Nice one
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The biggest part of the issue in state-run higher-ed is the glacial pace at which hiring happens vs. how fast the works shows up. My organization is legitimately trying to hire appropriately (I believe), but we can't allocate resources until the students show up, and then it's an 18 month turn around between filing a faculty hiring request and the person starting work due to the standard academic hiring cycle and state-mandated EEO requirements (and that's assuming that admin approve the hiring request the first time you ask for it, which they do as often as they can). On the other hand, it only takes 2 weeks for people to resign and move on, so we're losing people as fast as we can hire them. We could to try to hire faster, but it's a tiny school with a tiny HR (so we're capped at hiring about 4-5 faculty positions per year) and a small number of faculty (so it's hard getting enough people to volunteer when you need to fill a hiring committee).
Honestly, I really like the organization and think admin are making good choices, but we legally can't turn students away, so when more people enroll, there's more work with the same number of workers for at least a year. It's honestly a good problem to have, and they do a decent job at compensating me for my extra work, but I'd rather have more help and less OT as soon as we can manage it.
All that said, working in private industry or in an organization that doesn't have as many restrictions, I would absolutely be saying "no" a lot more. As it is, when I say no, it's my colleagues and the students that feel the repercussions, not admin, and I have a hard time being OK with that.
The phrase 'act your wage' springs to mind. I realised you probably care deeply about the students, but it sounds like you need to care a little bit more deeply about yourself and stop letting them exploit you. Understaffing is management's problem, not yours.
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Problem is, that the work is still there after the meeting
So? Not your fault you had to go to a pointless meeting. Leave at the normal time.
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do you need my presence here
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So? Not your fault you had to go to a pointless meeting. Leave at the normal time.
Unemployed or self employed?
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There's one weekly meeting that I'm in where my only contribution is to notice when we're out of stuff to discuss but no one is wrapping up. I unmute and ask, "Ok, so can we wrap?"
I don't understand why six other people just sit there saying nothing without ending it. I've got other shit to do. Don't they?
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"What is the purpose of this meeting and why do I need to be included" is a perfectly polite series of words to use. The wording matters far less than the tone of voice.
I vastly prefer clear and direct questions over the reply that sounds passive aggressive from the very beginning.
Yep, clear & direct is kindness.
I like to insist on basic standards: "Please provide an agenda that explains why we're needed. Otherwise, I'll have to turn down this meeting. Thanks." and reply all.
Often, others will agree the lack of written preparation is a problem & follow suit.If the agenda is simple & clear enough, I'll just answer in writing so we can cancel the meeting.
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Corporate buzzwords are cargo cult behavior. Jargon and industry-specific terms can be helpful for accurately communicating precise or nuanced ideas, but generic buzzwords are just people who try to sound professional or smart by mimicking the people they've seen in those roles.
Just asking "what's my role in the meeting" is a simple way to get to the point, and isn't impolite or unprofessional.
Some higher ups can get pissy at slaves that correctly guess that their actual work is more important than listening to inane bullshit. I know, it shows that said higher ups are unprofessional, but meritocracy is a lie anyway.
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'Do you really need me? I still have a lot on my desk and would like to get to work on it, if you don't mind.'
Never did anyone have an issue with that, including my boss.
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'Do you really need me? I still have a lot on my desk and would like to get to work on it, if you don't mind.'
Never did anyone have an issue with that, including my boss.
The beauty of this is its not using brainrot LinkedIn language
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One thing I’ve learned is that sometimes you need to let the problems happen. You can raise hell and keep talking about how more hands are needed, but unless issues actually start coming up and affecting people, then no one is going to care/listen.
I had a job in the past that was vastly understaffed. I kept getting more and more, and working longer hours. I brought this up with management many times but nothing was happening. “Not in the budget to hire more” is what I kept getting.
When it got to be too much, I decided I would only work 40 hours, and whatever happens, happens. Our lives are too short to be wasted away at work.
So tasks started to take longer, and whenever something needed doing, it was added to the queue and prioritized appropriately. Sometimes that meant I couldn’t get to it in weeks. At first, I came under fire. “Why haven’t you done this yet??” But each time I explained my situation. “There’s not enough hands and I am doing the best I can with the resources given to me”. And guess what? Most people empathized and understood my predicament. So now I have an army of colleagues who understand the issue here, and now the issue gets more visibility with management as more people rally to my side.
A few months of this, and they decide to hire two more positions to help with the overload of work.
It’s a risky move for sure. They could just fire you and dig themselves into a deeper hole. But then if they do that, is that really the type of environment you’d want to work in anyway?
People are surprisingly understanding when you explain yourself. You don’t need to fix everything and everyone’s problems. Sometimes the best thing you can do is to let the problems happen and observe how others deal with it.
wrote on last edited by [email protected]This is very true. The manager is also overworked and busy, and they hear a lot of complaints from their team. People are very different, some complain all the time for nothing, but others stay silent while their back is on fire. It takes a long time to get to know somebody, so you can confidently tell the difference. But if issues start showing up, they know there is a real problem, and they can allocate resources to fix it.
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I told my team to decline meetings they don't think they should be in. If they're really needed, they can be added - everyone is supposed to be available/reachable during the day anyway. I told them that this includes meetings that I invite them to.
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There's one weekly meeting that I'm in where my only contribution is to notice when we're out of stuff to discuss but no one is wrapping up. I unmute and ask, "Ok, so can we wrap?"
I don't understand why six other people just sit there saying nothing without ending it. I've got other shit to do. Don't they?
They are all afraid the manager will perceive them negatively for it, also why doesn't your team lead / manager take the call about wrapping up the meeting
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When I started my career I quickly became convinced that meetings are the opposite of work. Now a large part of my career is hosting meetings.
My biggest piece of advice to junior staff is: if you're not provided an agenda prior to a meeting, your attendance is not required. RSVP with Yes if it sounds interesting/beneficial and you have the time, otherwise Nope (or Tentative) your way out of it.
The obvious caveat is if that meeting is called by someone with role power over you. In which case: as they clearly don't respect your time, it's on you to (politely) ask them to provide an agenda. It may also indirectly train them to be less shit.
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I told my team to decline meetings they don't think they should be in. If they're really needed, they can be added - everyone is supposed to be available/reachable during the day anyway. I told them that this includes meetings that I invite them to.
wrote on last edited by [email protected]Had a manager saying that. Declined meeting. Manager: Pikachu-face.
Had to attend anyways ofc. Wasted my time 100% + the time the manager "explained" why I couldn't just decline a meeting.
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So? Not your fault you had to go to a pointless meeting. Leave at the normal time.
wrote on last edited by [email protected]Yeah I'll tell that to HR when I'm getting laid off again, I'm sure they will totally get it and reconsider
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do you need my presence here
Are you not entertained?
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The first way sounds polite enough for me.
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Fluent companyspeech
It's just being highly effective at applying peer to peer team interaction synergistics skills.
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Had a manager saying that. Declined meeting. Manager: Pikachu-face.
Had to attend anyways ofc. Wasted my time 100% + the time the manager "explained" why I couldn't just decline a meeting.
Yeah, that's not cool at all. Gotta mean it if you're gonna say it.
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I hate corpo bs speak. Makes me wish I was German or something.
