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[wild_rose]

*sigh*

The semester is going well so far. Students are about like usual, with only one smartypants troublemaker in three sections of gen ed. (I'm going to fix his buggy tomorrow, heh heh. Pop quiz!) But...still no job when this one ends. I feel a little like I'm on financial death row.

[porcupine]

I have a temporary stay of execution - an invitation to campus, with a school that did not run conference interviews. Looks interesting. I am trying really hard to think positive.

Fingers crossed for us both, wild_rose. Something will turn up.

[wild_rose]

I hope you're right, porcupine. Good luck with the campus visit!

[porcupine]

Thanks. Keep us updated on your progress! I am glad your semester is going well, and that your pop quiz causes some pain to the smartypants!

[wild_rose]

First section got their pop quiz yesterday. Let me tell you, the ones who took to heart my warning on Monday that they had better finish reading the chapter by yesterday were looking very pleased with themselves, and those who didn't, got a wake-up call. The other two sections get their quizzes today, and if they got the news about the pop quiz, they were probably scrambling last night to get the work done.

They have a major test early next week. I hope they now realize the seriousness of being prepared for it. That was the whole point of the pop quiz.

Well, it's hard to type and walk, but I have my fingers and toes crossed for you and me both, porcupine!

[wild_rose]

Ugh.


That is all.

[porcupine]

Aj, shame, wild_rose. I am crossing all appendages for you. Try not to let the not having heard anything get you down - I know that's all very well for me to say, but I think it's important to say anyway. Keep your chin up!

[phdbliss]

I have no job as of yet for next year, but all the same I'm still taking some glee in cleaning out my windowless VAP office that has housed me this year. Yippee! Freedom! At least until I have to start selling my furniture for food.

[wild_rose]

I'll have to start cleaning out my office soon, too. I figure, I'll finish getting my online class ready this week, then spend next week on the office. It's mine until the end of June!


(In spite of the fact that I've been deleted from the department website.)

[porcupine]

I'll have to start cleaning out my office soon, too. I figure, I'll finish getting my online class ready this week, then spend next week on the office. It's mine until the end of June!


(In spite of the fact that I've been deleted from the department website.)

They deleted your website listing already? That's depressing, and also remarkably quick.

[lhill]

Thanks for starting this thread. I'll be beginning a VAP at what seems to be a very friendly institution although I'm not sure what to expect. I'm planning to bring and support my partner whilst I'm there. He's in academia and we're hoping he can get some kind of affiliation with his department. Anyone else in a similar position? Any thoughts?

And I'd definitely second making friends outside of the department, I think that will be the most important thing about the orientation bit!

[wild_rose]

Good luck, lhill. VAPing is...um...interesting. That's why we have our own support thread.

[alleyoxenfree]

The range of icons is too limited - I needed one with someone holding their head and exclaiming, "What the f***?"

My chair has just revealed himself as a truly sick individual whose propensity for anger and abuse are astonishing.  This is at truly small-college U., so there is only a female clone of him in HR, who has already been spectacularly unhelpful (and older faculty tell me not to bother again).  Apparently, this place is a cesspool of abuse and has been for a good 30 years.

Yet I landed here after having a 1-year position that was supposed to be my big break, cancelled mid-year, leaving me without an income in one of the nation's most expensive cities.  Then teaching on contract at Depressingly Bad Community College, where the courseload I'd been promised never materialized and both students and administrators were violent.

Now I'm snakebit.  It's impossible to sleep, and I'm wondering what happened to the much-accomplished person who won teaching awards, had good colleagues, in a sane city....and how to get back to that.  It's terrible when you begin feeling that you'll never get away from a sadistic environment and every day, you're helpless.  You send out CVs, you talk to everyone you know, you stop taking prescriptions that have a risk of increasing suicidal thoughts.  You don't recognize yourself anymore.

You walk, try to eat right, spend time running through the 50% off Target phone card with friends - but feel spectacularly stuck.  You have no family to move in with. 

In this profoundly sucky economy, does anyone have truly creative ideas about how to get through a day with a sadist?

[porcupine]

I just escaped from one by moving to a new department, and I am still being subjected to instances of sadism via email (I am ignoring these, but it's still stressful even to have to hit 'delete'). I know it really, truly, sucks.

My advice is not creative, but it did help me deal with my sadist: try to give them as little fuel for their sadism as possible. Don't reply to emails unless you have to, don't meet with them unless you have to, and generally ignore them as much as you can. If they make a request, either just do exactly what they want, no matter how asinine it is, or say immediately that you can't do it, and don't be available to discuss it again. Never let your feelings show, either way.

Also: a real sadist in an academic department will try to make you feel like cr@p. Don't ever take anything that the sadist says to heart. Let it all roll over you, and simply walk away at the end of the day to do something that you want to do. I would add here that not checking email and screening calls is a good idea - only be visible to the sadist for the minimum amount of time, and be strict about when this is.

Really, you have my sympathies. Sadists in academia are dangerous and unpleasant to deal with. However, I do believe that if you severely curtail their opportunities to harass you, it will be possible to get through your time in the department.

[alleyoxenfree]

Porcupine, thank you for the corroboration and the moral support.  I've been trying to make myself scarce, to whatever extent I can.  It has helped just to try to stay out of the firing line.

And spend all my emotional energy focusing on how to extricate myself while seeming to acquiesce to whatever comes my way from this individual in the short term.