Rant VIII: The Reckoning

GasBandit

GasBandit

Staff member
There's maybe one guy in my office who I'd describe as an Office "power user" who would be interested in the new features... but everybody else just wants to type something up and really could be happy with wordpad, if it came with a spellchecker. The docx transition was a headache for a while, even with the MS published patch that would let older office versions read them, but for the lay-user, that was matched by the pain in the ass caused by the unwarranted, asinine UI changes.
 
Bubble181

Bubble181

Shakey said:
That doesn't have much to do with interoperability though. Just new features you want. Office can offer a lot, don't get me wrong. I just don't see a problem with being a year or two or three or even four off of the latest and greatest of it.
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Especially between older versions, there were often differences in formatting style. Opening the same file in Office 98 or 02 could look quite different, with page margins being off, pictures and their anchors moving about etc. Earlier versions of OpenOffice suffered from a stronger, similar problem.

I'm not one who claims everyone needs to update, though. I use 2002 and 2004 at work and I'm perfectly happy with either.
 
Cajungal

Cajungal

Staff member
What the HELL, man?!

Ok, so our music teacher, a Kindergarten teacher, and I run the children's choir at school. The K teacher goes on maternity leave next week. Totally legit reason for not being there. But the music teacher? Weeeell, he decided this job is too hard and he's LEAVING after Christmas! Just fucking leaving.

This job is hard. In the interview, the committee tells you very bluntly, "You will work weekends. Some days you won't leave til 6. You will feel put out and overworked some weeks. Make sure you want this job before you take it." It's not a fucking secret. He lied about how much school he had left (his senior recital is coming up and he has classes....), and just up and decided he didn't feel like being stressed out anymore. A teaching assistant did this last year! It was "too hard." What the hell happened to following through with an agreement?!

So now I have to manage choir, because he's a hopeless, disorganized person with good intentions but no experience. Lucky I am where I am. Half a dozen teachers have promised to support the choir and pitch in, and our head of school met with me this morning to assure me that I would NOT be shoved into the role of choir director in the spring. We have a musical in the Spring! I cannot manage a musical by myself!

TL;DR? I hate it when people make a commitment and then punk out. We're all stressed, kiddo. You're not special. :censored:
 
Bones

Bones

Cajungal said:
What the HELL, man?!

Ok, so our music teacher, a Kindergarten teacher, and I run the children's choir at school. The K teacher goes on maternity leave next week. Totally legit reason for not being there. But the music teacher? Weeeell, he decided this job is too hard and he's LEAVING after Christmas! Just fucking leaving.

This job is hard. In the interview, the committee tells you very bluntly, "You will work weekends. Some days you won't leave til 6. You will feel put out and overworked some weeks. Make sure you want this job before you take it." It's not a fucking secret. He lied about how much school he had left (his senior recital is coming up and he has classes....), and just up and decided he didn't feel like being stressed out anymore

So now I have to manage choir, because he's a hopeless, disorganized person with good intentions but no experience.

TL;DR? I hate it when people make a commitment and then punk out. We're all stressed, kiddo. You're not special. :censored:
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so in other words he is a greenhorn who bit off more than he could chew. My mother has been a Kindergarten Teacher for 30+ years and she can tell you that this is a common scenario for many people. It unfortunate he didn't talk to the rest of you about support, it seems like it could have been a good learning experience instead of him leaving a job halfway through the school year.

Hell I can't imagine teaching 12-24 5 year olds period, so I guess I have no room to discuss anything. I got my education in Environmental Science and Hydrogeology, and Likely may never work in my field the way things are going with the government.
 
Tress

Tress

I see this in high school too. Some people seem to forget there's this little thing called "grading" when you're a teacher. Having to plow through 110+ papers, reading and grading each one as carefully as possible, eats weekends up. Yet people are surprised by this.
 
blotsfan

blotsfan

Or you could be like a teacher I had and one time decide to just write A on every single paper with no comments (except for the kid he clearly didnt like who got a B).
 
Bones

Bones

Tress said:
I see this in high school too. Some people seem to forget there's this little thing called "grading" when you're a teacher. Having to plow through 110+ papers, reading and grading each one as carefully as possible, eats weekends up. Yet people are surprised by this.
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se in college my professors would always complain about this and I would always reply that they shouldn't assign so much work that takes a month to grade to completion. The old Tenured Professor of ES would just give us Scan Sheets for exams and one Essay Question. His homework was all preparing for projects and papers which were only 2 a semester. I think he really had the system down.
 
Gilgamesh

Gilgamesh

My wife is a Middle School Algebra Teacher. She has no weekends or week nights. I do everything in my power to take care of everything house related because she literally gets home, grades papers, works on school work then falls asleep. Weekends are basically the same.
 
Cajungal

Cajungal

Staff member
Bones said:
so in other words he is a greenhorn who bit off more than he could chew.
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Pretty much. He's gotta do what he's gotta do to get through school... I understand that. But it's stupid to downplay a commitment like that. Happened last year too with an assistant. She said our school was "too academic." Freakin' hippie. What's worse is that she said she was leaving to take care of her sick mom. A week later she's on facebook posting pictures from her trip around the world. She's been on 6-7 different solo vacations since she quit.[DOUBLEPOST=1380735512,1380735244][/DOUBLEPOST]
Gilgamesh said:
My wife is a Middle School Algebra Teacher. She has no weekends or week nights. I do everything in my power to take care of everything house related because she literally gets home, grades papers, works on school work then falls asleep. Weekends are basically the same.
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That's really good of you. Jake does this too. He works and goes to school, and he still has more down time than I do. So he takes care of laundry, half the dishes for the week, vacuuming, dusting, trash... I cook on Sunday mornings, but other than that, he doesn't let me worry about much. He's awesome.

