Sometimes I wonder how any of us get any work done when we spend so much time in meetings. This week has been particularly hard and I’m trying to remember that I actually am doing my job when I’m in the meetings; it’s how I learn and consult and educate and inform. But sometimes I just get sick of them.
It’s the time of year when we review the procedures for conducting performance appraisals for our union support staff and this year for the first time the U has standardized a formal process for similar reviews of exempt level staff from the vice presidents on down. From a management standpoint, it’s a great tool. It’s just a lot of work and it all has to happen in a crunched down 6-week period. We’ve been having meetings to learn about the new process, review the forms, and set up timelines. And then talk to other staff about it. Then we had other meetings, the usual ones. Staff meetings and collection meetings and even training for dealing with fire emergencies.
To make up for it, the whole school had pizza for lunch. This was an excellent idea except there wasn’t anywhere nearly enough pizza for that many people – we all turn into pigs at the idea of any free food, especially pizza, especially on a crisp clean fall day outside in the sunlight. Pizza and salad and fruit and cookies, with apples in baskets on the tables and soda. Of course they ran out of pizza early and didn’t have any clue how much diet soda they would need so no one I was with got any. It was fun, though, and got us outside and away from meetings.
I think, I hope, I only have one meeting tomorrow. Of course, it’s at least two hours long, but I should have time to actually be productive. Hope springs eternal.
Random Thoughts of a Disordered Mind 