Dodo Eggs

“No good deed goes unpunished.” Or in the original Yiddish, “Too much accomplishment breeds more work.”

There is always more work to be done. It doesn’t matter if you accomplish ten tasks during the workday or twenty. When you waltz in the next morning, five more will be sitting at your desk. How many employees ever go to their bosses and say, “Gee boss, it looks like I’m done with everything! There isn’t anything left! I think I’ll knock off early.”

And yet, hard work and responsibility can bring rewards. Employers will take note of their best. This can be good or bad. Are their lucrative promotions in the air? Do you wish to climb your career’s ladder and reach rewarding heights? Competency and responsibility are ALWAYS in very high demand.

But what happens if there is no big promotion? What do you do when being organized and extra professional only earns you additional responsibilities (i.e. punishment)?

This is especially true in the realm of education where “dynamic” new programs crowd the air like dirigibles looking for someone on which to drop their load of responsibilities. Their sites are set on those who they know will get it done. They can smell responsible, motivated stooges from over five hundred feet in the air (or the administrator’s office, whichever is closer).

To avoid being enlisted, I always wander into the principal’s office at the beginning of the year, look around a bit, and with a look of consternation proclaim, “Wait, this isn’t the men’s bathroom!”

Further, I do my best to stay out of site and way from any controversy. I’m always fashionably late to faculty meetings or any semi-useless pony show. There is nothing in which I’m an expert, thusly shedding constant quarries. Like a fine wine, paperwork ages a bit on my desk before I get to it. Most of the time, I don’t even listen to the announcements!

And lo and behold, I started this school year on a grand total of zero committees! I don’t chair a darn thing and no one is emailing me with requests for information. Thus far, my paycheck seems uneffected.

I would never pull these shenanigans if doing so hurt my chances of that big promotion and raise.

Please Note: Before casting stones…this attitude has no bearing on the energy and strategies I use in my actual instruction. My classes are well run and I put effort into making them profitable for the students.

I’m just keeping my life simple.

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• Male Studies (Letter 6)
• Application for Employment
• Staff Memo – Sexual Harassment