I’m actually working on a poem about this very subject: long nails on the computer keyboard. I do appreciate the passive-aggressive notes in the workplace. Not that I really approve, but I often find that they express so much that is oftn unsaid. And the comments in this thread quickly devolve.
I am drinking one of those bottled Starbucks Frappucino thingies and these things are a-okay. Yet, I can’t stand the in-store crap. I’m thinking it’s because this has lots and lots of sugar, more than I can possibly add on my own. 31 grams. But, it has reduced fat milk. So that’s all right then.
Also, I have finally joined Crackbook. I feel so white and normal and it’s starting to piss me off. I think I need to go listen to some goth music and maybe kill some chickens.
Anyway, on with the show:
I don’t know about you, but if I were Ed McMahon and about to default on a mortgage, and Donald Trump offered to buy my house and lease it back to me, I’d squeal in terror and run:
”I don’t know the man, but I grew up watching him on TV,” Trump said in an exclusive interview with The Times.
McMahon, 85, was facing foreclosure within two weeks on his Beverly Hills home of 18 years. The aging television icon, who was Johnny Carson’s sidekick for three decades, defaulted on $4.8 million in mortgage loans with Countrywide Financial Corp. He said in interviews that he was unable to work because of a neck injury that occurred about 18 months ago.
Run, Ed! Run! Move to the valleys with the rest of us riff-raff, and don’t let Donald own your soul! And, frankly, I think this may be God’s way of saying you can’t afford to live in Beverly Hills, and that’s okay.
And, I’m afraid this art is the best I can do for Donald Trump.
If One Professor Gropes, Does Everyone Need Training? explores whether training every faculty member based on one incident is beneficial. Some people feel they are being punished for the actions of the groper. Of course, perhaps everyone should just be trained. Period. Regardless of incidents.
Ann H. Franke, president of Wise Results, which advises colleges on how to minimize risks they may face, agreed that training everyone is smart policy. “It’s ironic that educational institutions tend to do relatively little internal education,” she said. “I think professional development for faculty often consists of sabbaticals and a few resources on teaching effectiveness and attending professional conferences”; it should also include meaningful discussion of topics like sexual harassment, she said.
To those who would say that they know what harassment is, and why they shouldn’t engage in it, Franke said that part of training should reflect that “any faculty member could become the confidante of a student who has had a harassment problem,” and that common sense alone doesn’t prepare one for that role. She also noted that professors who would never themselves harass often fail to do anything about incidents they see. “Bystander intervention” is important, she said. “What do you do if you see something going on that shouldn’t be going on? How do you speak up?”
Dear Ms. Theologian,
I am pregnant but only just now in the second month. We wanted to avoid telling anyone but close family until after the first trimester, but I stay very tired and semi-sick most of the time with morning sickness, headaches and all sorts of little ailments. I work from home as a consultant to an organization that I have worked with for many years. I know the two people I work with most closely pretty well. I wrote them a note letting them know about the pregnancy and that it was slowing me down. They were understanding and supportive. The question is, when it is delaying my work - do I tell them why or was my first email enough of an explanation? They will never complain to me - they are too nice. But I feel like if I am out of commission for two days (just happened), do I just vaguely apologize and say my health is up and down with the pregnancy, not mention it at all, or say sorry, I was in bed for two days with terrible morning sickness? How much health information to reveal as a (legit) excuse for being behind? Is one explanation enough or do I explain each time, or only if they ask? Or only if things get really really behind? I don’t want to over-disclose, but I also don’t want them to think I am being lazy or just not getting to things.
-Careful and Nauseous
Dear Careful and Nauseous,
Congratulations on your pregnancy! And Ms. Theologian hopes the nausea goes away sooner rather than later.
This is an extremely tricky question. A few thoughts:
First, of course, illness (pregnancy related or not) is a legitimate excuse for not working. That almost goes without saying (except that our culture is so work-obsessed that many people work while sick—don’t do that).
Second, there has been a significant rise in pregnancy discrimination in the United States of late (both statistically and in stories told to Ms. Theologian), and while as a consultant, you aren’t necessarily affected by the same rules as employees, you could still well feel the effects of discrimination.
Third, Ms. Theologian is not sure that it matters why the work is late on their end. Late is late.
