Rita brings up a good point above.I'm 54 so, I'm at the point where I still could bail for another opportunity elsewhere, but that window is getting smaller every year.

Honestly, I would be seething, but I would try to ride it out those 1-2 years until retirement and try to be as good as a team player as possible. It makes no sense to leave a position now, unless there is another position that opens up on campus where you might be a good fit. So, do maybe put some feelers out there for that.

BTW, do you ever get to to an annual review of your supervisor? That has been a point of contention here on administrator review.

Advising is a problem. As schools want to increase enrollment, they need better systems for students to be accommodated since the old ones no longer work.

I've worked in IT for the last 15 years, continuously rolling out new software and upgrading existing software. When we have rolled out new software, we ALWAYS choose the sharpest person in the business group to work with the new software. We choose the person who has the best knowledge of the existing business COMBINED with the ability to adapt something new.

I think Jmc101 is sharing a perspective that is both plausible and intelligent. Technology is at the forefront in every educational setting I have worked in. Instead of seeing the iPad as interfering with your job, reframe it and think of it as a tool to enhance student advising, which you said was a problem area (" he brought in an associate dean to be in charge of student affairs including cleaning up a problem area-academic advising for our majors has been cumbersome "). Think of yourself as someone deemed capable of dealing with the change and managing the technology. Luddites do not get these positions!

The piece of this that I'm sensing is most troubling to you is the lack of communication. That is something that you can address with your supervisor.

As someone with a year until retirement, and facing a scenario with some similarities, (once my seething phase was over) I decided to go with the flow and count my blessings to be gainfully employed at almost 64.

My good friend has a similar situation: new top management brought in from outside the company doesn't appreciate the old managers. Doesn't speak with them before making changes that affect them, hires people to be their bosses that don't know how the company works, etc. Since she's close to retirement and could technically get away with retirement already, she's decided to say what she wants, do her job as she sees fit, and not get pushed around. If she is "managed out" early, she's cool with it.

She's too ethical to actually do a bad job, but just recognizing that she is free to walk whenever has made the job less angering.

I would definitely talk it out with the other director in your situation.

And I would talk with the people who are under utilizing your skills. See why they chose you do do this. Maybe there's something like what JMC describes going on here. Meet with your real boss and let him know that the new administrator doesn't have enough staff to do her job and that you don't have time to do it. And tell the new administrator that you are "too busy with your actual job" to do her thing.

What are they gonna do? Fire you?

I'm sorry you are experiencing this. To go from feeling valued and empowered to not sucks anytime, but particularly as your career is winding down. Try not to get stuck in the feelings for too long and maintain your focus on what is best for you, your future retirement, and your family.

I think Rita's advice might be key: "...maybe in light of your tenure wrapping up at this university, maybe it would be a good idea to reframe your role, in your own mind, as one of being a consultant who is ensuring there will be a smooth transition when you leave in a few years."

Think of yourself as a consultant and focus on what you want to accomplish in the next year or so and how that will be mutally beneficial for you and the institution. When you leave, you will want to do so feeling as positive as possible. You have dedicated a big chunk of your life to this work and it has been successful and rewarding. Don't let this get you down for too long.

ps - I've heard wine helps :)

Wow, thank you for all the VERY helpful advice and thoughts! I truly can't say how valuable reading this has been.

The new system is a very simple iPad sign in log with preset names; student walks up, sees a list of advisors which at this point consists of the academic advisors, the admissions, director, me and the advisors' supervisor (assistant dean). Each staff member on the sign in system is to have a screen open at all times, which dings every time a student signs in (another annoyance; the dings are now sounding every few seconds on our monitors all day long since they go off for each sign in, regardless of who it is for). All of us are front line support staff working with students, but the admissions director and I do a lot of other high level stuff: I deal with corporate recruiters and this is a STEM major so there are a LOT including college relations recruiters from firms like Google, Microsoft, etc. The academic advisors' only job is to be available for student advising, period. So one source of anger for my colleague and I is that we have no idea how and if we are supposed to still be doing the planning and strategy stuff while chained to our new iPad keeper ;). Also my office is literally the first one you pass by as you enter the advising/dean's suite and I've always had an open door policy. Kids are used to popping in to see me so I truly do not know how it improves the experience of speaking to me when I have to tell a student who walks up to my door to go sign in before s/he can talk to me. Somehow that just feels so unwelcoming!

