The Venting Thread

[sinenomine]

Sadly, no unions at my institution.

[AmLitHist]

This vent is directed at myself:  get your butt in gear and GRADE, already.

[Langue_doc]

I was enjoying a lovely Friday until I got an email from HR, saying that a colleague has filed a complaint against me (not clue what it’s about), and now I’m waiting for the college’s attorney to set up a meeting. This is not what I want dangling over my head for the weekend. Feels like I’m in a Kafka novel.

Oh, sinenomine, I'm so sorry. This has to be nerve-wracking! I hope you have a union to go with you--and don't attend any meetings (even supposedly "informal" or "friendly" ones) without a union rep alongside.

Could you take a trusted colleague along? If attorneys are involved, you need someone to watch your back and document what was said at the meeting.

[Cheerful]

If attorneys are involved, I'd probably get my own hiqhly-qualified attorney and make sure that person is present during any meetings and oversees any communications.

This situation sounds awful.  The way you were "informed" without any details on a Friday and more.

[dismalist]

Absolutely, Cheerful.

I was once the target of a student's legal attack. Had to deal with the university lawyers right away. It was clear they didn't like me. [:-)] At the first meeting, I even asked if I had to hire my own lawyer. The response was "no", but of such disdain that I was seriously worried. Nevertheless, I resolved to tough them out.

It took about half a year, longer, with lots of complications along the way, to resolve everything, with the university lawyers [a whole bloody department full] eventually coming round to my side.

In retrospect, I should have hired a lawyer right away to witness all proceedings, and to advise on how the proceedings could have been shortened.

Talk softly and carry a big stick. Nowadays in America, lawyers are the big sticks.

[Parasaurolophus]

If there's a subsidiary curriculum committee meeting I must attend, you have to tell me about it. It's not great when I find out third-hand that it's in two days, exactly on the day I'm travelling, exactly at the time that I'm travelling.

Especially when I arranged things months ago so that I would definitely be around for the senate curriculum committee meeting, which I must attend. Also, why are there two different curriculum committees, and why is the subsidiary one secret (as in, there are no details anywhere on any website, and you don't find out about it until and unless they contact you)?

[Wahoo Redux]

Six months later, the editor returns my email.  She is very nice, and she has a "curation project"----would I be interested?  Okay, I say, let's talk.  I have to sign a nondisclosure agreement...on a nursing textbook.

She is nice.  She sends me samples.  No real instruction.  She wants a couple of "screens" so they can critique how I edited text for the web.  She sent a "style guide"----for people who want clear, jargon-free text they sure write a lot of convoluted, jargon-heavy text.

I spent all morning trying to figure our what she wants.  She sent raw text...and she sent the formats of the raw text with no real instruction.  What does she want me to do??  Format the stuff that is already formatted?

She couldn't tell me how long the edits might take, so the money sounds good...except maybe the money ain't so great if it takes all month just to do one chapter.  In fact, the money might be bad considering the amount of time it's gonna take.  I feel like a dumb freshman who can't figure out what the professor wants.

[evil_physics_witchcraft]

Interthreaduality. I posted in the 1st world problems thread that our water was out. The county turned it back on. Fine. However, we noticed that we now have a leak in the crawlspace. I am not a plumber. So, we called a plumber and couldn't get one to come out until this morning. So much for 24 hour plumbing services. So many of them just didn't even answer the phone!!!

[apl68]

This vent involves what's coming through the vents.  Namely, air that's not warm enough.  We're burning vast amounts of gas to heat the building, and yet most spaces in it have been running four to six degrees below the set temperature.  We're trying to get our service techs from the state capital down to check the system out, but no luck so far.   And probably not in the next few days, since we have winter storm conditions that will make travel difficult across much of the state.

When our building was built two decades ago, the architects sold the Board of Trustees a bill of goods in the form of a high-tech, computer-controlled HVAC system that was supposed to be able to fine-tune temperatures all over the building.  The building is divided into multiple zones, each of which has its own variable air volume box.  The air handler unit supplies the whole building with air at a given temperature.  The VAV boxes each have chilled water and hot water lines so that they can warm up or cool down the air going into that section to fine-tune the temperature.  It's a grotesquely inefficient system--we have to run the boiler all summer long to warm up sections of the building that keep getting over-cooled by the chiller!  And in recent "winters" we've had multiple periods where we needed the chiller on to COOL the building, and it usually won't kick on. 

Anyway, this system has never worked very well.  Most people feel too cool winter and summer alike, except when the chiller is on the blink, which happens multiple times a year.  The expensive computerized system gets on the blink now and then as well.  When it does work, I've found that tinkering with the settings seldom helps much.  Things have generally gotten worse in the past year or so.  We've spent a fortune in service call-outs, and nothing seems to stay fixed.

Yesterday I checked the VAV settings for the circulation desk area, where the staff sits shivering in temps well below the set point.  It said that the hot water valve was at 100%, and yet the air coming through the VAV box was not warming up.  So evidently that valve has gone bad.  I suspect there are probably others around the building.  When we can eventually get service techs here to look at it, we'll probably have to have them go over the whole system with a fine-tooth comb to see whether all the parts and sensors are actually working.  That'll cost a fortune.  And I hate to think what fixing all the busted valves and sensors will cost. 

