Staff The Staff and Member relationship

[Raigryn Vayd]

I want to publicly acknowledged here that I was too slow in dealing with a complaint about my staff team and how they handled a particular interaction.

But I also want to talk more widely about the relationship between staff and the membership.

I've seen this go rotten in two directions:

1. Staff are seen as a clique that dismiss any complaints and abuses their power. I've seen multiple sites fall for this. I've seen a fantasy roleplay where all members start with "A knife and 20 bronze pieces" whilst staff were allowed to roleplay literal gods and abuse this. Splinter sites happen. These places die.
2. I've seen examples where leadership is so frightened of this, that staff are publicly humiliated every time they have a failing in the eyes of the owner. What this leads to is staff so afraid to deal with challenges that behaviour gets out of hand because everything gets handed to the owner. This is also damaging. I need my staff to represent the board, but feel empowered to deal with issues.

Its a matter of trust, openness and transparency. This is not an easy task for me to navigate. Understand this, but also know that I am up to this task and my inbox is always open to discuss it.

There was an altercation in Discord between staff and members that was reported to me. Effectively right as I went on holiday. With other staff members involved it fell to me to deal with it.

I failed in several regards:

1. I should have immediately acknowledged that this was a valid complaint, put the staff member on temporary leave.
2. I should have communicated more quickly. My family comes first (sorry all) but I should have set more realistic timelines. I added stress for all involved.

It's very easy to say "deal with your problems yourselves or go outside" but that fails to acknowledge that people have very real feelings about this place. People invest a lot of time in this community and put a lot of energy into their creations and stories and friendships with other people here. I put more time, energy and my own money into this place than you know. All of this becomes easier if people try to take the time to understand other people's perspectives and collaborate. This is a foundation of this site. Everyone has failings, but we need to learn and work together, not form echo chambers and avoid each other. [Even if no one is forced to interact with people they can't get along with - this is also a cornerstone of the community to make it a safe space].

So, what does this lead to in action?

1. I will be taking on more than 1 member of staff to ensure we have more people available to deal with spikes that require more hands. Keep the applications coming, these have been excellent.
2. I want to assure the community (here) that I trust my staff to carry out their jobs, but I will take any complaints seriously. You can reach out to me at any time. I will listen even if you just have ideas for the community you want to express. The Suggestions Forum is wildly underused.
3. I will review the rule and staff complaints procedures to ensure they are clear. I need all of you to respect staff in discord and on the forum, in turn I will review and re-publish the complaints procedures so everyone feels comfortable raising any issues.