With the recent departure of both its director and assistant director, UNC’s housekeeping department faces a troubling lack of permanent leadership.
Especially in a department as fraught with conflict as this one, there should be closer oversight. Better communication between housekeeping’s directors and their superiors is necessary to head off a similar situation in the future.
Such communication would enable University administrators to begin searching for a replacement well before the office in question is vacated.
In this case, more lead time could have given the outgoing director a better opportunity to share his knowledge with his replacement, ensuring a smooth transition for those working under the changing administration.
It’s hard to imagine all of the upper-level management leaving a corporation at the same time, or all the partners in a law firm retiring within a month of one another.
The housekeeping department shouldn’t be treated any differently. Its employees, too, deserve consistency in their work environment and reliability in their management.
Though the current situation isn’t ideal, there may be a silver lining: The housekeeping department finally has the blank slate it needs to make substantial changes to its problematic practices.
The new director will have an opportunity to start from scratch and address the long-standing conflicts between the department’s workers and their bosses.
This dynamic deserves careful consideration, and the University must find a director of housekeeping who is understanding of the employees’ complaints. At the same time, like any manager, he must be capable of enforcing policies.
