Today's another working weekend for me. I'm headed to a conference in early April and I must have a poster and paper ready to present there. I make it a high priority to limit my working hours; in academia (like being self-employed), it's easy for your work to expand to fill all possible time. This weekend is one of those times it can't be avoided,but I think it all evens out. I don't complain too much about academia's flexible working hours when I'm using them to take a three-day weekend...
I am very happy to be doing the work I'm doing right now, and not just because it pays better than graduate school. In graduate school I spent four years studying people (teaching assistants) who often weren't very happy about what they were doing. They had good, often valid reasons for why they were unhappy, so I'm not blaming them. And I know that studying ineffective situations and unhappy people can lead to effective remedies. Nonetheless, it was often wearing to analyze mainly negative interviews. At my new university many things are going well, and my job centers on reporting on and explaining why they're going well. So I've spent the last few weeks talking to people who tell me how much they like their class and how much they're learning in it. It's an absoute joy to be using the thesaurus to find synonyms for "enthusiasm" and "friendship" instead of "concern" and "worries."
4 comments:
That is fabulous (or fantastic or terrific or just plain great)!
I hope we get to have a long, long talk at the reunion about what you are doing. Over the last year, I have been introduced to the field of human capital management where they are using all kinds of behavioral and psychological mechanisms to help organizations become more effective. I'm looking forward to exchanging notes.
it's absolutely true being surrounded by negativity can be a drag!
UncleM - we've got a date! Sounds like we could have interesting conversations this summer.
Post a Comment