Nice new corner! Come and chat!

[NeverEverAnythingEver]

We have our new board! Calling all cademics/aspiring academics/fed-up academics - come and chat!

Fuck. Major cock-up in first year. Argh! Not my fault, other than I'm supposed to be in charge. I have no idea what happened, but something that someone was doing went wrong and apparently no one double checked things and now we have a crisis to resolve. And today is meant to be my half-day and I am home lying down because I am still in pain. A little worse than earlier in the week, probably because I didn't rest!

I do like being an academic, and I am actually nearly in tears at the thought that perhaps I simply can't handle first year. I really love doing first year, and while I get annoyed at the students sometimes, I mostly enjoy them :) With the promised support this year, things have been actually reasonably okay. But what I can't handle is when things go wrong.

So far this year there have been three instances when I've been pushed to the edge and felt like I couldn't handle it: first, when I was told we were not doing printed handbooks for the students because we were using a new online system, and then one week before classes started (a week which I had blocked out to review grants for a committee I'm on) I was told the online system wasn't working and I needed to design a handbook immediately (also a bit pissed off about how that was transmitted, as I got a lot of 'hey, where's your book', etc, until I was apologising for misunderstanding and someone admitted that there had been no plan for a book ever and the need had only come up the day before); second, when I took my planned week off and the person who was meant to cover for me didn't, and I had to work extra to fix it retrospectively; and finally now, when I am quite ill and someone didn't do a basic error check and we have a major crisis.

But I'm also worried if I give up first year what do I have left - my research which is going nowhere?

Okay, the Dean is on the case. Hopefully cock-up will be sorted soon. Not my fault but my responsibility, and I feel terrible that I copped out by lying down all day yesterday. Currently trying to figure out if I am any use today or not, as still in pain, and have teaching in PM so would rather rest up for that.

murmur Hope things are being sorted out. And hope you are better today.

Hope that this afternoon went okay murmur. Sounds stressful at your end.

Thanks, everyone! Dragged myself in and apologised all around before teaching. People were very understanding. Probably helped that I looked miserable... Not really anyone's fault, more a series of events, but I was the one who could have put something in place that avoided it. Hindsight is lovely. Well, that will be standard practice in the future, at least! No verdict from the Dean yet, but it's now his decision and out of my hands.

Sending lots of good wishes to everyone ill with stress.

I completely agree with the madness of having to do administration that would be done better by the administrators. And marketing by the PR people. And room bookings... You get my drift.

I'm slowly learning the art of delegation, but also to harness the expertise of support staff better. Today I had a very enjoyable hour thrashing out a research proposal with our research manager, who after all sees dozens of these things a year, so has a damned good idea of how to write them.

The funniest one is career advice. As if I know anything about writing a CV or getting a career...

Oh yes, career advice, budgeting, procurement, web design, publishing - all things we're meant miraculously to be experts in. If we're lucky, there are people around who will take this off your hands, but not always.

Oh and don't get me started on AV. I had the amazing experience of giving a guest lecture at a 'new' university recently and found a clean, up-to-date classroom and, miracle of miracles, an AV technician on hand to set up my presentation. Compare that to my usual grotty seminar room with jumble of ancient tables shoved together and no dimmable lighting so I can either have my slides unreadable or plunge my poor students into the dark as I speak to them from a dark corner and then, if I'm lucky, the slide projector cable hasn't been nicked by the lecturer next door.

Done my last lecture! Now a few papers to referee, a few exams to set, and that's it for the year!

Yikes NK. It sounds scary. Have you got support at home?

Don't answer your email. I usually say to contact so-and-so on matters regarding A and so-and-so on matters regarding B etc. That's all you can do, isn't it?

Oh, NK5, that all sounds so stressful. You need to stop even looking at email. Your autoreply is on. In an absolute emergency HR (or someone) will have your home number; other than that don't even look. Especially as you are signed off for stress! If you don't do stuff, they will find someone to take up the slack (says the person whose stuff wasn't done during a pre-planned absence, but anyway...).

And congrats on your job interview! Wow! I wouldn't recommend just running of to it if they offer, but do look at it with fresh eyes. From what you've described, your current place is quite toxic. You should compare them honestly.

On my mini-drama, the Dean has made a decision, which happens to be what I thought should be done anyway (minus the emails, see next), and has requested a report detailing what happened. I also have to write lots of individual apology emails. Really annoyed, though, that the person who actually made the error still doesn't realise the seriousness of this, and is being quite obstructive on getting me what I need for the report, and acting like it's not big deal. Now that I see what he did, the level of error checking was woefully inadequate and what really gets me is I am pretty sure had I suggested more he would have ignored me anyway. Have a plan for the future, but I see battles getting him to actually do it.

*running off

oh dear NK5! You poor thing. Now please switch off your email and don't look at it. They will somehow muddle through without you and if they don't, well, they'll appreciate how good you are at what you do. Signed off doesn't mean working from home. It means resting. Go into your phone settings and switch off email. Switch it off everywhere. You must rest.

Well done on the interview. Do it if you can, but if it was me, I'd not make any life-changing decisions when I'm unwell.

Wishing you better very soon.

Shucks... I found a great word in a paper this morning & thought "I MUST change my MN name to that." Brain like a sieve, it's gone now. It was a word about as exciting as "unevidenced" but much more obscure & poncetastic.

There was a depressing office conversation today. About a multi-miln £ many-yr project that has failed after 3 yrs of effort to get basic Ethics approval for it's core piece of research. Partly because it means accessing records of children. So the researchers dance around trying to spend their time & money doing other things. General agreement that Ethics Approval has become the millstone around public health research Neck. The research councils are increasingly frustrated, and who knows if anyone is getting value for money.

In the USA they PAY their participants directly. They can fund new types of treatment out of grant proposals (UK can't). Ethics procedure ... well, it may be no better, I doubt it's worse!! They have many more funders to appeal to. Argh, just Argh.

I think when ££mln project was approved, the govt was making big noises about patient data that would be released for sure. Then there was public outcry about NHS data being made available for "research". Ethics tightened up, and now some of those ££mln arguably wasted. Along with many future opportunities. :(

Then folk wonder why the NHS does so many untested things, has so much trouble saying for sure what does or doesn't work, and is so inefficient about recycling old unproven solutions. Argh.

ps, thanks for letting me vent. My job is secure. Just :( at so many research opportunities lost.

Hey everyone, first job interview coming up and I'm getting into a bit of a lather about it. It is for a temporary research assistant post (humanities) and I'm curious as to what sort of questions are likely to come up beyond the standard: 'Why do you want this job/what skills do you think you'd bring to this role'?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated and in any interview when they ask: 'do you have any questions?' my mind goes completely blank!