Author: Joy Ann LaJeret

I have the modules uploaded and completed in the system. My last feat is making a tutorial on Camtasia. I worked five hours yesterday trying to get the sound set correctly so I could make a clean clear recording, But, as it turns out that was not to be. I have the recording from he#%!  Since I have no ability to ask for technical help when I am working from home and because I am an intern, I am going to have to figure this out myself. This usually means hours of watching videos and experimenting until it works.

Okay, I have watched hours of video on setting the sound. I have done everything these videos are telling me! Still the background noise on the recording for Camtasia sounds terrible. I am beginning to wonder why I embrace technology when it takes so much to figure out how to work it. After hours of watching these videos you would think I would have found the answer to the problem. I am staring rather fiercely at my Logitech headset right about now. Since it is a year old it might be my problem. Nothing else seems to be working at this point in time.

After several more hours of setting the sound, I managed a pretty good sounding video. While the video is not perfect, I might be able to re-record it a bit later. My problem was having the sound set too high. This caused a lot of background noise. So all is well that ends well.

My final clean up has been done. Unless Charlene wants me to change something at the last-minute, the course is ready to go. Most of the work was put into creating the modules. Uploading it into the LMS system was pretty easy. I keep wondering why I ever thought this was going to be a difficult task. With patience and persistence and good suggestions from the people helping me, it seems to have turned out quite well. I am just waiting for Charlene’s final approval and I know she will be working on it soon.

I have a meeting with my internship coordinator on the 21st of March and have already handed in my final paper. I keep wondering why this project was looming so large when I first began to work on it. It was totally “do-able.” So, now I can just kick back and rest.

The modules have been uploaded into Bb Vista. It will need to be approved by Charlene, since it is her hybrid course I am creating for her. I have made friends with Bb Vista and found it extremely easy to use. It has its short-comings. The discussion thread is prehistoric and the email is very outdated. The only real updates would be to make it more open source and up-to-date. With that being said, it appears the college may be looking at Instructure Canvas as its new system.

I am not certain how I feel about a system like that. At first I was all for the system. Since I have tried to create my own course and put it into the free application, I am not quite as sold on it. But, I hope to give it a fair shot at some point in the near future. It certainly was a top three pick of mine when trying out and learning about the new Learning Management Systems. One of my instructors, Jen who taught us “Backward Design” and how to manage a course once it was online, loved the system. I am certain she would approve.

My primary concern is the discussion thread area and storage for videos and links when learning in the system. One should not have to go outside the system to store the research one finds on-line for the class. However, once the course is over anything stored in a LMS is lost. So far I have seen nothing that gives learners the security it needs to keep this information other than “Diigo.” Not only does Diigo save the learners research; but it saves all the discussion that is taking place in it. No learning system I know will do this. Once the quarter is over, the information is gone and cannot be referred to at a later time.

My second concern, is the email portion of the LMS system. Since the two most important features of any LMS system are the discussion thread and the communications feature of email and chat, those should at least be as advanced as they are outside the system. I am finding the chat room is out-of-date in Bb Vista and the emailing feature is well lets just say…belongs to the days of typewriters. I want to be able to email my learners quickly without a lot of hassle and be able to place them in a folder so I can refer back to them if I need to. I want the feature of sending video (not yet a capability on Comcast my email service) and not just links;  and I hope someday the techs will solve this problem.

With the cost of gasoline around $4.00 a gallon and rising in the Seattle area, I think not only hybrid courses but online courses will become a necessity. At $5.00 a gallon, I would find it difficult to go to work and still be able to pay my bills. Being a student, I can understand their struggles when it comes to money. College tuition keeps going up and what is left of their funds disappears very fast. Finally a way to cut cost for them is the possibility if ebooks and rentals. My wish is this new course will help their budget a bit. I will have to wait and see how many students sign up for the class.

What makes a good to excellent online instructor? First of all, It may be as simple as having taken online courses and understanding the challenges and accomplishments from the perspective of the learner. One cannot design and teach an online class as effectively, if no online courses have been taken (my opinion only). The challenges of using online technology are often overwhelming when the learner takes their first online class.

Equally important is the ability of the online instructor to know how to use the Learning Management System (LMS) and other supporting technologies. Being able to trouble shot the problems that arise during the teaching of the course(s) is part of this ability. Having the right equipment and being able to spend 2-4 hours online everyday is a definite plus. Knowing the web is a dynamic system and ever-changing is essential. What may be new this year can be outdated by the next year.

