Wednesday, April 26, 2017

Us vs. Them

Something happened recently that made me think that it might be better not to befriend people that I work with. It also made me wish that I could get away with carrying a light saber to work, but I think that seeing me chase my colleagues across campus with it just might negatively affect my students' opinions of me.

Even though my department originally told me that I could stay in my position for up to three years, maybe even a fourth year, without having to reapply, they recently told me that due to a change in policy, I would have to reapply for my job, which included an interview with a search committee from my department.

When you're untenured like I am, you don't get a lot of say in what happens to you, but it's hard not to feel jealous (and a tad resentful) of tenured professors. They get teaching assistants to grade papers and hold office hours for them, so that the professors can focus on their research. They teach fewer, smaller classes that focus on their specializations. Untenured faculty members like me, on the other hand, end up drinking so much coffee that we end up understanding what squirrels are saying, just so we can stay awake long enough to grade a hundred papers (or more) at a time. We are expected just to squeeze in research whenever we can, and we don't get funding to go to conferences. And in academia, the best way to get ahead is to do (and publish) research.

Whenever the tenured professors shake their heads and say they're sorry about how I've been treated, I always shrug and say, "It's okay! I understand!" But my real reaction is more like this:



via GIPHY
When I found out that they were making my class sizes significantly bigger but not paying me more, my secret reaction was like this:
via GIPHY

But of course, I can't express how I truly feel to them. As an untenured faculty member, my status here is not secure and I can't say things like, "STOP THE MADNESS!" or "No, I don't want to bring anything to the office potluck because you don't pay me enough to bring anything other than peanut butter sandwiches. And those are all for ME."

In addition to re-applying for my current job, I also applied for a promotion, albeit for an untenured position, but still one with better pay than what I earn now. A friend of mine was on the search committee for that one.

Work Friend had been posting about the job search on Facebook recently, and they mentioned doing interviews for that promotion that I applied for. I was not called in for an interview, so that's how I knew without being told otherwise that I'd been rejected for that job.

I asked Work Friend if they were doing interviews for my current job soon, and I got an e-mail saying that they couldn't talk about it. I understood, yet I resented this person's tone, as if they assumed I was trying to get them to do something unethical. I didn't ask them why I'd been rejected for a promotion, who was being considered for the job, or how I could increase my chances of getting rehired for next year. I knew THAT would be unethical. I also wondered why, if Work Friend claimed they couldn't talk about it, it was okay for that person to post details about it on Facebook to people who weren't in our department and also make jokes about the people who were applying for the job.

I especially resented the jokes because I was one of those people. I think it's easy for tenured professors to forget about how difficult it is to be untenured and how you have to basically grovel and scrounge for work every year. It's easy to forget that not everyone has to move around from school to school every couple years. It's easy not to know what it's like to have to work two (or three) jobs. But that doesn't mean it's okay to be insensitive to what untenured teachers are going through. Not all tenured professors are like this, of course. But at that moment, it kind of felt like Work Friend was.

Although I understand that maybe I hadn't earned a promotion yet, I must admit that the whole situation did change my perspective of Work Friend a little bit. From now on, I'm not going to talk about work with this person at all; that way, I'm less likely to end up chasing them across campus with a light saber. (But if Work Friend makes fun of job applicants like me again, all bets are off.)

What about you? Do you think that making friends with colleagues who are in a position of authority over you is a good idea, or has it ever made things awkward for you?

10 comments:

  1. I personally have a policy of not befriending coworkers. I like having the separation between work and my personal life. When the two start being intertwined, it's hard to separate yourself from your work identify.

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    1. Hi nomdeplume,
      I have a similar policy when it comes to dating coworkers; when I worked in retail, there were a couple coworkers who were interested in me. But I turned them down because I felt it was important and less complicated to keep work and dating separate.

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  2. In a previous job, I made some good friends - we still meet up, even though none of us works there anymore. In my current job, I am happy being colleagues, but probably wouldn't (in fact, don't) go out with them socially.

    Who knew librarians could be more fun!

    Your job situation puzzles me a lot, because I don't think we have the same system in the UK. I just hope it resolves itself, to your advantage, soon. You really could use a break!

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    1. Hi Annalisa,
      I'm not sure how it works in the UK, but in the U.S. untenured faculty like me are typically hired for one to three years at a time; I think one major reason for that is that it's cheaper for the universities. That is, if they kept us around longer, we'd be eligible for bigger raises; hiring new faculty every few years is less expensive. It's hard on the faculty, though, because we have to keep moving around.
      I would definitely like a break. This year I worked every day, including weekends. The only time I had off was during school breaks, but I typically worked extra hours at my second job during that time.

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  3. Polite but distant (or maybe private is a better word) has always been my policy.

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    1. Hi Karen,
      I think that's a good policy; I learned the hard way that when getting too close to coworkers can lead to confiding in them. Confiding in friends is one thing; confiding in coworkers is something else altogether.

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  4. I'm sorry you've had these disappointments. I can't believe they posted about a job on FB but I guess nothing about that site should surprise me.
    I've made some great friends at various jobs over the years but they weren't people who had any authority over me. I can see where that could be a sticky situation.

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    1. Hi Julie,
      I know, right? I wished then that I had told Work Friend not to post about it on FB if they weren't supposed to talk about it again. If they bring it up again, I'll definitely tell them not to make any more jokes about people like me.
      I've heard that it's not a good idea to be friends with people who have authority over you; now I know for a fact that it's true.

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  5. Ooh, that sounds very unethical, to be sharing work-related stuff at that level on FB. I try really hard to keep work out of my blogging and FB life. It just seems easier that way too, you know? I can't imagine how messy things might get for people like Work Friend, who don't guard what they say on which medium.

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    1. Hi Deniz,
      I know, right? I wanted to say that to Work Friend; honestly, if they ever bring it up again, I will. The whole FB thing is one of the reasons I didn't join the site until just a few months ago; I was concerned that even just one post could lead to negative repercussions for my job.

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