"Gotta wash my hair..."
"Not a fan of Sondheim...."
"I am going to rake leaves...."
"The dog needs a bath...."
"I am allergic to local theater...."
Yeah, I get it, but a girl has to support her posse, right? By the way, I know that none of the aforementioned excuses will be accomplished. AND I already made dinner for them and it just turned 10 am. Oye! The Little Red Hen again.....you know the LRH, right? She found a seed and asked her crew if they would help her to plant it. Each animal said that they were too busy. Then she needed someone to water the wheat....again....they were too busy....Can anyone help the LRH bake the bread? Nope...all busy. Then the bread came out of the oven and when she asked who would help her to eat it, they all replied "YES!" But the LRH was no fool, and exclaimed that since they were too busy to help nurture and create the bread, she would eat it herself....where does that take me?
Well, a few years ago when I was the dean of the department, I had a bunch of newbies and oldbies working with me. Sadly, no one wanted to do the work that they were being paid to do. In fact, they refused certain tasks and I was stuck doing their work and my own. "Why, LRH, you may ask?" Well, for a number of reasons such as:
1. one director could not speak English (don't ask)
2. Another director was brand new and took her time getting to know the job and when she had it, she quit
3. Another instructor decided that she hated me and thought that I was inept and arrogant (OK....)
4. Another instructor had no clue what to do, and when I wanted her to have a mentor, she screamed at me and quit by throwing an index card at my chest (ouch)
5. Another instructor felt that the course load was too heavy. Anytime she had a problem, rather than dealing with it, it was my problem. And so, I took care of her student and curriculum issues as well as my own....
6. My assistant refused to assist me. When I took her job description to her, she reported me to HR. Then HR brought me into the office for a conference. All was good. HR supported me, yet my assistant continued to not assist me.
7. One of the angry, inept people who came at me tried to sue me telling her lawyer that I created a hostile working environment. The hostile environment was my own as I lost enamel on the back of my teeth from grinding so much and my gall bladder from the stress.
8. Another faculty member came at me so many times as it was my fault for the rain, global warming, cancer, and the high price of milk. She also reported me when I did not ask her to chair a committee that she had refused over the years to take over. But the day that she found out that someone else took it was too much for her, so she sent a scathing letter to the dean. He, in turn, took her side and I had to cringe. What a crappy job.
9. There are so many other stories like the one where an adviser whom I did not hire went to one of our clinical partners and tried to extort money from them for finding staff for their organization from my student body. She wanted $500.00 per find. Oh, could it get much worse?
Yeah, it did...when I found out that I was making a mere extra $1000.00 for all this work 24/7 accountability, no vacations, breaks, and lots of grief, I resigned. Someone else can take over this madhouse and I am going back to the classroom. At least I would have control there.
Back to the LRH....as I continued with this job that was destroying my health, I realized that I was the LRH. And I actually published a paper on the LRH Phenomenon. Yeah, it was published AND it was not my best work, but I will bet the readers could understand my theory and conceptual framework.
With that nostalgic review of one of the best times of my life, I am ready to work out then listen to some music with the girls.
Gotta run!
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