I'm brushing up on looking down; I'm working on my roar

[austin_dern]

So what happened when I told my boss about the community college wanting me to teach for them, starting after Columbus Day?

He said no.

He felt there were too many things coming up, including the development of a new analytical tool that'll replace a spreadsheet (long, dull story) and he couldn't spare me two weekdays per week, as the only available course times demanded. He didn't think it could work. So this hung over my thoughts as he and I went to a professional conference we sort of had business attending that morning.

In the afternoon, after the conference, and lunch, and while he was darting in and out of a meeting with some people I don't recognize but who come around the office about every three months, I captured him in a brief retreat to his office and said I wanted to pitch a way it could work.

First would be covering hours: if I came in for three ten-hour days I wouldn't be far off my current 32-hour schedule. I'd be available for half-days if something time-critical came up. I had checked and found I'd already developed something equivalent except for a couple data fields to the new analytical tool. And it would be for only ten weeks. And the only time-critical thing I knew was getting this server move from our offices to the data center done, and as far as I was aware all the programming problems had been solved; it was entirely the tech guys' problems still stopping the move.

He started asking questions, like, what would I be teaching, and what were they paying (which suggests to me he was wondering if this was a strategy to get a raise). I heaped on how it was getting the PhD I'd plunged myself deep in debt to be useful to me again, and how the pay wasn't anything much. Teachers don't teach for money, which is why we never have any. And I pointed out how as long as we got the tech guys' problems sorted out before October 10, I was completely free.

He looked now like I'd got the thorn out of his paw.

He hasn't formally said yes, but I think it's in the bag; I think he made the decision when he asked what I was teaching, and confirmed it when he asked about the server move. We have the move tentatively planned for Tuesday as in the 20th, although I'm going to be spending much of the 19th convincing the tech guys that just because they set some parameters that make them sure this should work doesn't mean they've actually got it to work, and here's my proof. So we'll have some fun with that.

Trivia: Vanguard III received more than 4,200 magnetometer signals during its 84 days of operation. 2,872 of them were designated as ``prime data'', on the grounds of quality and freedom from possible coded time errors. Source: Project Vanguard: The NASA History, Constance McLaughlin Green, Milton Lomask.

Currently Reading: Dragon Sword and Wind Child, Noriko Ogiwara. Not the author's (or translator's) fault, but the title makes me think of legendary rec.arts.sf.written super-mega-epic-saga Sword of the Dragon Prince.

Comments

[bunny-hugger.livejournal.com]

Well, I do teach for money. I suppose that may make me a bad person in the eyes of Socrates's ghost, but I can live with that.

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

It's all right. I don't think it counts until the money is enough that you don't need it anyway.

[porsupah.livejournal.com]

Oh, jolly good show, old chap. ^_^

(Even if this does come before I actually find out the start of the tale - I've got about a week of LJ to catch up with. Won't happen again =:)

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

Thank you. And hi there; I was just thinking of you the other day. You realize it was a decade ago we were tromping around Sentosa Island and other such tropical attractions?

[chefmongoose.livejournal.com]

Glad to hear your negotiations seem to have worked! I assume the notion of half-days of availability sealed the deal.

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

I think the notion of half-days reassured him, yeah.

Actually, at the risk of sounding more smug than usual, I think I handled negotiating with him uncannily well. Even the initial rejection let me come back after the idea was planted in his head, and I was putting out ways to make it work for him.

[moxie_man]

Well, it's a start.

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

It is!

I also have another thing I mean to start in the immediate future, which may be less of an immediate payoff but possibly better long-term for me, too.