Student "edition" found at {thoughts dot com slash typed no space out no space loud slash blog}.

Maybe I shouldn't have started this blog now, not with everything that's been going on.

Twenty minutes and it is WII time again. The Student Council just gave me a letter scheduling the ratification of their revised constitution by the fourth week of this month. If nothing else, that is a great legacy in itself.

@@ Sometimes almost-blind obedience has its downside. You want the superiors to be proud of your work, if nothing else, so that they would give you a raise. If you are conscientious, you want them to know that they did not make the wrong decision in putting you in that position.

At the same time, there are times when you are not on the same page, although constant communication is one solution to that.

At other times, you may want to just veto their ideas right there and then. But push comes to shove (or at least fist on the table) they will have to find out for themselves that what they thought all along was wrong.

And this has to be NOT without your sabotaging the effort, but still doing the best that you can technically and logistically (at least from their point of view) even though your heart is not in the enterprise.

In the privacy of your own room, you can lose sleep over it or cry into your pillow if need be, but in front of the bosses, you have to put on a brave face, until that last strand is broken and you break down.

Well, hopefully you do not break down; it does not always have to reach that fraying point. This non-physical rope can be mended.

That is beside the point. You can unburden to your peers, as long as they are not eying your position and would be secretly hoping that you fail.

The same is true with your underlings, who also should not be able to see chinks in your armor.

You can therefore talk to persons who are not in direct contact with you in the organizational chart.

It is possible that they are in the same boat themselves, and they are also already familiar with the workings of some administrators, so you would not have to paint a Dilbert or The Office like stereotype.

If there is any ideal working environment in the world, it must be a closely guarded secret, so for the rest of us, we have to contend with what we have, or if it gets too much to handle, quit or wait to be sacked.

I just realized that educational institutions do not have a severance package, as long as they choose the period of non-renewal and be patiently tolerating the person and his or her incompetence until that time.

As usual, clear communication is the key, and documented correspondence at that. This is both true in covering your behind in the case of a fiasco and in pointing out to forgetful, non-observant people what you told them before.

Also it shows people that you mean business, and that no excuses muttered ad lib in the middle of the corridor is accepted.

Memos are useful. They help quell water cooler and over the cubicle wall rumors. It just should not be overused.

Session 2913 had fun being generic. Class dismissed.