Wednesday, March 27, 2013

I'm Baffled By the New Chair

He doesn't answer phone calls. He replies with a text message instead. LONG text messages.

He's 40. He acts 24.

He has that victim mentality that is so charming. He was the only one from the department who was at a recent off campus meeting, so during a departmental meeting someone said, "Could you fill us in on what happened?" He replied, "Well, if it's going to be ALL on me..." Well, shit, not all of it, but you were there. Can we not ask questions?

He'll tell you exactly what you want to hear, whether or not its the truth, whether or not he can actually deliver what he's saying. He'll do it all the way up and down the hall, too.

13 comments:

  1. "Listen, we like you. That's why we chose you to be chair. So you already have our undying affection. But you're going to lose it if you aren't honest with us. On the other hand, if you're honest with us, then you'll be entitled to complain and we'll throw you a party when you retire. How about that? Deal?"

    However he gets it, he needs some honest feedback himself. If he doesn't get the feedback, then the department has only itself--or maybe a dean, too?--to blame.

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  2. Our Chair is the coolest... said nobody ever.

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    Replies
    1. My Chair is the coolest. Ditto my Dean.

      Honest.

      It's just about the only good stuff here at SafetySchoolU.

      Downside: the chair is making noises about making me the next chair. That'll fix it.

      Delete
    2. Same here. Two in a row, in fact. The last chair was awesome, even if he was a curmudgeon, and the new chair is one of the coolest folks in the department. Both of them great guys - committed to diversity, protecting the department and its faculty, good to the staff, kind to animals, etc.

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  3. Yes, the victim! I have one colleague who can take any event and turn it into an attack on her, even things that aren't even associated with her. That negative energy makes most meetings painful. I can see other colleagues wince when a problem or challenge comes up.

    She uttered one day, apropos of nothing, "I'm doing the best I can. I guess I'm the one not pulling her weight. God knows I try, but what with my hip trouble from last year and now this pain in my back, it's a wonder I even get here at all."

    There was a lull, and then we went back to talking about changing our research paper rubrics.

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    Replies
    1. OMG, we have a clone of your colleague in our department. EVERYTHING is an attack on her, including the fact that she doesn't check her email, so never knows what's going on. "FML! Why wasn't I told about this?" is a common phrase used. Um... no one was TOLD about it; we all checked email and saw the info there. Checking you email, you lazy gopher." Thankfully, this clone isn't our chair, and we pretty much do what you do when she acts passive aggressive.

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    2. We have one too. She has jumped into a discussion of class size and lab safety with "Well, I feel insulted" -- delivered with a big, chilly smile. She also has very loud, hail- fellow-well-met conversations in her office, complete with ear-piercing laughter that we can hear all over the floor.

      Do you remember Dolores Umbridge from the Harry Potter books? Imelda Staunton nailed her in the movie. That's the demeanor (and wardrobe, and office decorating style) of our Professor Victim.

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    3. Well, it's all about ME. I don't know how the department, after all these years, could have failed to grasp that. Here, let me remind you. Again.

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  4. This sounds like a golden opportunity. Get your chair to commit to doing something you want (money, time, courses, whatever) and then sneakily get him to commit to it in writing. Then echo it back to him with a reply-to-all-department to make it public. Then profit.

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  5. So was he not like this when you voted for him to be chair?

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    Replies
    1. Huh??? Our Dean appointed him on the recommendation of the past chair. Nobody else would have wanted him in charge of anything more strenuous than ordering Sharpies.

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    2. Oh, that sucks! We get a vote on who becomes our next chair. Can you get a say in whether he doesn't remain as chair?

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