clevermanka

Entry tags:

DOA

Story from yesterday--

New GTA: Can you tell me where my classrooms are?
Me: Do you mean where are the buildings your classes are in?
New GTA: No, they're in Wescoe, but I didn't print my class schedule before I left home this morning.
Me: looooong pause Why don't you go pull up that information on the computer in your GTA office.
New GTA: Oh. You can't tell me?
Me: I could do the same thing on my computer that you can do on yours. Go pull up that information on the computer in your GTA office.

Story from today--

Clueless freshman: Can you help me find my room? It's in Wescoe, but the room number is only three digits and everything in this building has four digits.
Me: Okay, can I see your class schedule?
Clueless freshman: I don't have it with me, but I showed it to my roommate before I left this morning and she said it was only three numbers.
Me: laughs aloud, right there in front of her I think you should probably go over to the Budig Lab, pull up a copy of your schedule, and print it.

I help those who help themselves, bitches. No mercy for you.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Oh my.

It was the GTA interaction that threw me. The freshman story is funny/sad, but the GTA thing is tragic.

Agreed.

"I could tell you, but I'd have to charge..."

The satisfaction of telling them "I shall not help you" was worth more than anything they could have paid me.

I'm beginning to understand a little more as I hear Tales From The Engineering School.

I think my latest quote was, "They are a bunch of fucking engineers, what do you mean they can't fix [enter their latest issue]."

I have a friend who works in the Engineering building who talks about students who are so used to people picking up for them, and doing menial chores for them, that they ask him to do things like turn on machines for them. Because they can't be bothered to flip a switch. Or pick up a hammer.

Un. Real.

Wow. I guess they didn't cover "Don't ask stupid questions and piss off the office staff" in whatever GTA training they have there.

When I started at UTA, they definitely covered that. They made sure we knew just how much power office staff had over our lives at the university and it certainly discouraged me from asking them questions I could answer myself.

Here's the thing: I don't believe the GTA thought it was a stupid question. It's just part of that whole "the world looks out for and takes care of me" mentality that is becoming so alarmingly common.

Neither of these students grasped the inanity of their actions (yet). They're so accustomed to other people doing their work for them because they are Special Snowflakes that it simply doesn't occur to them to help themselves.

I aim to change that mentality as soon as possible, at least in the case of the GTA.

I will say this: you might consider eliminating the words "personal secretary" from your spiel (I remember this from the new student orientation on Wednesday). I think those words are a little too rhetorically effective - I could see the eyes of the new GTAs around me lighting up with the desire to dump work on you as you said those words.

Just a thought.

Hmmm. But that is my job. Heck, I just now printed off a cover letter for a journal submission for someone because the printer in his office isn't working yet and he needs it to go out in this afternoon's mail.

There's a big difference between me helping you do your job/get your degree and me holding your hand on daily life issues. Need photocopying done but can't wait for the line of other people to diminish? I'm your girl. Need to organize your committee for a meeting, even if it's not technically your exam or dissertation? I'm on it! There's a difference between "secretarial duties" and "hand-holding." The ones who don't understand that yet will learn it very fast.

It's much more common for people to under-utilize me in an effort to not be a bother. That's the mentality I'm trying to deter early on. I want to make people's lives easier. But I'm not their mom. They figure it out pretty quick. I'd rather people think I'm a substitute mother at first and correct it early on than have them go through their graduate career trying to be less of a bother.

Here's the thing: I don't believe the GTA thought it was a stupid question. It's just part of that whole "the world looks out for and takes care of me" mentality that is becoming so alarmingly common.

It was proved to my why it's so common when one of our seniors asked the other secretary this exact same thing and she did it for him with a smile. I almost peed.

HA! :D

This reminds me of the same sort of exchanges I used to get working at the library reserve desk. Students showing up to ask for an article, and unable to come up with the instructors name, the article title, or even the number of the class they were taking. And did they bring the syllabus? Of course not. That would require thinking for themselves. *sigh*

Stupid people suck.

After a few years of listening to your informative rants, I knew that when I needed Things Done at Upstate Medical...
I called the Grad Secretary of the Department of Neuroscience & Physiology.

She organized the hell out of my meet and greet tour there, and now I'm trying to figure out if a small thank you gift is appropriate.
-=-
Your rants also have given me a long list of things I should never do as a grad student. *grin*

I'm glad that if nothing else, these students have provided you an example of what not to do. =D

And nobody could ever accuse you of not being a self-starter, hon. You're one of my heroes in the Get Shit Done department.

