A Mess

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Clarissa

October 25, 2017

This committee is slaughtering me, folks. The chair of the committee says, “Please interview person X at such and such time in Building ABC, room #123.”

So I’m sitting in front of room #123 at the appointed time but person X is not there. The chair of the committee passes by and asks, “What are you doing here?”

“I’m interviewing person X, remember?” I say.

“He’s not here. He told me later he was going to be at [an entirely different place].”

And she failed to tell me about it because it clearly makes no sense to inform the person doing the interview about the interview.

And it’s all like this, all of the time.

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6 responses to “A Mess”

JProf

October 25, 2017

Clarissa–This is a higher ed/university question unrelated to this post, but I’m curious about your opinion…Does your school have an internal giving campaign (i.e., faculty and staff donate money to the university, even if only a small amount), and what do you think about the idea in general? My school does have this type of campaign on an annual basis, and I appear to be the only person (or one of the very few) on campus who thinks this is offensive or strange (I can’t think of a better adjective right now).

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1. Clarissa
  
  October 25, 2017
  
  Yep. I was forced to agree to donate $10 a month when I was in my first year here. I was new, I didn’t feel like being the only trouble maker and the only holdout from the whole department in my first month of being here, etc. There was a lot of pressure and it didn’t seem to be worth a fight because the sum was so small. But it’s completely wrong and immoral. Especially when untenured people are pressured into doing it.
  
  So it’s great you are standing on principle and holding out. Now that we have a union, it will put an end to this but I wish I had stood against it back then.
  
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Fie upon this quiet life

October 25, 2017

This kind of miscommunication is absolutely unconscionable. 😦

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1. Clarissa
  
  October 25, 2017
  
  That’s what this committee has been the entire time. It’s not just one thing.
  
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Lucy

October 26, 2017

In my original European country there was no such thing, until the day I left because there was no decent contract, so I quit to move to North America. Then I received a call asking me to donate to the university that same day….are you kidding me!!!?? No fucking way!!!
Anyways, here in the US my uni has an annual campus campaign, to which I do not donate. Normally they send it by mail. Once they called me and I asked to be taken out of the list, saying that HR has my number for other reasons. I was not happy at all!!!

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Tal Hartsfeld

October 26, 2017

So, in the future, you’ll have to be on their ass and badger them constantly in an effort to continuously verify (repeatedly) time and place in order to ensure you have the correct and up-to-the-minute information at all times.
Sort of like “babysitting the babysitters” (the onus being on YOU to monitor those who are suppose to be the ones in charge).

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