Open Forum: The Autumn Semester 2009 Finals Week Edition
After a week of writing, reviewing, revising, and finally printing final exams for my classes, the four days of administering the exams is now upon my students.Grading exams is a lot like work, even though I've been doing it for almost 30 years, now, but the grading is not the part I dislike; it's the issuing of final grades. To some extent, I can make that part mechanical: just calculate final percentages, attach the grades, and be done with it. That's a little too easy for my taste, though.
I'll tell you a secret, but you cannot EVER tell anyone I told you this. In fact, I'm going to tell you more than one secret, tonight, and I expect you never to tell a living soul any of this.
Are we clear on that?
Okay, here goes, then.
I bump a grade every now and then.
That's right, a few times every semester, I'll edge a grade up a notch above where the numbers tell me. I do it if a student has been getting better and better grades as the course went along, and I'll do it if one test is way out of line from the rest.
I'll do it if I see past the foolish young person in front of me to the adult who will someday be more amazing than he or she knows. I've taught long enough to know how to see the future.
I see it every day. After all, I'm not just a writer; I'm a teacher.
I never cut slack because of a student's plea for a better grade, and those pleas are timeless, repetitive, and altogether tedious to me. Here's a sample, along with my thought-response to each, so you will first understand that I am most decidedly not a merciful professor:
"I just HAVE to get at LEAST a 'C' in this class."
(There's a way to do that: it's called studying, but by now it's too late. You cannot learn the body of an entire semester's coursework in a couple of all-nighters, especially considering you're not going to do that, anyway, are you?)
"I won't graduate unless I pass."
(You should have waited until you had graduated to slack off, then. That, or you shouldn't have waited until the last semester to take the course you knew was harder than anything in that fluff major of yours.)
"Can I meet with you to go over what I need to know to pass the final?"
(First, I reviewed for the final the last day of class. You weren't there. Second, I held a special review session. You weren't there. I have office hours. You've never been there. Now, you want extra special spoon-feeding through an entire course. I'm not there.)
"This is the ONLY class that's threatening my perfect GPA."
(Yes, I can see why many professors would be impressed with your intelligence, your go-to attitude, and your leadership qualities; unfortunately, none of those have worked in my class.)
"Do you have any extra-credit assignments I can do, like a paper or something?"
(I gave every student, including you, a syllabus on the first day, and I read the high points aloud in class. Recall that I emphatically noted both in that syllabus and orally that I do not give extra credit assignments. If I have a learning objective for you, it's the same learning objective I have for every student, and every student should have an equal chance of meeting it in the regular course of the class.)
"I study and study for your exams, but I still don't get good grades on your tests."
(In three decades of teaching, I have met only a handful of students who actually studied diligently but still couldn't do well on the exams. You are not one of those students. Either you aren't studying, which is most likely the case, or what you think qualifies as studying isn't even in the same universe with the real deal. This is college: we leave children behind.)
"I think you're a great teacher, and I just wish I could do better."
(Don't blow smoke up my butt and tell me it's a fancy barbecue you're hosting in my honor.)
"I need to know how many points I have to get on the final to pass this class."
(More points than are on the final.)
"What are you going to ask on the final?"
(Questions.)
"Does anyone, like, actually PASS your class?"
(Quite a few; you're just special. Perhaps you should change you name to Ed.)
Okay, that's enough. No, I don't actually say those things I wrote parenthetically. Yes, all of those quotes, though, are things I hear all the time.
Now, I'll bet some of you are wondering if I held back.
No, I mean it: a few of you men (a few, and it's the men who would be thinking this) are wondering if I have ever been offered sex for a grade.
Just once. She had aced every exam I threw at her. She came in to my office late the evening after her final. It was storming outside, and I thought I had the night all to myself to get grades finished up. She walked into my office. She was wearing a raincoat and patent leather, calf-high boots. As it turned out, that was all.
Before things got out of hand, I told her that she had gotten a near-perfect score on the final, and I had already posted an "A" for her in the course.
Thank God, the door at the end of the hallway opened. It was one of the night security guards. He came into my office and started chatting. The girl left.
Here's the truth of the matter: students trading sex for grades are extraordinarily rare. It happens, but it's wildly unusual, especially anymore. Back until maybe 10 or 15 years ago, the college environment was different; but these days, most professors avoid interacting with students as much as possible, and students are carrying into their early adult years a general aversion to older men, even when the men are teachers.
For my part, I don't hold office hours in an isolated office. I do my student contact in the coffee shop on the lower level, or I hit another open, public place.
I take the caution thing further than most male professors, but that's because they're a little on the dense side. Most seem to think they're above reproach, which they're not.
