Dealing with a new faculty member

[Langue_doc]

Leave this alone. Just walk away. If in a few months she asks you to lunch, accept and just keep it light, then walk away.

You are under no obligation to anything else here. You tried and didn't work.

In my experience, this sort of thing never ends well when one person keeps on trying to "mentor" or whatever another person who doesn't really want that.

I'll take everything here at face value and not judge her or you other than to say it just ain't working.

Also, from your other posts, as I recall, it seems like things are less than perfect for you now, so just concentrate on you. Mentoring is for people with tenure.
I mean, we can all help out friends and such, but as I say, if it ain't workin', just move on.

+1

Your colleague is taking up too much space in your head. Disengage, CYA, and redirect your energy into getting published. Your colleague will probably self-destruct.

[marshwiggle]

I also found out that the house I found for her is the first house that she ever could stay in for more than a couple of months and that she was a victim previously for fraud and evictions, 6 times according to what she said.

Nobody else has mentioned it, but this set the alarm bells off in my head.

Yeah, I mentioned it and said bullshit

Sorry, I missed that.

[the-tenure-track-prof]

That is so true!. At our school in the deep south, they have a philosophy of hiring only people from the same region, and preferably graduates of their university. When I was hired, my case was an exception, not the rule (it was a mistake that I regret to accept the offer).
This lousy person was hired is because the program is on probation and short on faculty and has been failing for years to hire new faculty members because people do not apply. Due to pressure from upper management, a lecturer who is no longer working at the school "said," I met someone going to graduate from her Ph.D. program, do you wish that I ask her to send her CV?. The chair jumped on the opportunity. She did not need to apply. The decision to hire her was already made. Her campus visit was a joke and only formality; the dean said to hire her on the spot during the campus visit!!. During the so-called campus visit, she could not articulate what she wants to say and asked to be excused because she does not speak English well (she wants to teach in English but does not speak the language). Despite all this, she was hired, and I wanted to become good colleagues. I gave her a hand, helped her get decent housing, and told her whereabouts in town, but now the more I think about it, the more I can see that she is a mentally unwell person, narcissistic personality, and cant be trusted. 

It could be accounting or computer science at a school that has little in those areas. I know our searches in those areas often get five or fewer applicants. I think some years they've gotten zero.

If the program was on probation and needed to hire new faculty, it would appear that they've made a choice that is only going to hurt them in the eyes of the rest of the institution.

[Hegemony]

There seems to be weirdness all round.  Several of your reactions seem disproportionate, OP. My advisor certainly never gave me any advice about where I was moving. It's not bizarre not for him to have done this, and even if he had been unusual or negligent, so what? You seem to think that her advisor's lack of geographical advice is a mark against her, or else that she is suspiciously lying about not having received advice on her place of work from her advisor. Who cares if he gave her advice on it or not?

I don't entirely follow the story about her trying to take on a course that you teach, but at my place, we all teach many of the same courses, and that would not be weird at all. If people "own" courses at your place, then simply tell her that. "Here, each course is taught by only one person, and if someone else wants to teach it, they should ask the regular person politely, but the regular teacher may not want to share the course."

For the rest, just be polite and more distant.

[fizzycist]

OP, no offense, but these still sound like minor issues.

I dont know anybody in academia who gets along perfectly with everyone in their dept. c'est la vie.

Just focus on your own problems and build relationships with other faculty in your dept you get along with better.

[kaysixteen]

I guess I am still struggling with what kind of university dept could only have attracted one applicant for a tt position?   Was the salary that was going to be offered a starvation wage?  I get that there are a handful of disciplines that really have a shortage of academics, but assuming this is not in one of these fields, wow....  what kind of school is this, and is it perhaps religiously affiliated?

[Ruralguy]

There may not have been a real search.

[Ruralguy]

Also, is this even tenure track?

