Work colleagues

[Sergeant Wilson]

3 minutes ago, scottsdad said:

This could take a while...

On Monday night a scene from the West Wing was running through my mind. Josh was saying in it that the First Lady's chief of staff was no good for a number of reasons, including "he thinks things get decided in meetings!" I realised this was right - I would go into this meeting with something decided already. I needed plans and options. 

Tuesday and yesterday were busy. I had chats with various senior people across the school on general staffing stuff and saying "As an aside, you'll never guess what's happening with this new Prof...". Reaction was universal - appalled. If the time came that I had to go to the nuclear option, I would have backup from senior people everywhere. I heard also that he was having similar meetings with the management of the school, clearly trying to get me with a fait accompli. 

In the meeting would be an ally of mine and we put our heads together to decide a strategy. Very simple but it was in three steps.

1. Prof buckles and agrees to what we have said already. He accepts the fact of my greatness and agrees to call me Master from now on. Failing that;
2. The jist of his argument to others was this "it's outside of my subject specialism" line. Nobody else gets hit with this stick but my thinking was - what if he gets agreement ahead of the meeting? What if I get told in no uncertain terms that he will not/cannot teach this course? Easy - we found a backup course that aligned as close as possible with what he was saying. If the issue was just this course, then I would have him on this other one. And as a last resort/backup;
3. If he manoeuvers himself out of teaching a course altogether, then I made up a list of jobs and tasks that he would do in lieu of this. The school manager would never accept him doing nothing, so I made this list. We have many jobs away from teaching that are horrendous - dissertation co-ordination, admissions officer, programme leader, year leader and many others. These are tedious, time consuming and an absolute hair shirt for anyone doing one of these. I picked three jobs that from experience are just awful. I labelled this option "make him wish he'd just taken the bloody course"

This morning I was making packed lunches for the kids. I asked the wife what she wanted and she told me she was working from home today. She never does on a Thursday, but today she was here working on her laptop. "You can have the meeting here, no need to go to another room," she said. I think she just wanted to listen in. I had talked over all this with her. 

So anyway, the meeting came. Just as suspected he had been busy. The deputy nuclear option said that she had spoken with the nuclear option on the Prof's behalf and got his agreement that he would not teach a course in the spring. Turns out the nuclear option is in fact an Iraqi SCUD missile circa 1990. So, of the options above we went straight to three.

He readily agreed to take on the three ultra shitty jobs. The staff doing these at present will be chuffed. In fact, I suspected, he would agree to anything at all given his no-teaching this year. Having got out of teaching, he was like Don Corleone on his daughter's wedding day. He could refuse nothing else. So I started on about next year, knowing that he would fight me tooth and nail if I did this at a later date. I gave him two big courses and he agreed right away (this is what is in his contract). He maybe doesn't realise it, but I have no intention of taking the shitty jobs off him. Come this time next year he'll be very unhappy. All this signed off and agreed. 

It isn't a win for me - he is right now probably enjoying a smile to himself. In time though he might realise that had he agreed to take this one course now, he could have saved himself a lot of pain over the next few years. 

Add to that, word is out. Many people wanted to know what was happening with this meeting and now they know. It's being raised at a school management level next week - the SCUD missile agreeing to these demands has not made any friends. In some ways people aren't mad at the Prof - like many here some folk admire that he's got away with so much. The head of school though could face a hard time in future. 

Not content with washing the work dirty linen in public, you invited your wife to the meeting as an observer?

[scottsdad]

Just now, Sergeant Wilson said:

Not content with washing the work dirty linen in public, you invited your wife to the meeting as an observer?

She invited herself!

[HeWhoWalksBehindTheRows]

The fucking scenes when we find out the Professor is Tony all along!

[Sergeant Wilson]

1 minute ago, scottsdad said:

She invited herself!

That's alright then.

[welshbairn]

Given that he's approaching retirement age, a year spending most of his time in his Greek villa and stalling or working remotely on the nasty jobs, and then jacking it in after a 6 figure (ish) sum in the bank, sounds like a solid victory for the Prof! 

[cb_diamond]

Yep, he'll be retired or off to pastures new by the start of next year...

Well played prof, proper Empire Strikes Back bad guys in the ascendancy at the end situ.

[Priti priti priti Patel]

Ah...

That's disappointing.

[Miguel Sanchez]

Yeah he's retiring at the end of the year, clearly.

[scottsdad]

1 minute ago, Miguel Sanchez said:

Yeah he's retiring at the end of the year, clearly.

[Dan Steele]

1 hour ago, scottsdad said:

If the time came that I had to go to the nuclear option, I would have backup from senior people everywhere. 

Admirable, but I'd be surprised if they do. What would happen to the senior staff's promotion hopes if they're seen as 'bad mouthing' a Professor? You might find yourself in an awkward position. The academic institution will always win.