Are there professors who would like to get it on with a student or two every now and then? Sure. They've always been around. Some get by with their weirdness for years and years; others are quietly removed. The last one with whom I had the misfortune of sharing faculty status was a woman at an elite, private college. Her target was freshmen coeds taking her Women's Studies class. Every Fall Semester, she would select a couple of the slender, pretty girls and call them after they'd turned in their first assignment. She would berate them; then, once they were in tears, she would invite them to meet with her so she could mentor them to better performance in her class. Her routine was so well-worn that it was a running, sick joke among the sorority girls on campus. She was tenured, and no administrator in his or her right mind was going to deal with the problem. To my knowledge, she's still at that school, and she's still doing her schtick.
Before that fairly nauseating piece of work, I had run into other prof-predators, almost always male, during my career. They were quite rare, at least the ones who were aggressive enough to get a reputation.
Interestingly, many of them were activists with public reputations for outspoken views and works. Leaders, if you will.
But, again, they've been rare in my experience.
Girls wanting to have sex with professors are rare, too. Believe it or not, and notwithstanding the Girls Gone Wild for Old Dudes myth, the reality is that the females who would get an active, expressed crush on a prof are almost always among the smartest, if maybe the most unusual, students on campus.
That's what I've seen in my personal experience, anyway. They're not looking for a grade or anything like that; they're just strange.
The last one who ever bothered me — this was maybe four years ago — was my best student that semester. She sent me e-mail messages telling me when she was going to get into her shower at her apartment. I didn't respond to any of her messages; but one night, out of the blue, she sent me a message demanding to know who I had told about "us."
I thought about killing myself right there, but my computer is a laptop, and beating myself to death with a lightweight machine that's mostly made of plastic wasn't appealing.
Before that, all the young coeds who conveyed to me an interest in a relationship — every last one of them — were extraordinarily smart and extraordinarily not ordinary.
There was this first-quarter freshman. She looked like a little girl, complete with the most cherubic face I had every seen on an 18-year-old. That young lady was Hell-bent on losing her virginity to the male authority figure who was not "boring" and "distant" like her dad.
There was the bisexual girl with genius-level IQ and an obsession for older men. As she, herself, got a few years of college under her belt, she went from 30-something profs to 60-something near-retirees.
Want more?
You're not getting any more. You've read enough, and I've told you more than you needed to know.
Okay, one more story.
It's not just girls.
Back in the day, I'd meet with students at a local, somewhat up-scale bar after I'd submitted grades. I don't drink, but my students do, and I liked to have some kind of closure to a semester where everyone could loosen up a little.
At the end of the autumn semester (actually, they were on the quarter system at that big university), after a few nice hugs from students as they left the bar, one of my male students — a muscular, gorgeous Black man — came up to me to say he had to leave before the snow coming down got any worse.
I reached out to give him the manly-man hand shake. He took my hand firmly and pulled me right up to his face. As he shook my hand, in a low, rumbling voice he said into my ear, "Call me if you ever want a Black snowstorm to come right to your door."
Uncharacteristically, I was absolutely at a loss for verbosity. As I recall, I said, "K."
For hours after that, I ran the gamut of feelings. "Objectified" comes to mind as I think back. "Flattered" does, too. "Oh! Oh! JEEEZUS, I wasn't expecting anything like that tonight!" stands out in retrospect.
Life has been quiet for the past couple of years. Nothing unusual since the cute, skinny lady with the shower fetish and the voices in her head.
Okay, there was that leggy, beautiful blond coed with the South Beach tan from last semester who wanted to be my Facebook friend, but that was just random nonsense. She says the talk about her on Juicy Campus (now defunct for obvious reasons) all came from some bitch who doesn't like her.
I rarely accept friends on Facebook. It's just a thing of mine: I don't need friends. I have two cats.
That's enough writing. I have to grade final exams.
I'll bet you weren't expecting this article to take the turn it did. You promised to keep this a secret, and I'm holding you to that promise. I'm feeling fragile right now, so I'm sharing some pretty dark stuff with you.
I trust you. You're my friends.
Wait a minute. I don't have friends.
Forget what you read, above.
This is an open thread. Write what you want. Surely you have more interesting stuff than I do.
Rock on, fellow travelers. The Dark Wraith has pulled the night train out of the station.
Comments
Wrote trog69:
Wrote trog69:
Please, more about miss ShowerPik and her internal posse, please. She sounds like a keeper.
Wrote Dark Wraith:
I should have known telling just a few of those stories would bring out the conga line for more.
I suppose that's what I get for telling tales out of school.
By the way, trog, I must compliment you for your spelling of that ninth word in the comment right above this one.
The Dark Wraith appreciates those who strive to keep this a family-friendly Website.
Wrote Stunned:
Been a long while since I posted. ....
Your student "easement" stories are hilarious. I'm glad you were a gentleman and turned them all down.
You did, didn't you?
Wrote trog69:
Wow, you sure have met some freaks, DW. I certainly don't know anyone who has an external...
Wrote Dark Wraith:
Welcome back, Stunned.
