Professional Victims

Published by

Clarissa

October 4, 2011

Another mind-boggling story from College Misery:

Today I received a voice mail from a student asking me to call them back over an “urgent” matter. The voice mail was pleasant enough so I take a deep breath and dial the number. I am greeted by a screaming banshee on the other end of the line. The urgent manner, the student not agreeing with my late policy which is clearly stated in the syllabus. I take a deep breath and reiterate the syllabus, no assignments are accepted late unless there is an emergency blah blah blah. The student can’t hear me however because they are too busy screaming that I am “mean” and other less than flattering adjectives.

I want to hang up but I do not, because unlike this student I understand professional behavior. I guess they realized that this amazing display of a temper tantrum was not going to get their assignment accepted because they stopped yelling – 30 minutes later.

The only area in which this educator is a professional is victimhood. An individual who allows people to yell at them for 30 minutes is nothing but a professional victim.

How can you even begin to expect students to respect you if you don’t respect yourself in this way?

Besides, what’s up with calling students back? What are you, a used car salesperson? A secretary?

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13 responses to “Professional Victims”

Jonathan

October 4, 2011

That’s typical of the anonymous cowards on College Misery.

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1. bloggerclarissa
  
  October 4, 2011
  
  To be honest, I’m kind of jealous of their number of hits. I just can’t catch up with them. Why is their message more popular than mine, and what does this tell us about academia? (Rhetorical questions). 🙂
  
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  1. Tim
    
    October 4, 2011
    
    Did you ever try selling a newspaper with headlines like “Nothing happened yesterday”, “Peace around the World” or “Republicans and Democrats happily working together” ?
    
    You won’t sell that many, I promise you. Because if you want to get a lot of people to read your stuff, you need murder, abortions, christian morality and whatever else is wrong with this world.
    
    Why ? Because people around the globe are drama-addicted.
    
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    1. bloggerclarissa
      
      October 4, 2011
      
      I think there is a lot of drama on my blog. 🙂 It’s just not of the “a student yelled at me for 30 minutes, I’m such a victim.” I couldn’t have invented something like this no matter how hard I tried.
      
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  2. llama
    
    October 4, 2011
    
    But do you want to be popular amongst people who think this kind of crap is worth reading?
    
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    1. bloggerclarissa
      
      October 5, 2011
      
      But maybe I’ll convince them otherwise once I get them over here?
      
      I know, I’m na�ve.
      
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Priyanka

October 4, 2011

My dear Clarissa, people with lives and self-respect don’t read College Misery for their message, they read it as the modern equivalent of a vaudeville show. If you start regaling us with stories about your sexual exploits as a blonde Eastern European, and your victimhood at the hands of Those Communists and These Horrible Americans, *and* get twenty more like you chip in, your hits would shoot through the skies, too.

From CM’s popularity, all I gather is that I am in a minority. I loved CM for the first two weeks, was appalled when I realised what I took for irony was sincerely meant, and left disgusted, never to go back.

This conclusion makes me oddly proud 😐

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1. bloggerclarissa
  
  October 4, 2011
  
  ” If you start regaling us with stories about your sexual exploits as a blonde Eastern European, and your victimhood at the hands of Those Communists and These Horrible Americans”
  
  -Really? Shit, I could have so not wasted my time and just blogged about these things. Why did nobody tell me sooner??? 🙂
  
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Miriam

October 4, 2011

I completely lack respect for people who are unable to stand up for themselves in the most fundamental ways.

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1. bloggerclarissa
  
  October 4, 2011
  
  I think the whole point of putting up with the yelling was to have a reason to feel like a victim afterwards. Of course, I might be too cynical.
  
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  1. Miriam
    
    October 6, 2011
    
    No, I get that feeling too.
    
    Granted…I might also be too cynical.
    
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Danny

October 4, 2011

I’m no college professor so I’ll ask if there would be any repercussions for hanging up on the student? I would think not because the professor made the call but I ask because as a person who works in tech support hanging up on someone, even a person that was speaking to me in less than a pleasant tone, could probably get me in big trouble if not straight up fired (with the likelyhood of getting fired being proportional with the company ranking of the person I hung up on).

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1. bloggerclarissa
  
  October 4, 2011
  
  Of course there would be no repercussions for the prof. Just like there would be none for not calling back. I don’t check my phone messages at work at all because I warn everybody that I prefer email. Nobody seems to mind.
  
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