Precision of Language

[rolanni]

Women under 30 may be referred to as "snippy" by Persons Seeking to Establish Moral Authority Over Them in the Workplace.

Women over 30 in similar situations may be trivialized as "angry."

In deference to their grey hairs and years on this planet, women who are 50 years old and over ought to be accorded the adjective "bitchy."

Also? Come into my office in high dudgeon, lie to me, talk to me like I'm a particularly slow six-year-old, and start taking binders off of the shelves? You bet I'm going to be bitchy.

Comments

here, have an icon...

[lagilman]

Anyone who can make Methos back off is a Bitch to Be Wary of. Let mortals take heed.

(I normally use the "do not piss off the short chick" one, but we'd have to adjust it sommat for you... *grin*)

Re: here, have an icon...

[rolanni.livejournal.com]

That is a very cool and useful icon. Thank you.

(I normally use the "do not piss off the short chick" one, but we'd have to adjust it sommat for you... *grin*)

LOL. Yeah. A little.

Re: here, have an icon...

[lagilman]

we could make one that shows only the knees....?

Re: here, have an icon...

[rolanni.livejournal.com]

Don't piss off the tall chick? Might work. My knees, of course, are Totally Awesome.

[shana.livejournal.com]

The number one rule of academic survival: do not piss off the department secretary.

Said person is DOOMED!

She-Who-Makes-Things-Go

[wdonohue.livejournal.com]

Yes, the department secretary/office administrator should never be trifled with. Doing so will void your warranty, send you to the special hell, and get all your requisitions filed under 'burn before reading'.

-- Brian, who lives with one and knows, oh yes --

[malkingrey.livejournal.com]

No kidding. There was a grad student at Penn, while I was there, who lost his fellowship after he dissed the Freshman English secretary once too often and she told the administration that either he went or she did.

[cailleuch.livejournal.com]

Absolutely true.

I may piss off many people at my institution, particularly those up the food chain. But never, never, NEVER do I piss off any secretary. They can "make your life bloody hell" and besides it it just not nice.

[groblek.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I still remember the first advice I was given by my academic advisor at UC Davis - "Always be nice to the secretaries. They have the real power around here."

[difrancis.livejournal.com]

Which is why I have a sign in my office that says "You say bitch like it's a bad thing."

[brownkitty.livejournal.com]

How slow of a learner is this person?

[mbarker.livejournal.com]

Grad student who believes they have achieved apotheosis? Or junior faculty who are trying to convince themselves that they amount to something? Or worse yet, tenured senior faculty who have never convinced themselves that they amount to something?

The funny part is that the folks who amount to a hill of beans never seem to need to play these games. Heck, they're usually the ones asking for help and happily listening to everyone. Odd, that.

Moral Authority? Is this related to "I have [FITB] so I am obviously superior to people who actually do things" syndrome? Where FITB may be such items as degree, tenure, position, shiny star on my forehead where I whack it against the altar regularly . . .

[And for the bonus? If the female sequence is snippy, angry, bitchy, what is the male sequence? Maybe pushy, dominating, fell off his throne?]

[rolanni.livejournal.com]

One of a particular sort of Tough Academic Female who believes in her soul that any woman who is working as a secretary must either (1) have sold out the Cause, or (2) be an idiot. I appear to be a (2), which at least leaves honor intact.

[And for the bonus? If the female sequence is snippy, angry, bitchy, what is the male sequence? Maybe pushy, dominating, fell off his throne?]

Yanno, that's a good question, because men are usually rewarded for the behaviors denigrated in women as "snippy, angry, bitchy." Maybe "bold, assertive, aggressive"? I would like to think that "rude" crosses gender lines, but what do I know?

And, yeah, funny how the people who really do know it all hardly ever get in your face about it.

[jack_calls_dances]

Do you think it would help or hurt if she knew you were actually a published author? (Of course, since you write the kind of stuff that non-academics read voluntarily, that probably would just be further evidence of how Utterly Trivial it is.)

