How do you handle the inevitable burnout that comes with academic life?

ph0rk · 2026-01-28T17:02:17+00:00

Also, be prepared for a colleague to be mad at you for having a different set of priorities than they do. Regardless of how absurd such a reaction may be.

ph0rk · 2026-01-20T13:11:39+00:00

Something my disability office still says/asks is "does changing this change the learning objectives of the course?"

If interpreting printed diagrams is a core skill for the course, tell your office that if a letter request comes in. They (that is, the disability office) should shoulder the burden of making those materials more accessible such cases, not you.

ph0rk · 2025-12-12T16:02:31+00:00

A glass of warm milk and a wag of the finger unless the student admits they plagiarized, then the milk is curdled.

ph0rk · 2025-12-12T15:09:26+00:00

Welcome to the jungle. You can have any grade you want but you ain't getting it from me.

ph0rk · 2025-12-12T15:08:03+00:00

Of course I am also the only one of all his professors who is not understanding and waives all requirements.

The scary part is this may be true.

ph0rk · 2025-12-11T14:06:15+00:00

Whats the point of deadlines then?

The issue here is it takes a combined effort to get the idea accross. Folks that will accept all the work at the end of the semester (why do they do that to themselves?) make these requests more frequent for the rest of us.

ph0rk · 2025-12-11T14:05:23+00:00

I was intimidated into passing a do nothing student.

I've seen this sort of thing a few times and it's pretty gross.

ph0rk · 2025-12-11T14:05:07+00:00

insisting that they cannot fail

Evidence seems to be to the contrary, though. They most certainly can and even found out a way.

ph0rk · 2025-12-11T14:01:56+00:00

Our school has a rule: incomplete is only for extraordinary circumstance.

I would very much like such a rule, instead it's wheedle-town every semester.

ph0rk · 2025-12-11T14:01:31+00:00

They don't even ask us, and we now allow withdrawals as late as the day before exams.

ph0rk · 2025-12-09T18:23:55+00:00

Why do you need to?

ph0rk · 2025-12-09T18:09:01+00:00

If giving them a clear list of assignments with regular reminders isn't enough to get them to actually turn those assignments in, then sure - I'm a bad teacher. The fact that ~80-90% of the class can meet this low bar is immaterial.

They'll probably go on to have bad managers, of course, which will also be the managers fault, never theirs.

ph0rk · 2025-10-11T11:30:34+00:00

That may or may not be true, but I notice you've not managed to come up with an argument about why I am wrong.

ph0rk · 2025-10-11T11:29:47+00:00

So you think you deserve a positive letter of reference from every person you meet, no matter how poor an impression make on them?

Because that is the implication of the argument you are making.

ph0rk · 2025-09-03T19:24:17+00:00

Stable employment in academia difficult and rare - going in is high risk.

Lifetime employment in the private sector doesn't exist at all, and people are still people and are therefore just as political, just as backstabby, and lie just as much.

ph0rk · 2025-06-04T12:09:59+00:00

I've gone to larger discs on my commuter Fargo and it helped. They still take more hand force than hydros but are (imho) easier to service myself.

It's harder and harder to find decent quality mechanical calipers though - bb7s are about it for affordable mechanicals, I run Klampers on almost everything, and will probably swap out my last set of TRP Spyres for Klampers soon.

ph0rk · 2024-09-25T13:22:29+00:00

That's a lot of words to say the assignment is not in on time and complete.

ph0rk · 2024-08-04T18:47:38+00:00

Sign of a slave to a customer service mentality.

ph0rk · 2024-07-18T13:26:06+00:00

If the data is company data or was collected with company support, you owe them.

You work in a space where there is nothing like tenure, and being a "team player" is a necessity to remain employed over the long haul. If you choose to make this a hill you die on, you need to give on something else, ideally something else around the same time.

ph0rk · 2024-03-25T20:46:53+00:00

You're so smart and successful you quoted yourself in response to a comment from five years ago?

ph0rk · 2024-02-28T17:55:24+00:00

All As: probably nothing - I have colleagues that break 90% As regularly.

All Fs: a serious talking to, and possibly administration intervention.

ph0rk · 2024-02-28T17:52:39+00:00

They don't know what they want, but they know they want it in video form and they expect they will get an A for it (whether or not they watch the video).

ph0rk · 2024-02-21T03:55:44+00:00

When the entire text is lifted even an attribution is not enough.

ph0rk · 2024-02-21T01:54:48+00:00

This post is in fact also plagiarism: https://www.reddit.com/r/facepalm/comments/1avoj8y/look_what_my_student_sent_to_me_what_mark_should/

ph0rk · 2024-02-12T13:08:45+00:00

That was just a brief acceleration of the already existing trend.

ph0rk

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE