26.3.08
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Deflation
OK, so I'm supposed to be rushing my thesis furiously by now. That was what I really intended to do tonight but it was not to be. Just as I had settled myself in a seminar room alone, coffee made, air-conditioning set to a comfortable temperature, tables wiped clean and data sheets aligned perfectly for maximum efficiency to reference - there came the security woman, chasing me out of the room. Apparently I was not supposed to study in the seminar room after twelve. And she was to take down my particulars for her boss.
Pissed, I asked her, "So, we're not even allowed to study!?" And she was kind enough to explain that it's not her call. She was the one who had to run around the hall, chasing people out, getting students pissed, getting her bosses pissed when students disobey and somehow find themselves back in the room after she's gone. And she'd probably be pissed when she finds out I gave her fake details. Anyway, it all boils down to electricity bills, she says. And she would be the one who will get the sack when bills keep increasing like she's not doing her job. Which she really is right now by ousting me from the room. It's not like she wants me to get out. She'd like it very much if students can have a comfortable environment to study, she says, but her bosses are the one making the decision. She's just the face of the decision. She doesn't like her job, I can tell.
And I thought, what a shitty job. She should be earning millions. But she's probably not.
Isn't the university earning enough to cover electricity bills? What about the (almost) yearly increase in fees? Isn't covering costs one of the reasons for this? What about those hallways in those faculty offices that are air-conditioned all day long when all the professors go back by 6pm? Is there an upper limit to what the university wants to capitalize?
And while people who do not understand the situation (like me initially) throw curses and expletives at her behind her back, the president is swimming in his vault full of platinum coins.
So this is how the situation is for the not-so-hot candidate for jobs. You will have to work for long and odd hours. You will have people pissed at you from every angle for policies you didn't make. You will have to go against your personal wishes to enforce something you don't believe in. Rich corporations will use you as the face of their money-grubbing ideals. And you will probably have a shitty pay.
It's not like she's illiterate or any less capable or intelligent. She's an educated person who speaks fluent English and probably had some extent of academic qualification.
And this makes me think. Maybe in ten years, maybe five—at the rate everyone is getting overqualified for jobs nowadays, perhaps my bachelor's degree would get so deflated that I'd find myself in similar dire straits. And it's not a comforting muse.
| hl @ 02:17 |
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21.3.08
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Exhaustion
I'm tired. Deeply so.
| hl @ 13:06 |
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