As for the meta, no I have not spoken to anyone about my retirement plans but a very few people in the office who are trusted colleagues know we have bought a retirement home and that I am pretty much financially able to leave at any time. Again, my long range plans don't include working past age 62 at the very latest and as the scenario is unfolding at work that time frame is shrinking fast so one year is more likely.

The one other wrinkle I didn't mention is I may have a serious vision problem; I am seeing a specialist Tuesday and that could have a big impact on my plans. If I am facing permanent health issues I don't know that I want to be at work feeling angry and resentful. That's not good for me and certainly not good for my students.

Walnutcreek, Rita, Gsciencechick and others-your advice speaks to my heart. I know you are all right, best not to make waves but just keep my dignity, ride out the remaining months or year/two then retire to the next phase of life. As mentioned I am trying hard to remember that life keeps teaching us lessons. They may not be fun but I hope I keep learning because that is what gives life its meaning :)

I sign in at clients offices through this process. It's better for both of us because the connection between me and the client I'm meeting with is direct. I sign in, they get pinged. That is the direction that business is going. Smart phones/devices drive communication and commerce. Not a big deal.

I wouldn't want to get pinged every time students are signing in for five other low-level people though, especially if I were at director level. My productivity for strategic projects and planning would go completely through the floor.

Did I miss that everyone gets pinged? It's possible I did. The sign-in I use let's me pick who I'm meeting with and only they get the notification I'm there.

Yes 1929, everyone on the system gets a ping when any student signs to see any of us. And robo this is precisely the core of what the other director and I are furious about, we've been given zero direction as to whether we are supposed to continue to do the projects and planning while sitting waiting for our Pavlovian bell to ring ;).

Perhaps that could be one of your asks in the next meeting, if there are software settings that can be modified so you're not lumped in with the others.

I was going to say that too Robo. Running, you need to clarify with your supervisor if your job description has changed.

I am reminded of the movie 'Up In the Air," particularly when a young woman comes into the company, which specializes in downsizing, with an app to fire people over the Internet.

Suero, now that's a thought-if I go in Monday and I'm no longer on the list at all....I shall think of your warning LOL.

Maybe I better reframe my attitude so every time I hear a ding I feel grateful I'm still employed ;)

Sorry I misunderstood. Many years ago, I got locked out of my computer in a Friday afternoon and tech support would not return my calls. Got laid off on Monday and the company was shut down about six weeks later.

Since there are systems out there that are more focused on appointment notification, what if you make the suggestion that the protocol be revised to sign in either for the on-call team or an appointment and see if they can focus the process.

Taking a problem and focusing your questions around possible solutions are always met with a more positive response.

I've not read all the comments, so please bear with me,

My organization was tasked with an exercise on the Speed of Trust, it's a Franklin Covey book and when we started this process I think most of us thought it was just a huge waste of time, but over the last 2 years we've been required to meet at least once a month and work on the skills and tasks.

I have had a huge amount of problems with my boss, I won't go in to it here, but it literally made me have panic attacks and I had to take a significant time off work as a result. Since then I have been working constantly with the Speed of Trust in how I deal with her and other co-workers. It has made a huge difference for me.

Essentially, I'd advise you to speak up to this person who implemented this process. Explain how you feel, that you feel demeaned, you don't appreciate not being looped in, etc. Don't point fingers, but say what you mean and speak your truth.

Some of the topics include talking straight, demonstrate respect, clarify expectations, confront reality and practice accountability. It's an exercise in humility but it doesn't make you weak, it makes you clear about yourself and the people you work with.

So I suggest a straightforward approach. You've been there a long time, you've earned respect and earned to be treated with respect, so stand up for yourself and talk to the person who implemented this process and explain why or why not you should be using it. And if you agree to use it, explain that you wish to be brought into the loop more often.

Good luck to you!

I had some aggravations at work and misgivings on the direction of public education in general at the time, which I thought was focussed less on the individual child and his/her needs and more towards making the system into a business model sometimes at the expense of the children. I loved my job, but decided to take early retirement which actually affected my finances.

It was a very good move. I have many fond memories of many, many children I have helped in my now former role as a school nurse, and did not have to compromise my personal ethics that placed service to the children and their families as my first goal.

I love being retired, love being away from 'company politics' and love the new found time to both do little projects I could not do before, and the time to read and think.

Runninginplace, you seem articulate and thoughtful and I have no doubt whatsoever that you can problem solve your way into a satisfactory solution here to this current problem. But it may be fruitful to use this current issue as an opportunity to step back a little farther and think about what it is you want in these next years in your life for yourself.

I have "liked" some very thoughtful responses here. You have received some good advice, I think.

I can relate to your concerns as I too have worked in higher education (33 years - 31 full-time and now am semiretired.). I worked directly under the college president for 29 years. Five different presidents with completely different management styles. Were some better, much more effective than others? Of course. But you have to roll with the punches.

Yes, technology can be demeaning, but it can be very useful too. And it seems to be what the students want and are comfortable with.

Give yourself some time. Sounds like this system is brand-new. It's going to have bugs, glitches and growing pains.

And here's the hard lesson I'm still learning: when I was full-time, I was highly respected, sought-after, and involved in almost every major decision coming down from the presidents office. Now someone else has that job and I only have a small offshoot of it. Things have changed, but I'm adjusting. Here's what I have learned: my ROLE in the institution is not as valuable as it used to be. But I am PERSONALLY still of great value.

A comment made to me from runninginplace about when I was asking advice about my SIL and the holidays some time back:

"I sometimes imagine, when reading a post like the OP shared, how the *other* person would write about the same situation."

Somehow, that stuck with me, even though it was meant to be snarky at me, I read it and really looked at my situation.

Since you have a serious vision problem, could you possibly get a disability early retirement (if you have a pension plan)?

You are fortunate that you are so close to retirement age. If your new boss and this change in the workplace are making you that angry and unhappy, I think you should retire now, if you can afford to. The type of situation you are in can do terrible things to your health. I am speaking from experience. I got a new boss who I couldn't stand, and I ended up getting terrible headaches due to the stress. I had to go to a doctor who specialized in headaches and then I had to go to physical therapy. I worked for this boss for five years and hated every minute of it. (Not just me---everyone else in the department hated working for him, too). One of my big issues with him was that he did not value us or our knowledge. I was fortunate that there was an early retirement offer which I took at age 60.

Running, I just retired 2 months ago. It was actually my second retirement. I have been fortunate to have two very successful careers, first as a government Program Manager and then as a consultant to the same program I formerly ran. But in the past couple of years, I saw our level of work decline significantly due to lack of funding & support for our programs from the top. So eventually we were asked to oversee shut-down activities and a few other things rather than full out program management. I was really ok with it personally as it gave me a graceful way to select a retirement date and move on.

Funny thing happened on the way to retirement. The two Government people I supported decided to also retire at the same time, which left one person in a really tight spot to manage what is left and she really has no background to field the occasional technical questions that still arise. No longer my problem.

So what I am saying I guess, is be happy as someone pointed out that you are trusted with some technical IT work. Perhaps you can point out some of the improvements that would be useful now that it's been rolled out, like the annoying, distracting pings. Since no one apparently was consulted on the use of the new software, maybe you could survey your co-workers and ask their opinions what they like and dislike (top 5 things for example) and come across as helpful with a more user friendly fix.

If you have talked about retirement in the near future, it will soon become obvious to your senior management and you won't be considered for any long-term programs. Word does get around. Doesn't seem fair but that's the way it is.

Running, I am so sorry to hear about your vision problem. That definitely makes it harder to take an unnecessarily difficult situation.

I would not recommend what Neetsiepie said about talking to the person who implemented these changes. The reason is that it will most likely be viewed as "whining" from a senior employee who is resistant to change. My belief is that it would be detrimental to Runninginplace. You are to make your own decision running, but that is what I truly believe. I do think it is fine to come up with some ideas/solution to the multiple pinging since it must be aggravating to everyone hearing the annoying pings all day long.

I think it's kind of sad to retire on a sour note by just hanging in there. Certainly I've seen both (beloved bright coworkers retiring and those who were resentful and just putting in their time). I am hopeful to be in the former camp some day. I don't think a full on complaint fest is professional or desirable from a director level employee but some sort of adult-to-adult meeting to iron out the kinks in a new system shouldn't be taboo. I am only mid-career though and have been fortunate to have excellent mentors and directors for the past decade. I know my luck can't hold out forever...

I suppose I didn't really get the gist across-by speaking up about the issue it clears the air, keeps resentment from festering and definitely keeps passive aggressive actions from occurring again.

I've learned that when you're truthful, it doesn't come across as whining or being resistant to change. I think she should talk to them, and say how she felt, but also acknowledge it's here to stay and that she'd appreciate more transparency next time some new changes are made. Maybe she could even offer to be involved with making changes-she might have some suggestions on how to deal with the pinging that is so aggravating-just festering in silence is not a way to make a working relationship work.

