Workshift thoughts

I've been thinking about workshift a lot lately, so that seems like a pertinent topic to write about. I wonder if I'll be a teacher the way I'm a workshift manager. I hope not, honestly. I think my style of rule-by-fear works well as a workshift manager, but I don't think that's the right attitude to inspire someone to enjoy math.

Let me go into the details of my rule-by-fear style. I don't know if I'm explaining or bragging. I'm really quite pleased with myself. Maybe it's a power trip thing that I shouldn't be too proud of, but I have to admit I rather like scaring the bad workshifters.

It was tough at first. Everyone had gotten accustomed to running amok under Evan's rule. Some people are just good workshifters and had been on top of their shit the whole time. And then there were quite a handful of very bad workshifters who were down ludicrous numbers of hours. Slowly yet surely we started weeding them out. This is not something I can take credit for entirely. I just started enforcing things. I tallied people's hours and then the termination proceedings began. We had so many this semester. It was very tiresome. Next semester, my goal is to not have a single one. All the worst workshifters are going to be out of here. Joe Bender, Alex Mills, Evan... hmm who else... Well I think that's it, but trust me that was enough.

In any event, I'm not sure what it was that lead the people to start being afraid of me. I'm certainly trying to cultivate it now, but I'm not entirely sure how it began. There was that blow up instance with Young... I think that was the first time I really got mad at someone and yelled at them a lot. It was a fairly public scene. Then I was always an incredible hardass during appeals. I've also been a real stickler about giving people hours. Whenever someone asks, I always think for a moment and really consider the consequences and ramifications of giving them hours. The truth of the matter is that I never want to give anyone hours and every time someone asks for more, I have to struggle against my inner stinginess. I think people see how reluctant I am to give out hours and it makes an impact. I'm not the happy-go-lucky person saying "sure!" all the time- I'm the person who takes your suggestion and says, "wait a minute- what you're suggesting would have this impact and if you want this to happen, you're going to have to speak with the house and jump through these hoops, etc." Also, whenever someone does something sleazy, I generally make sure people know about it by complaining to those around me. I've gone out of my way to dock people who have tried to weasel out of it. By being a perpetual hardass, I started to make people a little afraid of me, or at least respect me enough not to fuck around with workshift.

Once I had this little sprout of fear, I started to cultivate it. Not that consciously. Not at all consciously, in fact. I just emphasized my hardassery. After having a few very frustrating sessions with appealing workshifters, I got rather vexed and proceeded to rant at length about how next semester would be different. I rather liked the effect those rants produced. I think I may have first gotten an idea (again, not consciously) at the meeting where we gave speeches for running for workshift manager. I mentioned during my speech that I'd terminate anyone who went below 15 hours instead of 20. It seemed to shock one or two people and I reassured them that it wouldn't be that big of an issue. It won't, of course. I won't let people get down that much in the first place. But later I started to play it up a little more about how I'd be cracking down. Then when I'd be in full rant about that and it would look like people were accepting that (or realizing that it won't apply to 95% of them), I'd tell them about the new rule where anyone down more than 10 hours will be fined weekly for every hours down more than 10. In other words, if you're down 11 hours, you'll be fined one hour every week. 12 hours, it becomes 2 hours every week. You get the idea. Then that would shake them up a little more. I kept progressively introducing new things I'd do to mess with them. I said I wouldn't be allowing any extensions under the logic that no one should be down so many hours that they couldn't make them all up in a week. This is perhaps excessive, but I don't want them to know that. I don't want them thinking I might let them get away with an extension, even though I might. However, when I say might, I mean it. There had better be a damn good reason for anyone who wants an extension and we're going to quantify it very precisely when the extension is made.

I've been keeping everyone on their toes with similar scary pronouncements every so often. These are all things I'm going to be doing, but most people don't realize that none of what I'm saying is that severe, or even that likely to apply to them. I said I'd be docking people hours for uncooperativity, ie, messing up the house in some way and expecting workshifters to clean it up. People got all nervous about that. Some people got very uppity. These are the same people who have been politely requesting for a while without much success that people stop leaving food out and letting it spoil (a very uncooperative act- would they do this in their own homes? do they have maids running around putting away their butter and eggs after they're done with them?). People are afraid of an iron rule, but it won't apply to most of them and the majority of the house will really appreciate having it cleaner. Very few people are rude enough to leave out food or leave their plates upstairs or drop something and not clean it up. But those who are that rude need to stop.

Even though my iron rule isn't going to be much of an imposition on anyone, I'm glad they think so. If there's an undercurrent of fear running throughout the house, people are a lot less likely to trash it. I believe in incentives. If you live in a house by yourself, there's a lot of incentive to clean up after yourself. No one else is going to do it. If you live in a co-op where you can get away with not doing your work, then that's a different matter. As long as I make sure people don't get away with stuff, then people will actually start behaving better. As a good workshifter, I know it hurts the morale of good workshifters to see an assload of plates upstairs. You think, what's one more? And just leave your stuff there too. It's like in New York where they cracked down on the little crimes and bigger crimes stopped too. I'll whip this house into shape yet.

And I have to say, the whipping into shape is kinda fun. I haven't mentioned yet about the random checks to see if workshift is being done right/well. I'm saving that until next semester during the first, or maybe the second meeting since the first is kinda hectic. I'm really hoping to freak a few of them out. Enforcement will be spotty at best (just like how policemen can't catch everyone who speeds), but I think the threat of me randomly checking in will make an impact on people. Hopefully I'll get some tattlers (I love them so!) who can direct me toward some of the worse workshifters and then I'll actually do something about bad workshift. Once you actually act, people behave a lot better.

But now to get back to my first point- I don't think I want to teach this way. Honestly, it feels kinda mean. Well, it is mean, but it's about getting the job done. I don't really want to "get the job done" with my students. I want it to be a friendlier environment. I don't have to be as mean if I have fewer students at any one time. And there are certain aspects which will and should remain the same. I should set down rules and enforce them. Enforcement is key. And as long as I actively care about the students, I think it'll turn out fine. Kids are pretty smart. They'll realize if you really like them that all the harshness in the world doesn't mean a lot. If I act towards them like I care, then I think everything will work out. That's almost always what has happened with workshifters too. I start coming down all harsh, but if it looks like the workshift is seriously getting overwhelmed I usually tone it down. I want them to do workshift, not get a heart attack. I recognize that workshift isn't as important as other aspects of their lives (school, for one) and sometimes shifts get blown off. I'm generally pretty good about working with workshifters to keep them on track instead of punishing them. I just want them to fulfill their obligations and I'm willing to do whatever it takes to help them do that.

Now that's something worth carrying over to when I'll be a teacher.