Given the nature of online teaching, the instructor must be passionate about teaching online. If one is committed to the pedagogy of online teaching all the better. The teaching role shifts from instructor centered teaching to being a moderator and facilitator online. Knowing the material being taught in a class is not enough, the instructor must motivate the learners to want to learn the material and to go far beyond what is being offered in the class. This simply means, you move your learners toward the concept of self-directed learning. They need to take responsibility for what they are learning and what they want to learn on the subject. Your biggest task is to help them become experts in their field of study and surpass what the instructor or institution has presented to them at the introductory levels and beyond.

Another must have ability for the best online instructors is the desire to have one-on-one interactions with the learners. In order to give relevant feedback (formative assessment) establishing a good repertoire with the learners will aid in their ability to take your critiques seriously and apply the new knowledge they have to accomplish future assignments. Also this contact helps them feel comfortable enough to ask for help and makes their learning less stressful, when they hit roadblocks or when they experience technological problems.

Being able to lead a good discussion and monitor the activity is  critical. The group discussion area takes the place of lecture in online classes. The questions must motivate the student to seek out the answers for themselves. If they cheat when answering the questions, they will seriously erode their opportunities to become self-directed experts. Each question should be designed to illicit a response that is authentic and totally theirs. They must own their own work and take responsibility for it.

In the end, the best instructors keep updating their knowledge and take necessary courses or offerings at their college or university to learn the newest technologies and learning strategies. They will have personal learning environments or contact with other professionals in their field, as well. Being a learner and/or online instructor is a never-ending process of learning and updating information. Having mentors and other staff to learn with is a definite plus, whether they are online or at the college or university.

So how would this learner and potential instructor stack up against these requirements? Much thought has gone into this question over the course of two years, since I first started the training to teach online. I have a lot to learn not only about the subject matter in the field I want to teach in, but in the area of new technologies and online teaching aids. Since teaching online is fairly new, no one can be an expert the first few times they teach a course. Courses and instructors evolve over time. Often the learners become the teachers and the instructors become their students. It is a give and take process of which I believe I am capable of. But, only time and opportunity will tell if I am correct.

Adjunct teaching staff are second tier teaching staff. A new breed of online teaching staff is beginning to comprise this second tier. They are paid  considerably less than tenured instructors and often teach at more than one college, at the same time. Their numbers will continue to grow as the need for online instructors continues further into the 21st Century. Often they will lack the support and training that full-time tenured instructors receive. They may not have an office at the college they are teaching in and must know how to create a virtual office for their online learners.This is not the only new set of skills they must possess. However, it describes one of the many challenges and demands they will face in this new environment.

Maybe the first question you might ask is why do they want to teach under these conditions? My personal opinion is they (we) want to teach online and are passionate about teaching in a virtual environment.  They are driven to accept whatever conditions the college imposes on them to obtain the opportunity to do what they are dedicated to doing, facilitate online learners. One requirement that most probably drives these instructors is, they are passionate about teaching online; but more importantly need the teaching experience in order to fine tune the skill sets they bring to the table. Obviously pay is not the primary concern or driving factor. This new way of teaching and facilitating the learning of others is evolving and the challenges are never-ending as technology continues to grow and change in the online environment.

Having said this, there is a movement toward adjunct faculty unions at American University.  In an article in the Right Wing Blog , Josh Kaib states, “… I can’t imagine what it is like working part-time at the sweatshop that is American University.”  Josh goes on to say, “All of this [voting to unionize] because a few faculty members are stupid enough to think that you can live off of a part-time teaching job.  These union wonks ought to stop complaining and find another line of work.  They get no sympathy from me, even if the administrators at AU comply to their every demand.” Not being a fan of unions, it seems the operational words here are the idea that part-time adjunct faculty are trying to make a living by teaching as adjunct instructors. While joining a union may solve the problem of receiving better pay, it could open even a bigger can of worms, since it may raise the cost of getting an education for many students in the United States. WIth that in mind, maybe there would be no need to hire adjunct instructors. Most probably all it would do is change the pay scale and force colleges to increase costs. The final scenario might be, high cost adjunct instructors would not be rehired and lower paid instructors most probably would get most of the jobs teaching.