She needs to establish that she's got trust in them and vice versa-other wise she'll be working in an atmosphere of pettyness-us against them type of workplace. It is very difficult to open yourself up and allow yourself to be vulnerable, and it seems to me she's in a vulnerable position and knows it. So because she's very well versed in her job, is generally well respected, she needs to let the person who has implemented the changes know that-in a manner that does not come across as arrogant or whiney. But as a strong, capable, honest employee who can give and receive respect.

But that's just my 2 cents. I don't think keeping quiet or planning to leave is going to solve the problem for anyone there. All it will likely do is cause more passive-aggressive actions and she'll be forced out by annoyances that are under the guise of 'updating'.

Confidence is expressed in problem resolution more effectively than venting. More often than not, people who express frustration and discontent without solutions are labeled as whiners. That's been my experience in small private companies and S&P 500 companies alike.

Just to be fair, I do not always listen to my own advice.

Oh good, running. I'm glad I could offer something of value. While our situations are not the same, they are similar enough that I thought I could relate. It absolutely sounds as though you are of great value to your students! And that's the essence, the heart and soul of your job, isn't it? That's why we work in higher ed. :)

I don't have much to add to the excellent discussion here, but having lived through 40 years of advancing technology and sometimes, like you have just experienced, unannounced in advance changes, the one thing that I have learned is that the powers-that-be are sometimes clueless and poor communicators, but most often don't really aim to foist things that are inadequate or unworkable upon us and appreciate solid feedback with suggestions for improvement.

For example, a new call light system was installed (hospital ward). Unfortunately whoever designed/installed the system didn't realize that making every call light ping every nurse on the entire floor (36 beds on a triangle shaped floor divided down the middle with conference rooms etc, divided into 4 "pods" -- it is almost a quarter mile to walk around the entire floor and there is no direct connection between the halves!) was not helpful or useful, only distracting and added to the general noise pollution and "alarm fatigue". We complained, pointed out why it wasn't a good idea etc -- and it was changed to have the pings ring only to the individual pod.

I am hoping that could be the case for your new system. I wish you luck and contentment in dealing with the changes in your worklife!

Running, that is such a heart warming story about you and your student. My eldest is starting his mechanical engineering degree in a few weeks. I hope he has an advisor just like you.

Change is always uncomfortable. I do have to say reading your description of jobs makes me feel there is a disconnect. Having a daughter that spent three years struggling with "advisers" who did their job as you describe above "(the advisors' jobs are very rote; nowhere close in complexity to my level)". For your office to assume every student coming through your door needs only "rote" perfunctory advise is a HUGE disservice. Perhaps with all your experience and knowledge you should focus on being sure these underlings can do the job you could do for students? I want to hope the monitoring of their time also includes an outline of the advise given. With all the options at the high school level for AP courses, college in the high school classes and PSEO classes students coming to the University are certainly not cut from the same cloth any longer. If my daughter hadn't FOUGHT with these "advisers" hadn't known her goal, the University's offerings, where her HS credits fit she would have wasted THOUSANDS of dollars and much time. I suggest you choose to SHINE by monitoring these underlings, guiding them, being sure they are on top of their game. The point of your offices appears to be HELPING students...it would be nice if you felt a responsibility to that help and used your experience to support and bolster those in the trenches helping.

Arcy, maybe you need to read what Running wrote above. It sounds like she is very devoted to helping the students.

One of my metrics would be to track how many times a day you are pinged verses how many are actually for you. Then request if the pings that you wouldn't be required to/can't answer because it's not your role (i.e. the junior staff pings) could be turned off to eliminate disruption while you are fulfilling your duties. But maybe that's viewed as too whiny in the working world, IDK.

Good luck with your eye issue and the wind down of your career. Oh, and a Happy Birthday to you.

Another academia worker here. Couple thoughts.

1. IT departments are notoriously inconsiderate of how they will implement new technologies and often make choices that look good on paper but are terrible to implement. What makes you a good computer installer, worker and fixer does not always make you good at working with people. Two different skill sets, although great people often have both.

2. Forget talking to supervisors about how you feel undervalued. Fine for here on the forum anonymously, not for work. No time for that. Think about how the technology could be a plus to help you do your job better. Be a problem solver. There are fixes for the pinging.

