The Avalanche That Never Came

I am the lead Canvas LMS administrator at my university. Our small team of three supports thousands of faculty, staff, and students across the entire institution. And for nine years, well-meaning management has communicated some version of the same concern: “We worry about your workload.” “We don’t want you to feel overwhelmed.” “We have your back.”

That sounds supportive. It isn’t. What it actually means is: we don’t understand how you do what you do, and we assume it’s about to collapse.

The avalanche they keep bracing for has never arrived.

Here is what actually happens. Our inbox spikes at the start of every academic term, especially fall, when faculty return from a three-month summer break and suddenly need their courses ready. Of course it spikes. That’s seasonal, predictable, and manageable. The rest of the year, our workload is steady. Not because we’re underworked. Because our approach to support reduces the chaos that other models create.

Consider what I call “email tennis.” A client sends a support request. In the transactional model, a tech replies with a bulleted list of steps, maybe attaches a screenshot or two as separate files the client has to open and cross-reference. The client tries step one, gets confused, replies back. The tech clarifies. Another reply. Another attempt. Four days and six emails later, the problem is solved and both people are exhausted.

We don’t play email tennis.

When a client sends me a problem, I create what amounts to a visual narrative. A few lines of context, followed by clean, professionally annotated screenshots with highlighted action areas, important details written directly into the image like dialog windows in a comic book, and personally identifiable information redacted because I must respect university personnel privacy. I write in plain language, not jargon. If I know the client well enough, my annotations carry a little personality. The whole thing reads like a guide made specifically for them, because it was.

One email. Problem solved. The client responds with “Brilliant!” or “You make it so easy.” No volley. No confusion. No four-day resolution stretched across half a dozen frustrating exchanges.

That is why the avalanche never comes. The relational model is not slower. It is faster. Not because we rush, but because we resolve things in one touch instead of six. A consultation that runs thirty minutes but solves three problems is more efficient than three separate tickets spread across three weeks. An annotated email that a client can follow without confusion eliminates the entire back-and-forth cycle.

And here is the part management doesn’t see because they never thought to ask: when our workload is manageable, we are lightning-quick in response time. Our thinking is clear. We have quarter-hours of quiet time to reflect on what we’ve been doing, plan for projects due weeks out, and consider improvements to the product that neither our clients nor management are even considering.

The avalanche they keep predicting is the one their own model would create. Ours prevents it.

More later…