and not all visitors will visit annually.

Tip # 1 Play nice. A classic organizational clash is the tension between programming and maintenance. Programming throws parties and Maintenance cleans it up. No matter how much the programming people take time to clean-up after the program or event, there is always a mess, according to maintenance people. There are never enough paper towels or toilet paper and the maintenance people take two hour breaks, at least according to the interpreters. On and on it goes. In rare instances do Maintenance and Interpretation get along well, so be prepared to deal with that. It is always in good taste to try and help Maintenance when you can. It may not absolve your department of all past wrong doing, but having them like you may get things done for you with less grumbling. Getting involved in interdepartmental pettiness is going to lead to less-than-professional problems that will affect your workplace. You work on a team, so be a team player.

The elusive Office Ninja evading a meeting

Tip # 2 Get out of a meeting if you can. Meetings are the necessary evil of any organization. Interpretation meetings are usually done standing as it prevents long and unnecessary material. Meetings in the back-half are usually done sitting and tend to drag on longer than necessary. Only under rare circumstances have these meetings been short and worthwhile. As a result, try to get out of meetings as much as possible. Someone will always find you later on and give you a quick briefing that will be more informative than actually being there. If you have questions, you usually go to the person with the problem or your immediate supervisor and get it taken care of much faster than trying to set up a meeting. Some meetings you cannot get out of, like a performance review.

The general rule is for Ryan's Inverse Relationship Model of
Fun and Responsibility is that the less responsibility one has,
the more fun you will generally have. Conversely, the more
responsibility one has, the less fun you will have.

Tip #3 Know what you want from this organization. Staying with an organization longer will bring on more responsibility and sometimes a promotion. But the strange thing becomes with more responsibility comes more likelihood to being a back-half person. Sooner or later the job you love to do because you get to be outdoors becomes the job you never wanted because you wear a sweater indoors since the air conditioning is so cold, but it is a bright, hot, sunny and sweltering day outside. This is a concept that I call "Ryan's Inverse Relationship Model of Fun and Responsibility", seen to the side. The less responsibility you have, the more fun you are having, whereas the more responsibility you have, the less fun you are having. I have known great interpreters that do not do programs or tours because they have been given office work to do. When they do these programs they do them quickly because they must get back in and get their work done before the deadline. To be honest, I do not want to end up there. For some, riding a desk is what they want to do and that is fine for them, but it is not why I want to be an interpreter. With the Park Service, being a GS-7 (or at big parks GS-9) is about the last grade where being outside is an expected part of the job, and anything higher means the only time you get to be outside is to get from the parking lot to the building.

Tip# 4 Math never goes away. Perhaps you got into interpretation because you hated numbers and math and got burnt out on business. Surprise! You still have to deal with math and business practices. That day may come when they ask you to run the register, close it out, or deal with ticket purchasing. What of merchandising and questions asked in the Visitor Center or Gift Shop? You will still be asked about prices, products, and inventory by visitors. Customer service is still part of your job as an interpreter, even if you are not working in sales specifically.

Tip #5 Don't get burnt out! The office is also a place for office politics. Pettiness, passive-aggressive behavior, interdepartmental squabbles, and clashing egos all manifest in the office. It can be a place of dread but if you be a positive person, help out, and do your best. The other office people will start to like you and are therefore less likely to mess with you. It is not always the case, but it does put you on good grounding. Find what you like about the organization and enjoy it and if need be, do what you need to do in order to remind you of that rather than become jaded by the bureaucracy. Visitors do not want to meet with unhappy workers instead of inspiring people who do what they love. Keep that passion for what you want to do and fight for it.

The back-half is in nearly every kind of service job. Some of it is better integrated than others, while others are more distant and allow interpreters and program people to focus on their jobs and less on paperwork. While it can be daunting, it is important to realize that it is there and it is essential to the job that you do, because without the office, there would be no organizational infrastructure to support interpreters and program people in preforming their jobs.