No, I cannot recall that I ever altered a grade because of some student's lame appeal. Even giving make-up exams is pretty unusual for me. I actually state in my course syllabi that one of the few excuses I will accept for allowing a student to take a make-up test is "personal death."
Even then, I would ask for some documentation.
A coroner's certificate is good.
Students think that's funny... until they actually miss an exam and then contact me to see when they can make up that exam they missed.
They don't find me funny at all when I immediately refer them to the syllabus.
The Dark Wraith has no need to be considered funny, anyway.
Wrote trog69:
"Dearest Professor DW, please allow me to retake the exam I missed due to my being in the lead at the Morrowind Tournament of Champions and thus unable to leave in time to attend the classes needed for the exam, as well as my unfortunate incident at The Watering Hole sports bar, where the doors were mysteriously locked, thus preventing me from attending the exam itself.
Be advised that it would be the death of me, should you refuse to issue and grade my exam retake.
Wrote Dark Wraith:
Dear Wayward Student:
Arrive at the final exam on time, or I shall come out of my long-ago retirement from the RPG world and lay waste to you, your gaming friends, and your lame computer, during which time I will also drop you so far into negative levels that your CPU clock will run backward, after which you will suddenly realize that my mage avatar turned your formerly cool character into Little Miss Microfiber Thong Sprinkles Princess.
Be at the final exam on time.
-- Dark Wraith, Dungeon Master
Wrote Father Tyme:
Herr Professor,
Your story(s) intrigue the Freud in me! But that’s for another time.
They did bring back a host of memories. My favorite “finals question” was “If I did ok all semester, can I drop the final?” “Sure!”, I’d answer, “It’s only a zero. Will that bother your GPA?” They’d invariably show up for the final.
By telling the public this “little secret”, you, of course, realize you’ve broken the unwritten rule of teaching that professes teachers are human – at times. Punishment to be doled out by leather and lace, or so I've always believed!
I did notice missing from your exposé the unholy oblation (monetary) to grant absolution to these well-meaning knowledge pilgrims that has become more frequent these last devil-may-care years. I must admit some offers were quite substantial…and tempting. But, as I don’t care to be married to someone named Rocco for 5 to 10, I declined.
I knew one professor who would tell his students at the beginning of the semester he would only be giving weekly quizzes that wouldn’t count for more than attendance. But the final was the only grade they would get. Of course, he counted the quizzes (unknown to them) but the degree of terror and worry over the ultimate final was palpable. And they did rather well on the final! Never tried it, but thought a lot about it!
As for the “girls”…
“Thank Heaven, for little girls”…as Maurice would sing. Lovely to look at, precious to hold, but “break” one and consider your soul (and earthly possessions) sold!
Snow storm to your door, eh? I guess it would depend on the size of the flake(s)!
Wrote trog69:
Little Miss Microfiber Thong Sprinkles Princess.
Well, you sure have been out too long, 'cause any gamer worth his Horde "Unforgiven" beer stein would know that I would KILL for that kind of avatar.
If you could put pink and purple tassels on the end of my bardiche, I'd be your slave forever!
Wrote trog69:
Oh, and something else I too had to learn; It's not avatar anymore, it's 'toon!
Wrote Dark Wraith:
That's one rough gaming crowd you're running with, there, Chief.
Wrote Progressive Traditionalist:
Good evening, Mr Wraith.
There are a number of things that I would like to talk with you about.
New margin requirements have went into effect 30Nov09. For my part, I've opened an account at Barclays UK to preserve the old margin rates.
I think they're just trying to step on the little guy to show that they're doing something.
You know that I'm a union man.
They want to tax our health & welfare fund to give the non-union contractors a free ride from the government.
The only answer I can see is to take our H&W and put it into HSAs. Screw the insurance, give me the money. Let us all be equally uninsured, but I'm not going to be taxed to give a handout to the very people that want most of all to destroy my livelihood and take my working conditions back to the middle ages.
And believe me, I've been there swinging by one arm clinging to a guy wire 5 storeys up, where if my strength should fail, I fall to my death. And this due to the indiscretions of another contractor. (not unusual, but they were stacking crews on top of each other to come in front of some deadline-- some guys that sit in a trailer all day wanted to collect a bonus, and they were willing to endanger the people outside of the trailer to do it)
I haven't forgotten. For the sake of my apprentices, those men who come behind me, I cannot allow myself to ever forget.
We are inured into a heritage of hardship. But at the same time, we are heirs to an extensive heritage of overcoming.
For Matt in Satellite Beach, and Aaron in South Milwaukee, and many more that I could name, I can never allow myself to forget.
I'm not out of ammo. I'm just waiting.
We will save that for another time.
For now, I am taking some time off. I've hooked up with my old drummer, and we're working on some new material. And again, the only expectation that I have from this project is that I should give my best work.
So I leave you with this. It's one of the best songs I've ever heard.
