The Venting Thread

[Bbmaj7b5]

Back from a five day hospital stay. At least the fever is gone.

[mahagonny]

Sorry Bbmaj7b5. Feel better.

[Harlow2]

Hope you are feeling better today, Bbmaj7b5.

[mamselle]

Indeed.

M.

[Harlow2]

Unrelated. An expectation by one unit of the university that 10-month faculty are available on a week's notice to do something time consuming about which we were not warned. We couldn't possibly have research obligations or family needs, or even deserve time off? It got worked out but the assumption is sticking in my craw.  [need to find out what exactly a craw is]

[apl68]

[need to find out what exactly a craw is]

A bird's crop.  Colloquially, your stomach or gut.  When stuff like this happens to you, it does sometimes make you feel like there's something unsettled deep inside, doesn't it?

I grew up hearing "craw" still used in daily speech.  Not sure how common it is anymore.

[mamselle]

Yes, plus, maybe "hard to swallow," as well.

M.

[waterboy]

For me, it would mostly be a pain at the other end.

[Harlow2]

These are great.  Thanks for the laugh, Waterboy.

[clean]

Admincritters dont know boundaries.  If they are working, then everyone should work!    AS you are not teaching classes, you have Plenty of time for these extra things.  Besides, they are ONLY THINKING OF YOU!  They dont want you to be bored for find your life meaningless, so To HELP Give your Life Meaning, they have shown you how valuable you are ALL YEAR! by making these tasks available for your expertise! 

One way to handle such requests is to use an Auto Reply... something like, "I am not currently contracted to be on campus before August Never, 2021. As such, I am not checking my emails.  After that date,  please resend your email as appropriate."

One of my coworkers makes it clear that she is ON VACATION until August 19 and will not be on campus, answer emails, attend meetings, or return calls.

She said she had to do that because the dean and her chair would still 'ask' her to come to campus to have meetings 'of great importance To THEM' and irrelevant to her!    By stating 'VACATION" the 'harassment stopped'

[jimbogumbo]

Colleague of over 30 years just retired this Summer. Went in for routine gall bladder surgery, and while in the surgeon discovered an aggressive form of cancer in a nearby organ. Stage IV.

Shit.

[lightning]

Unrelated. An expectation by one unit of the university that 10-month faculty are available on a week's notice to do something time consuming about which we were not warned. We couldn't possibly have research obligations or family needs, or even deserve time off? It got worked out but the assumption is sticking in my craw.  [need to find out what exactly a craw is]

I vented about this a few years ago, on this thread, I think. I got into quite an exchange with people who sympathized with the admincritters.

Some of them even used the silly argument that my health insurance, library access, and tech support are in effect over the summer, so I should be available in the summers. I countered, that with that logic, none of use should have health insurance, library access, and tech support during Xmas/NY holidays, Thanksgiving, between the hours of 5 PM and 8 AM on weekdays, and nothing at all on the weekends.

It's similar to the idiotic notion that lawyers should only be paid for their time, when in the courtroom.

[lightning]

Admincritters dont know boundaries.  If they are working, then everyone should work!    AS you are not teaching classes, you have Plenty of time for these extra things.  Besides, they are ONLY THINKING OF YOU!  They dont want you to be bored for find your life meaningless, so To HELP Give your Life Meaning, they have shown you how valuable you are ALL YEAR! by making these tasks available for your expertise! 

One way to handle such requests is to use an Auto Reply... something like, "I am not currently contracted to be on campus before August Never, 2021. As such, I am not checking my emails.  After that date,  please resend your email as appropriate."

One of my coworkers makes it clear that she is ON VACATION until August 19 and will not be on campus, answer emails, attend meetings, or return calls.

She said she had to do that because the dean and her chair would still 'ask' her to come to campus to have meetings 'of great importance To THEM' and irrelevant to her!    By stating 'VACATION" the 'harassment stopped'

I don't even bother with auto-response emails, anymore. I'll get to their emails on my official first day back, if the email is actually important. My boundaries are my non-response.

[mamselle]

That's a bit passive-aggressive if there's truly something going on that is emergent, or if people start worrying that you're ill (which is a concern these days.)

M.

[Harlow2]

Admincritters dont know boundaries.  If they are working, then everyone should work!    AS you are not teaching classes, you have Plenty of time for these extra things.  Besides, they are ONLY THINKING OF YOU!  They dont want you to be bored for find your life meaningless, so To HELP Give your Life Meaning, they have shown you how valuable you are ALL YEAR! by making these tasks available for your expertise! 

One way to handle such requests is to use an Auto Reply... something like, "I am not currently contracted to be on campus before August Never, 2021. As such, I am not checking my emails.  After that date,  please resend your email as appropriate."

One of my coworkers makes it clear that she is ON VACATION until August 19 and will not be on campus, answer emails, attend meetings, or return calls.

She said she had to do that because the dean and her chair would still 'ask' her to come to campus to have meetings 'of great importance To THEM' and irrelevant to her!    By stating 'VACATION" the 'harassment stopped'

Oh, my.  In my case the "mandatory meeting" and demands came not from admins but from a support department (not IRT—who are wonderful—but something analogous) staffed by people who routinely make assumptions about faculty though they do not have advanced degrees and haven't ever taught.  But they do hold some power that could make things quite sticky.