Doctors up today:
Shrink (again. Went yesterday – he’s on vacation next week, so going back today)
Dietitian – I need to write the food journal thingy before I forget.
Returning to work – adjuncting (is that a verb?) has been on my mind a lot for the past couple of days.
I’ve started exchanging emails with an old co-soldier. The outlook is – grim, but it always has been. My anxiety of rejoining the walking dead ranks continue to rise – even if it is just a class or two.
For those who are not familiar with adjuncts – — I’m sure you know about the illegals in America. They tend to receive lower wages, found working the jobs that most Americans despise, and be and are really becoming a necessary evil. For companies to hire Americans to work in slaughter houses, the pay would have increase, which would raise the prices, which would… here we go. — Providing Americans would be available.
Sure – == any job == is better than no job. Still, to rise above all of the government assistance, the job would have to pay more than enough to compensate the absence of the assistance – and – the individual would have to feel the job was worth working.
(Now, imagine when/if everyone can get a 2-year degree on the government tab, as the Democrats propose… How much would a slaughter house have to pay an American then?)
Anyways… jumping off my soapbox…
Adjuncts are colleges illegal workers. We’ve become a necessary evil. Good enough to pay, but not good enough to hire full time, we often receive the class dregs – the jobs most professors do not want. We receive lower pay and, just like the illegal workers, colleges do not advertise just how many adjuncts are on the payroll.
Adjuncts are contractual — Translated:
* The pay of adjuncts does not need to be publicized by the colleges (like a college president’s salary is)
* Some colleges tend to pretend adjuncts are equal – which is BS. If they cared, they’d offer insurance.
* Because the work is contractual, adjuncts know that their course could be pulled from them at any time for any reason. Security simply is not there – which causes us go above-and-beyond the expectations of the school and result in burn out.
* Since the pay is so low and student loans and living expenses are high, adjuncts often have more than just one college – sometimes several.
* Fearing what may happen in the next term – any work is accepted. We have to eat – and we hope that the scheduling people will remember to add us in for the next term.
* Demands, expectations, and training are continually on the rise – is highly time-consuming – and not paid.
Burn out is high.
Fear is constant.
Sleep becomes optional.
All the while, the wizards in the higher education white towers earn more. College tuition increases. More tenured professors retire – and are replaced with adjuncts. Students, especially those who keep track of the governmental changes and regulations, may openly bully the poor adjunct – knowing full well the importance of retention – and how the white tower wizards would support them.
Easy As are given, not earned, least the adjunct get a bad class review or is slammed on a rate professors website – both of which could threaten future paychecks – not just from one college, but several.
All the while, (some – not all) students are disillusioned or, even worse, think that they can contribute to society, gain a good paying job, and have a wonderful life without putting in the work for a degree. (Again… think of what it’ll be like when everyone could go in for a 2-year.)
Criminal justice majors plagiarize.
Nursing students swear by WebMD instead of the more informative, accurate, and impressive Journal of New England Medicine.
Wiki is taken as truth by all.
So, where does this leave the poor adjunct?
Hopeless.
Terrified.
Powerless.
Eating and other simple activities become optional – not necessary.
The process is way to easy – way to damning – and misery loves company.
No one wants to work in a college slaughterhouse for the rest of her life – but -riddle me this –
How can we not regret the past, live for the future, when struggling in the now?
after thoughts 
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