Friday, February 04, 2005
Opportunity Knocking
A recent invitation has revealed another aspect of my current employer's nefarious ways.
In the midst of everything else we've been doing the last few months, I've been busy applying to MFA programs. An MFA is a Master Of Fine Arts degree. It's a terminal degree, like a Ph.D. for people in the arts. I've been applying to earn one in Film and Video production.
I've sent out three application packets so far and have two or three more to go. A couple of days ago I answered the phone to find the head of the Cinema department at my first choice school on the other end. He told me the admissions committee had met and looked through the applications.
I made the first cut. The next step is an in-person interview/soiree/ weekend film festival. He was calling me to ask me to come down for this shindig in about three weeks.
When I went to work, my manager said she couldn't guarantee I could get the time off. See, we're switching from the good-old-fashioned way of making the schedule, when the manager did it on a piece of paper with a pencil, to a new computerized system that will relieve her of this onerous task.
"No one's supposed to request time off for three weeks," she said, "but if I'm still doing the schedule then, I'll see what I can do."
These corporations count on subservience from their employees. They expect to say, "no one can make any requests for time off for three weeks" and to have everyone be OK with that. Without such compliance, they'd have to do something drastic like offer cash incentives to people who worked whatever schedule the computer spit out for them. Of course, offering real incentives cuts across the grain of the whole corporate ethos, so it's not going to happen.
Either way, I'm going. There's no question about that. The only question is whether I'll have a job to come back to.
In the midst of everything else we've been doing the last few months, I've been busy applying to MFA programs. An MFA is a Master Of Fine Arts degree. It's a terminal degree, like a Ph.D. for people in the arts. I've been applying to earn one in Film and Video production.
I've sent out three application packets so far and have two or three more to go. A couple of days ago I answered the phone to find the head of the Cinema department at my first choice school on the other end. He told me the admissions committee had met and looked through the applications.
I made the first cut. The next step is an in-person interview/soiree/ weekend film festival. He was calling me to ask me to come down for this shindig in about three weeks.
When I went to work, my manager said she couldn't guarantee I could get the time off. See, we're switching from the good-old-fashioned way of making the schedule, when the manager did it on a piece of paper with a pencil, to a new computerized system that will relieve her of this onerous task.
"No one's supposed to request time off for three weeks," she said, "but if I'm still doing the schedule then, I'll see what I can do."
These corporations count on subservience from their employees. They expect to say, "no one can make any requests for time off for three weeks" and to have everyone be OK with that. Without such compliance, they'd have to do something drastic like offer cash incentives to people who worked whatever schedule the computer spit out for them. Of course, offering real incentives cuts across the grain of the whole corporate ethos, so it's not going to happen.
Either way, I'm going. There's no question about that. The only question is whether I'll have a job to come back to.
// posted by Dean @ Friday, February 04, 2005 
