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- - OT: has stress ever made you start tossing things out the window? (http://goldismoney.info/forums/showthread.php?t=187549)

Hivemindgammahydra7 | 10-12-2007 04:05 AM
OT: has stress ever made you start tossing things out the window? Because that's where I suddenly find myself. I was recently accepted to UCLA but after two weeks I've decided to toss it. My class in Serbian/Croatian is moving faster than most of us seem able to keep pace with and still master the things we've just learned (I certainly can't). Worse, we have a growing pile of homework assigned and that requiring knowledge of conjugated verbs and grammar the instructor hasn't even covered yet. In fact, it's material still weeks ahead of us on the syllabus. It's one of those instances in my life where I felt pushed to the edge of a cliff, and knew I'd better walk away - or else. Meanwhile, the micromanaging Joe Stalin-type we have as our new principal keeps calling me into his office with a never-ending series of lists of the many things he wants done. Compliance with the Williams Act, SDAIE compliance, WASC-related planning, Safety Committee-related disaster prep, et cetera, et cetera, blah, blah, blah. This on top of weekly staff meetings where nothing useful is ever discussed or accomplished. Just meetings about how we're going to run our meetings. WTH ever happened to actually teaching the content and helping our kids get ready for life in the adult world? I thought taking the semester off from CSUF (my other school,) would prove sufficient to take the heat off of me and reduce the stress level. When that failed to lower my BP I resigned as the school's WASC chair. Now, it appears I'll need to resign as department chair as well just to stay the Hell out of Uncle Joe's office and restore some semblance of calm to my work environment. I am reminded of the scene from the 1970 movie Zeppelin with Michael York and Elke Sommer, where the crew is struggling to nurse the damaged dirigible back to occupied Belgium before it crashes, throwing out every last thing that wasn't tied down to lighten the load: tools, MGs, ammunition, dead bodies of fellow crew, everything. It's like that. I posted this here because when I stopped to ask myself: "WTF are you doing, dude?" The answer that came back was, "better start tossing things out if you want to survive." That's it, isn't it. Get rid of the grief and the stress FAST or end up in a hospital. Or dead. Has any such similar predicament ever captured you in its clutches? What did you do about your situation? Just wondering...

SAUM | 10-12-2007 04:22 AM
Re: OT: has stress ever made you start tossing things out the window? Divorce made me feel that way, I refrained though.:smokin: It took me a long time to realize that actually caring about the stupid shit that happens at work isn't my problem. Don't get me wrong, I still do the best work I know how. I have just learned that from the lower ranks you're better off to let them make their own stupid mistakes and completely ignore it, otherwise they will drive you nuts. I'm the happiest I've ever been in my job since I've learned that trick.

aeondaze | 10-12-2007 04:36 AM
Re: OT: has stress ever made you start tossing things out the window? Hive I'm a failed teacher for these reasons, heck I didn't even get to finish, my first teaching practicum showed me to let it slide....There is too much politics, i realised that if i stayed, I would just end up the like those cussing godforsaken bitter souls in the corner....no thanks, not to imply that's your situation, from what I can gather you are the attentive and honest type, quite the contrary, maybe that's why you care...my remedy... grow my own food, gather my own clean water reduce my dependance on all of it, and reduce what it requires of me, I still do volunteer work though, mostly local native regeneration and environmental care...etc...though there is still red tape having the local flora and fauna return is a excellent antidote! Have faith hive, there are always plenty of options.

RiverRat | 10-12-2007 05:16 AM
Re: OT: has stress ever made you start tossing things out the window? :shocked_ma: Oh no...not Hive...the man is a boulder among rocks !!! Seriously...? Letting something go is often the best avenue of choice Hive. Tomorrow is another day...the world will still be here when you wake up tomorrow...we hope :>) Very intelligent people have a tendency to overestimate their physical/mental resources and abilities. The inherent flaw of their logic is that they usually leave themselves an extremely low margin of error for failure. If you set yourself a task or goal with a slim chance of success you are increasing the odds you will fail. In some instances people get killed or seriously hurt because their own overly optimistic expectations have exceeded their already slim margin of error. Apply this to life in general and you will be a happy camper. Sometimes it pays to just check out of the race for a few laps and put on a new set of tires for your own safety and benefit. Call it increasing your margin of error... :D:D

Maddie | 10-12-2007 08:20 AM
Re: OT: has stress ever made you start tossing things out the window? Yeah. It's the reason I quit grad school, despite enjoying it. I was a Director of Education with a boss who was going through some awful stress in her life and turned into the boss from hell. I was covering three different job positions at work, making a pittance, and working so much overtime I barely had time to eat and sleep. At the same time, my best friend was dying of cancer. Without the time for research and writing, I knew I wasn't going to be able to keep up with grad school and let it go.

teedub31 | 10-12-2007 09:52 AM
Re: OT: has stress ever made you start tossing things out the window? Whew, I thought you were seriously gonna throw something out the window, ie the professor or TA. For what it is worth, I have been that close before.

AMforPM | 10-14-2007 07:31 PM
Re: OT: has stress ever made you start tossing things out the window? It sounds like you are making good decisions on what to delete. School administration seems like it plans to prevent any teacher from having even a moment available to teach is what I gather from my teacher wife. She can just let it roll off and abide the letter of the intrusion while minimizing the time she feeds it. She is very laid back by nature, and a great teacher. Her job would drive me bonkers. The meetings are laughable at her school too, the in-service stuff worse than useless, and all the assorted record keeping and testing eats time better spent teaching. Her micromanager even wants weekly lesson plans emailed to him from every teacher. She just laughs and organizes it by objectives he has to check off to make it easy for him and can toss them off in record time. To her it is a kind of silly game she laughs off but gets a kick out of being good at, and gets back to teaching. I think her disposition helps her a lot with the large piles of manure dumped in the paths of teachers.

Hivemindgammahydra7 | 10-18-2007 03:10 PM
Re: OT: has stress ever made you start tossing things out the window? My sincere thanks for the very thoughtful and encouraging replies posted above. I am having a rough time of late, and really appreciate the input of such positive and thoughtful people as yourselves. Thanks again...

Professur | 10-18-2007 03:26 PM
Re: OT: has stress ever made you start tossing things out the window? I've had to fix the computer of a customer (90% new parts, including the chassis .. yeah, we'll call that fixed) who threw it out a second storey window. If you've got the choice between a computer or a TA ... chuck the TA.

rodin | 10-18-2007 03:58 PM
Re: OT: has stress ever made you start tossing things out the window? I threw something out of a window once. From 5 storeys up (ah those were the days) It was a pan..

sindgefallen | 10-22-2007 01:14 PM
Re: OT: has stress ever made you start tossing things out the window? When I get frustrated I just scream into my hands hive. Move out of the rats nest of LA and go teach at Chico state. I just found 40 acres of wooded land backed by forest service land outside of Paradise. The commute would be decent and it's almost all through country. You would love it. Keep your spirits up dude. It could always be worse. Hope that helps a little?

Hivemindgammahydra7 | 10-22-2007 03:24 PM
Re: OT: has stress ever made you start tossing things out the window? Once you're all done with the sandbox, we oughta' set some time aside for a conversation about these and a number of other things. More to the point, there's nothing here that's so bad when compared to what you guys toughing it out in Iraq-istan are putting up with. That's a real problem. Stay safe, brother...

sindgefallen | 10-24-2007 10:31 PM
Re: OT: has stress ever made you start tossing things out the window? WILCO HIVE. I will be looking forward to that conversation. Hope everything works out to your benefit.

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