It is my wish that you should find enjoyment in this pleasant diversion.
Peace be with you.
Wrote trog69:
As another union man (retired) I could tell you all kinds of stories concerning contractors and their little tricks to pull out a profit off the backs of the workers on underbid jobs. Nowadays, most jobs are paid for percentage of job completion, and commercial work is where they really screw us over. My work entailed working on the AC units and piping running to and from them. We couldn't finish our lines until the units themselves were up and soldered properly, but the contractors would see the 2/3rds deadline coming up, and they'd have the ceiling grid guys come in and install it, before the fucking AC units were even installed, much less tested and insulated. ( They do this to hide the fact that nothing is finished above the grid. All the owners see is a finished room!) Now, everyone with work above the ceiling grid has to contend with the grid being in the way, and man, if you lean into the grid sections even a little, you were in deep shit, as the metal skeleton holding the panels in place is very thin and flimsy. So now, all the work takes at least twice as long as it should have, but no one gives a shit. No one wants to hear about the labor pains; They just wanna see that kid.
I was fortunate in that I became known as a good finish metal man, so I worked industrial work for most of the last 10 years in the trade. Sure, I worked right next to copper ingots being filled with molten metal, and throwing removable pads on steam lines that would melt your skin if you touched them, but I knew how good I had it, 'cause you can smoke all you want at a copper smelter or power house*, no matter what kind of leaf you use!
* I worked at the Zion, IL. nuclear plant back when they had big-assed yellow ashtrays placed at strategic areas of the plant, which were everyfuckingwhere, and drug tests were what you did at the bar parking lot at lunch time.
Wrote Progressive Traditionalist:
Tinner or fitter?
Sounds like tinner's work to me.
Wrote trog69:
I'm a member of the Heat and Frost Insulators and Asbestos workers Union.
Wrote Progressive Traditionalist:
Pleased to meet you, brother.
Service fitter here.
Working as a fitter between service calls.
Negotiating a contract as a field engineer to work to a powerhouse project. It's a two-year contract, so I'm trying not to screw myself.
Emissions are something of a specialty of mine.
If ever the need, never hesitate to call my name.
Wrote trog69:
Ah, I loved to work powerhouses, but I liked the old ones. The newer brand of units just don't seem as worker "friendly" somehow.
Fitters who bitched 'cause they weren't welding piping like they used to were always welcomed at the insulators table! hehehe.
Evening, brother.
Wrote trog69:
Emissions. You must have been reeling over the back and forth between the Clintons moves to sue, and the Bush EPA, etc. that was trying to dismiss the suits. I retired about then, so I really don't remember how things panned out. What's the view from your perch nowadays?
Wrote Progressive Traditionalist:
Good evening.
Some of your guys choked the f*ck out of me when I was on fire watch.
Calcium silicate, or whatever it is.
I won't hold it against you.
(as a fitter, I am required to b*tch about it though)
Wrote Progressive Traditionalist:
As for emissions, it's all a bunch of bs.
I work with engineers from Japan and Germany.
They tell me that these new coal-burners are all "of the same design."
They could easily trap carbon emissions with the systems they've got.
Last place I was at had 0 particulate emissions. One of the 10 cleanest coal-burners in the nation.
But most of it is Japanese technology.
There's a new thing where they build a urea pad to produce ammonia on-site. That's American technology, and anyone that uses it has to pay royalties to this American company.
The boiler systems, turbines, and a good portion of emissions are all Japanese.
We lost our edge, and so we have to pay foreign companies to use their technology.
I say it's high time we came out in the lead.
We can do it.
First off, we need to stop bs'ing each other about what needs to be done and do it.
It doesn't matter what the minimums are. We can do better.
Wrote trog69:
That fact, concerning Japanese-built items, comes into sharp focus when working on a military base. As most contracts, at least when I worked during the late '90s, required Uhmerkin-products only. So there sits a small co-gen on Ft. Huachuca, unfinished, because the inspector was bound to see the Japanese company's name, marked in big 6" letters on the 12" pipes that had already been put in place. We even had to put tape over our boxes of staples, because the US-manufactured stainless staples were shit, jamming up our guns, so we wouldn't use them.
Good times, good times.
Wrote trog69:
Oh, and we were dumping that cal-sil on your heads on purpose; You know that, right? But it was the tin-knockers that dropped that half-filled disposable cup of water on some guy when we were all on that 10th floor bldg. at USSteel, in January. That was definitely a cold shot.
Wrote Progressive Traditionalist:
Wrong fitter.
I was in Iowa at the time that happened.
And an ironworker there got the safety man with a bucket of water.
Some things never change.
Wrote Stunned:
Good evening Progressive Traditionalist.
I'm one of those "at will" construction workers. I have a bone to pick with you....
What the hell are laid-off unionized workers doing by utilizing temp service jobs at the going rate?!?!
