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Work update...
Oct. 22nd, 2009 10:18 amIt's finally not quite so crazy here at work. I got three new students hired and rehired a student from last year. They are all marvelous and I've gotten several huge thank you's from the department chair and the other staff members upstairs. I'm so glad it worked out that way. My new student is also very good and she's an incredible organizer. I've had her organize several storage areas with fantastic results.
I've also hired a part-time temp for the dean's office. She is also wonderful and needs very little direction. She's been working in another Dean's office for the last few years so she understands what is necessary.
This has given me some breathing room. My boss is also trying to find something I can do to get out of the office regularly. Something like a class or leadership training. But so far we haven't found anything that appeals that I haven't already done. I am taking a water aerobics class three days a week and it's very nice. I take an hour and a half for lunch on those days which gives me a break. I have to be careful not to overdo it but the instructor is very big on everyone doing what they can at their own speed and level. It was interesting to see that I'd been doing pretty much the same moves on my own in the pool. The class, however, pushes me to do it a little more vigorously. On my own, I'm inclined to be lazy.
If I'm honest, right now I'm more of a traffic director. I have very little secretarial work (I hate that term, btw), which is actually appropriate for my job description. I'm mostly coordinating projects, offering insight, providing direction and keeping the big picture in view. Some days that doesn't amount to much. Other days it's more than I can do. My most recent project was to put the fall syllabi on the website. In doing so I ran across the syllabi for two separate sections of the same course. They were distinctly different. I sent them back to the department chair with the question, "If they are the same course, shouldn't they at least have the same course outcomes?" It's a combination of little piddly stuff and big picture views.
The good news is that we are not moving to Bend! However, that does not mean there are not going to be some major changes. The university has implemented minimum and maximum sizes for lots of things. Classes and department size fall under the minimums. Classes are no problem but neither of our academic departments has enough tenured track faculty to meet the university minimum size. TCE might just barely make it with the acquisition of the faculty from Math and Science Education (another change). But AHE will not- they only have two tenured faculty. It's a very small department with several vacancies. So it's likely they will have to be rolled into the same department as TCE. No one knows what this will look like or who will be chair. It's a major change that's coming down the pike. If I'd have to guess, I'd bet that I'll be taking on the schedule for both departments and not just TCE. *sigh* I really hate the schedule of classes!
I find it difficult to drag myself to work each day. The same thing that motivates me also discourages me. There are messes to clean up- If I'm not at work, there will be even more. I feel very needed but mostly unacknowledged. The Dean, Associate Dean, and TCE Dept. Chair are very appreciative of my work but the rest of the faculty is very dismissive. I find I need to adjust my own attitude because I have at least 20 more years of work and it will be misery if I hate going to work every day.
This has lead me to a conundrum. Marian sent me a job posting. It's a job for which I'm very qualified. It pays a lot more (like $10,000 a year more). It's in Eugene. It's professional faculty...But it's not quite the direction I want to go. I'd lose all my seniority. And being professional faculty in this economy is dangerous. They are the first cut and any tenure track faculty member who finds themselves downsized has the right to take a professional faculty position away from a non-tenured person. On the other hand, most faculty aren't willing to demean themselves by being anyone's assistant and Dean's assistant's aren't often cut. So I'm not sure what to do. I can't seem to balance the pros and cons in a way that makes it perfectly clear. I love the people I work with and I'm comfortable here but is that to my detriment? Not knowing the Dean I'd be working for makes me rather nervous. I wouldn't be our dean's assistant for all the money in the world, but I only know that because I've worked with him for almost 10 years (not that he's a monster but we have very different outlooks and styles). And, as I told my boss, "It's interesting to see what will happen here next...It's like a train wreck; you just can't stop watching." So I'm dithering. Mom and Dad, for a change, aren't willing to offer advice on this one. They aren't sure what's right either. I suppose it wouldn't hurt to apply. There is no guarantee I'd get the job and there is always the ability to turn it down if I do. But it's a lot of work to invest in something I'm not sure about.
I've also hired a part-time temp for the dean's office. She is also wonderful and needs very little direction. She's been working in another Dean's office for the last few years so she understands what is necessary.
This has given me some breathing room. My boss is also trying to find something I can do to get out of the office regularly. Something like a class or leadership training. But so far we haven't found anything that appeals that I haven't already done. I am taking a water aerobics class three days a week and it's very nice. I take an hour and a half for lunch on those days which gives me a break. I have to be careful not to overdo it but the instructor is very big on everyone doing what they can at their own speed and level. It was interesting to see that I'd been doing pretty much the same moves on my own in the pool. The class, however, pushes me to do it a little more vigorously. On my own, I'm inclined to be lazy.
If I'm honest, right now I'm more of a traffic director. I have very little secretarial work (I hate that term, btw), which is actually appropriate for my job description. I'm mostly coordinating projects, offering insight, providing direction and keeping the big picture in view. Some days that doesn't amount to much. Other days it's more than I can do. My most recent project was to put the fall syllabi on the website. In doing so I ran across the syllabi for two separate sections of the same course. They were distinctly different. I sent them back to the department chair with the question, "If they are the same course, shouldn't they at least have the same course outcomes?" It's a combination of little piddly stuff and big picture views.
The good news is that we are not moving to Bend! However, that does not mean there are not going to be some major changes. The university has implemented minimum and maximum sizes for lots of things. Classes and department size fall under the minimums. Classes are no problem but neither of our academic departments has enough tenured track faculty to meet the university minimum size. TCE might just barely make it with the acquisition of the faculty from Math and Science Education (another change). But AHE will not- they only have two tenured faculty. It's a very small department with several vacancies. So it's likely they will have to be rolled into the same department as TCE. No one knows what this will look like or who will be chair. It's a major change that's coming down the pike. If I'd have to guess, I'd bet that I'll be taking on the schedule for both departments and not just TCE. *sigh* I really hate the schedule of classes!
I find it difficult to drag myself to work each day. The same thing that motivates me also discourages me. There are messes to clean up- If I'm not at work, there will be even more. I feel very needed but mostly unacknowledged. The Dean, Associate Dean, and TCE Dept. Chair are very appreciative of my work but the rest of the faculty is very dismissive. I find I need to adjust my own attitude because I have at least 20 more years of work and it will be misery if I hate going to work every day.
This has lead me to a conundrum. Marian sent me a job posting. It's a job for which I'm very qualified. It pays a lot more (like $10,000 a year more). It's in Eugene. It's professional faculty...But it's not quite the direction I want to go. I'd lose all my seniority. And being professional faculty in this economy is dangerous. They are the first cut and any tenure track faculty member who finds themselves downsized has the right to take a professional faculty position away from a non-tenured person. On the other hand, most faculty aren't willing to demean themselves by being anyone's assistant and Dean's assistant's aren't often cut. So I'm not sure what to do. I can't seem to balance the pros and cons in a way that makes it perfectly clear. I love the people I work with and I'm comfortable here but is that to my detriment? Not knowing the Dean I'd be working for makes me rather nervous. I wouldn't be our dean's assistant for all the money in the world, but I only know that because I've worked with him for almost 10 years (not that he's a monster but we have very different outlooks and styles). And, as I told my boss, "It's interesting to see what will happen here next...It's like a train wreck; you just can't stop watching." So I'm dithering. Mom and Dad, for a change, aren't willing to offer advice on this one. They aren't sure what's right either. I suppose it wouldn't hurt to apply. There is no guarantee I'd get the job and there is always the ability to turn it down if I do. But it's a lot of work to invest in something I'm not sure about.
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