[scottsdad]

4 minutes ago, The Skelpit Lug said:

Admirable, but I'd be surprised if they do. What would happen to the senior staff's promotion hopes if they're seen as 'bad mouthing' a Professor? You might find yourself in an awkward position. The academic institution will always win.

They are Profs already, no more promotions available for them unless they want to be the next Head of School / nuclear option.

[Empty It]

When the legend prof retires in 6 months can you send him the way of this thread so we can all congratulate him on his outstanding shithousery.

[scottsdad]

1 minute ago, Empty It said:

When the legend prof retires in 6 months can you send him the way of this thread so we can all congratulate him on his outstanding shithousery.

Must admit, if the time comes and I move on to another uni, I might just use his playbook. There is something to admire about the way he has rinsed the system, and me, to escape some work. 

[Florentine_Pogen]

If I've understood the latest post, then the HoS has acceded to the Prof's demands. The HoS has previously been described by the OP as "a right b@st@rd" who will "take no shit" from the Prof, who will be "eaten alive" by the HoS if he comes the c*nt.
This Prof has obviously modelled his m.o. along the 'Trigger's Broom' methodology.

[Florentine_Pogen]

Must admit, if the time comes and I move on to another uni, I might just use his playbook. There is something to admire about the way he has rinsed the system, and me, to escape some work. 

Someone in a previous post alluded to 'weak management' being the issue here. Have to say, that view would appear to be spot on. The HoS, the Deputy HoS, the Hoi and a director (@scottsdad) appear to have wasted an inordinate amount of time on an issue which should have been done and dusted as soon as the Prof signed his Contract of Employment.
Presumably this shambles is played out frequently in academic circles.

[Left Back]

23 minutes ago, Florentine_Pogen said:

If I've understood the latest post, then the HoS has acceded to the Prof's demands. The HoS has previously been described by the OP as "a right b@st@rd" who will "take no shit" from the Prof, who will be "eaten alive" by the HoS if he comes the c*nt.
This Prof has obviously modelled his m.o. along the 'Trigger's Broom' methodology.

That was my understanding as well.  When is the Prof going to share the photos he has of the HoS shagging a donkey which is clearly what he's used to turn a nuclear weapon into something less powerful than a stink bomb.

[Sergeant Wilson]

7 minutes ago, oaksoft said:

At least guy hasn't damaged your career in all this. That I suppose is a win of sorts.

No, he did that himself.

[Mark Connolly]

He’s either retiring at the end of the year or walking away with a big payout for constructive dismissal when he reveals he knew you were bad mouthing him to every colleague that would listen, and that your wife listened in on a meeting she should have had no part of.

He’s obviously a dick, but you’ve not exactly covered yourself in glory here.

[Priti priti priti Patel]

Never seen a better embodiment of this gif... 

 

 

[scottsdad]

2 minutes ago, oaksoft said:

The guy has ridden you like a Derby winner to be fair. At least you can see that and accept it. A tough one to take ego-wise, no doubt about that. Been there myself.

The mentality required by someone like him is to be so self sufficient that you simply only need the uni for a pay check, an office and free internet. He probably has a solid network of contacts externally and simply doesn't need or value any of you within your department. You may well be, in essence, completely surplus to his requirements. In that sense it means nothing to him to be shunned by people he doesn't need in the first place. He clearly thinks all of you are so far beneath him that you are not worth the effort.

Do you really want to be that guy? Don't get me wrong, I don't care much for people but I couldn't be like this guy. Behind these types of people is a hole in their lives that they are over-compensating for. I've yet to meet any of them who go home happy at night.

Anyway, I wonder if this guy has been moved on from a previous uni and, like a career version of pass the parcel, he's been dumped on you without the previous employing uni letting on that the guy is a nightmare. That happens very frequently in academia. I've seen a professor, at a very good and very old Scottish uni, found to have been syphoning research funds for his own lifestyle disappear on gardening leave only to turn up a few months later at another top uni abroad. How did he get away with it? He is at the top of his field and most importantly, probably has a wee black book containing details of the transgressions of his peers. So they never get sacked and just go from one job to another.

With this guy, we had loads of warning signs before he came but the uni appointed him anyway. Now he's here his reputation for being difficult and intransigent seems well earned. The way I see it now is that I'm in the exact same position as before he came, except a few people got to shed some tedious jobs to him. Jobs he might excel at, or neglect. 

On academia, about 20 years ago the uni I was at had a round of redundancies. One guy took a payout big enough to pay off his mortgage and get a new car. During the negotiation process however the uni realised that they needed him to teach all his courses. So they then re-hired him at the same salary as he had been on before. He never missed so much as a single day of work. Redundancy on the 31st of the month, "new" job starts on the 1st of the next month. He is now dean of teaching at that same uni.