hoppingbuffalo
New member
Posts: 9
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« on: May 14, 2009, 01:39:23 PM » |
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Sound familiar part-timers? It's yesterday's headline at http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2009/05/13/2009-05-13_rebecca_lynn_shaw_copilot_of_doomed_buffalo_flight_3407_was_paid_16000_a_year.htmlSleep deprivation and lack of pay won't kill students as in a pilot's airline crash. But due to our poor work conditions education suffers. Our employers are, figuratively speaking, attempting to squeeze blood out of a turnip and service to students suffers. What's very frustrating in my state (Washington) is that, by law, we are forbidden from striking. We won't harm anybody by striking - at least not in the long run. We would be striking for work conditions that will result in long term improvement on behalf of students. That's the message of yesterday's news. Many contributors to the Chronicle have shouted that part-timers require better treatment. My contribution is one more drop in the ocean of voices. Jim |
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octoprof
Member-Moderator
Distinguished Senior Member
Posts: 32,747
Dérailleur-in-Chief (nominee)
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« Reply #1 on: May 16, 2009, 08:16:55 AM » |
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What a horrible comparison you've chosen, hoppingbuffalo. I suggest you come up with an argument that doesn't involve discussing the deaths of innocent people on an airplane, which is hardly relevant to your work conditions as a part-timer, given that you are not a pilot.
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Let us consider that we are all partially insane. It will explain us to each other; it will unriddle many riddles; it will make clear and simple many things... Mark Twain
It is our choices that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities. Professor Dumbledore
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balancing_act
Irritable, cranky, and non-smoking
Distinguished Senior Member
Posts: 2,034
I come to the Fora to learn snark.
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« Reply #2 on: May 16, 2009, 10:41:45 AM » |
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Yeah, that's too bad. I really liked his moniker.
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"Which of these stories will you be talking about tomorrow?"
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missemily
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« Reply #3 on: May 16, 2009, 05:58:15 PM » |
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No, if we do our jobs badly, and if we show up to class with inadequate sleep, no one gets hurt. However, I'm afraid that hoppingbuffalo has a point: the adjunctification of professions.
With executives at the top being rewarded for making decisions that bring short-term cost reductions with no thought of long-term consequences, many fields are being gutted. We already knew about academia (although I can't say that rewards at the top are the main problem here). Now we see that the airline industry doesn't want to pay full-time professionals decent wages and benefits. They're willing to scrimp on wages, benefits, and working conditions for the people who deliver the major services.
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kamiakin
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« Reply #4 on: May 16, 2009, 06:33:23 PM » |
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Is there something about academics that makes us prone to this sort of preposterous overstatement, comparing ourselves to slaves, doomed airline pilots, serfs, etc.?
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kedves
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« Reply #5 on: May 16, 2009, 06:45:43 PM » |
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This comparison weakens the writer's argument on the basis of facts and alienates readers on the basis of a horrifically inapt appeal to emotion.
Fee, fie, foe, fum, I smell the smell of a troll, by gum.
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oseph
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« Reply #6 on: May 16, 2009, 07:16:23 PM » |
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What the OP said was horrible, but I suspect it was just one of those moments of desperation and angst that at least I've had myself in the past. I've never said anything this dramatic, but there have been many moments when I complained that my life sucked or was ruined or that some PhD hoop was torture or that everyone around me was just heartless or some such nonsense. Usually at that point someone who loves me reminded me that I was healthy, loved, and no matter what happened, I had family who'd make sure I was cared for, and that made me realize what a selfish thing it was for me to say that my life sucked, when even if I was booted out of academia that day, my life was better than many, many people's, and would continue to be so. The OP probably is alienated from reality, as many academics are, and needs some therapy, medication, and special attention to pull him/herself out of that dark place. When you have worked for years for low pay and under a great deal of stress to achieve a career, and still it seems like you'll never be secure or have a day off, it can be very, very damaging to your ability to put things in perspective.
OP, you shouldn't have made the comparison you did, as it was grossly insensitive, but I can hear that you're in pain, and I hope you get some help.
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Oseph....you are right and you make sense.
For your future comments, I insult very directly.
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yellowtractor
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« Reply #7 on: May 19, 2009, 09:14:04 AM » |
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Oseph, the OP only registered to make this post and has never returned to the Fora. This was a drive-by.
Which is not to say that you are not healthy, loved, and cared for.
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i think is good for every one only the think is that we will always scares about that. |
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oseph
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« Reply #8 on: May 19, 2009, 11:09:44 AM » |
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Oseph, the OP only registered to make this post and has never returned to the Fora. This was a drive-by.
Which is not to say that you are not healthy, loved, and cared for.
Yeah, I was out of town last week and kind of replied to several threads hastily as I was catching up on fora happenings. |
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Oseph....you are right and you make sense.
For your future comments, I insult very directly.
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john_proctor
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« Reply #9 on: May 19, 2009, 02:15:53 PM » |
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I wonder now if "hopping buffalo" is perhaps Navajo for "argues via non sequitur."
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"Look upon me! I'll show you the 'life of the mind.'"
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hestia
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« Reply #10 on: May 20, 2009, 07:10:33 PM » |
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Hey, don't insult the Navajo language like that!
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"'What-ho! that absolutely whangs the nail over the crumpet.'" Dorothy Sayers
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tee_bee
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« Reply #11 on: May 20, 2009, 08:07:34 PM » |
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What a horrible comparison you've chosen, hoppingbuffalo. I suggest you come up with an argument that doesn't involve discussing the deaths of innocent people on an airplane, which is hardly relevant to your work conditions as a part-timer, given that you are not a pilot.
OP is a dope. These commuter airline pilots have it worse than we do. They go into as much debt as we do to be trained, for jobs that are disappearing as fast as ours. Plus, their margin for error is a bit thinner than ours. This is an absurd analogy, but I hope the troll got his jollies and can move on with his "life." |
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