[poiuy]

That is literally a vent, apl68!  The situation sounds really uncomfortable, and mentally as well as physically irritating.  Can people use small space heaters until the issue gets better - though that's not likely to happen soon by the sound of it.  I just hate being too cold in a workplace, I cannot concentrate plus I keep running to the restroom.

My vent: at my advanced age I have developed a terrible zit on my cheek that swelled up with a lot of redness far around it, and long story short, I went to the doc and was immediately put on heavy antibiotics for cellulite, and have been warned to go to the ER if I get worse or develop a fever.  Google told me that the middle triangle of the face is called 'the zone of death' (yikes!) because an infection here can get into the eyes, sinuses, teeth, brain, etc. Who knew!  I guess the docs knew. I am glad to have the benefit of modern medicine, I just have to cope with the nausea and yucky feeling that comes with having to take a large dose of antibiotics on an empty stomach. Oh well, this too shall pass. 

[Langue_doc]

In my spam folder--
Sender's name: Lower Blood Pressure
Subject: Before you have a heart attack...

At least this and the numerous messages from various senders informing me that my username has been compromised go into the spam folder...

[apl68]

That is literally a vent, apl68!  The situation sounds really uncomfortable, and mentally as well as physically irritating.  Can people use small space heaters until the issue gets better - though that's not likely to happen soon by the sound of it.  I just hate being too cold in a workplace, I cannot concentrate plus I keep running to the restroom.

My vent: at my advanced age I have developed a terrible zit on my cheek that swelled up with a lot of redness far around it, and long story short, I went to the doc and was immediately put on heavy antibiotics for cellulite, and have been warned to go to the ER if I get worse or develop a fever.  Google told me that the middle triangle of the face is called 'the zone of death' (yikes!) because an infection here can get into the eyes, sinuses, teeth, brain, etc. Who knew!  I guess the docs knew. I am glad to have the benefit of modern medicine, I just have to cope with the nausea and yucky feeling that comes with having to take a large dose of antibiotics on an empty stomach. Oh well, this too shall pass.

Hoping that you can knock that out quickly, poiuy!  The good news is that it sounds like a treatable infection.

We have a couple of space heaters available in some staff areas, but not for everybody.  I've just been layering up while in my office.  I'm concerned about discomfort to patrons.  We've had many complaints from groups feeling cold in our meeting room.  Including the Mayor and City Council, which is embarrassing.

[EdnaMode]

I'm doing some mandatory training regarding lab safety. My vent isn't with having to do the training, it's important, especially for students and new faculty. But I went directly to the test and earned 100% then found out that now all the videos have to be watched before our learning system will mark the training as being completed. Ugh. The training has not been changed in eons, and the test is exactly the same as it was last year, but what has changed is the need to actually have the tediously voiced-over PowerPoints play all the way through. I have them running in the background on mute whilst I am grading because yeah, I already passed the test.

[poiuy]

That is literally a vent, apl68!  The situation sounds really uncomfortable, and mentally as well as physically irritating.  Can people use small space heaters until the issue gets better - though that's not likely to happen soon by the sound of it.  I just hate being too cold in a workplace, I cannot concentrate plus I keep running to the restroom.

My vent: at my advanced age I have developed a terrible zit on my cheek that swelled up with a lot of redness far around it, and long story short, I went to the doc and was immediately put on heavy antibiotics for cellulite, and have been warned to go to the ER if I get worse or develop a fever.  Google told me that the middle triangle of the face is called 'the zone of death' (yikes!) because an infection here can get into the eyes, sinuses, teeth, brain, etc. Who knew!  I guess the docs knew. I am glad to have the benefit of modern medicine, I just have to cope with the nausea and yucky feeling that comes with having to take a large dose of antibiotics on an empty stomach. Oh well, this too shall pass.

Hoping that you can knock that out quickly, poiuy!  The good news is that it sounds like a treatable infection.

We have a couple of space heaters available in some staff areas, but not for everybody.  I've just been layering up while in my office.  I'm concerned about discomfort to patrons.  We've had many complaints from groups feeling cold in our meeting room.  Including the Mayor and City Council, which is embarrassing.

Thank you apl68.  Maybe it's time to get some more space heaters for staff.  That is ridiculous about the Mayor and City Council.  Whoever built that heating system should be reported to any and every appropriate professional and business body.

(and Gah! Typos!  What I have is cellulitis, not cellulite. You can't actually die of the latter I think).

[jimbogumbo]

That is literally a vent, apl68!  The situation sounds really uncomfortable, and mentally as well as physically irritating.  Can people use small space heaters until the issue gets better - though that's not likely to happen soon by the sound of it.  I just hate being too cold in a workplace, I cannot concentrate plus I keep running to the restroom.

My vent: at my advanced age I have developed a terrible zit on my cheek that swelled up with a lot of redness far around it, and long story short, I went to the doc and was immediately put on heavy antibiotics for cellulite, and have been warned to go to the ER if I get worse or develop a fever.  Google told me that the middle triangle of the face is called 'the zone of death' (yikes!) because an infection here can get into the eyes, sinuses, teeth, brain, etc. Who knew!  I guess the docs knew. I am glad to have the benefit of modern medicine, I just have to cope with the nausea and yucky feeling that comes with having to take a large dose of antibiotics on an empty stomach. Oh well, this too shall pass.

Had it last year on my face! No fun at all, and you have my sympathy!