This has uncovered the first challenge an online adjunct instructor faces, how to live on the amount of money the colleges offer for filling these teaching positions. I do not think you can, especially if you have just left the university with a vast amount of student loan debt. That was the number one problem I faced when moving to the state of Washington…how to stay afloat financially on what the colleges were paying in the late ’80s and early ’90s. I was unable to accept these types of positions and did not want to teach in a classroom. I was not yet aware of online learning and virtual classrooms. My plan was to wait until I was retirement age, had a small income from social security and medical coverage, which I knew I would not get if I taught in a college at that point in time. Also, I had the false hope that I would be able to complete my doctoral studies. Of course that was before my loans went into default; because I could not make the exorbitantly high payments to the banks, while struggling to keep from being homeless in Washington state.

At this point in time, I do not see how one could pay for classes to finish a doctorate online if one is working part-time as an adjunct instructor. Having taken the time to learn new skills and how one goes about teaching online, I believe it is important to continue one’s education while teaching at a local college or colleges in general. Everyone is beginning to realize (I hope) that teaching online is very different from classroom teaching. The learners will learn more from the internet and each other than the instructor. The instructor’s role is to help them learn by removing any obstacles they find while working in a virtual classroom. Herein lies the second challenge for online adjunct instructors…how to stay current. They must, it seems, establish a personal learning environment and continuing their education is most probably another good way to accomplish this goal. Meanwhile, they need to stay current on the subject matter they are teaching. As technology changes, so do the positions their students will be hired for.

Predicting the future of the job market is another challenge to be faced. As our world keeps moving toward electronic environments, there is the need to improve one’s knowledge and skills in this area, too. Working with the many online programs, e.g., WordPress, websites, elearning portfolios and You Tube video creation, just to mention a few, will take exploration and time to learn. If there is limited training for adjunct faculty, they will need to accomplish these tasks on their own and they must know what will work in their virtual classrooms. In the first course on ” Tools of the Trade,” at Bellevue College, some of the students were complaining about having to learn these unfamiliar applications and how much time it took to do so. For someone never working with these programs the task can be daunting. Nevertheless, this is another challenge online instructors must face and overcome.

Finally, working with department chairs who do not have the training and education to work in an online environments will most probably be a real challenge. Not everyone is familiar with the issues and challenges adjunct faculty face when designing online courses and applying the pedagogy online instruction requires. Having a good set of people skills, being a good team player and working to educate their peers who are tenured faculty could prove to be another interesting challenge. So far in my internship at Bellevue College, I have found my mentor and the department chair anxious to lean the new technology and pedagogy that online instruction requires. They seem to be on top of the issues this new form of teaching creates.  But they may be an exception to the rule. Therefore, it seems new adjunct instructors are in a good position to teach their craft to others in the college. This was one of my stated objectives when I applied for the internship. So far I have learned far more than I could have imagined and I hope those working with me have as well.

The final challenge resides in this video.  If  you can get past the history and music in the first minute or so, reaching the heart of the message it is worth the effort. It is about five minutes long.

It is that time of year again, Valentine’s Day. It is a day to celebrate the beauty of love. Maybe growing old together is a bit of a myth, in a violent society and the union of marriage.  Much is being said for and against the marriage of two people of the same gender.  There is equally as much being said about violence in marriages. Here in the Pacific Northwest we are hearing, everywhere, about the killing of two lovely boys by their father, with the strong possibility that Josh Powell killed their mother as well. So if marriage is the spiritual binding of two human beings in a union of love, one has to wonder how spiritual that marriage is between two people, male and female, when circa every 15 seconds a woman is battered in this country.

The statistics seem to show us that the family unit of one man and one woman is the most violent union in the United States. If two people can find love and enter a legal contract to cherish and care for each other, why are we trying to stop the behavior? We don’t seem as dedicated to stopping the abuse of women by men or the abuse of children.  If Christian people are so concerned about marriage and its’ Christian institution of marriage, why are they allowing women and children to not only be abused but to be homeless if they leave a battering spouse? Seldom are shelters able to meet the needs of these women when it comes to housing.  What I see are a lot of contradictions and self-righteousness, regarding these issues.

