Monday, March 01, 2010

Is It Me, Dog?

Sometimes, I'll read a blog, especially one that's complaining about some particularly egregious behavior, and I'll wonder if I do the same thing being complained about.

For example, I'm overweight. Any medical/nursing blog complaining about patients who are overweight could easily be about me. Sometimes, there's a fair bit of rancor in the blog, and it makes me wonder if folks have that much hatred for me, too.

Or there's a student blog, and it complains about a prof who doesn't answer emails within a reasonable amount of time, and I wonder, did I just miss someone's email and seem to ignore them? I've been short with students more than once, so I could easily be the nasty professor they're complaining about, I suppose.

You get the picture. Or even more, it's a blogger complaining about the behavior of another blogger or bloggers, and I wonder if I've been offensive without intending to be.

Of course, I complain about folks, too. I was just in the department office, and went to staple some papers together, but all three of the staplers were empty. As I was working on loading one up, another faculty member walked by and mentioned that all three staplers were out. And I wanted to ask, "If you noticed, why didn't you refill them?" But this faculty member has a Y chromosome,* and we all know that doing menial labor is below him. I, on the other hand, have worked as a receptionist, and was capable of refilling two of the three staplers. (I asked for help with the other, and now it's full, too.)

So if you're reading this, valued colleague: learn to fill the staplers or, if that's beyond your capabilities, let the admin assistants know, and they'll help you.

*Edit to clarify: Thanks to a helpful private comment, I'd like to clarify. It's not his Y chromosome that prevents his filling the stapler, and I shouldn't generalize. He uses his Y chromosome as a marker of his privilege; in reality, it's his being a jerk that prevents his filling the stapler. Being a jerk isn't a Y or X chromosome thing, but a generalized human thing. Alas, it's one I'm guilty of on too many occasions as well, along with careless writing.

3 comments:

  1. Let me guess, your esteemed colleague can't figure out how to put paper into a copier or printer either? I too get peeved about the people who use departmental equipment, but can't figure out how to refill even the basic stuff.

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  3. Anonymous10:26 AM

    my office mate habitually tries to print without checking to see if the shared printer is on/online and then when it fails, she tries again...and again...and then she just leaves. I come in to print my lecture notes, turn the printer on or otherwise troubleshoot it...and the printer spits out five copies of her document, which she didn't bother to cancel. At which point most or all of the paper is gone. Once a week this happens, at a minimum.

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