And he can even manage the printer :)

awww, thank you.
-
That means a great deal to me.

Oh yes, get them trained NOW! I've got PhD's I'm still trying to get out of the helpless stage. It starts with the printer, and The Look, as in do they *really* want me to come all the way around from my cubicle just because they can't put paper in a tray......

I'm betting you have an even better Look than I do. Scariness!

Actually probably not so much a look as a raised eyebrow.

Everything I know I learned from Star Trek :) :) :)

She does.

You are awesome.

There was a chick who often would leave her mail on my desk with a post-it note asking me to post it for her and drop it in the mail box. The first time I did it, I thought- maybe she was in a hurry and didn't have a chance and this was important. The second time I asked her if she knew how to use the postage machine and gave her letters back. The third time, I gave her letters back with a flip book (made from post-its) on how she could fix the problem herself -I included a map to the postage machine. She hasn't dropped letters on my desk again.

I included a map to the postage machine

LOVE.

Dumbasses abound. I was, and continue to be to a lesser degree, a dumbass. But if it weren't for people who laughed at my dumbassity, I would be a MUCH BIGGER dumbass than I am now. You keep at it. You are saving the world!

You are saving the world!

Awesome. If I'd known I could save the world through sarcasm and mockery, I'd have started sooner.

It's not just the present generation of students. We have an office worker here who will plaintively whine about some small thing that needs doing.. in hopes that someone will do it for her.
Prime example yesterday:
The dish sponge fell off the sink. It landed on the floor behind the microwave cart (on wheels). She stood there looking at it and openly complaining about it. "I don't know how I'm going to get that out of there." I looked over, said "Move the microwave cart out" and kept walking.

I walked back by about twenty minutes later. She was nowhere in sight.. and you guessed it.. the sponge was still behind the cart.

Well, the kids learned it somewhere, I guess.

But I worked at a computer help desk at KU from 1989-1999, with just a few years off when I was working at a computer help desk elsewhere. And honestly? It wasn't this bad. This generation is vastly more helpless and less able to think for themselves. They've grown up without learning any problem solving skills.

It's terrifying to think about.

All those helicopter parents hovering around?
Hell, kids can't even find their way to school anymore without a carpool.
OMG< someone might steal my children in the next two blocks, I must drive them to school!!!

As a mutual friend of ours remarked, "What?! Man, those kids should be hanging out a block from school learning to drink and smoke, not being hauled around in minivans."

I raise a glass to your friend.

There's an even simpler solution, and it begins with a piece of technology called THE PEN. One applies it to another piece of tech called PAPER.

On the other hand, aren't Kids These Days glued to their micro-computers (aka phones)? And don't said devices have data-storage capabilities?

Gee-zus.

I have no idea. Both situations were wrong wrong wrong on just so many levels.

Ah yes, You are in the Time of Looking Both Ways at One Way Streets.

Lawrence has its own seasons.

No kidding. Driving home from the bar last night I realized that going out on the first Friday after classes started probably ranks in my Top Ten Dumbest Things Ever.

It's not just you or your school: last spring one of the doctors that teaches for us came out of class and walked to her car. While en route, she noticed a student obviously dismayed and almost in tears. Dr. B asked the student if she could help, what's going on, something like that. The student was upset because she couldn't get into her car ... the button thingy wouldn't work (to unlock the car). She couldn't use her cell phone to call someone to bring her an extra "button thingy" because her cell phone was IN the car. Dr. B blinked at her and said "have you tried using the key in the door?" The student looked at her like she had just performed a miracle and was amazed as Dr. B took the keys, put the key in the little hole in the door, unlocked the door and opened it. And this is a Med Student. please help us ...

That's awful. And funny.

On the other hand, I can totally see someone (especially a possibly privileged person with moneyed parents) growing up never having seen someone unlock a car door by inserting the key in the lock.

Won't it be something when the only way people recognize certain things (manual locks, corded telephones) is from old movies?

Things the TAs need to learn:
1. Lydia is made of awesome.
2. This awesomeness is not to be abused.
3. Do everything you can (within reason) for yourself first, and then ask Lydia.

I can't tell you how much easier you made my graduate school life, especially having to handle the last two years long distance. Seriously, thank you.

Too bad for that GTA who hasn't figured out how this works yet...

Aw.

You're very welcome.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

DOA

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject