handling a work situation with non-academic center director

[clean]

He often sends the faculty a form to fill out about their weekly activities, when they will return to work (exact date/time), etc., the same form that he provides to his staff members to complete!

How much of an imposition is complying with this?

IF it is not too much of an imposition, do it and be done with it.

IF it IS a pain in the ass, perhaps start by replying to the admin AND your dean.  Ask the dean IF this is something that should be completed, and IF not, ask the dean to intervene with the VP.  Surely the dean meets with the BP too! 

[Ruralguy]

For time cards there could be some sort of full cost accounting compliance issue. Just politely ask someone more senior who might be aware, and then maybe a Dean or Chair after that if a trusted senior colleague doesn't know or care.


He sounds like one of these hard charging guys who doesn't really care that much what others think, though doesn't really necessarily go as far as limiting academic freedom or sexual harassment. Of course, he could have gone that far, hence the claims. Not sure what to say otherwise. I can't work with jerks like that either.

[Vid]

He often sends the faculty a form to fill out about their weekly activities, when they will return to work (exact date/time), etc., the same form that he provides to his staff members to complete!

How much of an imposition is complying with this?

IF it is not too much of an imposition, do it and be done with it.

IF it IS a pain in the ass, perhaps start by replying to the admin AND your dean.  Ask the dean IF this is something that should be completed, and IF not, ask the dean to intervene with the VP.  Surely the dean meets with the BP too!

.


Clean: He often asks us (we are 4 new faculty) for an activity card and what we are exactly doing. We are still working remotely and this is the reason he wants to check in! he has biweekly zoom meetings with the center staff (and faculty have to attend this otherwise he gets upset!) where he gives updates about his meeting with the VP. Honestly sometimes the meeting discussion goes in different directions like why the cleaning staff did not pick up the garbage this week, etc.!!! He is now remodeling the center building and asking us to attend meetings with the facility, the contractor for remodeling, maintenance staff. I feel my mission as a faculty is to do research, teaching, and service/outreach, I am not an architect or a designer, I really donot get this!

[Vid]

For time cards there could be some sort of full cost accounting compliance issue. Just politely ask someone more senior who might be aware, and then maybe a Dean or Chair after that if a trusted senior colleague doesn't know or care.


He sounds like one of these hard charging guys who doesn't really care that much what others think, though doesn't really necessarily go as far as limiting academic freedom or sexual harassment. Of course, he could have gone that far, hence the claims. Not sure what to say otherwise. I can't work with jerks like that either.

Ruralguy: My department chair fully listens to him. I asked my department to give me a small lab space on campus because the center is 10 miles far from the main campus and I have some international grad students who don't have a car to daily travel to the center and work on my research projects. The director stopped my department chair and he held a meeting with all faculty and said no one is allowed to have a lab on the campus, you stay here your students have to travel to the center and do research here (happened before the pandemic). The center does not have enough infrastructure in place for faculty, even not enough office supply. 

funny, he told me about his sexual harassment in the first week I joined the job!

[fizzycist]

Sounds like a crappy situation. Center 10 miles off campus that is not run by trusted faculty and involves a lot of busy work and headaches. What do you get in return? I'd be having conversations with my Dept. Chair about possibilities to return to main campus. Fighting your Director over some forms might feel good in the moment but won't solve the bigger problem (and may make it worse).

[Ruralguy]

He certainly sounds like he's difficult and a bit odd (mentioning the harassment thing *at all* is not really particularly professional).

Nonetheless some of these issues might be things he needs to adhere to in order to get certain funding.

As for his job responsibilities, good luck! Are *your* responsibilities written anywhere? Our Handbook just says we have to teach, do service and research. It really doesn't give too many details, other than teaching load and expected minimal office hours. Says very very little about duties of the Dean or Chairs (barely even touches in directors since they didn't exist when the FHB was first written). Anyway, you can try checking the FHB for your school. It might say something about center directors. Try Employee Handbook too. But it probably won't help even if its there. So long as he's legal in following the directions of the VP or some granting agency, it doesn't really matter if what he is doing rankles people.

