yaaaaaaaawn

I’m writing at work, because I need a break. A break from not getting much done. I really should be using this quiet time to tackle all the stuff I haven’t gotten done all day…. but no. I’d rather do this. We’re working on clearing seniors for graduation, and that’s sloooooow going. It involves looking at what classes they’ve had and looking at what classes they needed and figuring out if the classes they need are the classes they’ve had – or are taking now – and if not, why not? Do they have substitutes, do they have waivers? Should I email the chair of their department and see if they let them sub something but didn’t send us a note? And  have they met all the gazillion other requirements like minimum GPAs and minimum hours earned and do they have all their "designators", which are classes with special designations like Multi-Cultural and Cross-Disciplinary which they have to have a bunch of and which are very very hard to explain to the clueless ones who had no idea that A) there are such things as Writing Designator classes and B) they are supposed to have six of them.

Anyhow. I really don’t mind doing this, but if I do too many I start getting real cranky. I start thinking things like, "Okay, you were supposed to take Class X, we have listed on your audit that you still needed Class X, you reviewed your audit with us and signed it and got a copy last semester so you know you need Class X – so why in the hell are you taking Classes W, Y, and Z????? NONE of which you need???? IDIOT!!!"

So it’s kind of good to take a break. That way I can leave a nice calm message for the guy who says on his graduate application that he’s majoring in one thing yet in our files he’s majoring in something completely different. And the Something Different major is what he’s taken all the classes in, not the major he says he’s doing on his application. That way I don’t leave a message that says something like, "Okay, do you not even know what you’re majoring in, you dip? How hard is it to be able to identify your major? I’m amazed that you’re able to find food and water! I decree that you do NOT get to graduate and have a diploma from our fine institution until you are able to correctly state your major!"

The Computer System from Hell isn’t helping either. Everything we need to check is on a different screen. There is a handy report of all the aforementioned designators, but in order to get to it you have to click on (and I am, for once, not exaggerating) twelve different screens. It’s completely insane. And, sadly, pretty typical.

I’ve also had to spend a lot of time this morning helping my boss D. Who is working on re-writing our job descriptions because the entire campus is going to a different way of classifying pay grades. Which is good, because I think it will result in more money for many of us who are underpaid in comparison to other universities in our state, but it’s a big job for her. I had to help her because …. she doesn’t know how to cut and paste things in Word. She doesn’t actually NEED to know this for what she does, but STILL. How hard is it?? Pretty darned hard, apparently, so I kept having to go back to her office and talk her through it.

"Okay, now highlight that row of….. no, not that. No, go back. No, don’t close the document, just scroll down. No, you really don’t have to close the document. Your paragraph is still there. Scroll down. There it is. Now, take your cursor and highlight.. No. Don’t tab over there. Now you’re five pages down. Go back to where you… No, you don’t need to close the document. No, just….. okay, now open the document back up. Go to that folder icon. No, not over there. The one that looks like a little teeny folder. That one. Now click on your document. No, I don’t know what your document is called, because it’s, ummmmm… your document. YOU NAMED IT."

This went on for quite some time. She’s got a very bad habit of not really listening to what you’re saying, and hitting things randomly. And her solution for everything is to close the document and start all over. It was just a little frustrating. But I think it’s done now. Finally.

And of course in the meantime Captain Drama is on the phone telling her creditors she can’t pay her bills, including the car payment that she cosigned for with her unemployed roommate. They bought this car at one of those places who specializes in selling to people with no credit, and the interest rate is TWENTY EIGHT PERCENT. We all gasped audibly when she told us that. And bit our tongues to keep from saying, "What in the HELL is WRONG with you????" and Aggravation Receptionist is wandering around heaving great sighs because she’s bored. One of the things she is supposed to be doing is updating folders – taking the grade reports from the fall semester and adding the fall grades to each student’s checksheet. Which I know perfectly well she’s not doing because it is booooooring and she knows if she puts it off long enough, we’ll get done with the graduating seniors and we’ll do it.

And now it’s back to work for me.