Oh ugh, I’m so sorry for Matilda. This has all been brutal on her.

But I realized the person who set this up it will be 9pm for her and her colleagues. Wtf. That is not convenient for anyone except the one person on the east coast attending. Booo.

It’s the Europeans screwing it up for everyone else and getting rewarded with easy 2 pm call times.

I’m fighting with a project manager right now who doesn’t see why he should “double his work” by splitting the regions into separate calls but thinks it’s totally ok that my west coast people should have to be on a 4:30 am call three days a week for the next six months. (ETA and the Asia contingent at 10 pm or such for the same duration. But it works fine for East Coast Clinton so I guess who cares.)

Separating the post.

Hill, I’m just so sorry for what you and your family have been going through. I can’t imagine. I hope your mom is not in too much pain for long, physically at least.

Jeeez Brenda that’s ridiculous. I’d probably quit if my job wanted me on a 430am call three times a week (in part because I KNOW it wouldn’t magically be “ok, it’s cool if you sign off at noon because you started so early”). Plus I always tell folks you’re not going to get good answers or retention of information at that kind of early hour.

That sucks, Hec. I’ve been on the reluctant school opening train, but once the adults in the school can get vaccinated there’s really no excuse. And it’s harder for the teachers to teach via distance learning, especially with k-12–I don’t know any who are happy with it. I don’t know what your school leadership is thinking. Did they rent the buildings out to Google in secret or something?

Hil, I hope your mom heals quickly.

There was an uptick in cases at the university where I work, but the administration locked everything down for a week, and it seems to have subsided. It was probably due to illegal rush events. We may come out of this with a reduction in frat and sorority activity. I don’t know how they act elsewhere, but those groups have not been good neighbors here, so no one outside of them would mind a bit.

Oh Hil, how horribly frustrating for your Mom. I hope the discomfort can be managed easily.

{{Matilda and family}} I'm grateful I don't have to deal with school at any level at this point in my life. Every one of the parents, students, and teachers I know have been so stressed this past year.

Each sector of life has taken such a hit. We've discussed the impact on the arts. My world of medical is filled with seriously burned out professionals. The restaurant industry has been hit really hard too. There really isn't any sector that isn't in pain.

Hil, I am so sorry about your aunt. And your poor mother!

Separating posts:

Hec- that seems very frustrating for both students and teachers. Even though I am in online education, it isn’t necessarily the best option for every student, and certainly not this weird cobbled together thing they have in P-12 and many colleges right now.

Laura- My colleagues at the School of Nursing are burnt. Most professors also practice clinically. Many of them worked/work in COVID wards. The normally in-person classes given via Zoom are draining. Many of them are also working on their doctorates and raising families. I’m burnt, the student support, lab support, admissions and every other office are burnt. I wis we could just take the summer off, but we are a three semester year round school, which burnt people out before this year. (PS there is a reason teachers and professors have the summers “off”. And much of it is to recharge and much of it is to be able to engage in planning and preparation of their classes)

One more separation, because this is an annoying coworker vent:

Isn’t it common practice that the reason people are cc’d on emails is 1. To keep them in the loop (mostly your own coworkers) 2. To light a fire under the person you are emailing by cc’ing their boss????

My main two coworkers seem very confused by this process. Coworker One (Always do the right thing, scared of misunderstanding) reacts to every email she is cc’d in with panic and asked me what she should be doing. Coworker Two (only do the exact thing she is told) always says “I didn’t read that email because I was cc’d, so I figured it wasn’t for me” and then complains that no one tells her anything.

I do not have time to compose multiple separate emails to each person, tailored to what they need to know!!!

Sophia, you can do a bcc to the bunch, when the main recipient is the primary addressee, but that might not solve the problem of the co-worker assuming it's not for her. The Bloggess did a post on the dangers of hitting "reply all" when she'd replied to a PR/ad company that she wasn't interested in running their ads on her site; someone hit "reply all" when he responded to her email calling her a bitch.

Sometimes, it works out well, but that's kind of the exception.

My current struggle is with the guy who manages our website - on the calendar/schedule he keeps using Eastern Standard/Daylight times ... only he doesn't check to make sure he's using the appropriate one, which led to a lot of confused people not sure when (virtual) events would start. I've suggested he just use Eastern Time and allow people to figure it out, but he prefers to use the (sometimes incorrect) specific time. sigh ....

I think person one just doesn't read the header. We have been working from home for over a year, and she still doesn't ever mute or turn her camera off. And she only ever shows us the top of her head.

I think person two is just a little overwhelmed and doesn't have a lot of skill discerning the part that is for her unless called out specifically within the email (which I do sometimes).