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New layer of management brought in to the department. So new boss at work. Big pals with two senior members of the department. Not experienced in at least half of the work we do. 

My colleague and I have had a load of suggestions in terms of improving the site we work on.

Every. Single. Suggestion. Answered with "Is that a priority?" Followed by a pus like thunder.

Me "well it would improve the area and allow other projects to take place"

Boss "We don't have the time or staff"

Over the next two days I get sent on a wild goose chase around Dundee, Wormit then and Arbroath for free stuff the boss thinks would be useful. From the boss's ex employer and another was a friend.

Every single item I picked up was rusted, seized or broken somehow and completely useless.

So I strolled up and said "bit of a waste of time that was".

Answer - "You have a terrible attitude, you're far too negative."

Two weeks later. The suggestions we gave are now taking place after being repackaged as if my boss thought up the whole plan. 

Boss - "That looks good now its been done"

Me -

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20 minutes ago, thistledo said:

A keen eye good sir. Surprised anyone actually reads the pish I write in here. 

You just happened to hit upon one of Zen's keywords.

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5 hours ago, scottsdad said:

200.gif

The Head of Institute is in "please the new boy" mode. He still has the course but will only teach it four times out of twelve all semester. The other times will be done by a tutor and guest lecturers. 

He was brought in as we are really understaffed. We need bodies to deliver courses. If this is what we're getting, what was the point? 

Game set and match to the new Prof in his Aegean timeshare.

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I'm sat in a pub in Durham next to a table of university folk and one has just said about a colleague "They offered him something desultory like History of Sport to try and get him out the door." If that's representative of the industry then I'd gladly be insulted so.

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3 hours ago, oaksoft said:

Waste of time.

There will be one loser here if this goes on for much longer and that'll be @scottsdad

The head of department has made his loyalties crystal clear.

Academia is a different beast from most other employment.

 

Nah, Head of School is the big boss. The nuclear option. Should the Prof really push, the HoS will eat him alive. I haven't brought him into it... Yet. 

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Being expected to do work for which you are paid, is overrated. I’m sure there was an absolute hero mentioned on here, who went out his way to just not do his job. He delegated all his work to others, which was all done much to the rage of one of the posters on here. 

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Being expected to do work for which you are paid, is overrated. I’m sure there was an absolute hero mentioned on here, who went out his way to just not do his job. He delegated all his work to others, which was all done much to the rage of one of the posters on here. 
It was ICTChris who was the victim of that absolute baller
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21 minutes ago, Bairnardo said:
30 minutes ago, MONKMAN said:
Being expected to do work for which you are paid, is overrated. I’m sure there was an absolute hero mentioned on here, who went out his way to just not do his job. He delegated all his work to others, which was all done much to the rage of one of the posters on here. 

It was ICTChris who was the victim of that absolute baller

I hope he’s still ripping the absolute c**t out of the entire department. 

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13 hours ago, oaksoft said:

Ah OK. Getting confused with all these Heads. 🤣

You might be right about the HoS but honestly, I wouldn't put my mortgage on it.........and I don't even have a mortgage anymore.

Heads and Directors. I am a Director in my department (one of, I think, fifteen) and there are ten Heads. That's not the whole Uni, just my School!

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15 hours ago, scottsdad said:

Nah, Head of School is the big boss. The nuclear option. Should the Prof really push, the HoS will eat him alive. I haven't brought him into it... Yet. 

He'd better not push, then.

On 20/10/2021 at 11:00, scottsdad said:

He still has the course but will only teach it four times out of twelve all semester. The other times will be done by a tutor and guest lecturers. 

Seems surprising that managing to shed two-thirds of your teaching load isn't really pushing it. 

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The only thing worse than being forced to do work you hate is to be forced to sit in your tiny office staring at the walls each day because you have nothing to do.

Really? Perhaps I'm far more George Costanza than the general population but I'd gladly be paid to do that.
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2 hours ago, oaksoft said:

That sounds familiar. 🤣

This is going to sounds completely counter-intuitive but another tactic here could be to actually remove his lecturing duties altogether if he's really being awkward.

If he has no research work, he'll be left in a new job twiddling his thumbs.

The only thing worse than being forced to do work you hate is to be forced to sit in your tiny office staring at the walls each day because you have nothing to do.

Leaving the financial aspect aside, under-employment is much, much worse than unemployment because not only do you have no physical purpose, everyone around you can see that you are not needed. It's an absolute killer for anyone with any career ambition.

I suffered this once at the start of my career and it nearly broke me psychologically. A friend of mine, also in academia, started kicking up a bit of a fuss in his department and within 4 weeks the department had removed almost all his duties.

It's a really terrible thing to do to another human being so it's not a power you should wield without being very certain of why you are doing it but it is a potential tool. Passive aggressive might be the way to go and with him complaining, he's given you an excuse to use that tool.

If you have Internet access I'm sure there will be something you could find online to amuse yourself.

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