Yeah grading is time consuming for children's papers... I can't imagine grading entire essays.
 
Gilgamesh

Gilgamesh

Cajungal said:
That's really good of you. Jake does this too. He works and goes to school, and he still has more down time than I do. So he takes care of laundry, half the dishes for the week, vacuuming, dusting, trash... I cook on Sunday mornings, but other than that, he doesn't let me worry about much. He's awesome.

Yeah grading is time consuming for children's papers... I can't imagine grading entire essays.
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Toss in 3 kids, 2 cats and 1 dog to that list and sounds like Jake and I have similar routines ;)

Still though, seeing her manage a day of relaxation (once in a blue moon) is a great feeling. Date nights are extra special.
 
Cajungal

Cajungal

Staff member
It is so much worse than I thought. He left TODAY. And he's not coming back to direct choir at all this quarter like he told me he was.
Oh God oh God oh God.
 
Tress

Tress

What an asshole.[DOUBLEPOST=1380756865,1380756787][/DOUBLEPOST]And this fucker had a job he quit in the middle of the first quarter, yet I can't get a permanent position around here. Un-fucking-believable.
 
Cajungal

Cajungal

Staff member
He's a 23-year-old who's never had a salary position, and his reason was: "like, I'm worried for my health." My blood pressure is also elevated at work, little boy. It's called working.
 
GasBandit

GasBandit

Staff member
Cajungal said:
He's a 23-year-old who's never had a salary position, and his reason was: "like, I'm worried for my health." My blood pressure is also elevated at work, little boy. It's called working.
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The term that applies here, I believe, is "Millenial." Often said in an exhasperated sigh with wide, lowered, unfocused eyes.

 
Cajungal

Cajungal

Staff member
Ravenpoe said:
How'd he ever get hired for that position?
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He's a really talented musician, and he actually put together a solid, fun, and rigorous curriculum. He just couldn't keep up with the job + piano lessons + choir + college. It was a bad situation he entered and then bailed on like a weenie.
 
jwhouk

jwhouk

Well, it's better than "No one wants to be a teacher in Wisconsin, because then everyone would think you were a freeloader and a commie liberal."
 
Tress

Tress

GasBandit said:
Teachers, I got nothing against.

Teachers' Unions, however...
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Honestly, I'm right there with you. I hate my union. They're more interested in protecting shitty teachers than making life better for the rest of us.

But maybe that's just an issue with the local union, I don't know.
 
Chad Sexington

Chad Sexington

Tress said:
Honestly, I'm right there with you. I hate my union. They're more interested in protecting shitty teachers than making life better for the rest of us.

But maybe that's just an issue with the local union, I don't know.
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One of the reasons my mother quit teaching was because of the union here in Alberta. She found it corrupt and selfish, with no interest in students or education. She was often one of a handful who would vote against a teacher's strike, and then often became the black sheep among fellow teachers who felt she wasn't acting in solidarity, because I guess respecting that people disagree with you is not something goddamn teachers know.
 
Krisken

Krisken

Chad Sexington said:
One of the reasons my mother quit teaching was because of the union here in Alberta. She found it corrupt and selfish, with no interest in students or education. She was often one of a handful who would vote against a teacher's strike, and then often became the black sheep among fellow teachers who felt she wasn't acting in solidarity, because I guess respecting that people disagree with you is not something goddamn teachers know.
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I definitely think there needs to be reform for unions and rules involving them. Tossing it out, though, is a horrible idea.
 
Chad Sexington

Chad Sexington

Krisken said:
I definitely think there needs to be reform for unions and rules involving them. Tossing it out, though, is a horrible idea.
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I don't know enough to argue for its total dissolution; reform is definitely an obvious route, though. Unfortunately like many old things, it becomes entrenched and change seems impossible. I've often wondered why my mother didn't try to go and work at a private or charter school, though, where she could have done what she loved without the union.
 
Krisken

Krisken

stienman said:
If the unions don't change from within, they will ultimately lose power piece by piece, such as with more states going to right to work.
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I agree with this as well. I also feel that if they don't change, it will seriously hurt our society at large.
 
Gared

Gared

Today was a very somber day at work.

Pretty much everyone who works for the company had to drive past a very nasty looking fatal motorcycle/semi wreck, only to get to work and find out it was one of our workers who didn't make it. He was a early to mid-20's kid who hand't learned yet that he wasn't invincible, was riding his bike way too fast, and had no way to stop when a semi turned across the lane in front of him. He survived the initial impact and apparently had just enough time to call his mother to try to tell her he loved her (she couldn't understand what he was trying to say and said "I can't understand what you're trying to say sweetie, have a good day, I love you." before hanging up the phone). His bike was recognizable enough that our production manager and assistant production manager recognized it, and drove back up to the accident site to confirm their suspicions.
 
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