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[threadkiller]

To keep my mouth shut.  I just received an e-mail from my chair about a project I would like to do--and the e-mail has really ticked me off.  The response from my chair is an example of everything I find suffocating about my current department.  It will work out in the end, but the hoops I must jump through first are a PITA.

I am also on a search committee and see an impending clash of opinions on candidates.

PLEASE remind me to keep my mouth shut!!!  I am junior faculty with 2 years to go before my tenure decision.  Want to scream!  Want to tell people they are idiots!!! Aaaggh. 

Must be quiet.  How do people manage this???

[bio_prof_]

To keep my mouth shut.  I just received an e-mail from my chair about a project I would like to do--and the e-mail has really ticked me off.  The response from my chair is an example of everything I find suffocating about my current department.  It will work out in the end, but the hoops I must jump through first are a PITA.

I am also on a search committee and see an impending clash of opinions on candidates.

PLEASE remind me to keep my mouth shut!!!  I am junior faculty with 2 years to go before my tenure decision.  Want to scream!  Want to tell people they are idiots!!! Aaaggh. 

Must be quiet.  How do people manage this???

When you find out, threadkiller, let me know!

[copper]

I don't know... I've got trouble with this issue, too.  Particularly after my last performance review (generally positive, with a "but why aren't you superhuman?" tone to some aspects).  I knew it was coming, though.

So I imagined I was the French Taunter from MP&tHG/Spamalot, and had a running monologue with a french accent in my head.

My main concern became not giggling at the Very Serious Line of Questioning.

[larryc]

I really think there is a market for rubberized bracelets similar to those WWJD? bracelets except with the inscription STFU! Rubberized so your could snap yourself when you forget.  I sure could use one.

[mytiaraisaskew]

Yoga breathe.  In through the nose, out through the mouth.  And I love Prince Copperlocks' suggestion re:  French Taunter.  Everything is better when you think of yourself as smack in the middle of Monty Python's world.  "Run Away!  Run Away!"

[rambling]

Hey threadkiller! Keep your mouth shut!

Just reminding you :)

[oldfullprof]

I dunno.  I managed to mostly shut up till I got tenure.  (Well, not at my last college-- just this one.)  I did get a little testy after tenure, due to some of the attitudes staying the same.  I think things are on a new, better basis, now.  It's tough...

[seventhyear]

I really think there is a market for rubberized bracelets similar to those WWJD? bracelets except with the inscription STFU! Rubberized so your could snap yourself when you forget.  I sure could use one.

Can we sell these in the CHE Forums online store?

[illuminata]

I think CHE should sell the STFU bands, CITE ME bumper stickers and t shirts, and "hu" usage flyers. The proceeds could go to case's wedding reception ; )

[prof_mom]

I remember seeing a shirt that said "Help, I'm talking and I can't shut up!!"

I think of it sometimes when  I am saying something I know I should not say. I try to monitor how I say things. I have realized that saying nothing is just not an option for me.

I could use a STFU band if you have an extra one lying around.

[threadkiller]

Ha ha!  I have a meeting this morning about the job search (who to bring on campus.)  I'll be mentally snapping my STFU wristband!

[bio_prof_]

I dunno.  I managed to mostly shut up till I got tenure.  (Well, not at my last college-- just this one.)  I did get a little testy after tenure, due to some of the attitudes staying the same.  I think things are on a new, better basis, now.  It's tough...

How did you do it, oldprof? Please! Share how to achieve the tenure climb while you STFU.  It is useful wisdom!

[oldfullprof]

Well and good and bad thing about our department is a pattern of interactional avoidance.  It's a very cooled out communications environment, and everyone seems (and pretty much is) pleasant.  Twice now, our department has kicked loose other disciplines, where folks were seen as "disruptive" or some such.  Actually these other folks were pretty normal for academics, but they weren't quiescent enough for us.  (Our whole campus basically subscribes to a "cool out" ethic - so it's tough here for creative types sometimes.)

So an easy way to get through tenure here is to mainly stay in your office, do your committee work (always very smooth and pro forma), teach your classes, and minimize contact with others. 

But the cool out ethic in our department has meant that much gets decided behind the scenes-- so it can have its dark side.  Also, another exasperating thing I've noticed is a real making mountains our of molehills ethic for procedures, etc.  This is disquieting when you first encounter it.  It's what happens when your colleagues haven't worked in the real world etc.

[onion]

Threadkiller,

I share your problem.  Last year I called my department chair a lying a**hole in a department meeting.  So now I take Xanax before meetings and everything seems a-okay.  I've kept myself out of trouble at the last few meetings employing this tactic. I also bring in small notebook and when they start to get real annoying, I write furiously in another language about how much I hate them.  This, admittedly, is juvenile.  My department has turned me into a juvenile prescription drug addict, but at least I'm not getting lectures about insubordination from the AA/EEO office anymore.

Good luck.  ;D

[jammer]

Onion - Wow.  I agree.  It's probably best never call your chair an a**hole at a department meeting.  Even, especially, if s/he is.  I hope you're tenured.  And you know, by the way, your department sees your furious writing.  Maybe you could rent a staight jacket for department meetings...?

And I just made my own STFU snappy band out of the purple rubber band that came with the brocolli.