The past five "at will" temp jobs I've been at included at least 2 to 10 "union" guys who were laid off and using temp services to make close to the normal amounts of income. Lying all the way.
I come from an old union family. My dad was among the screamers at the union halls. He worked at UAW approved factories during his lay-offs. He made $6-8 ph, we lived on that. My Dad also did side work outside of his normal factory business for residential areas as a free-agent capitalist . Everyone from the IRS and Union Halls on down knew exactly what he was doing. He paid his taxes and utilized the marginal profits to help his family all survive. No-one could call him a hypocrite business and tax-wise because he laid it all out on the table. Most of his business was from friends and co-workers and very often he employed both fellow workers and "at will" employees just starting out.
I'm just now saying....WTF happened?!? Within my lifespan, I've seen unions go from awesome voices for the people to exclusionary clubs. Why for example didn't the UAW use all their mighty contacts to demand high and _real_ tariffs on Japanese and Korean cars?
Before anybody smacks out the "at will" worker" perhaps they ought to remember "they" are supposed to have the power!
Wrote Progressive Traditionalist:
Look, that's not me, and so let's not pretend that it is.
I came up out of the oilfield; and so I'm not a part of the union for the pay, but for the conditions.
Any active member working a non-union job without authorization is subject to to fines from the committee-- and they should be reported. These people are cheating at both ends. It's not cool.
Granted, myself, I have worked as an electrician through various temp services-- but never within my own trade.
And I tend to get along rather well with electricians (for one of my trade) than one might expect as a result.
As for the UAW, I can tell you that the trade unions are different than the shop unions.
The shop unions slit their own throats when they voted in lesser wages for their younger workers, and now they're trying to take us down with them.
The shop unions are closer to the trade unions than the government unions. These-- the postal workers, state employees, etc.-- as well as the teachers-- are vastly different from the trade unions.
Unions are actually three separate groups of competing interests.
The UAW agreed to their own acquiescence-- and I will accept no burden.
And yet to any who would stand beyond their own fate, I would offer a cup of water.
Wrote Stunned:
"Look, that's not me, and so let's not pretend that it is.
I came up out of the oilfield; and so I'm not a part of the union for the pay, but for the conditions.
Any active member working a non-union job without authorization is subject to to fines from the committee-- and they should be reported. These people are cheating at both ends. It's not cool."
Wha....That was 30 years ago. I remember as a babe a union worker trying that crap getting his ass kicked out. They were understood to be _way_ worst than scabs. BTW, I'm a Michigander UAW family Boy, we _lived_ it buster!
"Granted, myself, I have worked as an electrician through various temp services-- but never within my own trade.
And I tend to get along rather well with electricians (for one of my trade) than one might expect as a result."
Did you tell your union hall? The IRS? My dad did; he also told them he was doing it to support his disabled kids' (me included)
schooling and to provide a decent home near it. Both Union hall and IRS raised their hands and said "Go for it". As long as he provided Certs. and UAW refs. Nobody had a problem with it.
Did you provide Certs? Did you tell the Temp agencies exactly who you were? Did you drive 100 miles round trip for 6 months making $8 an hour at union approved factories? My Dad did.
"As for the UAW, I can tell you that the trade unions are different than the shop unions.
The shop unions slit their own throats when they voted in lesser wages for their younger workers, and now they're trying to take us down with them.
The shop unions are closer to the trade unions than the government unions. These-- the postal workers, state employees, etc.-- as well as the teachers-- are vastly different from the trade unions.
Unions are actually three separate groups of competing interests."
True enough, 'cause the common folks were hypnotized to believe that their reps were the "good guys". We got lazy, we believed Post WWII history from 50's to 60's (never mind the '70s) we all got sucker-punched into thinking the psychopathologicals who run and rule the top of the pyramid actually had a modicum of common human sense and empathy for the rest of us.
"The UAW agreed to their own acquiescence-- and I will accept no burden.
And yet to any who would stand beyond their own fate, I would offer a cup of water"
And how can anybody who wants a good living accept whatever draught you give them? Unions basically gave up real recruiting after the 50's. Well, 45% is high enough ain't it?
Maybe we shouldn't push _too_ hard......
Wrote Progressive Traditionalist:
My union won't kick people out for such things. They can't. But they can remove the "member in good standing" status until a fine is paid. I remember a meeting where a guy was fined $800 for that.
And yes, my hall knew about that. I wouldn't make a move without them.
I'm no organizer. That said, I have no problem helping someone to get in, provided they're qualified.
Those applications for apprenticeship keep rolling in. I don't go through them. I'm not a part of that committee.
I have people that take care of that for me.
So what's your beef again?
What portion is it that I am responsible for?
Because I missed that part the first time around.
I believe I'm the one paying dues over here.
Wrote Stunned:
"My union won't kick people out for such things. They can't. But they can remove the "member in good standing" status until a fine is paid. I remember a meeting where a guy was fined $800 for that.
