the "things you wish you could say" thread

[downer]

Dear Dean

For a couple of years you had some sub-dean evaluating my online courses. They always found fault with them, for reasons that I found absurd, and said so. I never got to the level of "satisfactory" even.

I've noticed that my online courses have stopped being evaluated by this sub-dean, but you keep on hiring me.

Just wondering, have you come to your senses and done away with those bullshit evaluations? Or did someone just forget to evaluate me?

[archaeo42]

[watching tech do a remote install of software on my computer]

Argh!!! Please for the love of all that is holy, just let me do it! How hard is it?

Oh, I felt this so very much this past month. I hope it's all done with.

Ugh, I'm sorry you have had to deal with it too.  So frustrating.  This is the second time they've attempted the installation, the first being an utter failure that took some of my other software with it.  No success on this attempt so far, but today's another day (and tomorrow, and tomorrow...).  It's like watching some randomly selected ghost meander through the file structure trying to figure out what to do.  What might launch the install? So many files.  I'm sure setup.exe is not relevant.  At times I have jumped into the chat to point out that they needed to open or close particular files, look in a different directory, etc.  Now I just go read a book or something and cross my fingers.   Hope you don't have to deal with it again any time soon, and thanks for the support!

Work gave me a new computer. We have a process for specialized software install (e.g. they won't give you the new one with it already loaded) and to get SPSS loaded, when I just needed an admin ID and password, meant the IT person thinking something else was the install package. I also jumped on the chat to tell them that wasn't the install setup and finally just navigated to it myself.

The more frustrating part, and at this point funny, is that the new laptop was sent to me (twice! because of VPN issues that required me to send it back to them) with missing software for critical things like updates being pushed and allowing IT to remote in (rather than sharing my desktop via our internal messaging system). I think it finally all got resolved yesterday.

And this has been going on since the end of September. *headdesk*

[ergative]

Colleague, you are brilliant, hard-working, and your skills are vital to the success of this project. I'm very excited about our collaboration, and I think we work well and effectively together. What is more, beyond your core skills in our research context, you also have really good soft skills, and have already done some wonderful networking to gain us an important research relationship and potential future partnership in an area that is far more my domain than yours. But I choked at that conference, and you were outgoing and made friends, and now we've got Professor Awesome on our team. I respect you and value our partnership.

However, you are a terrible writer. Yikes. Good grief. Ouch.

[ab_grp]

[watching tech do a remote install of software on my computer]

Argh!!! Please for the love of all that is holy, just let me do it! How hard is it?

Oh, I felt this so very much this past month. I hope it's all done with.

Ugh, I'm sorry you have had to deal with it too.  So frustrating.  This is the second time they've attempted the installation, the first being an utter failure that took some of my other software with it.  No success on this attempt so far, but today's another day (and tomorrow, and tomorrow...).  It's like watching some randomly selected ghost meander through the file structure trying to figure out what to do.  What might launch the install? So many files.  I'm sure setup.exe is not relevant.  At times I have jumped into the chat to point out that they needed to open or close particular files, look in a different directory, etc.  Now I just go read a book or something and cross my fingers.   Hope you don't have to deal with it again any time soon, and thanks for the support!

Work gave me a new computer. We have a process for specialized software install (e.g. they won't give you the new one with it already loaded) and to get SPSS loaded, when I just needed an admin ID and password, meant the IT person thinking something else was the install package. I also jumped on the chat to tell them that wasn't the install setup and finally just navigated to it myself.

The more frustrating part, and at this point funny, is that the new laptop was sent to me (twice! because of VPN issues that required me to send it back to them) with missing software for critical things like updates being pushed and allowing IT to remote in (rather than sharing my desktop via our internal messaging system). I think it finally all got resolved yesterday.

And this has been going on since the end of September. *headdesk*

I am so sorry to hear about all that! I swear we are computer issue twins.  Good of you to take the reins and do the navigating yourself.  We have a somewhat similar process now, too.  We used to get laptops with our custom software already installed, whatever we had licenses for individually and the common stuff.  Now we can just "easily" go "download" it ourselves, which basically means choosing the software from a site and "ordering" it and then waiting for a ton of approvals and someone to pop in to chat at a random time wanting to install the software.  For my part, I have had this software for years.  I needed to have an extra component added to access a particular data source, and that apparently required a full reinstall.  It took months to get the folks to understand what software specs I needed (though that setup is used by many of my colleagues).  Then it took days and days to download the files through VPN.  And, the install didn't work, so I lost my just fine and dandy version of the software.  Then I was told well, you are getting a new computer soon, so just wait and then you can "download" it from the software site. 