Fourth, people can have very different responses to hearing about pregnancy ranging from joy to jealousy to disgust (I know, it’s hard to believe, but not everyone is into it), and you can’t control these reactions, only what you say. So while coworkers may initially be pleased for you, they may not want to be reminded of it regularly. Of course, some might want you to take daily photos documenting your growth. You just can’t tell. Better to reveal less in Ms. Theologian’s humble opinion.
All that said, Ms. Theologian recommends the following:
- giving regular status updates on projects so that you are proactive rather than reactive to being late (don’t wait until something is already late to tell a manager that it will be late—give an update at the halfway point and three-quarter point, if possible)
- “padding” your schedule to include more time to do the work (roughly doubling how much time it might ordinarily take, not in terms of billable hours so much as in terms of calendar time)
- being reasonable with yourself in terms of your own expectations—fetus growing is more difficult work than it seems to outsiders
So how much health information to reveal? Ms. Theologian imagines you’ve revealed what you’re comfortable revealing, and suggests not mentioning the specifics again (unless there is a medical emergency of some sort). All of this advice, of course, depends on your specific situation and specific managers/coworkers. You know them better than Ms. Theologian does.
Thoughts from more experienced readers?
Be careful,
Ms. Theologian
Why Marathon Meetings Don’t Work should be copied and given to every manager and meeting planner in the world. Also, funny artwork that makes me giggle (not necessarily the herded cats above, but in the actual article). How many times have I been brought to a marathon meeting from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m.? So many times I can’t even count, and I’m not that important or useful.
And, yes, I’m feeling smug after reading Four Habits of Financially Peaceful People. These are good tips for financial well being and for sleeping at night. At least one involves your career and work.
Dear Ms. Theologian,
My girlfriend is an academic and applying for jobs. She has taught adjunct for a while. She taught one semester at a horrible for-profit college. It was a horrible experience - the students seemed to be worse than really bad high school students, the whole system ran differently than she was used to (the department picked her text, monitored her closely, mandated attendance reporting for every class), and she was in the middle of a personal crisis at the time which made her less able to handle it well. She got bad course evaluations, and hated the whole experience. This was two years ago. I told her not to list it on her CV. It was a mistake and the place was run very poorly. She has found out since that some people don’t exactly consider it a college - it was accredited in a weird way. Leaving it off leaves no gap in her work record - she continued to teach adjunct at a place she has worked for several years and really likes (and likes her). Can she not list this? Does a CV imply listing everything you have done? If you google her name, it sometimes shows up in the results at Ratemyprofessor.com. Reviews are not bad, but obviously shows that she taught there. Can she not list it and if she is asked about it explain honestly that it was a mistake/bad fit, and only for one semester? Or will it be a problem/considered shady?
-Curious
Dear Curious,
Ah, the bad job. Who hasn’t wanted to pretend it never happened? (e.g., 1995 office coordinator to Teen Court—it never happened—I swear.)
It is Ms. Theologian’s opinion that most resumes and CVs are essentially selective. Something is always cut whether it is a short-term position, a year of graduation, or a job responsibility. We can’t list everything. That’s okay.
Now if a university asked your girlfriend to fill in an application listing every teaching position chronologically, your friend would have to list the bad job (in fact, it could be grounds for being fired later if she omits information on that application). But a resume or CV does not have to be all inclusive, just relevant. It is what gets your foot in the door.
Now she should also assume that if the information is google-able, anyone who interviews her may know about the old job. If this old position comes up in an interview (e.g., “We saw that you were rated on ratemyprofessor.com at X university….” she should play up the positive aspects of the position and not the bad fit (e.g., She tried a textbook she wouldn’t ordinarily have chosen, which increased her breadth of knowledge of publishing the field. She gained teaching experience with ESL/ELL students, which helps her in her current work. She learned how to differentiate instruction at the college level because of the wide rang of students at X univesity. Whatever it is, it should be positive).
Remember Teen Court never happened.
Ms. Theologian
P.S. If you would like to write to Ms. Theologian, send an email to ms dot theologian at gmail dot com.
Ah, the issue of hose/stockings/nylons. Whatever you called them.
Well-heeled gal confused about style expresses the concerns of Miss Manners on wearing hose to formal occasions. Any guesses on her opinion? It’s not hard to predict. She likey.
