Wednesday, January 13, 2016

"Skype Nightmare." From Ticked Off Teddy in Tennessee.

I have a colleague who has been here for years but recently got his own webcam. Now he Skypes during office hours: wife, friend in Seattle, fantasy basketball person somewhere, his mom sometimes.

It's always louder than needs to be, and he doesn't wear headphones so I get to hear both ends of the always inane conversations.

"Yeah, Melissa is burning my ass about that dinner party."

"I need a shooting guard. You've got all the good ones. Take a look at my team and see if we can make a swap."

"Mom, I said you have to quit using Internet Explorer."

Then of course sometimes the job comes up.

"These students are burning my ass today."

"Nah, I'm not doing anything. Just waiting for that stupid 1 o'clock class."

Occasionally I get up and close my door. Yesterday I slammed it hard. I could still hear him cooing to his fucking dog or cat that his wife was holding up to the camera at home.

"Honey bunny, it's daddy. Are you eating your crackers?"

Going to class is a relief for me now.

7 comments:

  1. I have to admit I may be more like your neighbor than you. I am MADE to spend 10 hours a week in my office, even though I live nearby and simply prefer to work there.

    So when I'm at the office I treat it like the house. I eat, watch funny videos, kick my shoes off, sit on my couch. I have seriously not considered that my antics might bug some people, but I'm a little tone deaf about those things because I sincerely don't care what my colleagues do in their offices or classrooms. (I'm not an administrator, thank God.)

    But this post has made me think - DAMN THAT POST.

    Hector

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  2. I have a slightly different noise issue: the vent which feeds air (more or less) into my office goes straight to the classroom next door, and if the instructor is standing more or less center front, I can hear everything they say. So I get lectured pretty regularly during my office hours. I turn on the radio to cover it sometimes, but I know that if I turn it up too high, it'll be heard. (Which raises FERPA questions, but let's not go there)

    It's not a big deal most of the time, but when they do movies.... ugh.

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  3. I get movies through the ceiling. And the class on protest themes in '60s rock songs was a real party, apparently.

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  4. How about everyone, including judge-y Hector just doing school work at school?

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  5. My office...where to start? It is a former seminar room that was split into two offices, but the wall between only goes to the drop ceiling. So I get to hear what happens in that office all day, every day. (nothing salacious, but sometimes it is hard to concentrate). My next door neighbor's phone is apparently on a party line with my own. I rarely use it, but hearing his conversations has caused me to use my phone only for webinars. I don't even put the number on my syllabus any more.

    And the best part of all is that when my building was constructed they "forgot" to fill it with sound proofing material. This makes it easy for me to hear - all day long - the music lessons given up and down the hallway in my building.

    Wait, I take it back. The "best" past of all is that we have a total of 4 rooms with windows in our building. I of course don't rate one. Not even on my office door.

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  6. How about everyone . . . just doing school work at school?

    Because of all the "homework" I do at home.

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