And as far as "bitchy" goes, have you run across Heartless Bitches International? They run a pretty good, extremely well-written, funny website. With lots of profanity.

[rolanni.livejournal.com]

Do you think it would help or hurt if she knew you were actually a published author?

She knows. Alas, for this particular person, I fear I fall into the science fiction writers and people like that category of unpleasant and inconvenient persons. It may also give me an inflated notion of my own standing with regard to Academics. Or at least this Academic. It's all very tiresome, especially since I don't do (2) that well and I really am, yanno, a bitch.

And as far as "bitchy" goes, have you run across Heartless Bitches International?

Oh, this sounds promising. Thank you. *goes off to Google*

[(Anonymous)]

ooohhhh. You do NOT deserve that sort of treatment. They do not deserve air to breathe. Hmmmm.
A broken little finger and big toe? Maybe go right to the really big stuff for a curse. MMMHMMM.
Be well, be immune, shred them into little pieces.
Know we over 60 stand stalwartly behind you.
Nanette

[jhetley.livejournal.com]

This . . . person . . . seems to lack self-preservation circuits.

[saruby.livejournal.com]

When I was in law school, a particularly astute professor told the class that it was important to cultivate good relationships with the court clerks and they would help you out. I found this to be true for all support staff. Conversely, if you piss off the court clerk, or worse the judge's clerk, you are totally screwed and much groveling will be necessary to get anything done again. having been a both ends of the support staff-professional spectrum, I can only say that I thanked my staff profusely and often asked if I could do something to help them, so that they weren't overburdened with what we often referred to as s**t work. As a secretary, I often wished that people would realize that the job requires the ability to multitask, enormous amounts of patience and an excellent memory. These are important skills that academics (and other professionals) often lack.

[6-penny.livejournal.com]

In the interests of self preservation one also carefully cultivates the janitorial staff, and the nice gnome who shows up to fix the locks/heat/A.C.................

[serge-lj.livejournal.com]

The other day, I went to the nearby bigbox hardware store and saw a woman whose hair is snow white, except for the purple locks in the front. What would 'they' call her? 'Mrs. Slocombe'?

[rolanni.livejournal.com]

saw a woman whose hair is snow white, except for the purple locks in the front. What would 'they' call her?

Well, that would entirely depend on how compliant and respectful she was, wouldn't it? If she's a good girl, they'd probably called her "sweetie."


...yeah, still pissed. *Sigh*

[lornastutz.livejournal.com]

Unless I was under a really nasty time constraint I would generally do my own documents. Self-preservation rules.
One day, under a said nasty time, I heard this conversation between my executive assistant and another....having just dumped a pile.

other EA: wow, she's rather rude..
my EA: oh no, she says please & thank you,almost always does the work herself and she give better gifts that our Technical director.
Lorna

[gilraen2.livejournal.com]

reminds me the story about the first year law student. she was a very good student, studied hard, and wrote accurate and concise answers to every question on the first exam until the last one - "what is the name of the lady who cleans the offices and classrooms in this building?". the student left this blank and later asked the professor if that question was going to count on her grade. "absolutely," he replied, "if you just know things out of books you're useless as a human being - you need to notice and acknowledge all the people around you in your life." the student never forgot this lesson, and also made a point of learning that the cleaning lady's name was dorothy.

[(Anonymous)]

All of this reminds me of the day I discovered that the German dept. secretary (single mom, divorced, with 2 kids) was a Phi Beta Kappa.... This was in the 60s. Need I say more. Sigh.

[(Anonymous)]

I used to be a secretary at a very large urban medical school in LA in the student admissions office. I remember one particularly obnoxious New York boy (sorry New Yorkers) who gave me such a hard time. When I reminded him of the power of secretaries I got flowers the next day. No one, but no one, should underestimate the smarts and power of the front office. For gawds sake!