GAH
So, I must admit, I'm a little pissed at the wonderful organization we know best as the "Students' Union".
This is not surprising- I am usually a little pissed at the SU. However, this time is a little different seeing as I now an employee. Allow me to explain. As most of you who read this know, I am the new UPIO (University Policy Information Officer), which makes me a glorified research monkey. The problem is, if this week is any indication of the year to come, it will not be as easy as it sounds.
Day one: I arrive at the office at the bright and early (WAY too early) time of 10 am. My roomate Sarah (new AVP External) and I walk in ready to pretend that we own the world (especially since our bosses are away on retreat!). You can imagine our shock when we are informed that we "are not supposed to be there" yet. It seems that our bosses had accidently neglected to inform the permanent staff that we would be coming into work regardless of the fact that we would have no "direction" to speak of. So, of course, we have no keys, we have no computers (kind hard for a researcher), our offices are a mess, we don't even know WHICH office we're supposed to be in, and we are politely told that if we choose not to come in for the remainder of the week, that would be acceptable. Wow, great start for me!
Now, to most of you this might sound like an ideal situation- getting paid to not do anything is a pretty good idea, isn't it? Well, unfortunately that isn't the case since, while we may not have had much "direction" to work with, we sure had a lot of work to do. My boss left me with a pretty massive couple of things to look into. Moreover, I was kind of looking forward to getting a head start on projects that I know will be bitting my heels in no time. However, in order to do all of this, I must now work from home until everything is set up. Oh well, at least I got my business cards :) I can't wait for the exec to get home.
On a side note, my frustration does not end there. The former Students' Union Executive has decided to shut down the webboard as their last order of business. To date no one has been able to give me a logical reason WHY the webboard should be shut down. They have said nothing but "legal opinion" (which, brought uphaving been partially by a lawyer and a judge, I can tell you means a whole lot of squat). The real issue I have with this action is the overt decision to do it so late in the term. The old executive is not stupid (though some would argue otherwise) they knew this action would be controversial. And yet, they will happily stand back and watch a new, and so far innocent executive, deal with the repercussions.
I will not deny that the webboard needed to undergo some sort of reforms. It had become a tool of needless and childish attacks and ceased being as informative as it had once been. However, there are certain steps that I wish had been taken prior to the action.
1) Consulting with the webboard about what changes were deemed necessary and how they should be implemented.
2) Fair and adequate warning regarding the shutting down of the webboard, so that people could save private messages and so on.
3) A more informative reason for why (legal opinion simply doesn't cut it with me).
4) Not doing it prior to a week where the executive would be out of town and would be unable to be reached (even though the website says to contact hte vp student life).
5) Doing so in a time frame that would not cast a dark shadow upon the incoming exec would have been cool too.
Anyway, I'm tired now and done bitching for the moment. But yeah, SU as a whole isn't ranking too high in my books. Maybe that's because I'm tired, cranky and need a nap. That's probably it.
Toodles for now,
Zita
This is not surprising- I am usually a little pissed at the SU. However, this time is a little different seeing as I now an employee. Allow me to explain. As most of you who read this know, I am the new UPIO (University Policy Information Officer), which makes me a glorified research monkey. The problem is, if this week is any indication of the year to come, it will not be as easy as it sounds.
Day one: I arrive at the office at the bright and early (WAY too early) time of 10 am. My roomate Sarah (new AVP External) and I walk in ready to pretend that we own the world (especially since our bosses are away on retreat!). You can imagine our shock when we are informed that we "are not supposed to be there" yet. It seems that our bosses had accidently neglected to inform the permanent staff that we would be coming into work regardless of the fact that we would have no "direction" to speak of. So, of course, we have no keys, we have no computers (kind hard for a researcher), our offices are a mess, we don't even know WHICH office we're supposed to be in, and we are politely told that if we choose not to come in for the remainder of the week, that would be acceptable. Wow, great start for me!
Now, to most of you this might sound like an ideal situation- getting paid to not do anything is a pretty good idea, isn't it? Well, unfortunately that isn't the case since, while we may not have had much "direction" to work with, we sure had a lot of work to do. My boss left me with a pretty massive couple of things to look into. Moreover, I was kind of looking forward to getting a head start on projects that I know will be bitting my heels in no time. However, in order to do all of this, I must now work from home until everything is set up. Oh well, at least I got my business cards :) I can't wait for the exec to get home.
On a side note, my frustration does not end there. The former Students' Union Executive has decided to shut down the webboard as their last order of business. To date no one has been able to give me a logical reason WHY the webboard should be shut down. They have said nothing but "legal opinion" (which, brought uphaving been partially by a lawyer and a judge, I can tell you means a whole lot of squat). The real issue I have with this action is the overt decision to do it so late in the term. The old executive is not stupid (though some would argue otherwise) they knew this action would be controversial. And yet, they will happily stand back and watch a new, and so far innocent executive, deal with the repercussions.
I will not deny that the webboard needed to undergo some sort of reforms. It had become a tool of needless and childish attacks and ceased being as informative as it had once been. However, there are certain steps that I wish had been taken prior to the action.
1) Consulting with the webboard about what changes were deemed necessary and how they should be implemented.
2) Fair and adequate warning regarding the shutting down of the webboard, so that people could save private messages and so on.
3) A more informative reason for why (legal opinion simply doesn't cut it with me).
4) Not doing it prior to a week where the executive would be out of town and would be unable to be reached (even though the website says to contact hte vp student life).
5) Doing so in a time frame that would not cast a dark shadow upon the incoming exec would have been cool too.
Anyway, I'm tired now and done bitching for the moment. But yeah, SU as a whole isn't ranking too high in my books. Maybe that's because I'm tired, cranky and need a nap. That's probably it.
Toodles for now,
Zita
posted by Zita Dube @ Thursday, May 05, 2005
10 comments
