|
desperate
Guest
|
 |
« on: December 03, 2005, 07:41:12 AM » |
|
I think I've messed up. My Department Chair is notorious for demanding that junior faculty do his bidding or else he will blackball them to the tenure committee. I'm not sure why the tenure committee hasn't caught on. It seems that everybody knows that he does this and yet they still accept his judgment on tenure cases.
He was putting pressure on me to babysit his beagle for 10 days, because he is too cheap to board it. I tried to resist and he hinted that if I was a team player I would do this favor for him.
So I thought I was beaten on this go-around, but would work on making sure I didn't get this kind of treatment again. Someone suggested that if I did a really incompetent job but was pleasant and apologetic about it, then he would never ask me for a favor again but would not hold it against me.
So I gave his dog away and told him that I had lost it. Now I feel just terrible. I know what I did was wrong, but in the future, how should I handle such requests?
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
cosmo
Guest
|
|
« Reply #1 on: December 03, 2005, 07:52:49 AM » |
|
re: what you did: are you nuts? or just a troll?
re: what you should do next time: get a spine, and if necessary a lawyer.
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
Happened to me, too
Guest
|
|
« Reply #2 on: December 03, 2005, 09:13:04 AM » |
|
I suggest you bake the beagle into a delicious meatloaf and serve it to him as your apology dinner.
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
DuhProf
Guest
|
|
« Reply #3 on: December 03, 2005, 10:30:50 AM » |
|
No, he should bake the beagle and eat it himself, because trolls have big enormous caloric requirements.
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
tamiam
Guest
|
|
« Reply #4 on: December 03, 2005, 10:42:21 AM » |
|
How about - take the beagle, freeze it, use the frozen carcass to bludgeon the boss, then roast up the dog and feed it to the police when they come to investigate.
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
k16
Guest
|
|
« Reply #5 on: December 03, 2005, 11:36:33 AM » |
|
Anyone who would do this to a beagle does not deserve to get tenure. Now a French poodle, maybe, but no wat a beagle.
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
boyo
Guest
|
|
« Reply #6 on: December 03, 2005, 11:42:08 AM » |
|
you should have saved the beagle, but "accidentally" burned down his house... then when he returned, hand him the beagle...
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
ROFL
Guest
|
|
« Reply #7 on: December 03, 2005, 11:59:06 AM » |
|
I wouldn't change a thing; you handled matters perfectly!
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
anon2
Guest
|
|
« Reply #8 on: December 03, 2005, 02:57:29 PM » |
|
This thread is hillarious, how do you people come up with these stories, and the responses, I can't stop laughing....
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
history grrrl
Guest
|
|
« Reply #9 on: December 03, 2005, 04:23:16 PM » |
|
Oh, my god, these are hilarious. Boyo, you win for funniest so far!
Now, back to grading those papers, writing those final exams, etc.
[%sig%]
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
boyo
Guest
|
|
« Reply #10 on: December 04, 2005, 05:32:11 AM » |
|
To quote Ben Stiller's character in Dodgeball... "It's a metaphor, but it really happened..."
Well.. not quite... Way back when, I had to TA for a famous prof who had a huge ego, was a horrible professor, literally read his lectures out of his own social sciences textbook (and I mean literally), and gave the same exact tests every single year (for 15+ years)... Between 300 and 500 undergrads took the course every year, and he guaranteed as many retests and rewrites (on papers) as any student wanted... not a problem since he didn't have to grade anything (there 3 TAs), and since extensive files existed on campus with answers to the exams and papers (same paper topics each year, as well)... once, when a student approached him with a failing paper and an "F" on her test, he simply crossed out the F on the paper and wrote a big "A" on it (without reading or even looking at the paper), and tossed it to me (in front of the student), saying an "F" and and "A" averages out to a "C," so pass her... when I complained to soemone in the administartion, the adminsistrator ytold me that this happened every year, and when I persisted, she said... "you are on department scholarship here, right..."
he also told students that they could take the exam any day they wanted during finals week... you can imagine what chaos that caused, and how much extra work it was for the TAs... the last straw was when he took us to lunch, and a) didn't pay, and b) told me that we should be paying him for the privilege of being his TA... I as almost across the table before another TA bear-hugged me, pulled me away from the table, and saved my academic career (still not sure if that was a blessing...).. and this was at Columbia... had I known where he lived.... only his beagle would have been safe...
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
amity
Guest
|
|
« Reply #11 on: December 05, 2005, 09:32:01 AM » |
|
So glad my sweet beagle is home asleep (as I have no underlings to pressure, even if I would trust them with her).
I previously had a dean who pressured underlings to babysit his *children* (including staying at the house with them for days when the boss and wife went out of town.) I was deeply grateful to be saved me from this; I doubt I would have thought fast enough to give them away!
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
