Yesterday, it took us exactly an hour to sign the hiring paperwork for our new ASL instructor. This wasn’t because of his deafness. We had an interpreter. This is what it’s like for every hire.
We are starting off with just one section of beginner ASL. An hour. Not to prepare the paperwork. That took much, much longer. Simply to sign. The pile of documents was ankle-deep. Sign here. Initial every page. Tick boxes here but not there.
There’s something deeply wrong with how this works. There is a paper testifying that I evaluated the candidate’s oral proficiency in English, which is really relevant for a deaf person. There is a paper where he confirms that he knows he’ll need to do the sexual harassment training. And a paper where he confirms he knows he’ll have to do the ethics training. Which he won’t have to do because it’s completed in October and he’ll only teach in spring. And a paper where he confirms that if he were a retiree of our university (which he isn’t), he knows he has to file paperwork with the retirement system. And don’t get me started on the diversity paperwork. Or citizenship / immigration status paperwork. Or the paperwork which I don’t even comprehend because it’s endless and weird.
But we’ll get our ASL course. I’m planning to add Swahili next Fall, so this will be 3 new languages I brought to the department.
Clarissa's Blog 
The papers are standard and completely the same for any person regardless of their personal characteristics or timing (the ethics training). This is how bureaucracies work. The people responsible for this have to report to their higher-ups that mandatory things have been done. To simplify, they have to put checkmarks in many boxes. There isn’t a box for “not applicable”, and for legal reasons, they don’t want to put a checkmark without doing the corresponding thing – e.g. having you confirm that the candidate knows he’ll have to do the ethics training (regardless of whether it’s possible for that to happen).
People who don’t use any social media have to complete corporate trainings on proper use of social media, and people who don’t use smartphones have to complete corporate trainings on smartphone security and whatnot.
I understand your frustration, but it feels like you’re 13 when you complain about this.
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At my age, being told I’m juvenile is a great compliment. 🙂
Thank you, this really helped. (No sarcasm).
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