This weekend, I drove through California’s Central Valley, which is unpleasant just to drive through (hot, dry, smoggy, and generally smelly), but must be hell to work in.
California has experienced a rash of heat-related workplace deaths, which raise concerns about the protections given to farm workers:
Dozens of farmworkers have died from heatstroke in the last decade in California. No one knows exactly how many because sometimes their deaths are not recorded as heat-related or not recorded at all. Maria Isabel Vasquez Jimenez is one whose story we do know.
Summer hadn’t officially begun when Vasquez collapsed May 14 while pruning grapevines near Stockton. She died from heat illness two days later. The 17-year-old’s core body temperature had exceeded 108 degrees Fahrenheit after working 9 1/2 hours in 95-degree heat with only limited access to drinking water and no shade.
Two years earlier, the state Division of Occupational Safety and Health had cited Vasquez’s employer, Merced Farm Labor, for violations including not having adequate drinking water. But Cal/OSHA never followed up on the citation, and the employer never corrected the situation. Last week, the state fined the company a record $262,700 for violating workplace safety requirements in the Vasquez case.
108! Can you imagine? This is a person who essentially fed us. There are real solutions possible as A real heat shield for farmworkers proposes. These solutions include providing water, multiple rest breaks, and shade. Not that complicated.
If you’re looking for ideas on how to make your workplace accomodating for women, you can read the Best Law Firms list for some ideas.
I will say that I’ve seen multiple former employers included on these sorts of lists and thought to myself, “Self, you have to be kidding me!” So we know that this isn’t a perfect process. The methodology is here, and it appears arguably sucky. Applicants must have over 50 employees, are self-selecting and appears to be self-scoring (depending on how you read “their” in the methodology description).
Miss Conduct has advice for newbie professors (as well as those of use who have been teaching for a while). Here’s my favorite part that relates to the workplace:
3. E-mail is considered professional communication and will be assessed as such when calculating your grade. Bad e-mail manners prejudiced me against students, so I figured I may as well alert them to that fact. Plus, learning how to communicate appropriately via e-mail would be important to them in their future careers. You do not send an e-mail to your boss that reads, “Plz explain taht thing u said in teh staff meeting beettr? It wasnt clear. thxbye.”
It stands to measure that some (much) of Generation Y might need that reminder. Um, okay, I need it too. Full advice here.
As you may know, it is more and more difficult to get a recommendation from a former employer, especially a corporate one. This article analyzes the problem of employers’ reluctance to give recommendations, presumably because of liability reasons. The authors argue that it is less a fear of liability than a fear that there will never be any reciprocation:
In this article we examine the problem of declining employer references in the American economy. We argue that the problem is not that employers inordinately fear potential slander and libel liability for giving references, but that they have no assurance of benefits from reciprocal references in exchange for taking any risk or suffering any cost in giving references. We provide a comparative legal analysis and argue that the United States might benefit from adopting an employer letter of recommendation system similar to that currently used in Germany.
I have been busy with work and poetry, but I thought this was too funny not to share. Language may not be appropriate for work.
‘Cosmopolitan’ Institute Completes Decades-Long Study On How To Please Your Man
This is the sort of article that makes me feel like I’m on acid. Maybe it’s the photos:
The credit crunch, a knife crime epidemic - no wonder so many of us are sick of the 21st century. Most of us just grumble, but some women have taken radical action to escape what they see as the soulless grind of modern life. Meet the ‘Time Warp Wives’, who believe that life, especially marriage, was far more straightforward in the Thirties, Forties and Fifties.
It’s fair to say I don’t really get nostalgia. Or believe in it. Well, I believe it exists; I just don’t believe life was necessarily better.
This has been the most craptacular week ever at work. I deal with data, and whenever said data is going to be released late, I have to send out a data alert. Now, in a normal month I might send out one data alert, but generally that is an exception. This week, I sent out eight of them. So you can guess that I am relieved to see Friday. Needless, to say, I didn’t spend much time collecting links for y’all.
Want to know the best part of my week? Telling my group they could go home two hours early today as thanks for their efforts. It’s the little things in life.
At least my boss didn’t expect me to work with a broken arm. I didn’t fracture my back while writing all those emails. And a dead cow didn’t fall on me, either.
