The Venting Thread

[evil_physics_witchcraft]

I really did not need the Department drama that happened today.

[EdnaMode]

At my institution, faculty are not allowed to schedule meetings in the conference rooms, and in the School of Engineering, all the scheduling goes through one person and I'm not sure how they manage to keep their job. Here's a synopsis of an email exchange.

Dear Glennis (not her real name),
Dr. Smith, Dr. Jones, Dr. Who, and I would like to schedule a meeting on Friday of this week sometime between noon and 4:30 PM. We do not care which conference room we are in as long as it has a projector and screen.
Thanks,
E M

Good afternoon, Dr. Mode,
I have scheduled Room 123 in our building for your meeting on Thursday at 10:30 AM.
Glennis

Glennis,
We cannot meet on Thursday, the only time we all have available this week is on Friday between noon and 4:30.
Thanks,
E M

Dr Mode,
My apologies, I changed it to 1:30 on Thursday.
Glennis

Glennis,
Again, none of us can meet on Thursday, we can only meet on FRIDAY between noon and 4:30. No other days or times will work.
Thank you,
E M

Dr. Mode,
So, does 1:30 on Friday in room 123 in our building work for you all? Let me know and I'll schedule that for you.
Glennis

Glennis,
Yes, that works, thank you for setting it up for us.
E M

And thankfully, the meeting did appear on all of our calendars. Finally.

[apl68]

We had something similar happen a few months ago.  A community service group from out of town booked our library community room for a series of Monday afternoons to offer their services.  We saw from their social media that they were promoting the sessions as taking place on Monday mornings.  So we had lots of people coming in during the mornings and having to be told to come back in the afternoon. 

We repeatedly contacted the agency in question to confirm the actual times and get the misleading announcements corrected.  It took a week or two before they finally got things changed.  Not sure how people at that agency are keeping their jobs either.  The whole thing made it very awkward for our staff, not to mention the patrons who showed up at the wrong times because they had been misinformed.

[sonoamused]

At my institution, faculty are not allowed to schedule meetings in the conference rooms, and in the School of Engineering, all the scheduling goes through one person and I'm not sure how they manage to keep their job. Here's a synopsis of an email exchange.

Dear Glennis (not her real name),
Dr. Smith, Dr. Jones, Dr. Who, and I would like to schedule a meeting on Friday of this week sometime between noon and 4:30 PM. We do not care which conference room we are in as long as it has a projector and screen.
Thanks,
E M

Good afternoon, Dr. Mode,
I have scheduled Room 123 in our building for your meeting on Thursday at 10:30 AM.
Glennis

Glennis,
We cannot meet on Thursday, the only time we all have available this week is on Friday between noon and 4:30.
Thanks,
E M

Dr Mode,
My apologies, I changed it to 1:30 on Thursday.
Glennis

Glennis,
Again, none of us can meet on Thursday, we can only meet on FRIDAY between noon and 4:30. No other days or times will work.
Thank you,
E M

Dr. Mode,
So, does 1:30 on Friday in room 123 in our building work for you all? Let me know and I'll schedule that for you.
Glennis

Glennis,
Yes, that works, thank you for setting it up for us.
E M

And thankfully, the meeting did appear on all of our calendars. Finally.

Its like working with students.

[ohnoes]

<snipped hilarity>
And thankfully, the meeting did appear on all of our calendars. Finally.

Its like working with students.

Dear Edna,
I hope this schedule finds you well...

[Parasaurolophus]

Well, I got the call. I'm giving too many As and failing too few students.

My numbers are very skewed by the one upper-level course I taught this year, where everyone did very well because of a generous concentration of points in low-stakes assessments--definitely too generous for a group who's actually going to regularly do the work.

But even so. Guess I have to be a hardass for the next few semesters.

[AmLitHist]

Well, I got the call. I'm giving too many As and failing too few students.

My numbers are very skewed by the one upper-level course I taught this year, where everyone did very well because of a generous concentration of points in low-stakes assessments--definitely too generous for a group who's actually going to regularly do the work.

But even so. Guess I have to be a hardass for the next few semesters.

I'm always waiting on the opposite email:  too many D/Fs, and too few passing grades.

[bio-nonymous]

Well, I got the call. I'm giving too many As and failing too few students.

My numbers are very skewed by the one upper-level course I taught this year, where everyone did very well because of a generous concentration of points in low-stakes assessments--definitely too generous for a group who's actually going to regularly do the work.

But even so. Guess I have to be a hardass for the next few semesters.

I'm always waiting on the opposite email:  too many D/Fs, and too few passing grades.

HA! "They" don't care how many A's and B's my students get, but if there are any C's it is a "the sky is falling" call to arms disaster for everyone. For context: this is medical/allied health professional school courses, so a "C" is considered unsatisfactory (students must remain above 3.0 GPA),and <C = F and automatic dismissal.

[apl68]

This week our library's HVAC system has pulled its annual beginning-of-summer flake-out.  Seriously, I don't believe we've had a single year in two decades that we didn't lose air conditioning right about the time the full summer heat set in.  The only difference from year to year is precisely what will go wrong with the system.  This time it was a broken coupling on the chilled water pump.  The pump itself probably needs replacing in the near future.  We had our usual expensive out-of-town service call yesterday, and the system is now up and running.