And yes, my hall knew about that. I wouldn't make a move without them.
I'm no organizer. That said, I have no problem helping someone to get in, provided they're qualified.
Those applications for apprenticeship keep rolling in. I don't go through them. I'm not a part of that committee.
I have people that take care of that for me."
And that is why all "at will " employees look to you with disgust. You cannot police your own.
"So what's your beef again?
What portion is it that I am responsible for?
Because I missed that part the first time around."
As I said, I was raised Union. I worked "At will". WTF are Union guys doing taking jobs from "at will" workers? Police your own! If you whine and say "whaddamI suppose tah do abbouttit" that is a pretty damned clear indication that your Union, like so,so many others, as become a hierarchical organization with the top bosses soothing you with platitudes. I feel sorry for youse guys. You were a shining light for the middle class and the working class; now you've simply....given up.
Wrote Progressive Traditionalist:
"Raised union?" So they gave you a card for coming out of the womb?
WTF??
It's not that I don't care about some guy working off the books. It's that there is a procedure for that. Each one of us has agreed to observe that procedure.
And so, you're thinking, being raised union, that maybe we should throw out that constitution and-- do what exactly?
Win respect from people who haven't even bothered to fill out an apprenticeship application?
I fail to see the benefit of that.
Follow the rules.
Rather than sit on some blog and whine about it, follow the rules.
I've already told you what the procedure is. You could easily find someone to contact to actually DO SOMETHING about it.
But, as I understand, this is somehow my fault, so let's go ahead with the reason why you're unable to follow the rules.
Wrote Progressive Traditionalist:
I hope you feel better after blowing off a little steam.
Really.
I mean that.
And I hope that you're able to do something with those feelings of entitlement. I don't think they're going to take you very far.
I don't care if your dad took down a 16-point buck-- it doesn't make you a hunter on that account. Not even if it was a 36-point buck.
But once you're done blowing off steam, it is my sincere wish that you might overcome this proclivity toward ineffective action.
Learn what the rules are and follow them, if it matters at all to you.
Then I can tell how much it matters to you by seeing how much you follow the rules.
Wrote Stunned:
Good Morning Progressive Traditionalist sir.
I am sorry, but your shell is crackin'; you expect me, an "at will" employee to "do something" about the corruption within the Elder ranks? How? I have spoken to many union workers and explained exactly what will result if they choose the path of least resistance and gladly scab "at will" temp jobs. Quite simply, I asked what they and their organizers were doing to ensure they could get back into their jobs. Most responses were...."eh, I still want the money, I like you". What of all the other at wills I say? "eh".
Sorry man, you are just digging a bigger hole for yourself here.
Wrote Progressive Traditionalist:
Wrong-o, buddy.
I don't think we're talking about my union here.
And we're definitely not talking about me.
So it's not MY hole.
It's not something that I am responsible for.
There are things in this world that I'm responsible for, and that's not one of them.
So, you talk to some guys at this shop, and you ask them what the organizer said.
Call the organizer and ask.
That organizer knows the procedure to initiate proceedings against active members. And he's interested in doing it, or he wouldn't be an organizer.
From where I sit, the scale is $38 an hour, $56 total package.
My neighbor does pretty much the same work for $19 an hour and he doesn't have the benefits that I do.
So, do I wait or do I jump on the $19 an hour?
Do I work for $12 through some temp agency?
I wait.
By far the majority of the membership is not interested in giving away work.
They're not interested in going out and paying for tools out of their pocket that the company should provide.
So tell me what local these guys are from, and I will be the one to make the phone call.
I don't mind doing that.
Wrote Progressive Traditionalist:
I've tried to look at this in different ways.
We need to look at some basics here.
My statement of offering water is a quite literal one. It means sharing a water jug without having to avoid the other person.
Note that I did not offer the Thermos. That is a special honor.
It's similar to trog's statement of being welcome at the table.
That's a good one, because that's what this is really about.
Call it table manners. Call it etiquette. Call it custom. It's all the same.
Now, it is important to acknowledge that interactions with organizations are most often engaged in an ongoing basis.
That's important.
You have to know how to navigate the system.
Without that, you are literally aimless.
Now, a union has relatively few officers, about 6 or 8 of them, to look over a relatively large number of people, around 1000 to 1200 or so.
Each of those officers have duties. Most of these are fairly mundane. For example, it's the president of the local at my hall that counts everyone's hand that's raised whenever we take a vote. Part of the vice-president's role is to sit at the back of the hall at every meeting. It specifies this in our constitution.
Now, one thing that is universal about organizational protocol is that it is typically expected to be followed.
To some extent, mind you; some organizations are rather loose in that regard, and others are more rigid.
You're not expected to follow all of the rules all of the time; but you are expected to follow just about all of them most of the time. And there's typically a few big ones that you're expected to follow all of the time.
