Speaking of labor....
Is there anybody you like at work? Is there anybody for whom you'd walk through Hell in a gasoline suit?
There is one person I'd give my annual salary to if he just asked. I wouldn't call it a loan. I wouldn't ask for a reason. I'd just give it to him. I stumbled upon him many years ago. He has always treated me right. We have had many "conversations"--with subtext and pretext and all the other kinds of text--without actually acknowledging whatever was at the heart of the conversation. He's too old to reliably be my "pal." But he has shared off-color jokes and secrets and genuine personal heartache. He has spontaneously and successfully intervened with the school president when injustice put my ass on the line.
I don't trust most of the people at my school. There are more than a few who have my conditional love. And then there's that one person.
You guessed it: He's the one who hired me. He took a chance on me. Then, I earned his trust. He gained mine as well. He's always got my back now. I do whatever I can for him. We broadcast none of this, and I don't know if anybody else realizes we have this relationship. After all, sometimes he and I go for months without even saying hello. I've never even been to his home. But he has always found a way to protect me at work. He doesn't stand on my side in every battle, but he has never let me lose the war. I think people must be aware of what we've got between us. It's kind of a cliché, isn't it?
Q. Who's your favorite person at work? And why?
A. _____________________
What a nice story, Bubba. I don't have anyone like that being as new as I am, but I certainly hope I will one day, or barring that, maybe I'll be that person to someone younger.
ReplyDeleteHappy Labour Day, folks!
My story is exactly the same -- I cherish the person who hired me and nurtured me through my junior career. She's retired now, but she was a spectacular example of female leadership: fair, tough, unintimidated, warm but not fuzzy. All the junior women (and we were all women) wanted to be her when we grew up. Now that we are all senior and in leadership positions in the department, we've hired a fantastic bunch of men and women, too, and have tried to be equally good mentors. I think our department is a better place because we learned so much from her a decade ago.
ReplyDeleteThere is one person I'd give my annual salary to if he just asked. I wouldn't call it a loan. I wouldn't ask for a reason. I'd just give it to him.
ReplyDeleteI've paid for a round of drinks before, too.
I am lucky enough to work with several people whom I like and respect. Four of them teach in my specific discipline, and another four teach in areas covered by my department, and one of them runs our department--our administrative assistant. Among these is the only person to have offered me real, immediate friendship upon my hiring in.
ReplyDeleteThere are some scattered throughout the college, too, among both faculty and staff.
Sadly, though, because of the nature of teaching at a CC--which is to say, teaching nearly all the time--I don't get to spend enough time with any of them.
I like and respect many of my colleagues, but, as AdunctSlave's comment suggests, there are some structural barriers to the sort of relationships Bubba and F&T describe when there's no possibility of the junior colleague "growing up" to be the senior colleague, at least not at the same university (and probably not anywhere else either, though the job I hold, at least, was originally designed with that in mind). At my university, the situation is worsened by the fact that the contingent career track(s), such as they are, are very much still under construction, and subject to unexpected delays, detours, and other mid-course changes at the whim of upper administration. I've been frustrated, and my trust has been seriously eroded, by senior colleagues' failure to challenge such arbitrary decisions when they adversely affected me, but I'm beginning to suspect that they may be more hamstrung than I realized. That isn't cheering, or trust-enhancing, either (since they won't quite come out and admit it, though, when pressed, they're coming closer, which is actually an improvement on "trust us; it will work out," when the bottom line is that, so far, it sometimes hasn't).
ReplyDeleteI'm in a much better position to form positive relationships with fellow contingent faculty, and, though I can't afford to turn over a year's salary, I'm certainly willing to do things like cover classes, grade student work, or share unused medical leave if someone is seriously ill. Actually, I'm willing to do those things for TT colleagues as well, but the need/opportunity is less likely to arise.
Somehow, my department head has assembled a group of people in my department who are actually friends with each other. The worst of my colleagues is a guy who just keeps to himself, nice to everybody but doesn't socialize. At the other end of the spectrum, are guys who I hang out with every week after work and have playdates with the kids. It is truly one of the best parts of the job.
ReplyDelete@AdjunctSlave: Sorry that your statement might be close to true but that was pretty clever.
The guy that hired me was wonderful. He died a few years after retirement, but I still think of him often. I have another retired colleague who was equally wonderful; I still go to him for advice and support.
ReplyDeleteInstitutional culture is powerful and very slow to change, and if you have the good luck to be hired into a supportive department, even after most of the individuals have changed, there's some chance that it will continue to be a good place to work. This is also true, sadly, of a toxic workplace. My department has become colder now that the old guard has retired; we current crop are generally amicable and invariably courteous, but we aren't friends. The last generation used to go hiking together; I can't imagine us doing that. But we are all on the same team, and aren't engaged, at least, in trying to knife each other in the back. I credit the older generation entirely for this; they taught us the rules of engagement by precept and example before they left.
I can't stand a single one of them. If I walked away from the place tomorrow I would neither miss any of them nor ever look them up again.
ReplyDeleteThe person who hired me has sadly retired, but I would have died for that person. No one else at work comes close to deserving my devotion.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the less miserable post.
I had not before reckoned on the adjunct system preventing that sort of long, slow apprenticeship to a senior person, but of course it does. And that is really, really sad.
ReplyDeleteThe man I consider my most important mentor and the one who gave me the most support in my career was only around for my first year. He retired (after 38 years) at the end of that year, and was diagnosed with brain cancer 1 month later. He died 1 year later. I still miss him, although I only knew him for those short years. His gentle humor, quiet and knowing smile, heartfelt support, and words of wisdom still guide me. I try to channel his spirit when I interact with newer colleagues and with adjunct faculty, although I know I am a poor substitute.
ReplyDeleteIn my new job... I really don't know. I'm entirely too new, everyone seems very nice, and I'm only getting hints at the political underpinnings just yet.
ReplyDeleteIn my field? I absolutely know who that person is though. She's a wonderful senior faculty member at another institution who was willing to take me under wing, who laughs at my jokes (in fact, it may be a goal of mine to get her to laugh at entirely inappropriate times because it's so much fun), who helped me on the job market, would move hell and high water when things have gone wrong, and has taught me a lot about what senior faculty and even administrators can be like.
I wanna grow up and be her, no doubts about it.