Things that annoy me

  • Text messages from numbers I don't recognize. One of them was creepy enough to put me on edge for the rest of the day. This is especially annoying because I don't have a text plan, so I end up paying for every one of these messages.* Hey stupidheads, stop texting me already!
  • Having to micromanage my tenure process. Oh sure, we have all of these nice checks and balances in place to make sure this doesn't happen and make life somewhat easier for the tenure candidate. Is anyone surprised that all of my senior colleagues are by and large ignoring all of these checks and balances? At this point, I'd like to just chuck the whole process down the drain and just have my department vote now: keep her or toss her? Somehow, I think that would be more humane and less time-consuming.
  • Students who don't follow EXPLICIT DIRECTIONS ON ASSIGNMENTS THAT ARE CLEARLY MARKED AS SUCH (like so) and then get all bent out of shape when they get points taken off on said assignments.
  • Toddlers that assert their independence at bedtime on nights when I'm exhausted but have like 80 hours of work to do before bedtime.
  • Bad organizers who refuse to delegate. I sense a mini-disaster brewing, but am powerless to prevent it.
  • Administrative rhetoric.
  • The fact that I am completely exhausted all the time for no good reason.

What's annoying you this week?

* yes, I will be contacting my service provider to get them taken off my bill, but still, it's a hassle I don't have time to deal with this week.

More like this

College is still a fairly recent memory for me. I always went exactly to directions as posted in the syllabus.

That said I've seen a syllabus or three that contradicted itself. That's because the univeristy insisted on boilerplate and the instructor didn't read through the boilerplate.

Then there were the few times where an instructor had to bow out mid-term for one reason or another. Then you'd have a new instructor come in and try to change the terms. Oh hell no.

"Bad organizers who refuse to delegate." - I hate to admit it but that's me to a T.

I'm exceptionally annoyed this week at supervisors who take half an hour to ask me to perform the simplest of tasks. Requests which should consist if a single sentence suddenly stretch into yawn-inducing yarns of incredible length. Seriously, it's killing me...

Whenever I messed up an assignment with explicit directions (it was always something small, but still...) I would always apologize to the TA or prof who graded it for being retarded. I got a sense that they didn't hear students own up to their mistakes that often, and that won points for me in the long run as long as I didn't make such mistakes again.

You are tired all the time because the tenure year is very stressful, that constant low-grade stress, *especially* when you, like me, find that you are having to do all the work and reminders. You are in a situation that is: high-impact (for your life), where other people aren't doing their job (making sure the tenure process proceeds smoothly), where you have to take on all the responsibility with none of the power.

So don't think it's just a tenure folder, how can you be so exhausted from this. You absolutely can.

You can block some cell phone spam: http://pogue.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/06/12/how-to-block-cellphone-spam/

Also you may find it helpful to take a weekend off from work. Just your family and a little indulgence. Or you may find it helpful to look at other jobs and apply for some (take some of the power back!). I did, and look, here I am in a different job.

By After Tenure (not verified) on 21 Jan 2009 #permalink

I have a text plan but used to get very annoying messages from someone looking for Trina. I informed him I wasn't Trina but that just meant he wanted to get to know me! I started ignoring it after that and he went away. (Then he came back, but this time I said I wasn't Trina and he was all, "really? ok" and went away.)

Today I got completely annoyed when I tried to switch computers from one that doesn't work right to a loaner, only the loaner has the wrong versions of everything which means I can't use it to do anything but check e-mail until I update it. Argh. Fortunately the broken one isn't *very* broken, since I'm in the middle of progress reports. Which is a whole other annoyance.

And in general this week I'm annoyed at students who don't turn work in! It isn't that hard! They don't want to turn it in until it's right, but then they never finish it. And they're too immature to realize that I can give partial credit for something that's wrong but they get a huge fat zero for something they don't turn in at all!

What annoys me? This week, it is a colleague who is also a close friend of mine. Said friend keeps his meetings with everyone else in the known university, yet often blows me off because "we're friends, and I'll understand". I feel like I would be MOST inclined to treat my friend-colleagues nicely precisely because I like them. Grr.

Students who don't follow EXPLICIT DIRECTIONS ON ASSIGNMENTS THAT ARE CLEARLY MARKED AS SUCH (like so) and then get all bent out of shape when they get points taken off on said assignments.

Hi!
Been teaching high school science for almost 20 years and ... blew a fuse myself just yesterday about just that with 2 groups (chemistry and physics, kids going to our equivalent of college next year!). The poor students did not understand...

Also, this is important to me 'cause I've returned to Uni. (going for a master's degree at forty + with a full time job and 3 kids...) and I always make sure I read the Info on my assignments very carefully, like 3 times before calling for help. I NEVER send in work that does not follow directions. So I have absolutely NO patience with my students when they do...

Salut du Québec!