My maternal grandfather was married four times. From what I have heard from his children, he was from “the old school” (turn of the century thinking in Austria and Germany) and probably some form of abuse may have happened in his nuclear family. He had several children from his wives and he was remembered as a man with a temper. During the time he lived women did not divorce their spouses and if they did there was a stigma attached to her. Neverthelss,  my family accepts divorce as a solution to an impossible situation, whether the church is against it or not. Why? Because being battered is not love and scars children when they are caught in this web of violence. There is a higher value to uphold than the Christian condemnation of divorce (e.g. the Catholic Church). Love is not about hurting and beating and killing. This is not a marriage, a spiritual union or a family. What it seems to be to me is the antithesis of marriage, spiritual union and family! Incidentally, Grandpa was Catholic and never divorced, although his children did or a least a few of them. My point is this, if you are being abused and your children are being harmed, you must make the decision no matter how painful to leave and to divorce the abuser. Intervention seldom works.

Most women seem to have a difficult time making that decision. Many of them will be homeless and live in poverty if they leave, often for quite a while. They may even be killed in the early phases of this move; because when the spouse or intimate other realizes their mate is leaving, they are mostly likely to try to stop them even it it means killing them. Their children will be exposed to the harsh realities of bitter divorces. Even worse they may see their mother being murdered. The Powell boys were beginning to open up and talk about the things that were buried or suppressed in their minds, possibly due to the threats Josh Powell may have made. By uncovering these memories, Josh may have felt trapped, and like many before him, when his mask of normality was torn off to save face, he killed everyone involved including himself. Incidentally, the social worker must not have had an emotional connection to Josh or she may have been murdered too.

My last thoughts on this Valentines Day and what it signifies is this, no one has a perfect relationship or marriage. When the people involved are healthy and respect each other, their love is not expressed through acts of violence. It would seem to me that same-sex marriage is a way to find happiness in a union that has been vilified by Christians. Maybe Christians need to put as much effort into supporting shelters and finding housing for unions that are not spiritual and healthy, before they can judge the behavior of others in these unions. This is not to say that gay marriages do not end in physical violence.

Author Joanna Bunker Rohrbaugh has written in her article,” Domestic Violence in Same-Gender Relationships,”

It is important to note that the overwhelming majority of gay and lesbian families function well, in a manner similar to that of healthy heterosexual families (Kurdek, 1994; Rohrbaugh, 1992).

She concludes by saying “domestic violence is an abuse of power that can happen in any intimate relationship regardless of gender or sexual orientation (pg, 297). The Christian community may want to look into the reasons any couple uses violence in their intimate relationships and vilify this behavior and not the make-up of the union. That being said, I do find it uncomfortable to watch television sitcoms, (e.g., Modern Family) that feature gay couples with children; but, in the end I realize that we have been given the right to decide who we will form a relationship with. Society has disapproved of divorce, certain sexual acts, skin color and the list goes on. New thinking will always make us a bit nervous and uncomfortable. It comes with the territory. In the end the question to be asked is, why all the violence? Also, what is the connection between bullies and violent acts?

Anyway, moving from Valentine’s Day, and the issues, I am working on the last re-writes of the criminal justice modules. Charlene cleans up their content by proof reading them. Robin cleans up the grammar and spelling Microsoft doesn’t clean up.  Robin is an english instructor or has done this in the past. Everything is progressing nicely. I should be close to finishing the modules and placing them in BbVista, when the Irish holiday, St. Patrick’s Day comes along.

Speaking of St. Patrick’s Day, I think that saint did not drive out the snakes from Ireland after watching  the video on this blog. When I was a child, I was hoping I could capture that intriguing little man (we all learn about in school when we’re young) and covet the pot of gold! Alas, even this fairy tale has changed a bit as the last video shows, due in part to violence. The snakes are still there and the leprechaun’s operate quite differently. The rainbow is gone and the pot of gold seems to come from the reselling of weapons by underworld crime figures in Dublin. I am very happy not to be living in the Emerald Isle. So far not too many of our criminals want to strap bombs to themselves…now on the other hand…I have yet to read about an Irish father chopping up his boys with an axe and blowing himself up with them, by pouring gasoline in the house and igniting it, while they’re in it.

The last video is a sobering video about catching the leprechaun or killing him and capturing the pot of gold, as it truly is today, in Dublin, Ireland. I have included this video because it reveals a bit about the history and nature of violence. After years of political violence and behavior, there appears to be new twists and turn in the uses of violence. Maybe history is the starting point, we as a society, need to ponder when trying to understand violence between individuals.

Dawn sat on the window seat in her bedroom. She had a glass of wine in one hand and a bottle of high-powered pain relievers in the other. As she looked out the window at the grey murky weather, she tried to recall where it all started, inside the pressure cooker. She had a comfortable home, a good husband and was happy with both. She enjoyed her life and had a few good friends to support her when things were either good or bad. Nevertheless she sat in disgrace. Inside she could feel the press building and wished she could just get a good night’s sleep. Her eyes were swollen from crying and her hand shook as she tipped the glass for a swallow of wine.

