mercredi, juillet 14, 2004 Miss Singapore-Universe needs an extension cable to power her brain, please I find the distressing lack of concrete deadlines one of the largest contrasts between working life and student life. Previously, you knew when term papers were due, and you could plan your social life accordingly - no going off to see a LOTR movie marathon the night before your term paper was due.Now, I find myself at the mercy of personalities - there's a higher-up at work who's well-known for his flighty attitude towards work: (1) he either ignores a problem until the day before, then gives it to you and expects you to solve it by 9am the next morning, or (2) he sort of suddenly realises that he's a higher-up at work, then asserts his position by asking you to "develop guidelines", "write policy" or "give an evaluation report" on things which nobody will care about or want to read, or (3) he tables a topic at staff meetings, then tells you "we'll take it offline", then proceed to forget about it or ignore it, then scenario (1) happens. There's another type of people at my workplace, the type who likes to keep their actions secret. They plan plenty of excellent programmes - and I'm not being facetious, the programmes really are excellent - but they don't tell anyone anything at all, which leads to me being called at 630pm (while I'm in the office doing OT) and being asked to lug a cello up to the storage room because some stupid student changed his mind about storing it for the weekend. So I'm stuck lugging the cello while the other person zips around in his car, going for PWO/PCO rehearsals in his tux. Or like today, when I was asked suddenly for an extension cord, at 6pm, or requested to switch on the lift, so that the "special guest", Ms Singapore-Universe 200-whenever, needn't walk around the building to get to her precious car. (I was too harassed to get the extension cord so I just said that we don't have it on hand, and I told the guy that she could walk down the emergency staircase instead of taking the lift to her car.) Imagine this: it's an HOUR past closing, and I'm at the BUS STOP waiting for an hour and a half's ride, late for my next appointment, while this guy who OWNS his own car, asks me to WALK BACK TO WORK, to unlock the damned lift, so that this MISS SINGAPORE-UNIVERSE doesn't need to walk down ONE STOREY to get to HER CAR? Amazingly: I'm not perturbed at all by this. I'm mildly amused, but that's the good news. The bad news is: I'm not perturbed because I have bigger fish to fry, like figuring out an algorithm deriving the optimum amount of practice time each student gets per practice room, or calling up locker companies to get them to deliver our lockers earlier, or asking Yale padlock companies if they sell 40mm brass padlocks, and if they do, do they do engraving? Three quotations per item I want to purchase. The best thing is: I don't have a printer, or a photostating machine, or a fax machine in my office (which I share with a colleage) - it's all on the 2nd floor, past 1 locked door and 3 card-access doors. Who cares about Miss Singapore-Universe, when you have your own stairmaster programme all worked out? :) [Miss Singapore-Universe needs an extension cable to power her brain, please] |
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