Reason number 873 not to work at a university
My employment at a top-flight University really ought to be a dream job for me - I work in development, and while I don't do any fundraising myself, I do assist in the job (yeah, I'm a secretary, but it's a stepping stone, dammit).
The problem lies in the fact that I don't really know where the money that we in the Development office raise goes. Well, I know where some of it goes: flat-screen monitors on computers in the library that honestly don't need them. I mean, jeez - I'm looking at a freaking card catalog. Is a one-gigahertz pentium three really necessary for a computer that only runs one program?
But I do know where the money doesn't go: back to the staff that helps to raise it in the first place. I won't bitch about my pay here, because I did agree to my salary when I was hired.
A few weeks ago, my department's staff secretary came by my office and let me know that I'd be getting blinds to replace the heavy silk curtains in my office. My office is floor-to-ceiling windows on two sides, and the curtains were probably thirty years old. I don't really think they'd been washed since they were installed. Also, I'd be getting my office repainted to cover up the water damage that had occured when the gutters above leaked several years ago.
Problem one: Why had the damage not been fixed when it occured? By everyone's reckoning, the office's walls had been stained by rusty gutter water some time more than 10 years ago. Same for the curtains.
I was ecstatic when I heard the news: I like the idea of new stuff, and if it would improve the look of my office, so much the better. But when the blinds arrived, a new problem arose.
Problem two: the blinds were the wrong size: 10 inches too narrow.
Somewhere between the measurement and the manufacture of the blinds (which, I should point out, are custom-made for my office), some moron replaced "63 inches" with "53 inches" in the computers. The installers were very sorry about the whole thing, but it seems that they should have measured the blinds before putting them up on my walls. Well, that's a moot point now. The company that manufactured the blinds will be installing new ones, for free. It seems to me that that's the least they could do, you know, since they did screw the pooch on this.
I'm told that this nonsense is costing the University $2,000. It seems to me that there are better ways to spend that money - I would have been fine with the old drapes if I'd known that I'd have to spend three weeks with silly-ass blinds.
Feh.
My employment at a top-flight University really ought to be a dream job for me - I work in development, and while I don't do any fundraising myself, I do assist in the job (yeah, I'm a secretary, but it's a stepping stone, dammit).
The problem lies in the fact that I don't really know where the money that we in the Development office raise goes. Well, I know where some of it goes: flat-screen monitors on computers in the library that honestly don't need them. I mean, jeez - I'm looking at a freaking card catalog. Is a one-gigahertz pentium three really necessary for a computer that only runs one program?
But I do know where the money doesn't go: back to the staff that helps to raise it in the first place. I won't bitch about my pay here, because I did agree to my salary when I was hired.
A few weeks ago, my department's staff secretary came by my office and let me know that I'd be getting blinds to replace the heavy silk curtains in my office. My office is floor-to-ceiling windows on two sides, and the curtains were probably thirty years old. I don't really think they'd been washed since they were installed. Also, I'd be getting my office repainted to cover up the water damage that had occured when the gutters above leaked several years ago.
Problem one: Why had the damage not been fixed when it occured? By everyone's reckoning, the office's walls had been stained by rusty gutter water some time more than 10 years ago. Same for the curtains.
I was ecstatic when I heard the news: I like the idea of new stuff, and if it would improve the look of my office, so much the better. But when the blinds arrived, a new problem arose.
Problem two: the blinds were the wrong size: 10 inches too narrow.
Somewhere between the measurement and the manufacture of the blinds (which, I should point out, are custom-made for my office), some moron replaced "63 inches" with "53 inches" in the computers. The installers were very sorry about the whole thing, but it seems that they should have measured the blinds before putting them up on my walls. Well, that's a moot point now. The company that manufactured the blinds will be installing new ones, for free. It seems to me that that's the least they could do, you know, since they did screw the pooch on this.
I'm told that this nonsense is costing the University $2,000. It seems to me that there are better ways to spend that money - I would have been fine with the old drapes if I'd known that I'd have to spend three weeks with silly-ass blinds.
Feh.
posted by Brian at 10:41 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home