3. While everyone would love to feel valued at work, situations where that happens are fewer and fewer these days. Try to leverage your best skills and make sure you communicate with your supervisor what you do that is value-added for your institution. Good personal PR is invaluable.

4. Fewer and fewer folks can afford college nowdays and enrollments are shrinking. Colleges are being pressed in this way and also competition from online programs which will eventually revolutionize higher ed. So the smart colleges will figure out how to maximize the "virtual" experience one can get at the college and be on the cutting edge of turning over whatever can be done perfectly fine by a machine, to the machine. Think of yourself as being on the cutting edge of this, and figure out how to make the situation work.

5. Education is way undervalued in this country and now some of our leaders are right-out attacking it. Still, in the end, it is about serving our students. Focus on that.

6. If you are losing your mojo at work but still want to continue working, you need to figure out how to do more of what you love at work and less of what you don't. That's a separate post maybe! ;)

7. Be careful. As I mentioned, academia is under pressure now to downsize, and an elderly woman who is at the top of the pay grade and costs the "company" money in insurance would be on the top of my list to ease out. Just the way it goes. Nothing personal. Yes, that is the modern world, but we can be in-the-world but not of-it.

8. If the worst case scenario happens and you have to retire early, I can tell you that a couple of folks I know had that happen to them and they felt bad for about a couple of days. Then they began to realize it was the best thing that could have happened for them since it freed up time for them to do other things with their lives while they still could. They became much happier actually.

Arcy, it's a shame your daughter had a bad advising experience-that can be terribly damaging for a student's academic plans and can derail timing to graduate. With the cost of higher education that's a terrible worry!

However, I think perhaps you misunderstood my original post. I shouldn't have been dismissive of the academic advisors' work as 'rote'; they are both very experienced at their job as well as very caring and expert at evaluating, monitoring and managing students' academic progress. However, that is their ONLY responsibility and since this is an engineering program the rules of the road are clear, unambiguous and cannot be modified or adjusted.

So they come in to work every morning, work till lunch, take that break, come back and work till closing time. They don't initiate or manage any kind of additional programs or strategic goals, basically they are indeed sitting at their desks every day waiting for students to come in and be advised. OTOH I'm working as a director of a different student support area so my advising is not academic and in addition to student contact I'm also responsible for a higher level of planning and interaction. I also have no supervisory role over the academic advisors so I couldn't 'shine' in supporting them because they have a different manager-we do support each other when students have problems or one of us notices something wrong with a student so the relationship is very cordial and cooperative. What I was mostly upset about in this new system was there has been a grouping of several different staff at very different complexity levels of customer service if that makes sense.

Pinkmountain, other than not wanting to think of myself as elderly quite yet (I don't turn 60 till Thursday LOL) all your points are very well taken. I know life leads one to the right path and my thoughts of 2-3 more years were probably unrealistic. One side note--the installation of the system was not driven by IT but specifically by the new associate dean. In fact the tech support guy told my colleague and me in confidence that he urged her not to include us; what's an eye opener is that the woman lied to all of us-she said specifically that including the 2 directors was the IT guy's idea...hmmm.

Last but not least last night I attended a dinner sponsored by a group of Google corporate HR officers doing outreach to get ideas on how best to recruit diverse tech talent. (Arcy, there's a part of my job that the advisors would never be doing for example) Interesting conversation and during our introductions I made flattering reference to my dean (who also was present) as having great ideas and introducing valuable metrics because as I quoted him 'if you can't measure it you can't improve it'. Whoa, that got nodding heads and approving smiles from all 20 people at the table.

For all of you who have advised that measuring and being monitored is the future-you are so right!

And last but not least this morning I got good news about my eye problem, it is not serious. After spending time with my family Sunday and now finding out I'm healthy and sound.....work hassles are nuthin! I will continue to be cooperative, no negative comments to the boss or even colleagues. I'll find my joy in my students as I always have, while putting some concrete numbers and deadlines on that retirement plan.

Best of all, we'll be down in the Keys at our house for the holiday weekend and the place will be full of family spending time with us. Life is good and (sorry to be redundant) thank you ALL!!!

Good thinking and doing, RunninginPlace. I especially like the comment you made at the dinner - smart to show you are on board with the changes. And the fact that the new manager lied to you about IT suggesting the change, only goes to show the kind of person you are now dealing with is one that cannot be trusted and has no integrity, so protect yourself.

Very good new about your eye problem being no so serious.

