It's just a mini-rant, in non-haiku form. I'm taking a couple of months off this summer for the first time in two years, and people will not leave me alone. I have a vacation responder on my email -- something that should be enough to keep people away -- but, no, LD3C has actually mailed me information that was originally emailed and to which I didn't respond ... while I'm not on the books ... while I'm on vacation. Requests for meetings. Requests for information. Requests for participation in seminars and committees.
Bugger off. Bugger, bugger, bugger, bugger, bugger off.
So there.
Cheer up, Greta! I'd be glad to lend you my staple gun! Make sure to staple them down out of reach of a keyboard or other electronic device, so they'll be unable to send any more e-mail for the rest of the summer. Indeed, for the young, modern a-go-go generation, this would be worse than staking them out on an anthill. How I enjoy being an evil mad scientist!
ReplyDeleteCommiserations. I sometimes think that we ought to concede that most of us actually *do* work during the summer, negotiate the requisite 25% raise in pay and a real vacation (all commensurate with that claimed by the deans who insist that the main explanation for their much-higher salaries is the 12-month nature of their jobs), block out the time genuinely needed for teaching prep, professional development, and (where required) research and writing, teach a summer class or two if all of the above genuinely allow, and carry on. At the moment, I and an increasing number of my colleagues (including a good many tenured colleagues) basically have to teach during the summer, but are compensated at a somewhat lower than normal rate (though not, thank goodness, the adjunct rate), especially when you take into account the fact that summer salary doesn't include benefits (health is already taken care of during the 9-month period; 10% retirement contributions simply vanish). And apparently the budgeting works quite differently, which may allow certain people to treat summer term as a profit center/source of a slush fund.
ReplyDeleteThe problem, of course, is that it's extremely unlikely that we'd get the full raise, especially if we insisted on the paid prep professional development time (rather than managing to teach another 3, 4, or 5 courses over the summer).
And I do sort of like the bit of quiet time I do get, which seems to be getting shorter and shorter, but is still more than most (non-European) people with full-time jobs get. Of course, I'm not on the tenure track, and don't have service responsibilities, which helps. There *are* some occasional advantages to the marginal nature of my job.
P.S. I'm glad you're getting a bit of a break, however interrupted. I'm also impressed by how determinedly boundary-busting your colleagues are. Getting one's act together to send something by postal mail takes effort these days (well, it takes effort for me; I have to find the stamps, and the envelopes, and the postal rate chart. . .). I don't suppose you can accuse them of stalking?
DeleteP.P.S. I think there might be at least a bit of poetry at the end there. No, it's not haiku, but "Bugger, bugger, bugger, bugger, bugger off" has a nice rhythm to it.
Bugger off, get lost
ReplyDeleteBugger bugger bugger off
Get lost, bugger off
Haiku-ish in form, and directed most sincerely to those hassling both you and me for paperwork.