You're right. I have other resources, which I also earn, or have earned. I learned early the importance of staying out of office social situations and politics, and got myself a job and income that would not depend on them. It took a while to get here, too. However, I still have had to work with people whose company I do not enjoy (I still do!) and I just stay out of it at work, and I do nothing outside of work. And I have just always said, "No, thank you," and due to my performance and my good interpersonal relations WITHOUT any social aspects, I have always stayed employed until I pulled the plug myself.
CNK -- not all jobs that are not tenured/tenure-track are adjuncts. I'm a full-time, full-benefits, full-retirement (one day) Lecturer. I'm not tenured (although there is this "de-facto tenure" thing in my state, after 10 years (I'm starting year eight this school year)). I never will be tenured. But it's a real job with real benefits -- and as I've mentioned before, because I teach partially online, I'm only physically in the classroom one day a week, and have a lot of flexible time for my real estate work.
There are (at least in academia) almost as many job variations as there are people. I bet we have over a dozen different kinds of contracts in our department, and even these can be tailored to suit the individual. For example, healthcare is available (at a hefty price with bad coverage) but I can waive that because I'm a veteran. They don't pay Social Security but I secured that income years and years ago. And they do make me pay a small amount for another kind of retirement. And on and on. If I were willing to work more, they'd give me more to do, and more money. But I'm not, because that's where you get too involved. And that would cause more stress than it's worth.
For me, the trick has always been to have multiple talents, multiple options, fallbacks, reserves, an open mind and so on. At my age I was frequently the first and/or only woman in a workplace, and I earned respect by doing the dirty, scary, hard jobs no one expected me to do. I could then trade these credits to be left out of the politcal loop. "Leave her alone; she's the mortuary officer," and so on. I have always done that. And I have always thought "what if?" and looked ahead to other possibilities in case one ceased to work for me. And I did that repeatedly until I got where I am, without having to compromise principles. Been here twelve years starting this fall. Not planning to change, but I can if I have to. I have five sources of income right now, but I could have nine. I just don't want to. Like Bartleby the Scrivener, I can say "I would prefer not to," and back it up.
PrairieGirl, you are very fortunate that your institution continues to have those kinds of contracts. With the economy being the way it is these days, my college system has eliminated those for all but emergency situations, and under no circumstances can they be continued beyond two years. If someone takes a medical/maternity/paternity leave, for instance, and ends up needing longer than two years, the job will just go unfilled. Most of the time they will go with adjuncts rather than non-tenured positions because they don't want to pay benefits. We just lost two of our language programs because the two individuals teaching them were on lecturer contracts, and their positions were eliminated. The central office thought those people would continue at adjunct rate or that they'd easily be replaceable with other employees willing to work as adjuncts. They were wrong.
As to the OT, I think some people think it's more "natural" to learn the baby's sex at birth and won't even let the doctor tell them, let alone anyone else. Regarding the names, I've seen parents become very proprietary about them. It's like they are afraid if they give the name out early, someone else who's pregnant will "steal" it. People have always been superstitious about names. In Jewish folklore, some groups consider it bad luck to name your child after someone who has died because it will draw the Angel of Death to the baby.
LOL - did this topic ever go awry!
(07-14-2010 07:03 PM)dune67 Wrote: [ -> ]As to the OT, I think some people think it's more "natural" to learn the baby's sex at birth and won't even let the doctor tell them, let alone anyone else. Regarding the names, I've seen parents become very proprietary about them. It's like they are afraid if they give the name out early, someone else who's pregnant will "steal" it. People have always been superstitious about names. In Jewish folklore, some groups consider it bad luck to name your child after someone who has died because it will draw the Angel of Death to the baby.
I had someone tell me straight to my face some years ago that they didn't want to tell me the name they picked in case I "stole" it!
CB, how bizarre. Even if you had gotten pregnant that instant (and they obviously didn't know you very well) their baby would have been out and named first!
CB, you should have said, "No, it's ok-even if we use the same name, I'll use a special spelling so it will be different." Love those cr8ive names! LOL
(07-20-2010 08:29 PM)Koi Wrote: [ -> ]CB, you should have said, "No, it's ok-even if we use the same name, I'll use a special spelling so it will be different." Love those cr8ive names! LOL
You could also have said: "For 100 hundred dollars, I'll promise not to use the same name as your baby."
Nice DH! I'm totally going to convince the next friends or family members to "buy" rights to the name, LOL.
My boss is having a grandkid. She won't tell anyone what the name is going to be. It's a "secret". ?? Odd.
CNK, you should organize the office to be entirely apathetic so it won't be so much fun for her.
Could be it's a real stupid name and she doesn't want to have to deal with it any earlier than she must.
I don't quite understand keeping the sex and names a secret (if you know the sex). I suppose I could understand the name if you were afraid that an unspoken parent or something would try to talk you out of it. I do sometimes think that some people shouldn't be allowed to name their own children with some of the names I've heard.
I was at a medical clinic over a month ago and there was a little girl there named "Nirvana". Guess her Mom was a Kurt Cobain fan..
(07-21-2010 03:06 PM)eslbee Wrote: [ -> ]CNK, you should organize the office to be entirely apathetic so it won't be so much fun for her.
Could be it's a real stupid name and she doesn't want to have to deal with it any earlier than she must.
I wondered if maybe they are naming it after her or something. I think when she announces it I'll say something like, "We just named our new puppy that!" or something fun.