The timeline is frustrating.  I initially requested the additional component in December.  Got my version killed in March.  New computer in June.  Software finally installed and working today.  Why? My longtime friend who works in a different tech area heard about the issue and found a workaround and crunched through it with me all yesterday afternoon.   And then he also solved an issue with a driver that a lot of us have been having with the new computers and that none of the usual tech peeps could help with.  So! Guardian angels are apparently what is needed.  I wish I were still close enough to buy him a couple beers!

Sorry for the long rant, and I am so glad it finally got resolved for you, too.  Here's to not having to deal with this kind of thing again, for a little while at least.

[archaeo42]

[watching tech do a remote install of software on my computer]

Argh!!! Please for the love of all that is holy, just let me do it! How hard is it?

Oh, I felt this so very much this past month. I hope it's all done with.

Ugh, I'm sorry you have had to deal with it too.  So frustrating.  This is the second time they've attempted the installation, the first being an utter failure that took some of my other software with it.  No success on this attempt so far, but today's another day (and tomorrow, and tomorrow...).  It's like watching some randomly selected ghost meander through the file structure trying to figure out what to do.  What might launch the install? So many files.  I'm sure setup.exe is not relevant.  At times I have jumped into the chat to point out that they needed to open or close particular files, look in a different directory, etc.  Now I just go read a book or something and cross my fingers.   Hope you don't have to deal with it again any time soon, and thanks for the support!

Work gave me a new computer. We have a process for specialized software install (e.g. they won't give you the new one with it already loaded) and to get SPSS loaded, when I just needed an admin ID and password, meant the IT person thinking something else was the install package. I also jumped on the chat to tell them that wasn't the install setup and finally just navigated to it myself.

The more frustrating part, and at this point funny, is that the new laptop was sent to me (twice! because of VPN issues that required me to send it back to them) with missing software for critical things like updates being pushed and allowing IT to remote in (rather than sharing my desktop via our internal messaging system). I think it finally all got resolved yesterday.

And this has been going on since the end of September. *headdesk*

I am so sorry to hear about all that! I swear we are computer issue twins.  Good of you to take the reins and do the navigating yourself.  We have a somewhat similar process now, too.  We used to get laptops with our custom software already installed, whatever we had licenses for individually and the common stuff.  Now we can just "easily" go "download" it ourselves, which basically means choosing the software from a site and "ordering" it and then waiting for a ton of approvals and someone to pop in to chat at a random time wanting to install the software.  For my part, I have had this software for years.  I needed to have an extra component added to access a particular data source, and that apparently required a full reinstall.  It took months to get the folks to understand what software specs I needed (though that setup is used by many of my colleagues).  Then it took days and days to download the files through VPN.  And, the install didn't work, so I lost my just fine and dandy version of the software.  Then I was told well, you are getting a new computer soon, so just wait and then you can "download" it from the software site. 

The timeline is frustrating.  I initially requested the additional component in December.  Got my version killed in March.  New computer in June.  Software finally installed and working today.  Why? My longtime friend who works in a different tech area heard about the issue and found a workaround and crunched through it with me all yesterday afternoon.   And then he also solved an issue with a driver that a lot of us have been having with the new computers and that none of the usual tech peeps could help with.  So! Guardian angels are apparently what is needed.  I wish I were still close enough to buy him a couple beers!

Sorry for the long rant, and I am so glad it finally got resolved for you, too.  Here's to not having to deal with this kind of thing again, for a little while at least.

That took the better part of a year?! And I thought approaching 2 months was bad. Yikes. Luckily the missing software was pushed and seems to be installed now. My issue was elevated to a Tier 3 tech which I didn't even know we had.

I outlined the timeline of problems and asked my boss to whom it should be elevated. Having tech shipped out with missing standard software is just bad business - I've probably spent at least 50 hours total dealing with this when I should have been working. I've also included the timeline in all of my recent communication with IT, including a note with my old computer when I finally sent it back to them. I was super tempted to CC our OCIO at one point too.

[FishProf]

MY IT team responded to my help request for a test-bank manager program (that they purchase and provide) with "Yeah, we heard about that.  Here's the cludgy work-around. We hope it will be fixed when the new version gets installed in February".

This was a hassle.  So I took the time to research, solve, and test the solution.  And when I told IT, they said "Glad it worked for you".

There has NEVER been a campus wide announcement of the problem, the workaround, nor the solution.

