Eeeek! Job Loathing

Hrm. I took yesterday off work as a “mental health day” (only my 5th sick day this calendar year, stop looking at me like that!), visited Mum, replaced her light fixture, got the wrong hose attachments at Home Depot, did laundry, vacuumed, washed dishes, quilted a little, went to dinner at JVL’s mom’s house and had a great day all around.

We didn’t get to go to the screening of ‘Dave Chappelle’s Block Party’ at the Elgin – but seriously, there was ZERO chance we would have made it in the rush line and it was thirty-two degrees outside, and the tickets would have cost over $40 for the two of us, so I guess we can wait for it to come out on DVD.

Today I am back at work. And loathing it. Seriously, maybe I’m not cut out for the public service. Everyone is always telling me that I’m an academic at heart, and I’m beginning to wonder if they’re right.

After last week’s trip to the ribbon cutting at Morrison Hall, I felt a deep pang of nostalgia for my old college. I miss working there, working with students, being part of that team. I’ve also been thinking about libraries a lot. Sure, it’s an ivory tower, but it was MY ivory tower for a long time, and I loved it there.

Wish I’d been keeping a diary during that time, so that I could go back and see posts of bad days at work from when I was the UC residence co-ordinator. I’m sure there were many of them, but I can’t seem to think of them right now. They all look shiny.

Currently, the only thing keeping me at my desk is the paycheque, the pension and my mortgages. I know that’s what keeps a lot of people going to work, but somehow it doesn’t seem like a really good incentive at the moment.

6 thoughts on “Eeeek! Job Loathing”

  1. Fricking university administration is the BEST; I don’t have to tell you that, you already know it. Free school for yourself. Free school for your family. Working on campus. The Campus, Man! Hart House! The UC Quad, Man! You could eat lunch every goddamned day in the UC Quad!

    You got more connections at that place than the Stereo MC’s. Get yourself a job there. Do it, do it, do it. I strongly endorse this plan.

    -CP

  2. I think what you meant to say is, “I got more connections than Puerto-Ricans got cousins”.

    God, I love the Beatnuts. Have I forced you to listen to them yet? Download some Classic Nuts, vol. 1; “Watch Out Now” is a particularly good track.

    Maybe I need to go to OISE for a year and do another M.A. in School Administration or whatever it’s called. Hmm. Maybe Maree will have some good advice for me on that front.

  3. Currently, the only thing keeping me at my desk is the paycheque, the pension and my mortgages. I know that’s what keeps a lot of people going to work, but somehow it doesn’t seem like a really good incentive at the moment.

    We had this conversation a few months ago, and I know that you have a very hard time visualizing leaving the gov’t on account of the pension, benefits and stability.

    Might I humbly point out that the University of Toronto, est. 1827, appears to be similarly stable, and that it is my understanding that universities offer excellent compensation and benefits?

    There is surely something to think about there.

    Going the MLS (or whatever it’s called now) -> library route might be SLIGHTLY less secure as my mother tells me that libraries are getting sneaky and finding ways to avoid hiring actual librarians so as to save $$$ hiring library techs and other sorts of folks for library roles… but still, that’s also a way to stay working for gov’t (although on a municipal level)… my mother has an EXCELLENT pension plan.

  4. i so see you not at that dreary desk but in some faculty office, having a nice afternoon drink whilst trying to seduce the minds (and maybe bodies) of impressionable undergrads. Really, what are you waiting for. And the library degree? easiest two years of study, ever.

    As for leaving gov’t, uni’s are pretty stable, and have much better benefits all round (tuition, sabbatical, leave for every concievable reason, and no mandatory retirement!!!). you know you want to. we know you want to. we want you to.

  5. I hate how time erases memories. Particularly the bad ones. It’s for these reasons that we (we meaning me) don’t learn from our mistakes.

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