Dawn had college degrees and had learned in five years, what her colleagues had learned in ten. She hardly ever took a day off and was seldom, if ever, late to work. She handled most of her clients with professionalism and loved her job, even though it was very stressful. Her evaluations were usually graded as above average and/or “meet or exceed expectations.” Still her supervisor treated her like she was incompetent. Her teammates treated her much like her supervisor did. No matter what she said or how kind she treated them, they isolated her. She was never accepted by the clique. All her friends worked in other departments, so at social events for her department, she sat alone.

As she looked out her window, she began to see that standing up for her rights and for the rights of a friend at work were the first wrong steps she had taken. Her friend had filed a sexual harrassment compliant against a male employee. Every day her friend had to walked past the man to get to her desk, because the company refused to discipline the perpetrator. The next wrong move was alienating her lead. The lead that had trained Dawn had brought a friend into the company. But what had she done? She got the woman fired for having hard-core pornography of a racial nature on her computer. Her lead had asked her why she couldn’t take a joke and stated women their age need some comic relief, when she first reported it to the lead. Obviously, she could not; because she had reported the incident to her supervisor and the department chair. Twenty two people had seen the pornography; but she was the only one that had reported it in her customer service department.

A few months after the incident, on Valentine’s Day, every cubicle was decorated with balloons and a small packet of candy…except hers. So much for doing the right thing! Her heart sank as she saw what they had done. When she reported the incident to her supervisor, she was watched silently by her fellow workers. She could see and hear their whispers when she came near their cubicles. But the final incident occurred when a new department chair was hired, a few months later.

She was called into the company’s conference room. Her supervisor was there with the new department chair and the new head of the human resource department. They told her, she obviously was having mental health problems. They felt her marriage was probably part of the problem. Finally, they told her she must seek counseling through their program and sign a document ending her rights to privacy, so they could monitor her progress. She had twenty-four hours to make an appointment or she could be fired. She was lead back to her cubicle and had to grab the few things she could reach and carry, as she was escorted out of the building in front of her peers.

From the parking lot, Dawn called her husband to come pick her up. She told him what had happened. Her car-pool buddy was still at work and she hated having to call him. By this time, she was crying and on the verge of sobbing. Her mind could not grasp what had just happened to her. She had nothing negative in her workplace file and had never given anyone cause to give her a bad report on performance and/or behavior. Dawn rode in silence beside her husband. She was broken and afraid of what they might do next. She was told she could not contact or speak to anyone in the company…ever!

After that incident, Dawn could not get good paying jobs or other customer service jobs without references from her supervisor or key work peers. She went through a series of meaningless temporary jobs. She was far to paranoid to accept full-time work with any of the companies she worked for. Her self-confidence had been seriously eroded. Actually it had been shattered. She felt like temporary work was the only safe environment because she did not have to get involved in the office politics of these workplaces.No matter how hard she tried, she could not bring herself to accept full-time permanent work and finally just stopped trying.

Although it had been some time since she left the company, she had a hard time sleeping at night. She was unable to connect with the people she worked with on her temporary jobs. Her relationship with her husband was still supportive; but Dawn had problems communicating her feelings with him. She would avoid intimacy with her husband and preferred her own company much of the time. Her friends could not understand why she did not call them or do girl things with them. Eventually, they stopped calling her. All of this brought Dawn to the window seat in her bedroom…

Silently crying Dawn took the handful of pills and popped them into her mouth. Washing them down with the wine, she continued to sit on the window seat, until her husband found her lifeless body when he came home from work. He held her in his arms and gently rocked her, as he dialed 911. He could not understand why all of this had happened without anyone coming to her aid. He could hear the sirens coming in the distance.

Dawn had been the victim of workplace bullying. It had begun five years earlier. The subtle problems continued to build until the day Dawn decided to stop the pain. If you are asking why she did not call an attorney and fight the action against her, it was most probably because no attorney would handle the case. In the week before she had made her decision, she had tried to hire one for the third time. Her first attempts were made in the first month following the decision she made to quit her job rather than sign the waiver. No one wanted to touch the case and told Dawn to just let it go. It would have been a long fight and Dawn was suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and was not psychologically ready for a long protracted fight in court. Dawn’s case is an example of the cost of workplace bullying and retaliation. There are more potential Dawns in the workforce, world-wide.

