The last day of summer classes was on Monday. I had to cover for a colleague in the morning & would have to administer the final exam to my group in the afternoon. I didn't mind covering the early class. It would force me to grade papers & calculate averages so that it wouldn't take me the evening to do so.
I got to the class at 8:55 to find 1 student in the room. Ten were scheduled to show up. Well, it's the last day. They'll be here. Nope. I had that one student for the first 15 minutes. Then another one rolled in. Finally, at 9:30, the remaining 8 wandered in a half hour late. They were loud, rude, and spewing profane language all over the place. I said to the group--directing it at one student in particular--"Refrain from cursing in the classroom. There's no need for it. You have five activities to complete before you may leave for the day". Mr. Mouth says to me "Yo--I work 'til 4 am and it's amazing I'm even here. So I ain't gonna do nuttin til I'm ready." He had no text book (only 5 of the 10 did though), no notebook, and nothing to write with. Why bother coming in for class? So I said "Hope you aren't taking any 8:25 classes". He was not happy that I said this and said "don't worry. I do what I gotta do". Trust me, stupid, I am not worried. He continued to talk in a loud, rude manner for the next 15 minutes & then stand up, walk to the door, faces the hallway & yells "I gotta go smoke a f**n blunt because she has me so f**kin aggravated!" With that, he left.
UGH! Why are these young ones so hostile & bitter? And where do they get off with this entitlement issue? And when did I sign up to teach inmates? Somewhere life has taken an awkward turn that I didn't even foresee.
Late that afternoon we (the faculty) got an email about attending a meeting Wednesday morning to discuss our new contracts. Yeah--thanks for the notice. This sounds diva-like but we aren't working right now. We aren't paid. We may not even be called back to work in 2 weeks, so why should I attend? And why can't Administration extend a profesional courtesy and give us a week's notice rather than less than 2 days? I'll tell you why--they don't want too many of us showing up.
Our contracts now state that we do not have sick days and $75 will be deducted from our paycheck if we call in for a class. So, teaching 3 in a day? Kiss $225 goodbye. Call in for all five clases? That's literally half of our paycheck for the week.
We have to give 3 office hours instead of two, still have 2 tutoring hours + our night hour. We have a new tihng where we will get a cohort of students. We are to advise them & assist them in any way they (the customer) desires. We are also being "requested" to go on highschool visits. I put that in quotes because it isn't a request, it's a "go when we tell you to" thing.
We have mandatory meetings on Fridays. We are to be at these meetings, otherwise we get a letter in our file. Too many letters = termination. I asked what are we to do if we pursue a PhD and we can only attend classes on Fridays (on behalf of Crak because she starts today & hopefully myself bc I want to start in the Spring) and the comment was "You have a choice. It's your job or your education" Okay--they didn't say that out loud (my chair did to me later on because that's what they told her) but they did that whole "Well, it's only 6 times and the class does meet fifteen times, so you will have to work something out with the professor & the director of the program". Uh-huh. Not a chance. You can't miss 1/3 of a course & expect to pass.
My schedule is all botched up & my chair called the house the other day to leave the updated one with me. Well, I wasn't home so my father answered. She asked to speak to me. He said I wasn't home & can he take a message. She says "Well, who am I speaking with?" He replies "her father". My boss? Decides to say (ina rude manner) "Oh, well, I'd rather leave it on the answering machine. So, when we hang up I am going to call back & leave it there." She isn't very tactful. I apologized to my dad later on for this. I was embarrassed to say I work there & for this person. He's a director...holds a big title....knows how to be diplomatic & guess what? He can even take a message! So she called back & left some screwey message that was a recap of what was in an email as well. Insane!
I am moping around the house, crying at times, exhausted all of the time & I know why. I don't want to go back. My life has been reduced to working for potential inmates for little money, no respect, and dealing with stupidity at every level.
