Union City Blues
As many of you might know, I had been complaining about my office for a few years. For the most part it is a great office but the desk, being one of those "workstation" type of set ups, pieces bolted together and bolted to the wall, was not immediately movable or reconfigurable. Moreover, if it was reconfigured it would require finesse as well as approval, in particular by the dean, a former occupant of this office space.
So I finally come up with a good plan that would be easy to execute and I got approval. Well, wouldn't you know that I was not permitted to disassemble university property like that on my own. It required a work order for maintenance to do this. Ok. Sounds great. Must be a union thing. (It is indeed.) So they finally arrive but find that they need a "carpenter" to employ a drill needed to unbolt the hardware.
It took two carpenters and two maintenace workers to handle this task. It was something I was able to do on my own but I was not allowed to. I guess I'm privvy to more information on this than you are, dear reader, however, I couldn't help but be stupefied by this event.
Just so you know, I'm not thrilled about being a union guy myself. This institutionalized adversarial relationship between "management" and "labor", terms which I loathe in this academic environment, also results in the creation of additional institutions, offices, bureaus that use resources but don't really produce anything.
Back to work.
So I finally come up with a good plan that would be easy to execute and I got approval. Well, wouldn't you know that I was not permitted to disassemble university property like that on my own. It required a work order for maintenance to do this. Ok. Sounds great. Must be a union thing. (It is indeed.) So they finally arrive but find that they need a "carpenter" to employ a drill needed to unbolt the hardware.
It took two carpenters and two maintenace workers to handle this task. It was something I was able to do on my own but I was not allowed to. I guess I'm privvy to more information on this than you are, dear reader, however, I couldn't help but be stupefied by this event.
Just so you know, I'm not thrilled about being a union guy myself. This institutionalized adversarial relationship between "management" and "labor", terms which I loathe in this academic environment, also results in the creation of additional institutions, offices, bureaus that use resources but don't really produce anything.
Back to work.
posted by Atomic Kid at 4:20 AM
2 Comments:
And in the meantime, it costs this two-income, college-degreed family more than we can possibly come up with to send our two daughters to college. wtf?
Andrea:
oddly, my school, IUP, is reknown for being a tuition bargain.
Unfortunately, or fortunately, you are all Ohio residents.
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