tomorrow, i will work tirelessly to organize my files, i will finish compiling course packets, and i will clear off the piles of papers on my desk at work. this is my promise to you, america.
Tag Archives: H–
whereabouts
a friend asked me today (or yesterday) what had happened to my blog, and i assume she was wondering about the decline in my posts, and the decline of content in the posts i DO manage to throw up. fair enough. i myself was wondering the same.
the thing is, someone at my illustrious job realized that i didn’t do much work all day, and things have Changed (change change change. enough already, obama!). and so, whereas i formerly documented my crazy random mindlessness during my work day, i now do not have that luxury. or i have less of it. so im trying to get into a new groove. writing in the evenings for a few minutes, hopefully.
and that’s the way it is, december 3, 2008.
free food (part deux)
so remember my post recently about all the free food i am learning to finagle here at H–? well, yesterday my co-workers and i heard really good things about a luncheon going on upstairs, so we prepared ourselves for a feast.
it actually takes more strategizing than you may think. firstly, you have to get to the room where the food is being served before the catering crew comes to clean it all up. secondly, you have to get to the room before the media guys (vultures that they are) come and eat everything. especially the media guy with the ponytail. we call him Ponytail Guy. he strips the spread to nothing and usually leaves us with only wilted salad leaves. but you can’t get there so early that the event is still going on, or that people are annoyed by your presence. anyway, it’s quite a balancing act.
so we planned our attack carefully yesterday — what time the event was ending, what time the room would empty, what time Ponytail Guy would come, etc. The time came and we, famished and exhilarated (nothing gets you through the day like planning a food coup against the media guys, lemme tell ya), made our way upstairs at 1:10 pm.
We were greeted by no less than 20 Secret Servicemen and women standing outside the lunch room. Postures erect, hands folded behind their backs, and those curly radio coils running behind their ears. No joke.
Turns out, the reason this luncheon was supposed to be so good was because it was for Ban Ki-Moon. Why yes, the same Ban Ki-Moon who is Secretary-General of the UN. Apparently he was having lunch at H– yesterday.
Needless to say, we didn’t score any of that food. We know when we’ve been beaten.
free lunch
no such thing as free lunch, you say? oh, but there is!
i feel that i’ve been remiss in documenting one of the most rewarding aspects of my employment here at H– : the incessant, almost to the point of predictable – free lunches. it’s not just that i get one every day; no, often i get two or three in one day. granted, sometimes it’s not lunch per se — last week, it was strawberries and lemon sorbet. but still, who’s complaining!
as of today, i have eaten the following free food this week: cookie, brownie, corn chowder, (there was pizza and salad on wednesday, but i opted out), carrot cake, a donut, grilled chicken, some tabouli-like salad, bean salad, dolmas, and fruit. — and rumor has it that later today is lasagna, soup and salad.
perhaps from now on, i should document what i’m eating every time i blog. usually, i’m nibbling on lunch when i’m blogging. and usually, it has cost me nothing. and by nothing, i mean no money. it’s probably easily costing me my waistline.
rumor has it
rumor has it that a certain employee at my place of employment has an incredibly sub-standard performance record. he works for a few hours a day: comes in when he wants and leaves when he wants. his supervisors are unsatisfied with him, and his colleagues aren’t too thrilled, either.
some time back, there was a small campaign to terminate his employment due to his repeated infractions, sub-standard performance, etc. but, as it turns out, this employee is an ethnic minority, gay, and disabled.
and my place of employment realized they couldn’t fire him. ever. no matter what he did. i mean, what would people say!?!?
at first, when i heard that, i was pretty mad. i mean — really?!?!?
then, after some consideration, i started thinking that maybe it’s okay. i mean, yes, clearly this employee is exploiting the system, exploiting people’s attempt at equality in the workplace. he’s compromising the quality of this institution as well, and in the metaphorical sense, making a statement that we as an institution aren’t engaged in maintaining the highest standards possible.
but maybe that really is only a small price to pay? maybe it’s worth it to give a little on quality, for a bigger cause, for the sake repairing a system that has had an atrocious tendency towards discrimination against “others.” in a sense, his continued employment is part of the stand against discrimination. yes, some people will take advantage of that, but maybe we have to acknowledge and allow that risk to ensure a greater good? it’s like Thomas Jefferson said once about the trial-by-jury, innocent-until-proven-guilty system: even if some guilty people go free, having 1000 freed guilty men is better than 1 incarcerated innocent man. (actually, i don’t know if Jefferson said that. it might have been my dad. and of course tons of guilty men go free, and tons of innocent men are in jail — lot of ‘em on death row, too, from what i hear :P ). point being that maybe this employee is an unfortunate side-effect to a worthy cure. all of this was my consideration, and i felt more okay about things.
but then, he just got up and left at 2:30 pm yesterday, when i wanted to leave, and i was mad about it again.
same old, same new
it’s my second day on the job here at H– and (and i can’t tell if this is surprising or not, even to me) it’s much the same as working at UT. don’t get me wrong – it’s exactly what i love about working on campuses – the faculty, students, the dynamics, etc. the fact that campuses are campuses, academes are academes, and the summer is the summer no matter where you go, as long as you’re on a campus and surrounded by academes.
i guess before i launch into a reflective prose on my day, i should give you the facts. the facts are these: i, ndr, am now employed at H–, in the School of Government, as a faculty assistant. all faculty members here are entitled to a part-time assistant, and depending on how much the faculty needs his or her assistant (i.e., what percentage of the assistant’s salary the faculty member is willing to pay for), each assistant has several faculty members to care for (a few people have one-on-one assistants, but most of us cover for several people; i have 6).
Dr. FT1 (full-time faculty #1) buys 11.5 hours of my time; Dr. FT2 buys 6 hours of my time; Dr. FT3 buys 8 hours of my time; and Drs. ADJ1 (adjunct faculty #1), ADJ2, ADJ3 each buy 3 hours of my time. What’s that, you say? Those numbers only total 34.5 hours/week? Why, yes; yes, you are right. Because in the great and amazing Commonwealth of Massachusetts, 35 hours/week is considered full-time. I know, crazy, right!?!? no wonder the Pilgrims came here.
Anyway, I digress. The facts continue: its not as structured as it sounds; I don’t keep 6 separate time sheets, I don’t log in my work by hours or anything like that. It’s just a rough estimate of how much of my workload is devoted to each faculty member.
so back to my less factual observations (which, i ought to point out, are just as true as the facts themselves): because these six faculty members are like all faculty members everywhere, they’re not here for the summer – overseas, on vacation, researching, or just out, as it goes. so there is very little work (as in, none) for me to do. which, it seems, is the norm in the summers. i work near two other girls, both of whom are stretching for things to do as well. the department lets us take short lunches so we can leave early, or start earlier/later and leave earlier/later. the grad students who are here are wandering around, looking slightly lost but no less intelligent for it. i got sent home early yesterday because there was literally no work to do — the IT guys hadn’t had a chance to hook up my computer or phones. it is, as i said, pretty much the same as any other campus job.
except, of course, for the secret service and state police details which are here because a high-ranking Navy Admiral is visiting for the day.
