Some people have no idea how to be civil to their coworkers. They believe themselves to be the center of the universe and don't seem to realize that other people exist. We complain about our students having no manners, but how can these kids be expected to behave courteously when they see esteemed older professors being extremely inconsiderate towards others.
Today, I'm showing a movie in two of my classes. In order to ensure that the audio-visual equipment works well, I stayed until after classes ended yesterday and did a trial run of the DVD. I hate making students waste valuable class time while I fumble with the equipment. So I made sure that everything worked perfectly and left. Today, I come to class and discover that:
a) the person who taught before me didn't log off. Which meant that I had to reboot the computer. This operation takes at least 5 minutes since the computer is not extremely new.
b) the audio-visual equipment was disconnected. There is no legitimate reason why one would need to unplug the sound system and the DVD player that were turned off and weren't bothering anybody. But this is what the inconsiderate colleague did. So I had to crawl around on the floor for ten minutes, messing up my clothes, and letting the students experience the richness of my swearing vocabulary in Spanish while I connected everything back.
The next time I'm showing this movie today is 2 pm. I'm quite resigned to yet another inconsiderate person messing up the equipment yet again.
Today, I'm showing a movie in two of my classes. In order to ensure that the audio-visual equipment works well, I stayed until after classes ended yesterday and did a trial run of the DVD. I hate making students waste valuable class time while I fumble with the equipment. So I made sure that everything worked perfectly and left. Today, I come to class and discover that:
a) the person who taught before me didn't log off. Which meant that I had to reboot the computer. This operation takes at least 5 minutes since the computer is not extremely new.
b) the audio-visual equipment was disconnected. There is no legitimate reason why one would need to unplug the sound system and the DVD player that were turned off and weren't bothering anybody. But this is what the inconsiderate colleague did. So I had to crawl around on the floor for ten minutes, messing up my clothes, and letting the students experience the richness of my swearing vocabulary in Spanish while I connected everything back.
The next time I'm showing this movie today is 2 pm. I'm quite resigned to yet another inconsiderate person messing up the equipment yet again.
4 comments:
Before lambasting your colleagues, consider that it may have been the security staff/cleaning staff that disconnected the equipment.
In a previous life, I was employed at a community college in just such a role - and our standing orders were to disconnect and turn off all equipment, unless given explicit instructions to do otherwise. Because academics were notoriously absent minded and always expected others to clean up their mess.
Equipment like Beamers and Speakers get disconnected all the time at our facility.
Why ? Because quite a few people use their own laptop for classes.
I'm very friendly with the janitor, and he says it isn't him, so I believe him.
When I arrived for the second section of the course, everything was disconnected again. So I had another round of crawling clumsily on the floor.
Did you consider leaving a note or message for the occupant of the room between your classes?
Expecting others to be mind readers is more than a little frustrating.
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