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Yes. The other side to the problem that most commenters here are missing is something that is much easier to see if you are employed by the school (as I used t

Yes. The other side to the problem that most commenters here are missing is something that is much easier to see if you are employed by the school (as I used to be). There are dozens of layers of bloat and positions that exist only to make Doing Stuff (for values of Stuff that include both Research and Teaching) as slow as possible. Even getting a door fixed -- to stop the door stuck open alarm going off -- took multiple days and multiple people, and not because we had trouble getting a hold of someone. I got decent at navigating this stuff and acquired a reputation as a fixer, which I was all too pleased to move on from, but I sure did become aware of all the people I had to keep happy. There were a lot of them. I firmly believe that at least half of those staff positions (not people, but positions) could have been eliminated with nothing of value lost. It was kind of ridiculous, and it's one of the reasons I don't work for a tier 1 research university anymore. (These jobs also tend to be excellent sinecures and attract the difficult sort of person, often by virtue of who your coworkers are going to be, but that's another story.)

deleted 4y ago
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pas 4y ago
wow, this sounds like a very extreme case study. could you detail why it took many days to fix that door?
- javajosh 4y ago
  Not precisely the same mechanisms, I'm sure, but the A plot in this Community episode is illustrative: https://community-sitcom.fandom.com/wiki/Analysis_of_Cork-Based_Networking https://community-sitcom.fandom.com/wiki/Analysis_of_Cork-Ba...
- exmadscientist 4y ago
  Not easily. I wasn't the lead (this one was tackled by the official Lab Manager with the Lab Manager Title, which does matter to some people) so I don't recollect everything that went on. The alarm was intermittent and directly related to use of that door, so it wasn't like it was squawking at 2 am and annoying Security or anything. We did have to do Special Things to that door because we actually needed to prop it open for some Research Stuff, so that added headaches of its own. (I seem to recall the solution to that was a magnet in the right place. Which we had to remove should any official maintenance staff come calling because they hated such quick fixes.) But, honestly, what sticks out in my mind with the Door Saga, what I remember years later, is what the union maintenance guy did. He showed up at 11:55, set up his ladder, then "noticed" it was noon, and left to go on break because that was The Rule. I don't remember what he did with the ladder, but it sure did piss the next guy off... so he left too, because he needed the first guy to do his job. Fun all around! I have union blood in my veins. I don't cross picket lines. UFCW scholarships helped put me through college. So I don't say this lightly: Fuck. That. Union. Utterly destructive leeches. Unions have so much more to offer our workers and our society, and instead they do... this bullshit. Thanks for giving everyone a reason to hate you, you greedy assholes.
  - pas 4y ago
    thanks for the details! it sounds like these situations are a culmination of years of unresolved conflict clusterfucks (not uncommon in education/healthcare and other gigamega organizations ... so anything in state-federal-international politics) :|

deleted 4y ago

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pas 4y ago

wow, this sounds like a very extreme case study. could you detail why it took many days to fix that door?

javajosh 4y ago
Not precisely the same mechanisms, I'm sure, but the A plot in this Community episode is illustrative: https://community-sitcom.fandom.com/wiki/Analysis_of_Cork-Based_Networking https://community-sitcom.fandom.com/wiki/Analysis_of_Cork-Ba...
exmadscientist 4y ago
Not easily. I wasn't the lead (this one was tackled by the official Lab Manager with the Lab Manager Title, which does matter to some people) so I don't recollect everything that went on. The alarm was intermittent and directly related to use of that door, so it wasn't like it was squawking at 2 am and annoying Security or anything. We did have to do Special Things to that door because we actually needed to prop it open for some Research Stuff, so that added headaches of its own. (I seem to recall the solution to that was a magnet in the right place. Which we had to remove should any official maintenance staff come calling because they hated such quick fixes.) But, honestly, what sticks out in my mind with the Door Saga, what I remember years later, is what the union maintenance guy did. He showed up at 11:55, set up his ladder, then "noticed" it was noon, and left to go on break because that was The Rule. I don't remember what he did with the ladder, but it sure did piss the next guy off... so he left too, because he needed the first guy to do his job. Fun all around! I have union blood in my veins. I don't cross picket lines. UFCW scholarships helped put me through college. So I don't say this lightly: Fuck. That. Union. Utterly destructive leeches. Unions have so much more to offer our workers and our society, and instead they do... this bullshit. Thanks for giving everyone a reason to hate you, you greedy assholes.
- pas 4y ago
  thanks for the details! it sounds like these situations are a culmination of years of unresolved conflict clusterfucks (not uncommon in education/healthcare and other gigamega organizations ... so anything in state-federal-international politics) :|