From: kovarik@utkux1.utk.edu (SaintMeechTheChaste)
Newsgroups: alt.angst
Subject: Re: Job angst
Date: 18 Aug 92 21:01:39 GMT
Distribution: usa
Organization: University of Tennessee Oil and Lube Center

In article <1992Aug18.183909.28482@organpipe.uug.arizona.edu> jlewis@astro.as.arizona.edu (Jeff Lewis) writes:
>
>I was informed that, to paraphrase.."You may be intelligent
>but this is the real world now son...and your attitude
>towards this company is not going to be tolerated..." My
>boss comes on to me like my father having one of `those`
>talks designed to set his wayward son on the path to
>correct behavior.  I was told to clean my desk..take down
>the farside cartoons..(I have a notice over my terminal
>that says -
>
>        What is this mysterious force behind our national desire to
>     avoid behaving in any way that might be construed as intellegent?
>     People behave as if intelligence were some sort of hidous
>     deformity.  To cosmeticize it, many otherwise normal cititzens attempt
>     a perculiar type of self-inflicted homemade mental nose job designed
>     to lower the recipient's socio-intellictual profile to the point where
>     the ability to communicate on the most mongolian level provides the
>     neccessary certification to become one of the guys.
>
>and was order to remove it)..because it might offend some corp. Pres.

This brings to mind something that happened to me last year here
at the Oak Ridge National Lab.  I was trundling off to my office bearing
a vat of coffee.....   I was dressed like I am usually dressed around the
lab, jeans ripped in all the right places, my hair all over the place, and
in a tattered black T-shirt with the Jack Daniels logo on it.  Well, the
head of our division stopped me, and told me:  "Look, Mitch, you're not
a graduate student anymore. You should dress in a manner more appropriate
to your position!"  So, with a perfectly straight face, I said to him:
"Sure, no problem!  Which brand would you prefer?"  He never commented to
me again about what I chose to wear.

I am the only person here in my building who has stuff on his office 
door, and some of it is pretty sarcastic (sarcasm aimed at Oak Ridge),
and it stays there.  I have multiple copies, stashed so that if someone
takes something down, it will reappear pronto.  

AS FAR AS I AM CONCERNED, I DON'T GIVE A SHIT IF I OFFEND SOME MARTIN
MARIETTA POOBAH.  

In any case, I have never heard of anyone hassle a grad student this way.

>
>ACCKKKKK!!!!
>
>It is in general agreement that my work in good...my thesis research on
>track and meaningful...but my sense of humor and general view of the world
>is waaaaay the hell outta wack!

Can they kick you out?  If not, I would just say: "Bag your faces, bozos!"

>So...where is that sharp knife when you need it - at least self inflicted
>pain leaves no one to blame but yourself.
>

Might I suggest a chainsaw?

>I thought I could deal with being called inept..genarally incapable of dealing
>with anyting that might be crititcal....but to have this load of shit dumped
>on top of that...ACCCK.

But then again, if they don't appreciate you, go somewhere else.  Change
advisors.  Complain to the chairman of the department.

>I was asked to think about if I am "qualified for this job" -
>What do I think, am I qualified? Wow, that's a heavy
>burden. How can I make a difference? _Can_ I make a difference?
>Surely I am but a single guy, alone as it were in the vast
>universe thing. Maybe I can change the world. Perhaps I've
>looked at life from upside down.  Maybe I should put on a one-man
>show and talk about my true inner feelings in an emotionally-charged
>gut wrenching autobiographical account of my warped adolescence and _then_
>watch the grant money come in!  That would show em.

>But then again . You decide. You do it!
>I'm sick of this! I can't make a decision! I'm no good at this
>sort of thing! It's up to you. I'm passing the buck.
>

Get a mohawk hair cut.  Dye it orange.  Work nights so you don't have
to see your boss. Communicate with him via email, or leave notes tacked 
to his door (but under no circumstance should you leave dead animals).  

						Meech
Newsgroups: alt.angst