Bullying is not done exclusively in high schools. It has progressed to our colleges and universities. It has a slightly different name, it is called Workplace Bullying. No, it is not accepted as a legal issue where employees have access to processes to address their concerns. It may go on everyday in Washington state colleges and universities, often detected only by those employees who suffer Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, as a result of this behavior. It is the same condition battered women experience in domestic violence incidents.

 As Harriet Swain in Workplace Bullying, being bullied at work is often subtle but persistent. He states, most academics do not realize what is happening until their health suffers or they have gone through disciplinary procedures. Are academics protected by unions and/or institutional policies that advocate for a hostile free environment? The testimony by an Olympic College academic and or employee on January 17, 2012 before the senate (Olympia, WA) was quite revealing. The statement was made that there was no action taken on the complaint the employee made. I wonder if the unions protect academics or maybe just full-time academics? I have yet to find the answer to this.

In a blog, Bullying of Academics in High Education, the author writes, “…The bullying of academics follows a pattern of horrendous, Orwellian elimination rituals, often hidden from the public. Despite the anti-bullying policies (often  token), bullying is rife across campuses, and the victims (targets) often pay a heavy price. “Nothing strengthens authority as much as silence.” Leonardo da Vinci – “All that is necessary for evil to succeed is that good men [or good women] do nothing.” Winston Churchill.” If academics do not recognize bullying in their workplace, they most probably are blind to it in the classroom or in virtual classrooms. Even worse is the idea that student employees working for the college or university in question may see this behavior in their role models at their place of work.

In a scholarly article, Faculty Experiences with Bullying in Higher Education, written by Loraleigh Keashly & Joel H. Neuman, the authors state, if someone wants to harm a student, academic or other employee obstructive behavior is one of the many responses. By impeding access to training and resources they can effectively impede the progress of the academic or student. The article continues to say, workplace aggression (even subtle aggression), bullying and mobbing are part of the academic landscape and can hinder institutional goals. They urge the academics in institutions to continue their research in this area of study. I would like to hope anyone reading this blog seriously considers the strength of their conclusions.

In the blog spot called the Work Doctor, the authors write that colleges are bully prone institutions.”The strong egos of academics and scientists coupled with hierarchical opportunities to crush new colleagues as well as a general acceptance of mistreatment for non-academic staff are all to blame.” I encourage anyone working in academia to read this blog site and heed the message. Robert Sutton’s #^%@$%@# seem to abound in these institutions of higher learning according to the material on the internet and in books on the subject. I have to admit, I am a bit concerned and most probably should be. The bottom line reads the faint of heart need not apply.

In last week’s blog I was re-thinking my internship, job, teaching…and I suppose I could go on and on. This week I want to tell you what a senior lady, wearing a head of grey hair and a sparkling smile, said to me while I was at work. When she came to the front desk to get information, she was wearing rose-colored sunglasses and stated I might need to get a pair. I told her I did not wear them because I wanted to see clearly what was going on around me. She then pulled them down slightly and said, “I can see what’s going on in black and white, while looking out of those glasses simply by pulling them down slightly.”

I got to thinking about what this lady was saying to me and decided she made a lot of sense. Employees today have fewer and fewer rights in the workplace. For example your employer can restrict your right to speak about non-work related issues, while in the workplace. They have the right to monitor your telephone calls, emails and internet posts. Many companies give employees phones with GPS and this means they can track where you are even when you’re not at work.

In his book, Nineteen Eighty-four, George Orwell wrote about a society where individuality and reason where “thoughtcrimes.” Big Brother was constantly watching the citizens of this totalitarian society. The people of this society were “… subordinated to a collective greater good.” Many workplaces could be defined as places where employers believe subordinating their employees for the “greater collective good” helps preserve the reputation of the company and its profit line. At least these are some of the justifications and arguments employers have made for firing employees who “make waves” or try to right wrongs. The view from the bottom of a company is often quite different from the view from the top down. However, employees can find themselves without a job or promotion if they say or do something their supervisor disagrees with…because they are “thoughtcrimes.” You have not conformed to the company way of thinking.

