School and Work

I admit it, I was wrong.

When I volunteered to lead a graduate student project, I expected that after an entire educational level, people who got into graduate school would do common sensical things like I dunno, spell check their sh*t.

Nope. I was wrong. Painfully wrong, too.

The project was easy actually, more like an undergraduate project if you ask me. Take a chapter, divide it up, and make a power point on it. It’s particularly easy considering that we’d all already read that chapter, and chosen pieces of it to post on the discussion board. I assumed we could all just cover whatever we posted in a slide or two and then throw them altogether.

Again, wrong.

Most people couldn’t get a hold of their partners, or didn’t spell check anything on their power points, or put too many words on each slide, or didn’t make a slide at all, or turned it in late, etc. It’s like I’m a kindergarten teacher but I don’t even get the added bonus of laughing when my students eat paste.

Work has been equally annoying. My partner in crime and the only other competent employee in my area is leaving for a way better job. I personally wrote the vice chancellor and begged that he do something to keep her (erm, pay her what she’s worth?), considering that.

My boss in the mean time, has announced to everyone that I’m taking over her position, even though I specifically and emphatically told her when she was not bothering to ask me during yet another closed-door meeting that I would not take it over. I was bothered that she hadn’t even asked and that she thought she could manipulate me into just taking one for the team and sucking it up and doing a job that really must be done for neither a title promotion or a pay raise. But even after I said no, she still sent out an e-mail saying that I was being trained on two things I precisely said I would not do. And it’s no surprise as to why I won’t: when my colleague took over the position, she took on an enormous amount of responsibility without a promotion. Why would I do that, knowing that they rode her so hard, she left her job?

The same e-mail said we couldn’t work overtime anymore…not that we get paid for overtime. We get time and a half off in vacation instead, which is comparable but not equal, and now even that tiny benefit is gone. Yet we’re losing a third of our staff up here.

So I’m not happy about much. I’m now drinking about a bottle of wine a week, which considering the fact that I hadn’t had a drop in three years isn’t too bad I guess.