[headdesk]

[fox]

so i've applied (with cover letter and resume and everything -- it's so crazy) for a Bar Staff position in the StX bar for next year.  pays a little money, couple of nights a week, comes with guaranteed (but sadly not subsidized -- can't have everything) housing.

requires an interview.  i get an e-mail last week from M the Bursar, saying please can they interview me this coming thursday, 3 march, at 2pm.

i write back saying i have a tutorial on thursday at 2pm and asking for a different time.

this is not, by the way, the first time they've done this -- it seems to be their habit, to just [waves wand] schedule people for things, without any regard for the fact that we're, you know, students and might have an academic obligation here and there.  obviously they can't keep everyone's weekly timetable at their fingertips, but if they're going to need to schedule things, you'd think they could ask people for some indication of when they're free, rather than making all the work for themselves after the fact.  there are so few hours in a student's week that are non-negotiably committed to academic obligations -- but tutorials are the holiest of the holy.  you can ditch a lecture (and people do it all the time), but a tutorial is a one-on-one (or, in my case, two-on-one) meeting with a professor, and is not to be missed without (so say the exam regs) written permission.  i imagine it's a little more relaxed than that, and if i were running a 103-degree fever or similar i wouldn't get in trouble for telling the prof i wasn't going to be able to make it, but you get the idea.

e-mail comes from M the Bursar just now, saying they can move the interview to next thursday, 10 march -- at 2pm.

i don't know whether to laugh or cry.

[eta: in response to my reply "It's a weekly tutorial; Thursday 2pm is the *only time* out of the week that I can't make it", M the Bursar has e-mailed: "We are now offering next Friday 11 March at 1.45 pm.  This is our final offer!"  i'm choosing to believe that the tone of this is joke-y, because i'll tell you what, i don't think enough people applied that they can refuse to hire me on the grounds that they couldn't schedule an interview in one of the 39 hours per working week that i am free this term.  :-)  but, whatev.  i am free next friday at 1:45, and said so, and wrote it in my calendar in ink, and apologized for my schedule making everything so difficult.  (one hour out of 40, i'm booked.  rar.)  so it is, as they say, sorted.]

Comments

[chains-of-irony.livejournal.com]

A Bursar at Oxford was that thick? Oh dear, I'm worried!

I'd love a job at a bar. I have visions of long conversation with interesting people sitting at the bar, and lighting cigarettes for heartbroekn lovers. But maybe I watch too many movies. Or play at milliways_bar too much...

[darthfox.livejournal.com]

well, the way the laws are going, you wouldn't be lighting people's cigs at the bar, and pretty soon you might not be lighting them in the building at all. :-) but, the StX bar is a fun place. assuming i get the gig, you'll have to come down when you come up. (hee! have correctly used "come up" in a sentence. am proper oxonian. go me!)

i'm afraid our college staff are all a bit dense. i don't know anything about yours, but i'm told that in other colleges they're not all as frustrating as mine. so do not lose hope. heh.

[reginagiraffe]

I once had to cancel a GYN appointment because I had my period. So when did they reschedule it? 28 days later. *facepalm*

[darthfox.livejournal.com]

that is dumb. i suppose i can think of a thinkaround -- i mean, why was it scheduled for then in the first place, and if it was because you didn't realize you'd be on the rag that week because you're not all that regular, then moving it exactly four weeks might not be such a thing -- but that takes quite a few ifs, and also, it's the wrong way to bet. :-)

[reginagiraffe]

The first appt was my fault. It was the first time I had scheduled one since I had moved to MD and I didn't properly check my schedule.

[sowilo.livejournal.com]

Send a lovely message, "so sorry I was unclear, this tutorial is every thursday at 2PM. Here are my other tutorials, as to make it easier for you." No matter where it is, University Bureacracy is a nightmare, and you just have to pretend that it was your fault, just so you can get shit done. Hateful but true. Now, I have to call Payroll.

[darthfox.livejournal.com]

oh, i did. while deciding whether to laugh or cry, i sent back an immediate note: "It's a weekly tutorial -- Thursday 2pm is the *only* time out of the week I can't make it." hopefully they'll pull their finger out, as the local expression is (hee!), relatively soon and this can all get sorted. oy.

[sowilo.livejournal.com]

speaking of local expressions, did you see the british woman accept her Oscar and say "as we would say, this is the dog's bollocks". HAR.