[the-tenure-track-prof]

Rotating courses between faculty are expected and happen all the time. If you read my post, you will understand that it is not about rotating courses. If a new faculty before getting the first salary, asks about your class in the negative way that she did while you are at her home, that attitude was a red flag for me. This and another zillion narcissistic behaviors. It is not a big deal to walk away from her. My post was that the department hired someone like this and what these hires led to. Because I can't know how bad things may get, I have just distanced myself from her—no big deal.

There seems to be weirdness all round.  Several of your reactions seem disproportionate, OP. My advisor certainly never gave me any advice about where I was moving. It's not bizarre not for him to have done this, and even if he had been unusual or negligent, so what? You seem to think that her advisor's lack of geographical advice is a mark against her, or else that she is suspiciously lying about not having received advice on her place of work from her advisor. Who cares if he gave her advice on it or not?

I don't entirely follow the story about her trying to take on a course that you teach, but at my place, we all teach many of the same courses, and that would not be weird at all. If people "own" courses at your place, then simply tell her that. "Here, each course is taught by only one person, and if someone else wants to teach it, they should ask the regular person politely, but the regular teacher may not want to share the course."

For the rest, just be polite and more distant.

[the-tenure-track-prof]

Yes. For the department, she was also a very cheap hire for a tenure track.

Also, is this even tenure track?

[Langue_doc]

Rotating courses between faculty are expected and happen all the time. If you read my post, you will understand that it is not about rotating courses. If a new faculty before getting the first salary, asks about your class in the negative way that she did while you are at her home, that attitude was a red flag for me. This and another zillion narcissistic behaviors. It is not a big deal to walk away from her. My post was that the department hired someone like this and what these hires led to. Because I can't know how bad things may get, I have just distanced myself from her—no big deal.

There seems to be weirdness all round.  Several of your reactions seem disproportionate, OP. My advisor certainly never gave me any advice about where I was moving. It's not bizarre not for him to have done this, and even if he had been unusual or negligent, so what? You seem to think that her advisor's lack of geographical advice is a mark against her, or else that she is suspiciously lying about not having received advice on her place of work from her advisor. Who cares if he gave her advice on it or not?

I don't entirely follow the story about her trying to take on a course that you teach, but at my place, we all teach many of the same courses, and that would not be weird at all. If people "own" courses at your place, then simply tell her that. "Here, each course is taught by only one person, and if someone else wants to teach it, they should ask the regular person politely, but the regular teacher may not want to share the course."

For the rest, just be polite and more distant.

OP, disengage. Get those publications out so that you can apply for jobs and get out of this department. You're spending way too much time and energy on your colleague.

[Ruralguy]

Yes, you did your best with being a good colleague in the beginning (sounds like you might have an absent chair though) . That's fine, but you do not need to be BFF's.
At this point, just do your own thing and only get involved if you really must. She'll probably make some sort of stink about "poor mentoring" when she inevitably fails, but that's not your responsibility.

[bopper]

She: Sounds like a narcissist or something.

You: Reached out to a new colleague...but rightfully set boundaries when you figured out something was right.

[AJ_Katz]

Personally, I would distance myself from that person as much as possible to try to protect my own reputation and career. 

You'll likely be asked about this person because you share course assignments, but do your best to avoid saying anything negative about this person.  There is a concept called "spontaneous trait transference" (see here), which describes the phenomenon of how what we say about other people influences what people think about us (e.g. say that Cris is really smart and people think you're really smart).  So, just beware that if you speak negatively about this person and their behavior, it can influence what people think of you.  The fora is a great place to get support for these kinds of delicate things that are better not said in the workplace.

So, even though it's challenging to work with this person, just try your best to stay focused on your own work and success without allowing them to bring you down.  Wishing you luck and grace in navigating this challenging relationship. 

[rxprof]

Besides, I realized that her dissertation advisor in her former university in the US never advised her about anything, neither the university she is going to nor the region or state that she is going to. I find myself flabbergasted about why an advisor would not advise her advisee to learn about the region if she must accept a job in that region. The advisor must have an excellent reason why s/he would not have a chat with her doctoral student about a significant issue like that.

I wouldn't jump to blaming her advisor given the interpersonal communication issues you described.