Now, the whole idea of assessing the structure of an organization and the navigation of that structure is that some objective might be achieved.
That has to be it, or else the whole idea would be that nothing be achieved, and surely there are much more efficient methods of doing that.
Now, various objectives might well require that various points within the organization be navigated accordingly.
For instance, the business agent isn't going to take your dues, but he will take you to someone else's desk where you can do that.
And this seems rather odd.
Being from a union household, you should understand certain things.
Everyone knows where the work is at. Not everyone wants to go there. Some would rather sit at the house a little, and some prefer to give away work.
There's a procedure for that. A protocol. There are plans that have been made for just such an event.
That's the part of the system to navigate.
But to take one member, not even an officer, to task in a public forum, when there are other methods that could be engaged is simply impolite. It's a breach of protocol.
You deal with the organization in the manner that the organization has set up to interact.
Membership is not an organization. In fact, quite the opposite, more than I care to think about.
That sort of thing doesn't belong at the water jug.
And you should know that.
EDIT: One of the things I'm trying to say here is that there is something of an unwritten rule that business is to be done in the place of business.
The rule was not observed.
EDIT II -- the annotated upon annotated version--
It occurred to me later that this is pretty much the same rule as never shaking hands with gloves on in a different medium.
Wrote Progressive Traditionalist:
...And I'm sure by now that trog is sitting there thinking, "Gosh! I never saw a fitter tell someone that they're a wormy rat f*ck like that before!"
There's a reason for that.
And you would do well to consider what that reason might be.
I give a man a road map, and still he wants to drive through the fields.
EDIT: The way to handle that on a job is to wait until the other crew or offending person is standing around the water jug with a cup. Then walk right over, take the lid off, and dump the jug right in front of them. Then you look up and tell them, "That water's been contaminated. We have some more coming up." And walk off. There will likely be protests and questions and the like, but it's better to walk off than to deal with them.
That's the way it's done.
Wrote andrew618:
Good evening, Dark Wraith. Like a few others, it's been a while since I commented, but I have been reading.
Getting back to the point of your original post, I ran across the following on one of Randy Cassingham's sites, "Jumbo Jokes." In case you haven't made Cassingham's acquaintance, his primary sites are "This Is True" (a collection of weird stories) and "The Real Stella Awards" (named for the woman who sued McDonald's over the hot coffee, a collection of bizarre legal cases).
This particular joke involves a co-ed desperate to pass a certain class. She is willing to do anything to pass... Anything.
I'll give you the link, as if you didn't already know the answer: http://www.jumbojoke.com/i_have_to_pass_this_class.html
Happy Holidays to you and yours!
Wrote Stunned:
Good Evening Progressive Traditionalist.
I see we are speaking past each other here to an extent.
To me, the idea of union fellows taking potshots to "at will" workers frustrates me.
That is not to say "at will" workers are tireless working men. Most tended to drift in and out of the projects I worked at. Few remained from long like me and my step-dad. The majority of jobs I worked at did require you to bring your own box and tools, but the tools were basic, rulers, levels, plumb-bobs, wraparounds, crescents, hoods, stingers and pipewrenches. The powertools were provided on-site.
As for those union fellows I knew, I won't provide names, just cities, Denver,Cleveland, Columbus and St. Louis. That seems to have been the main areas.
Wrote Progressive Traditionalist:
Were it me, I would find the number to the local, then call and ask who the organizer is. Get the name.
Then talk to him, and tell him something along the lines of, "I'm So-and-so from Such-and-such, and I'm wondering why you keep sending us out men? Are you organizing this shop? Is there anything I could do to help?"
You really don't care whether he's trying to organize the shop or not, but you're able to approach him with an offer he can't refuse; so immediately he feels favorably inclined toward you.
This is important. He's an officer of the local. If you were a journeyman, he would be inclined to show you respect, but you're not even an apprentice.
He might ask you to pass out some business cards or something, but the chances are slim.
Then you tell him something like, "If you're going to keep sending people out here to work, why don't you put me to work?"
He's not likely to do it, although there is that possibility. But now he has a task before him, and he knows the procedure for that one.
It's like a little toy train you've just set on a track.
The matter will be dealt with.
Not by him, because this type of thing is handled by a committee. But he knows how to get the committee rolling. And there's a good chance that he will be the one to drive by the job site to see who's there.
That's how I would handle it.
But you're welcome to do it how you want to.
EDIT: If you were a journeyman, he would be inclined to show you respect...
This is true unless you call him up bad-mouthing members of his local. There is some sense of competition that exists between locals. But to gripe about a member to an officer of the local is a good way to earn yourself enemies.
It's better to phrase every statement as a question.
