My life summed up in two comic strips
These PHD comic strips pretty much sum up my life.
Source: here and here
The last panel? That's me every other day. I'm not a teaching assistant but I have to fight with students and parents (especially parents) to have all the paperwork we need before the deadline. The latest case was a girl who took ages to make up her mind and decided to enroll after the final deadline. We usually have a couple of weeks of flexibility, but that means families have less time to complete the application.
When I created her account and sent her username and password I specified that she only had two weeks to do everything and I wrote the deadline in bold. I got no reply, so I called them to make sure everything was okay. The mother told me they had everything and they would start working on the application the next day. After a week the application was still completely blank (we can check the status), so I called again, I spoke with the student and she said they had gone on holiday, but she would start working on the application asap. Two days before the deadline, I got an email from the father saying they never received username and password. I saw red. I called them asking why they didn't tell me before, since we spoke on the phone three times. I said I would send the username and password again but they had to hurry up because they only had two days left. In the email I pointed out again what the deadline was.
And you know what? The mother complained with my boss because she "didn't like the tone of my email". Which had been read and approved by my boss before I sent it, by the way.
This is what I have to deal with every day. This and people who come up with the most ridiculous excuses to avoid paying us. The richer they are, the worse they behave. Excuse me if I'm stressed out.
Source: here and here
The last panel? That's me every other day. I'm not a teaching assistant but I have to fight with students and parents (especially parents) to have all the paperwork we need before the deadline. The latest case was a girl who took ages to make up her mind and decided to enroll after the final deadline. We usually have a couple of weeks of flexibility, but that means families have less time to complete the application.
When I created her account and sent her username and password I specified that she only had two weeks to do everything and I wrote the deadline in bold. I got no reply, so I called them to make sure everything was okay. The mother told me they had everything and they would start working on the application the next day. After a week the application was still completely blank (we can check the status), so I called again, I spoke with the student and she said they had gone on holiday, but she would start working on the application asap. Two days before the deadline, I got an email from the father saying they never received username and password. I saw red. I called them asking why they didn't tell me before, since we spoke on the phone three times. I said I would send the username and password again but they had to hurry up because they only had two days left. In the email I pointed out again what the deadline was.
And you know what? The mother complained with my boss because she "didn't like the tone of my email". Which had been read and approved by my boss before I sent it, by the way.
This is what I have to deal with every day. This and people who come up with the most ridiculous excuses to avoid paying us. The richer they are, the worse they behave. Excuse me if I'm stressed out.