ABSTRACT
This chapter explores how communication between staff members became more structured and less organic while they were working from home. One unexpected way that communications were impacted was the lack of organic interactions with other staff members on campus. This represented, for staff, a sense of loss in their sense of community and connection to other staff members. Staff participants repeatedly mentioned how much they missed their “work families.” They talked about the impromptu conversations that developed before and after meetings, on walks across campus, and within their own spaces as people simply worked in community with each other. Additionally, staff participants expressed feelings of a loss of institutional community. For some, this manifested as missing students and the normal cycles of the semester. For many, it resulted from inconsistency in University messaging around the COVID-related changes to campus life.