Wrote trog69:
Good evening, fellers. Now, I admit I've only worked in a few states beside my own, but what is this "at will" work that you're referring to, stunned? If that's some term for "non-union" and you are seeing union workers taking positions at your company, it may well be that the union hall, in conjunction with their International, is attempting to salt the jobs. There is nothing wrong in this, as long as everybody is aware of the new-hires status. Our hall usually sends out third and fourth year apprentii ( That's one of my "mentors"' terms for us. Useta crack me up. He got a kick outta me calling everybody "Sir", especially when they said they didn't like it. Why yes, I am an asshole :) to these companies.
PT, while I am shocked by your language, like fitters aren't the ones that practically invented the "No-Rats" symbol on their hardhats, with the goofy ratfuck and the line going across, but I am so impressed with your carefully-worded spanking that I'm gonna forget that I saw any discouraging words appended therein.
I think stunned shoulda packed a bigger lunch.
Wrote Progressive Traditionalist:
I've worked as a salt before, and I have nothing against those guys.
I steadfastly believe that their work is deserving of dignity, or I wouldn't have done it.
I understand that Stunned feels unjustly wronged, but I also understand that I'm not the one that's going to do something about it.
I can help to navigate the system. I know how to do that.
But I'm a journeyman by my own merit. No one came up and handed me a card.
That's the understanding that we needed to come to.
If harsh words might help in that regard, then so be it. Not that it was my first choice.
But we will come to that understanding.
I don't need someone telling me what my responsibilities are. I've got an ex-wife I can call up if I want to get an earful of that.
I already know what my responsibilities are. Not saying I mind them like I should all the time; I'm just saying that I know what they are.
But I can tell that Stunned feels wronged, and wants some help. And whatever help he needs isn't likely to come to him, basically because of his behavior.
But really, that's good news.
If that's all it is, then behavior is easy to change.
I wish him well.
Wrote trog69:
Stunned, I'm sorry if I missed it, but are you seeking to get in the union and haven't been successful, or not interested, and want to know why the union guys are horning in on your turf?
I apologize for my confusion, and I hope you'll believe me when I say that I hold no animosity towards non-union workers, in my trade or anywhere. In fact, the term "rat" should be directed only at the owner/contractors, who exploit their workers using a vicious cycle of their own making. And that's all I'll say about that, unless forced to explain. Mum's the word-saynomore saynomore. I know this much; Non-union guys work just as hard as anybody, and any differences of opinion must have that as a first principle.
Wrote Father Tyme:
So, trog. How's the weather down there?
I just don't know why everybody argues so much when we live in such a great country where business takes real good care of their workers!
They are just trying to make a few cents on each dollar. Can't blame them fer that, now! And they just HAVE to make sure those parasites (investors) that put the money up front to get the business started get paid back for eleventy million years for giving up a few pennies!
And if'n the bidness don't make it so good because they hire cheap, untrained labor and things go downhill, why, we all know it's them damn unions to blame, what with all their millions they make. So the only solution is to pay Chinese 50 cents an hour...but keep charging Americans the same prices as if companies were paying union guys! Don't those poor businesses have a right to a LITTLE profit? And if there's arguing and fights between people doing the same job making differnt pay, so what? Wimmins been doin' that fer years and you don't see them cryin'...much (Maybe the wimmins should unionize!)!
Makes sense to me! But then again, I'm independently wealthy; so wealthy in fact that I help credit card companies and banks out on a voluntary basis every month (those poor guys can't even afford a union!)! But I'll let you in on a little secret...I couldn't have done it (helped them out) without people like W and Timmy and Barry and Congress and those helpful companies like AIG and Goldman. They're just so swell.
Hmmm? If the pres and his friends are so interested in American jobs and support labor, I wonder why they don't have union people working in the White House?
Hey DW, that could be a really interesting satire!
In the meantime, let's ferget about all the other "real" problems we have and fight among ourselves...just like those 535 suits in D.C. want.
Wrote konagod:
This is college: we leave children behind
This entire post gave me a much needed distraction but that one line in particular gave me a good laugh! Thanks, Dark Wraith!
Wrote oldwhitelady:
Hi Dark Wraith.
You're on facebook?
One of my cats is on facebook, too.
Wrote trog69:
those poor guys can't even afford a union!
Ahahaha. And here I thought they were real smart fellers
You know what we need to counteract the DC divide and conquer stratagery? A Christian side-hug! Check it, bro:
http://www.buzzfeed.com/awesomer/christian-side-hug
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Your host of this Weblog is an award-winning college teacher and writer who specializes in economics, finance, mathematics, business administration, computer hardware and software skills, and English grammar and composition. His extensive writings on the history of the English language appeared on About.com in the avatar of the Selig Wraith in the 
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Grading exams is a lot like work, even though I've been doing this for almost 30 years, now...
Boy, talk about teaching an old dog. Here's how you save yourself a whole lotta time, and grief, when it comes to grading papers; Use the Stairs Method:
http://www.concurringopinions.com/archives/2006/12/a_guide_to_grad.html