I was joking on the "elderly" part, sort of . . . that's how the world is these days. Youth is so wasted on the young! They have no idea what they don't know and it is really stupid to keep re-inventing the wheel!

The people who have the purse strings and the decision making with IT often aren't very technically savvy and can get sold a bill of goods without consulting their team. But I have worked at places where they were fantastic too. It varies. Starts at the top with the management team, not with the hardware! Good managers come and go though, so one has to roll with it.

Sounds to me like they are trying to avoid hiring more advising staff. People are costly.

Thank goodness your eyes are okay!

Wonderful news! What a lift for you.

That's awesome about your eyes!!

The associate dean sounds like a turd. I hate duplicity at work. At least now you know she isn't to be trusted.

I am so happy to hear your eyes are fine! What a huge relief for you.

It's too bad you have to deal with a dean who lies- but kinda great that you know what she is capable of in no uncertain terms- as they say, to be forewarned is to be forearmed.

running, you are such a good person. Why don't those people see that?

Maybe there's a way to get more time in helping students face to face. You could really make a difference to someone and it would surely make your days remaining feel valuable. Plus when they see all the good you are doing and positives coming from the students it would only serve to show them your caring and your talent.

Just a few thoughts since I've babbled probably WAY too much about this:

The cliche is so true; a health worry really straightens out priorities in a hurry. Life is far, far too short and uncertain to waste time allowing, and it is allowing, negative mental attitudes to take up residence in my head and poison my life. I'm just not going to let it happen any more.

Now that the semester is underway I'm reminding myself to be very conscious of *why* I come to work every day which is to try to be of help to students. They are the reason any of us who work at a university are here and they are what make the job worthwhile, rewarding and fun. New rules about measuring and metrics and signing in really are so unimportant in the greater scheme of things.

And last but not least, re-reading some of my posts I certainly seem to take myself and my status awfully seriously. When all is said and done, nobody, no matter the title, is anything other than a cog in a big wheel. And in higher ed especially, once you leave, within 2 years literally 50% of the customers (students) in the institution are gone, and in 4 years that rises to 100%. I've seen it happen over and over; a beloved senior figure retires, everyone says lovely things at the retirement party and a year later the river has kept rolling and nobody is thinking about the dearly retired ;). Which in a way is a very comforting thought!

I so agree about the speed of technology, but it is sad the price we will be paying for it.

Running, I think it is somewhat of a shock to realize that we are replaceable, either by another person or by a computer.

There's another way to see it.

Technology will do most of the work but it could help make our lives better. If we could all work 20 hours and get paid the same ( which is completely possible ) we would have less stress, focus on family and community and be working on the challenges facing humanity.

Advancements in technology and robotics will create massive changes but we can use that for good if we agree it's what we want.

I think you're missing the point. This isn't a technology problem.. it's a problem with the business decision regarding how to implement the technology. Lumping Running in with the lower level staff.. not discussing it with her.. (ahem) not testing the application before throwing it out there (the dings are ridiculous.. says someone who develops solutions. Hopefully it is configurable and has already been addressed). These are all business management issues.

Ppfftt, I work with young people. Some are tech savvy, some are not in a big way, and some just think they are. Same as any skill.

Kitty, they have been saying that about technology since the 80's, that computers will revolutionize how we work and we will all have a short work week. Well, the opposite happened and we work longer. Of course, computers and the internet did revolutionize how we work.

Glad your eyes are all good and no serious issues.

To be honest I don't see the implementation of the system as anything degrading to you or your colleague who also got put on it or anything saying you got lumped in the same bucket as that with no other responsibilities. Rather I see the reason for it as you both have people that come to see you so you got added as part of the sign-in system and that is what you have in common with the other advisors. It is only to make sure that students have continuity and same method for all points of contacts. Doubt it has anything to do with your actual position. Just that they want one system for all students to use so there is no ambiguity of what to do in either case. It is unfortunate that there was really poor communication.

I do think I would bring up or file an enhancement request to the system (if you have a web based IT form) to request that they update the pinging to not happen to all people as it can be quite disturbing - not only when working on other things, but while advising the students as well. Since the amount of time spent with students varies based on the advisor type this can cause several interruptions to you and your co-worker, but maybe not as much with the other advisors. I'd phrase it in a helpful way and work on solving the only problem I really see with the system.

As for students just dropping in, just say - "would you mind signing in and we'll have a chat. They've implemented a new system and although my door is always open having you sign in would be greatly appreciated"

Curious if the system has improved by now. Any updates?