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Which of the following "Dilbert" characters would your co-workers say best resembles you?
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The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
I don't want a pickle,
I just wanna ride on my motorsickle.
And I don't want to die,
I just want to ride on my motorcy.
Cle.
-- Arlo Guthrie
(Score: 5, Touché) by Hartree on Friday May 08 2020, @04:20AM (8 children)
I do something far worse. Academia. Corporate nonsense isn't even on the same continent as academic nonsense.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Friday May 08 2020, @04:31AM (3 children)
That ain't no lie, faculty or student.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by Hartree on Friday May 08 2020, @05:07AM (2 children)
Staff. I fix lab instruments and equipment.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by VLM on Friday May 08 2020, @02:20PM (1 child)
I always wanted a job as an EE lab tech when I was young; basically like sitting in my basement goofing around with ham radio gear and weird hamfest electronic finds, except getting paid for it.
Decades later, just last night, I was replacing the FET in an old 2 meter preamp. Can't imagine not only getting paid to do that, but having an expense account. Of course a modern 75 cent MMIC would have a tenth the noise figure. But its fun anyway.
The downside is all my life experience since then indicates nothing kills the joy of a hobby quite like a boss telling you what and how to do it.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 10 2020, @11:08AM
Ditto that!
I am of the strong belief that artisans have no business being employees. Unless they are directly working with the man who owns the company.
I have seen several corporations technically disintegrate after "leadership" techniques, learned from traveling seminar-givers, caused the creative talent to either leave or self- destruct.
There are people who are like pumps, pulling water from hundreds of feet down, bringing it up and keeping water line pressure at 100 psi.
Then there are those who open the tap just a bit, draw a glass of water, and serve it to the customer.
And there are those who have the skills to recognize the importance of each.
A lot of people think pumps are a dime a dozen, carelessly blown like sports car engines. Important people. Private jets await.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Kell on Monday May 18 2020, @11:24PM
As an assc prof who has worked in industry, I feel this in my bones.
Scientists ask questions. Engineers solve problems.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by TheReaperD on Thursday May 21 2020, @06:10AM
I worked in Academia as well in IT. I was also the person the Director went to when he wanted something done in a timely manner and was willing to 'look the other way' on how it got done. Example, getting blueprint changes done for a new building that that the school board wouldn't authorize because they didn't want to spend any more money on the project. I talked to the construction crew, figured out what would be best, asked their favorite brands and showed up at lunch with a cold case of beer, each of their favorite brand. I even got them for the guys I didn't need to bribe. They asked why I did that and I said, I take care of everybody. I may not need your help today but, I might tomorrow plus, it's bad form to leave out some of the crew. I got all the changes we needed done and they were updates on the blueprints so it was all legal. Though it did count as an illegal bribe of a government contractor that resulted in unauthorized changes to a federal building. My boss, the Director, made the mistake of asking me how I got it done when he couldn't do it. He then remembered why he didn't ask me how I got things done. Less legal liability that way.
Ad eundum quo nemo ante iit
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 28 2020, @03:25AM
Academia is horrendous. For all the issues with private sector employment, it seems preferable over academia.
I'm a postdoc, meaning I'm considered faculty. I just got a federal grant funded to conduct research and pay my salary for the year. I'm the lead PI on this grant. It should be obvious that, as the PI, with funding budgeted for me, that I get paid for a year to do this research. Were I not qualified to do this work, the reviewers would never have scored my proposal sufficiently high so that it would get funded. So, this shouldn't be a problem, right?
Wrong. Even though my name is on the grant as the lead PI, even though there's funding budgeted for me by name in the grant, even though reviewers deemed me qualified, that's not enough for the university. They want to conduct a formal search for the PI position budgeted for me in the grant. There's a hiring freeze, meaning that approval high in the administration, all the way up to the "executive vice chancellor" level, is required to even conduct this search. I understand the hiring freeze with respect to state funds allocated by the legislature. I understand why a formal search would be appropriate for positions funded in that manner. But the federal funds are allocated specifically for this project, so not filling the position doesn't save the state any money. The funds would be awarded with the expectation that I'd be leading the project.
It's not entirely clear to me how this gets resolved. If the position doesn't get filled, a lot of the work won't get done, which reflects poorly on the university. And if we're truly concerned about reducing spending, we could start with reducing the layers upon layers of highly paid bureaucrats.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 28 2020, @09:00AM
Depends on your Chair/Director. Thankfully both of mine are wonderful at my current position. Bend over backwards to protect us from the bullshit raining down from above. In return, we help them by boosting their numbers and not creating unnecessary problems. It is amazing how much more work we get done without having to deal with that additional headache as well as how much smoother it is to deal with the administration when the academic leadership does more than the minimum and doesn't pawn their work onto others.
Now at the place I was at before, the chair would probably be the first to stab you in the back. And that is on top of the lack of tenure, budget squeezes, impossible mandates, ruthless competition, and dealing with the five layers of bureaucracy, vocal donors, vocal taxpayers, the students, and their helicopters at the same time for seemingly every minor decision.