Let’s examine another legal action employers have at their disposal…workplace bullying. What is it? There is no universal definition. In What is workplace bullying, Rick Brenner wrote, ”… workplace bullying is any aggressive behavior, associated with work, and primarily intended to cause physical or psychological harm to others.” Notice the word “intended,” it means mens rea or having a guilty mind. Simply stated it means the intent was to cause harm. I think much of this behavior is subtle and it would be very difficult to prove it was intentional. Herein lies the problem faced by many in the workforce.

A bullying supervisor may try to defeat you one incident at a time. In a blog entitled, “Subtle bullies use manipulation instead of physical threats,” Ben Leichtling wrote, “…they want to convince you resistance is futile.They want you to suck up, acknowledge their turf and become a willing lackey in their clique.” He continues to say, “…they feed on your hesitations, fears and codes of polite behavior to enhance their control.”  The author says “…subtle bullies use manipulation instead of physical threats… your standards, priorities and interpretations are less important than theirs.” In the end, you have no choice but to succumb, because bullying in the workplace is not illegal. You have committed a  “thoughtcrime,” if you disagree with their interpretation of the workplace. You must never forget to put those rose-colored glasses on. Pulling them down a bit to see what really is taking place is not allowed.

In a blog by Donald Christiansen in IEEE-USA Today’s Engineer, the author writes, “…most experienced engineers agree that having a good boss is one of the most important aspect of one’s job. Your boss can serve not only as a professional colleague, mentor and leader, but often as a shield from the whims of an oppressive bureaucracy.” Now the question is how do you find these people? How do you interview to find people who do not fit Stanford Professor Robert Sutton’s description of a “#%&$!*”, as described in this bestseller, the No Asshole Rule? Let’s watch this video from Professor Sutton talking about what inspired the book, Good Boss, Bad Boss:

January is coming in as a dark and gloomy month of rain and snow. The weather is turning colder and the daylight is almost non-existent. Many people become depressed at this time of year, I suppose I am one of them. I had a serious error of judgment at work and earned the disappointment I feel about myself. Now I am re-thinking what course I am on and what my next move should be.

It has become quite clear to me I occasionally have failures of good judgment when I am experiencing high stress levels. I certainly have had some this month. My worst critic will always be myself. I should have known better and wonder if I sabotaged myself on purpose.

I am seriously questioning whether I should ever teach anyone, much less continue in the work field. I wish I could just walk away from the whole thing. But, walking away from self-disappointments never really solves the underlying problem. More on this later in the blog.

In my last blog, I stated I was meeting with Michael Surkan. I did meet with Michael who was involved in setting up what he calls a “podcast show.” When he was unemployed from a local company, he realized his resumes and job applications were not getting him to the right people. He thought most likely they were being set aside in a pile of other applications and/or resumes, without being read. He tried to think of a way to talk to key people in various companies and their hiring managers that was unique and innovative. He came up with an idea to send out invitations to be on his podcast show. He set about using Linkedin to find relevant people or groups of people and to make the initial contacts with them. He emailed the people on this list and set up an interview appointment in Skype to post on the website he created for this purpose. He uses Skype as a tool for interviewing his guests and makes a podcast of the interview, which he later edits.

After the shows, he compliments and thanks the people he interviews and gives them public kudos for their participation. By doing this he has made contacts with many key business people and established his network of resources. Eventually he found employment at a techy company in Redmond. Since that time, he has given a presentation at the Mayor’s Office for Senior Citizens (MOSC). He has been a guest speaker in a class at Bellevue College. He uses two job connecting links that have generated interest from both groups: 1. Linkedin; and 2. Skype. In sum, to recap, he records the interviews on Skype and edits them before placing them on his website and gets his contacts from Linkedin. Apparently he has been quite successful.

At this point in time, I am hoping to complete my internship, get the modules built and manage a passing mark and five credits by the end of Winter quarter. I do not see how I would have the time or desire to use these search tools for finding and networking with potential employers. So at this time, I will not be using his application. If I did I would modify it a bit and work it into WordPress.

Having taken a good look at myself over the past day or two, I think that I need to focus on accomplishing my internship goals. At the moment, I do not think my prospects for being hired as an instructor are particularly good. But, I knew this before I took the project on. I have been extremely lucky as a student to have two top-notch people on my team: my coordinator of the internship Michael and my mentor Robin. I am certain by now Robin has seen my short comings and my strengths. She is the type of instructor that wants any project or student she “takes on” to succeed and goes that extra mile to give them the tools they need to do so. The very best characteristic Robin has, in my mind, is the fact that Robin knows how to relate to her students and knows how to get their best work from them! This I think is an art she has developed over years of teaching.

