2024-06-03. Over the decades I’ve attempted to record my ongoing thoughts and observations connected to my work and every area of my life… but sometimes those “records” get lost. I found this particular note tucked away in my Evernote collection and probably wouldn’t have found it, except that I’m trying to cut down on expenses and spending $$$ on Evernote is one current project. Not too surprising that this note never showed up in my public blog(s)… So, enjoy as I try to work through a growing sense of discontent that I was experiencing during the summer of 2014. Enjoy(?).
I’ve begun working on my part of the change-over of my month 3 course from Emerging Tech/Collaboration to Visual/Verbal Communication in Instructional Design, which is to create an outline of Chapter 5 of the new Instructional Design text, Interface Design for Learning by Dorian Peters. I have to have my outline turned in tomorrow, I’m assuming at the beginning of the day and Sue and Roxanne are busy doing the rest… I assume. We met for the first time on Friday to map out the course and I got to participate in that, but this is by no means “my course” in the way that my old month 11 course, “Media Assets” was my course. I am contributing, but it’s actual form will be the result of what Rox and Sue put together, with final editing done by Don. My biggest concern, at the moment is that there is a great expectation that I will hand-carry the students through the course from the weekly class session through the daily discussion board posts. So, with very little time to actually come up with what will be presented in the class sessions i talked to Don about making sure that I’m not doing double duty, carrying the new version of the course plus my section of the month one mastery course. Given that we’re intending on rolling out this course with less than three-weeks lead time I didn’t think that the request was that big of a deal. He said that he has no control over that. Really, we want to give our students the best possible experience developing a brand new course and even while rolling out the new course I should also carry the full load like it’s any other month? Great. I said something about the added stress of having to come up with this material with so little time. He suggested that I “work with others” to develop the class session materials. My first thought was, who are these others who are going to create class session material with or for me? This does nothing to help with the stress levels. So then I joked that perhaps I should just take a vacation during the month if that was going to be the only way to insure that I’m not given the second session. He quipped, well, if I think I have to, then added that that wouldn’t work anyway, because I hadn’t given him 6-weeks notice. Yeah. As I’m working through my chapter I’m enthused, but not particularly excited about the overall program or the future.
I think that was Tuesday when we had the conversation. Yesterday, Wednesday, there was a gathering of the mid-program months five through nine, and I overheard someone say that “he wasn’t going to be there,” or maybe it was that “he refused to come.” I had no idea who they might be talking about. But it was clear that Don and those CDs had a meeting scheduled. I generally stay to myself and work in my area just working away at trying to get through all of the grading, etc. There seemed to be some commotion, but I wasn’t really paying attention and everyone was pretty much gone when I looked up and realized that I needed to go to my Orlando Indie Authors meeting. On the way out I noticed a box in one of the trashcans near someone’s desk, and after a second I realized that it was the box that Richard Repp used to use to block other’s from leaning over the edge of his cubicle. He’d just been moved away from a window seat to be closer to the others that course directors who were adjacent to his month. I then noticed that none of his personal stuff was at his new desk. His work issued monitor still had his name on it, but everything else was gone. There was no one left in the office to confirm my suspicion. And I thought that I’d just seen Richard several hours earlier, crossing paths in the bathroom, but I had my ear-plugs in and didn’t bother say “hello.” Little would I have known that that might be my last time seeing him.
I had just seen our former boss, Holly, on Saturday for brunch, and told her that as far as I could tell we weren’t anything remotely resembling a team and that I was on the continual shit list because I have the unfortunate knack for voicing my concerns. When we made the transition to IDT from EMDT and Don insisted on locked down PDF versions of everyone’s courses, that was a real hit to everyone. I was then moved to month three from month 11. Roxanne took over 11 and all the work I’d done was ignored and buried and I had absolutely no say in my new month. And I saw Michelle in month 4 throw up her hands in frustration but then in every meeting spout her praises for everything that was happening. And one month after another it was very difficult on anyone involved to have their courses shoehorned. And Richard and Don fought endlessly over the redesign of Richard’s course. I know that it drove Don nuts. I remember wondering which of us would be the first to quit because morale was seemed that low. For awhile it seemed like Michelle was always gone. Then the partnership between Dan and Chris went sour, not too surprising given their work-habits. I thought Richard and Don had gone through their trial by fire and kind of forgot about the question about who would be the first from the original ones to leave.
I’m working from home today and except for a couple student emails haven’t had any direct communication with work. Don sent an email about a perspective student, and Sharon and Dan send their praises. I like the possibilities of this new course, but have limited expectations about my input. I told Holly Saturday that I’m curious about what the future is going to bring. We have figured out the secret to successful online education and no one is paying attention or even seems to want to hear. And now Eeyore is gone (or is probably gone). The eerie part is that I haven’t seen any kind of communication from anyone about this, no sly instant message or anything. I knew beforehand that they were going to let go of Ian, mostly because I was going to be the one handling his course until a replacement was found. When they let go of Linda and Sean there wasn’t a word said, they were just gone. This would not be how one secures loyal employees, or devoted employees willing to spill blood in the name of our cause. But, we’re all just replaceable cogs in the big wheel now, so making us feel secure isn’t probably on anyone’s list. I wonder what the next chapter will bring. Oh yes, one more thing, during the last Christmas party at Sharon’s house, I talked to Richard and he felt like he wasn’t doing his students any good and that he was most useful when he had been previously teaching at the community college level. I was a bit shocked at the admission. He also said at the time that if the thing with Full Sail doesn’t work out that he’d turn to Real Estate, and I’ve since heard that he and his live-in girlfriend have turned around enough property that he really doesn’t have to work at all. So, I’m guessing that whatever it was he finally decided that it was no longer worth the hassle to put up with the crap that was happening to our program. I do wish him well and am confident that he’s going to do quite well for himself. Life keeps happening whether one is paying attention or not. jbb
Tags: full sail university, teaching online, team breakdown, workplace drama, workplace morale
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