Also this week, I have a bad cold.  The need to oversee HVAC work, prepare for a Board of Trustees meeting tomorrow, take care of payroll, etc. means that I've still been having to come in each day.  I can usually only take half-days when I'm sick like this.

[AmLitHist]

VERY short version of my ongoing vent: the bone in my left foot that I broke 13 months ago is not, in fact, healed, per a CAT scan. A "really bad" surgery is in my future, with minimally 10 weeks of strict, no-fudging non-weight bearing to follow (and likely longer, based on my diabetes and slow healing history).

When the surgeon says it's "really bad" and tells me "don't be surprised if we have to redo it one or more times" (not to scare me, but to let me know what to expect) I know it's not going to be a great summer. Waiting now to hear from his nurse to get scheduled, sometime in July at the earliest. . . .

No garden for me this year, aside from sowing some flower seeds into the raised beds over the next couple of days, and planting my hanging baskets. I'm the gardener, not ALHS, and it's not fair to make a lot of work for him. Also, he's extremely anemic after his second knee replacement, and the 3-week quest to get him an iron infusion is still ongoing (another whole vent in itself).

Right now, I'm trying not to think about any of it as much as possible, and to get my ducks in a row so all the things I won't be able to do can get done ahead of time.  Mainly, I just absolutely HATE the NWB orders (though of course I understand why). This will be my third go-round in as many years. And I swear this ortho boot has grown onto my leg; I'd imagine I'll still be in it until at least Christmas time.

Trying to find bright spots:  (1) it's outpatient surgery, about 2 hours; (2) they'll take the bone graft from my heel, not my hip (so only 1 incision to worry about); and (3) think of all the crocheting I can get done while sitting on my fat butt all summer and fall.  :-/

TL; DR version:  getting old sucks. (And I'm "only" 63.)

[clean]

Hmmm.... Any chance that this can be delayed 6 weeks?  Here, no sick leave is available in the summer (unless you are teaching a class that starts after the illness/injury).   IF you can put it off until August, then you can access your sick leave and maybe recover over the Fall, when the weather is cooler for the PT that follows.   Otherwise, at least here, the sick leave built up over years, does no good. 

My own plans, to the extent possible, is to schedule surgery only in the long terms.  Im not going to lose a vacation and take a pay cut if unable to teach summer to get surgery.   No one should retire without ensuring that knees, hips, shoulders, hands, eyes, & anthing else are repaired before retirement... and the treatment should take place in the long semester while sick leave is available.   I dont write the rules, I just have to manage my plans within them.   If this causes difficulties for my employer, perhaps they will change the rules!  (but they wont!) 

Anyway, I hope that this is resolved quickly, with minimal pain and aggravation!  Good Luck! 

[AmLitHist]

Thanks, Clean. I already teach online every summer, so this won't interfere with that.

The problem with taking more partial FMLA in the fall is that it eliminates my chance for OL. I'm scheduled for load, plus 2 OL sections (as I was last fall when I had to take the entire semester off). Then, and again this fall if I have to do it, I was unable to teach my 2 F2F classes but still taught my 4-class load online. It probably makes me sound money-hungry, but I really need all the OL I can get, both to beef up my retirement as I near the end of my career, but also because I'm the only one working. (My spouse has been retired for 10+ years, with only minimal Social Security each month, and I also support our oldest adult child who is bipolar and has a TBI but has repeatedly been denied SSI.)

So. . . it will all work out, somehow. I'd just rather hobble to work for the first few weeks of the fall, if needed, and keep the online OL. Push come to shove, I'll get my doctor to prescribe/requisition an on-campus aide to help me get to/from the car when I teach (only Tuesdays and Thursdays). Aside from the OL, though, I do like your plan, Clean! We don't get to take our sick leave with us when we quit, either, and I have over a semester's worth built up. Once the pension is where I want it to be, I plan to take that semester off to do exactly as you say and get all the "maintenance" done while I still have the health insurance!

And I shouldn't be venting at all: I do have a job and insurance, so there's that.

[Parasaurolophus]

Seems to me you're well within your rights to gripe, AmLitHist! You don't seem to catch many breaks. Especially with that &!*/%(!ing foot.

[apl68]

That foot has been a trial to you, all right.  Sorry you've had to deal with it. 

[Langue_doc]

Sorry to hear about the foot travails, AmLitHist!

I'm at war with the CPAP supplier. I had to block them from my cell phone because they would call/text every.single.day, sometimes more than once to remind me to reorder supplies, which only the doctor can do. When the doctor did reorder the supplies, they called me when I couldn't take the call in private and hence didn't want to announce my date of birth--it's the same address, same insurance, same everything--the representative got into a huff and hung up. Now I have to call the insurance to see if I am required to give them my date of birth so that they can continue sending the refills ordered by my doctor. I'm not too happy with the CPAP doctor either as I had a lung CatScan, but no information whatsoever about the results other than the medical jargon posted on my patient portal and a recommendation to repeat the scan after three months. I could ask for clarification through the portal, but I think it's the prescribing doctor's responsibility to get back to the patient and explain the findings in plain English.