Weather forecast for my area is that starting this afternoon continuing through Saturday we will likely get snow off and on. This snow might be less than an inch, it might be 1-3 inches, or it might be 5-10 inches, depending on which forecasting agency you consult. Oddly no one seems to be going for 3-5 inches.
I am not in an area that gets much snow on a regular basis so the university where I teach has already announced it is closing at noon today and not opening at all tomorrow and I get to spend today figuring out how to adjust my semester plans for the missed classes. I like snow. I just hate adjusting syllabi.
We tend to power through snow here in West Idaho, but it’s good to know that I’m not alone in my syllabus frustrations.
Our teacher/student ratios are all out of whack due to illness and we’re in this weird situation where the district is deciding daily at noon if individual schools need to close for a 5 day period. So one high school might close to quarantine, but another school in the district might not. If my school closes, then I’ll be asked to fill in as a substitute at another area high school or elementary, and I’ll find out at noon the day before I have to make the switch.
I’m in the middle of trying to teach 16 year olds how to write librettos and conduct research, with 60% attendance and zero confidence of being in class the next day.
I definitely feel for ya! We just started back for the semester this week. All students were COVID tested on moving back into the dorms or before coming to campus if not living on campus. About 10% of my students emailed me that they had tested positive and couldn’t come to our first class Wednesday. It’s going to be an overwhelming semester I already know with students constantly out and needing help getting caught up when they’re back, and that’s assuming I stay healthy.
Oof. Old guy at work misses Friday because tested positive. Was apparently sick for several days before the test. In our small open-plan office.
Boss says the official word is that only people who spoke to him unmasked for 15 or more minutes at a range of 1 metre are considered “close contacts”, so we are all to carry on as usual, maybe get tested if we feel like it.
And I could so easily be working from home.
Feeling real comfortable with all the coughing and sniffling going on right now.
Feel free. In my experience, your employer will show no loyalty to you, so you are under no obligation to help them out.
EDIT: lol, completely misread your post. I thought you meant “secure someone to replace you for your position at your current job”, but you wrote “secure something (a new job)”
I did this once and it was a great good thing. (But the time I had expected to have, after a suitable amount of job-hunting each day, turned out not to happen.)
In 2010, after working there for 7 years, I quit my first real job without having a new one. It felt like the scariest thing I had ever done and it was the best thing I ever did for myself.
It felt like a weight lifted. The job had been making me sick for years—my boss … was … bad. And making me feel so small, I was unable to look for a job. In my desperation not having to go to the “work agency” to start applying for new jobs, I decided to tell them I was going to be a freelancer. I took a mandated course in “how to run your own business” and I’ve been a freelancer since then. I got lucky though that that particular path worked out for me due to the type of work I do and my personal situation.
But getting away from the job was the most freeing decision I ever took.
I have applied for three jobs already this afternoon/evening. We’ll see how it goes.
I understand the whole company is under a lot of pressure after two other factories have been damaged by fire during the last year, and my manager is under a lot of pressure right now with the high season and several other problems that are not directly related to me (mostly engineering), but when she asked “we are all pulling our weight and you still leave early some days to pick up your children from school” and I answered “I had clocked 40 hours by the end of Thursday” she lost it, saying that her and another colleague will clock close to 70 this week after a breakdown on Wednesday.
I was this close to say “This proves my point that we are understaffed” but I didn’t. I had stood my ground enough. It is pointless to slam my head against the wall, it is only a job. My region is very much in demand for qualified professionals to have to put up with this kind of sh… I am pretty sure my skills will be appreciated elsewhere.
I will see how next week goes, but I still don’t rule out handling my notice. I will sleep on it.
Thanks for the advice. It is very much appreciated. And sorry for the rant.
Its a delicate balance - quitting gets your head free to really think about what your next move is going to be but then also obviously puts pressure on you because you need a paycheck…
I’ve done it once and didn’t regret it but the pressure of looking for a job when you NEED to earn is not nice either.
Well, as long as people are prepared to (i.e. desperate enough to) burn themselves out and get thrown away for someone else’s profit, it’ll keep happening, I guess.
My classroom continues to become a bizarro version of an English class.
I now have 34 teenagers listening to Bethoven’s 7th symphony on repeat in here, while an 8 year old plays with Hot Wheels and Lego in the back. His elementary school closed due to staff absence, and his mom had to bring him to school (she’s a SPED teacher here) because she couldn’t find a babysitter that she could afford. He’s not in her classroom because she got called out to cover one of our other teacher’s classrooms. She felt like she couldn’t say no, because subbing pays well right now, and she may need the money for babysitters next week. He’s in my room because mine is the one with Hot Wheels and Lego.
