Saturday, March 10, 2007

What I Don't Like

Mainly, I love my job. The academic life rocks. I like teaching, I like students, I like advising, and there is nothing like being paid to think for a living. If someone had told me when I was ten that I would have an office with a window and books and someone sending me money every month to think about those books all day and then go help other people think about them, and write about them too? I mean, yikes.

On the other hand. Committee meetings.

Because, and someone should do a formula for this I think, the more academics you get into a room, the less you can EVER POSSIBLY GET DONE.

One of us in an office alone by herself? Mountains get moved.

Two, and we can still knock over boulders, so long as one of us is clearly in charge, or willing to take charge.

Three, and we enter swampland territory.

I'm on a committee with fourteen people on it, from all over campus. We spent, and I kid you not, two and a half hours trying to decide how we would *vote*. I mean just the basics of the vote -- would it be a anonymous or a show of hands? Paper ballot or email? Should the votes be ranked? Was 1 high or was 5 high? Now you know me, I lean toward the far left side of socialism, but by the end of the second hour of this, I was ready to take up the fasces and start laying about. No fucking shit.

And I've been in committee meetings all week, which means none of my midterms got graded.

My poor thumping head.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

2-1/2 hours just deciding how to vote? Did you at least get donuts out of this brain mash? -L

delagar said...

Alas, no donuts. We did have a box of generic Ritz crackers we were passing around. What a sad meeting this was.