What I wish I could say:  "Hey IT, shouldn't I get all the money you budgeted for the support for that software.  Neither you nor the company has earned any of it."

[ab_grp]

[snipping the long quote]

That took the better part of a year?! And I thought approaching 2 months was bad. Yikes. Luckily the missing software was pushed and seems to be installed now. My issue was elevated to a Tier 3 tech which I didn't even know we had.

I outlined the timeline of problems and asked my boss to whom it should be elevated. Having tech shipped out with missing standard software is just bad business - I've probably spent at least 50 hours total dealing with this when I should have been working. I've also included the timeline in all of my recent communication with IT, including a note with my old computer when I finally sent it back to them. I was super tempted to CC our OCIO at one point too.

Yes, luckily I could use other software to do some things, even if it took much longer than it should have.  I'm glad your issue got elevated.  We have a similar tier system.  I have had the same experience, spending many, many, many hours on this stuff.  It's pretty ridiculous.  I think remote workers should have a bit more autonomy given everything else we have to do for ourselves. 

When I got to my computer today, I had a Skype message from one of the tech consultants.  "Hi.." So I just left it until I felt like responding and said "Hi?" He replied "hii how are you".  So, I said "Doing ok, you?" And he eventually replied "i am fine".  That's where we are, currently.   I would think it were spam or some predatory journal invite, but it is our internal Skype, so who knows.  Kind of surreal.  I'll see how this plays out, I guess. "are you there?" I don't know, am I?

FishProf also has my sympathies.  That's another too-common scenario.

[FishProf]

FishProf also has my sympathies.  That's another too-common scenario.

Thanks.  Just another example of the stuff I do for my academic job that is not "what I went to school to do".

[fishbrains]

Yeah, well, it got a little hateful. But only dead fish go with the flow.

[nescafe]

So let me get this straight. You unsubscribed from our listserv, disconnected from Facebook, ignored the emails from our invitations committee, and now you're upset that you didn't learn about our event until it was too late?

Okay.

[fishbrains]

You, madam, are an idiot.

Some people in this semi-rural neighborhood use an "electric fence" where an underground wire triggers a shock collar on the dog's neck to keep the dog within its own yard. A little cruel at first, but it works; and it's probably better than chaining the dog or letting it run off after every silly deer or possum. These dogs are not "unleashed."

That German Shepherd in the ugly blue house has a family with four little kids it protects. Protects them from what, I don't know. But the dog doesn't f*ck around and clearly articulates, every chance it gets, that it doesn't want anyone or anything within the clearly marked perimeter of its yard. And, by the way, even the local kids know that dogs are here to keep things away, and they don't approach them without asking. Even the little dogs around here know they have a job. 

Now, you like to leave your Labradoodle outside and unleashed to wander what we loosely call a neighborhood. When you told the police officer that your dog was just "a friendly neighborhood dog" and the German Shepherd was vicious and out-of-control, the county police officer just blinked at you. Plus, we other neighbors pointed out the many unpleasant encounters we have had with your dog because our "unfriendly" dogs and their "unfriendly" owners aren't comfortable being confronted by your large, unleashed (although admittedly friendly) animal.

Anyway, that was bloody and ugly, but your dog was lucky to make it to the perimeter and stay alive. In fact, it's surprising the German Shepherd stopped at the edge of its flagged area (I'm not sure those shock collars usually work for a dog in fight mode). And, hell-no, there wasn't anyone who was going into that yard to help rescue your dog. And, no, the cops aren't going to do anything to the German Shepherd or its owner.

Your dog ain't too bright, but you, madam, are a f*cking idiot.

[zuzu_]

I get it. I am not a vegetarian. I eat meat. I am not opposed to ethical meat production or ethical hunting of deer.

However I will never understand the need to pose with the bloody and deceased animal and share the picture far and wide.

And I get it--it is your social media, you want express yourself. This is the culture of region in which I have chosen to reside. It's OK--I will unfollow you or snooze you for hunting season.

But to the high-up admincritter who included these photos, of your smiling children grasping the antlers of their bloody deceased animals, at the bottom of your super-important email newsletter that we all must read: srsly?

[science.expat]

High up admincritter needs a lesson in sensitivity and inclusivity.

[Antiphon1]

Dean dude obviously skipped the training on appropriate use of university communication channels. Srsly indeed.

[nescafe]

Please please PLEASE email your classes when you are not going to show up for your office hours. Because guess where they go when they show up at your door, find it is closed, and my door is right across the hall.

(note: I will say something like this to the offending party when they return).