I really wanted to do what this pilot did, but that wouldn’t have flown (ha ha!) There was plenty of laughter going on (hysterical laughter, that is) and I wasn’t fired for it like this bartender was. Neither was I fired for refusing to get coffee for my boss (he was out of town, anyway. Did I mention that? The bastard has good timing.)
So all in all, it wasn’t THAT bad a week but I’m happy it’s over. Cheers, everyone, andremember you can always reach us at survivingtheworkday at gmail dot com.
Anger in the office — it hurts women more presents some interesting point (and by “interesting,” I mean “bizarre):
1. Point 1: When women express anger at work, they are judged harshly and often seen as “out of control.” I suppose this is helpful to know though there is a lot of subtlety here. For example, when women explain why they are angry, they are not seen as out of control. And, of course, everything depends on the specific workplace. Some places reward anger.
2. There is a bizarre subhead: How to Avoid Anger. Now this sounds like a bad idea. How to deal with your anger, yes. How to avoid it? Would that involve suicide or murder?
3. The Last Piece of Advice is to “kill them with kindness”. You’re a woman! You’re kind!
So. Not. Helpful.
I’ve chosen this article especially for Ghostgirl: Help Wanted: Team Player. Ghostgirl is actually a really good team player, but she doesn’t necessarily like forced team activities, which seem to occur (ahem) in some workplaces more than others—you know—the sorts of things that involve Rah! Rah! cheers and pranks and hot dogs. Cheer up, Ghostie!
When The Screen Starts to Look Smaller reviews common workplace problems that occur as we age, and presents some solutions.
Workplace Prof Blog has all sorts news on the world’s most delicious corporation (Wal-mart): lobbying and closing.
Beginning in May (and ending yesterday), I was sued as part of a SLAPP or Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation for more than three million dollars because of letters I wrote, phone calls I made, and emails I sent while acting as a volunteer member of a local non-profit board. Others were also sued. While it all seems a bit unreal to me and I’m not going to describe any of the details, SLAPPs are quite real, and you should be aware of them if you participate in public life in any fashion.
A SLAPP is a lawsuit that involves being sued for exercising the petition clause of the first amendment, which encourages citizens to talk to their government about issues that concern them and ask the government to redress wrongs. Individuals and groups have been sued for:
- writing a letter to the editor
- testifying at a public hearing
- reporting violations of law
- lobbying for legislation
- peacefully demonstrating
- or otherwise attempting to influence government action.
What’s the point of a SLAPP?
The point is to shut you up. The point of a SLAPP is to burden you with legal costs so that you are essentially too scared to talk for fear of bankruptcy. The point of a SLAPP is not to win in court (SLAPPS rarely win in court because they lack merit). The point of a SLAPP is to shift a political discussion from the public arena into the private arena of litigation.
What are the signs of a SLAPP?
SLAPPs have certain identifying characteristics, frequently including involvement of local issues often around real estate development, setting of public good against private rights (e.g., right to own or develop property), and nasty labels. Oh but they’re not limited to that. SLAPPs include public officials suing individuals (e.g., a police office who sues someone who complains about his conduct or a teacher suing parents who criticize her behavior).
Is there any hope?
Barely. Many states have laws that allow the lawsuit to be dismissed almost immediately by a judge providing the judge identifies it as a SLAPP. Fortunately I live in one of those states. Thank god.
What can you do?
1. Insure yourself Make sure that if you serve on a non-profit board that there is insurance to cover the board in the event you are sued individually for millions of dollars. I know it sounds ridiculous, but apparently it can happen to me. Lots of boards don’t have insurance because it’s a pain in the butt to figure out what you need. If you have a homeowner’s insurance policy, this should also include personal liability insurance.
2. Know SLAPPs You should also become familiar enough with SLAPPs that you can immediately identify them so you don’t get stuck trying to respond as if it’s tort. Fortunately, my dad was able to identify the lawsuit as a SLAPP, which saved an immense amount of time and shifted the discussion to first amendment rights rather than tort.
3. Be Proactive Yes, you should be proactive about how you participate. That means being careful and truthful about what you say. That means speaking truth to power.
Resources
This is a good Q & A on the difference between workaholism and working hard. Sometimes it’s hard to tell.
Pimp Your Work has lots of links on workaholism too, just in case you need to brush up on workaholism.