[Ruralguy]

I recall an interview with Arno Penzias, a Nobel Laureate in Physics (for discovering, with Robert Wilson,
the Cosmic Microwave Background radiation of the Universe--direct evidence for the relative newly and derided "Big Bang"--now of course, old hat). He was asked whether it bothered him that some days he and Wilson had to go into the actual feed horn of the antenna and clean up pigeon poop that could have been leading to the anomalous readings (it was between pigeon poop and the Universe!) . He replied
(a rough quote from memory) "Look, sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do every day in order to get to the end result." So, Vid, for now, this is your pigeon poop. Seriously though, we *all* have to do stuff like this. Sometimes we like it, sometimes we hate it. Sometimes we love the boss, sometimes we want him to be bitten to death by a litter of ferocious kittens. Think of how to comply without it being too big of a bother. Ask others about the politics. If its too much to deal with, apply out.

[Aster]

I think that I'd find out a way to un-affiliate myself from this program center as quickly as possible.

[Volhiker78]

I agree with Ruralguy.  Before i came to my present position,  I worked a long time in big pharma.  I had bosses and colleagues like what the OP describes and the paperwork / bureaucracy was exhausting.  I literally used a random number generator to put in numbers for hours worked on the projects I was assigned to - had to report that weekly.  I used a lot of templates where I could change a few words / numbers to describe progress made on projects with minimal effort.  Mostly,  I just complied and stayed off the radar screen.  If it bothers you too much,  start looking for ways out of this responsibility. 

I work for an institute within the university now.  My funding comes from some large grants that the director holds plus some of my own grants.  My director has been good to me but it is amazing how much better he became after I started bringing in some of my own funding.  Not sure if that is possible for the OP but it never hurts to bring some cash to the table. 

[Golazo]

If you are not tenured and your department chair thinks the person is important, you are probably stuck with making them happy until you get tenure.

If you are tenured--what does your faculty handbook say about reporting lines etc? If your chair is spending time cultivating a toxic person who doesn't help our department, and if you are tenured, maybe you need a new chair.

If you are tenured, the local paper might be interested in the accusations that hu has publicly admitted to, particularly if these have been suppressed using political dirty tricks.

[Ruralguy]

i think Vid is untenured and this whole center thing was critical to the conditions of the hire, as I recall. Could be wrong. Vid can clarify.

[Vid]

Ruralguy: Brilliant!! Yes, the center is critical for my hire and I am a TT faculty.

Volhiker78: Yes, I have 2-3 ongoing funded projects, not sure if he cares much about funding since the center gets HUGE funds.  I really don't know much of the politics here bc I am new, but it seems he has a controlling personality.

I heard that the VP will retire soon (1-2 years maybe) and after that the university will eliminate the VP position and all of the VP responsibilities (centers, etc.) go under the dean!

You're the best colleagues ever. Thank you, guys.

[Mobius]

Treat it as the bureaucratic crap that it is. Just fill it all in reasonably truthfully. If it's really supposed to be a time card,then lie and make sure it adds up to forty.

The other stuff is maybe slightly more reasonable as center director, but probably too frequent.

When you have tenure, you can tell him to take a hike. Before that, definitely play nice.

Might mention it to a trusted senior colleague.

Ruralguy: Thank you. one of my colleague had an argument with him (I donot know the details) but he told the director that you are ignoring our academic freedom. Unfortunately my department doesn't support faculty and listen to this director.

The department isn't some unknown entity. The faculty of the department must not think it's a big problem if the majority doesn't oppose what's been going on.

[dismalist]

The faculty of the department must not think it's a big problem if the majority doesn't oppose what's been going on.

That could be very far from the truth. Much of the faculty could be cowed by a despotic head. If that is the case, and the OP should make it his business to find out, it would be better to take the bull by the horns asap, preferably with some faculty allies. Or, acquiesce in time-card-punching only temporarily.

I was once in a structurally similar situation. Some of us revolted, and won, though fun it was not.

Meanwhile, to lighten things up, one should watch this comedic video which shows how a sociopath can get hired: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTIfU4zMQWY

[Ruralguy]

There is an adjective for professors who lead protests: tenured.