…in which I talk about the nature of being support staff.
I’m sure the same is true in the public sector as it is in government and public education, but tasks have a way of rolling downhill. The problem is, if tasks, recognition, and money were on one of those rock-sorting conveyor belts, money would be a tiny rock and would fall through to someone far up the line, recognition would be a medium sized rock and would probably trickle out a few bins up from where I am… and from where the big ass tasks and workload rocks fall.
Here’s the thing, with a few details as possible: from up on high, several millions of dollars have been allocated for a grant. Someone in our College is working on that grant and was in need of some research in an area that, while I am not specialized, I am at least familiar and savvy. So now I am tasked with providing research and data for a project that I will in no way be related to as it come to fruition. The millions of dollars and the praises and accolades will fall far from me, while I sit in my office and continue to be over worked and under appreciated.
This is the plight of “staff.” We are the gears that grind in the background. We are the Morlocks to the Eloi utopia that is the upper echelons of a research University. Pardon my hunched back and penchant for human flesh.