Wednesday, July 19, 2006

you've got to be kidding

It never fails. At the end of each quarter there is always one. One student with a slew of excuses as to why they aren't ready for the last day of class.

Um...hello? You've known for the last ten weeks when the last day of class is. You also know my policy regarding exam week—you hand in your work and take the exams ON THE DAY THEY ARE SCHEDULED. No exceptions.

So, why would you call me the day before you have class with me (when you know I'm not around) full of excuses and these crazy claims of "having everything done by the end of the week"? Um...no. You don't make the rules around here. The classes meet at 9 a.m. and 11:40 a.m. on Tuesday. That was yesterday. That's when the work was due. Not "at the end of the week". This is college. This is the way it goes. Do it right or get out of my class.

Oh, and the 2 phone numbers I have for you, gave me the "the number you have reached is not in service". Makes it hard to contact you and relay the above. So, I wrote you a note and taped it to the machine you always use. I imagine you'll find it today if you come in to finish. Please be aware of the fact that I will not be accepting work from you at the end of the week. As a matter of fact, I should have already put zeros in my gradebook for your missed work. But, I'm a softy and since you've had medical related issues this quarter (which is no excuse, you could work on your stuff when you aren't at the doctor's office) I'll give you until 7 p.m. Wednesday, July 19th. That's tonight. You should see that in the note. I wrote it out exactly like that—7 p.m. Wednesday, July 19th and highlighted it in pink just so there wouldn't be any confusion. Like, "Oh, I thought you meant Wednesday the 26th."

So, if you don't have it in by the time I leave tonight, you're S.O.L. This is college. Learn some responsibilities. If I was a client, you'd be out of a job.

Update: It's now 9:20 p.m. There was absolutely no sign that she even came in to try and get the work done. The note was still on the machine (apparantly untouched) and the lab was completely empty from 3 p.m. on. Looks like the F's will prevail.

16 comments:

Jen said...

OOh, Ooh! I got one!

DH came home from work on Monday and announced that one of his coaches just gave their 2 weeks' notice. That's ok b/c we've been trying to get rid of this guy for a while.

However, when he got onto a special website to look for other possible employees, he found that TWO of his better (and highest paid) staff had posted their resumes the day before! And the dumbasses did this RIGHT BEFORE PERFORMANCE REVIEWS were due- and coinciding with the anniversary of their employement date.

Needless to say, they're being fired as soon as replacements are found. And way to free up major $ for the other deserving staff in need of performance review bonuses and yearly raises... because the CEO has been bitching that everybody is overpaid anyway and that there aren't funds for such.

Stupid kids. They have had every opportunity to speak up if they aren't happy and give DH a chance to work with them and remedy things.

Instead, they do this.

Lovely references they'll be getting.

The Boy said...

Tough love, its gotta be done some times.

Meme said...

You tell him Pixie!!

Lisa said...

Pixie:
Man, that kid (not a grown-up) has some issues. You did good.

cerberus70 said...

Sometimes you just gotta give the students the smack-down!

I just had a student from the event planning class volunteer to help with our golf outing, show up for the training meeting, and then blow-off the actual outing! Since the students are required to work on an event planning project as a big part of their grade, guess what? Dumb-ass you just failed event planning!

Anonymous said...

Yeh!!! And ^5!!! People like that make me sick .... you DO realize you'll be supporting that lazy ass through social programs tax dollars for life .... beeecaaause, it's ALWAYS someone else's fault. Grrr.

Well done, Pixie.

Cupcake Blonde said...

Welcome to the Real World. Life does not give you make-ups and extensions. You pull that crap at work and you'll be out of a job. You did the right thing setting your foot down. I'm anxious to see what happens and if the work is passed in by tonight.

Bob said...

My college instructor had a word for people like that. "Unemployable".

Lisa said...

Pixie:
I get so pissed when I'm in the situation you're in because I feel like the other person is just DARING me to make-good on my ultimatum, which, of course, I always do. But still, what a passive-aggressive little sh*t making YOU be the hard-ass. I totally agree with Mike, too, that our tax dollars will someday be supporting these ya-hoos. (After writing this I hope you don't get an e-mail or a phone call with a really authentic excuse like she was in a car accident or she died or something, in which case I take back all the bad things I said.)

Lynda said...

Sounds like they need to join my procrastinator's anonymous club. The PA is all about getting things done!

Of course, I always turned in my school work. I figure the only good excuse for that is injury or death.

Heather B. said...

The worst part about reading this? I used to pull that shit all of the freaking time.

I stopped during the fall of my senior year, during which my professors felt so bad for me that I got an extension on everything. Despite working something like 60 hours a week (I worked on a Presidential campaign), I still managed to get all my shit in on time. But was given a reprieve after we lost the election, which was defintely needed.

Seriously though, lay the smackdown and the little f*cker will stop procrastinating. Or at least I did.

Christina said...

Pixie,
what do you teach? i'm so confused. I'm trying to imagine a college course that has machines and I've got nothing. I wish my college had more machines for me to use.

Holly {ArtistMotherTeacher} said...

Popo—I teach Graphic Design. When I said "machine" I was talking about the Macs in the Lab. You know, computors. Sorry to confuse.

The Juicer said...

Some students just dont take things seriously. They'll be shocked when they come out into the real world.

Enjoy the weekend ;)

EV said...

Choice have consequences. Have a great weekend!

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