I think there are two things in life you cannot change, the company you work for (as a whole) and a male/female person who may be your intimate other.  However, students are changeable and are seeking to grow as people when they undertake a college experience. When I go back and read my earlier blogs, I see a lot of change. Yes, I get too personal in them as I try to sort out where I am at and where I want to go. I have made many mistakes and said far too much about some things I maybe should not have. However, I once had a supervisor tell me, “if you are not making mistakes, you are not doing anything.” How wise that statement was on her part.

My bottom line belief is students should be to allowed to make mistakes in a safe environment. If a potential employer reads my blogs and thinks because I have said some things he/she doesn’t want to hear or see in a potential employee, maybe that is not an employer I want to work for. I want to work for an employer who sees my strengths and wants to work on my weaknesses with me.

I want clear guidelines and to know what my supervisor’s expectations are in that job category. I don’t want them to assume I know what behaviors are okay and what  behaviors are not; what I am supposed to be doing or not, while on the clock. People from different cultures, ages groups and religions (etc.) have had different experiences and may not know what they can or cannot do in the workplace today or what is expected of them. The workplace is changing everyday with new rules and technologies. Clear guidelines are a must. Setting up common goals and an effective team to work together as a  unit is important as well. I want to know what I am supposed to be accomplishing along with my teammates. Finally, I want to have a supervisor I can sit down with and communicate with who wants to find solutions with me and who values me as a person with certain skills and a willingness to work problems out. I don’t want to feel like I am on the firing line and the guns are pointed at me. I don’t want to feel uncomfortable with my supervisor; and I would like to think he/she knows trust takes time. If you want me to trust you I need to see, feel and hear you are as good as your word. If I put my life in your hands will you protect me from harm as carefully as you would yourself and your children or loved ones?

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It has come and gone, the beginning of the first week of the quarter Winter, 2012. We served more students in a day than one would have thought possible at the Welcome and Information Center at Bellevue College. I came home each night exhausted! I have a video that helps you understand the behavior and mentality of today’s college students. Personally I love ’em! Wouldn’t it be nice if we could bottle all that energy?

It will be time this quarter to finish the hybrid course for Charlene. I have five modules completed and ready for her inspection. I have to work on my Haiku LMS entries and only have one module created so far. The last three weeks were spent on Christmas vacation and the preparation for the holidays, as well as focusing on learning my new job. The details are enough to make you think your taking Ph.d level graduate courses again! My brain was thoroughly drained by some of the chaos and confusion. All of this is beginning to clear, as I grow more proficient each day at work. If I did not enjoy the students, I probably would have given up this low paying job. The problem is, I absolutely enjoy working with them! They are like have many different copies of my own grandchildren.

By now everyone has read the article that made front page news on New Years Day. I read the comments on the article in the Seattle Times and had quite a few different reactions to the thinking of the contributors. All of them made me wonder why a course is not being offered in the Social Science division on New Ideas on Aging and Retirement. Our students today will need to make decisions they are not equipped to handle, as their parent age and decline. I have a course that I could develop quite easily; but so far, no real thought was given to my suggestions. I will keep working on trying to get a community college to offer a course like mine. I think it is timely and relevant.

Next week I will be meeting with a man named Michael Surkan who will be teaching me how to use “Podcasting” to help me in my search for teaching positions. I was given his blog address and name by the job counselor, Joan U., I work with at the MOSC, in Seattle. I am posting the address of the podcasting application for anyone who might be interested in this new way to network and reach out to potential employers and will enter another more informative blog on my experience with it: http://www.PracticalPodcasting.com. Michael’s blog address is:http://www.networkworld.com/community/blog/10190 . I may not agree with his political leanings or his comments on the blog but I like his ideas.

For now, I am entering the new quarter with quite a bit on my plate. My husband will be out of work on February 3 and we are updating all of his information. Given his capabilities, I cannot understand why Boeing has rejected every application he has sent them. Could it be they are discriminating? He has an excellent work record, no matter where he goes. He never missed one day of work in the past 2 years while working at Physio Controls in Redmond. Still they are not hiring and the company most likely is sold, again. Anyway, we will be treading water this quarter. He made more money in the past two years than he did in the five years prior to this UI claim and is making less unemployment benefits this time around. Go figure! They tell him it is because of the federal money being cut, yet his base-line is lower. My crap detector is working, I think! It is telling me something else is going on here.