With everything that has been going on and the reality that the end my indeed be near, some instructors are just trying to hang on until the end of the DOE’s 6 month timeline to sale. Sometimes it is difficult when your boss is a bully. When you think of a company nearing the end and instructors dropping like flies, you would think that the company and your boss would try to boost your morale. Nope, the bullying continues all the way through to the end. In the Online Division (particularly computers), the online instructors are constantly harassed and bullied each day by their boss for the smallest insignificant things that have absolutely nothing to do with teaching. Is this going on in other departments online? No way! The sad thing is that, we are not sure that management is aware of the constant bullying and abuse. Maybe they do not even care. If management were to take a look at some of the deans and program directors’ attrition rates for their instructors, they will see that there is a bigger problem than just retaining students. They also have a problem with instructor attrition. When there are instructors leaving in the middle of the term and abandoning classes, there is a problem.
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I used to be full time and he was rude and awful. I found another job and quit because I could not take it any more. The boss I had before him was great and then our group was moved and we had to report to him. We used to have to attend meetings with him and he used to say things like 'there's a new sheriff in town' and 'people better do what I say because I am the PD and I said so". He constantly threatened our jobs as if he had some real type of power. I could not understand how an English major could be a PD for computers anyway. I have since left and do not miss it for one moment. I did have to hang in there for a while until I found another job but it sounds like things did not get better. Good riddance.
The OP must be talking about Richard. Where did they find this guy? Micromanagement is an understatement. He schedules instructors for classes according the "the alphabet". The farther your name is down the alphabet, the lest likely you will be to get a course or you will get a small amount of courses. Many of the instructors are miserable under his reign. He is self absorbed and narcissistic. He sends emails all day. Prior to working from him, I may have received a total of 3-5 emails per term from the Associate Dean. With him, there are more than 5 sent per day. He has his program leads call instructors on Skype during their office hours to prove that they are actually available during the office hours. You cannot come up for air. He has his program leads check our classes every week and report to him anything we missed. I am not used to this level of micromanagement. Don't forget to use the student's name when giving your feedback. Don't let two days pass without posting in the discussion forum. If things are not done exactly his way. It is a problem. There is no room for individuality. Not to mention some of his procedures are not consistent with the school's procedures. Don't forget to do welcome calls. If each class has 32 students, that's a lot of phone calls. Not to mention, what are we welcoming them to? From the time I started Kindergarten all the way thought my Doctorate program, not a single teacher ever called to welcome me to class.
The online computers dean Carlton Lawrence is busy with his outside full time job. He could care less about the harrassment by the PDs, particularly Richard Tramontana and crew of nasty PLs. We no longer teach. We are bombarded with outreach duties and bullied if we don't do enough. In fact he targets those instructors with high attrition and low outreach and has performance improvement plans for them. Since when is attrition our problem? Get us real students that can read, write, and serious about their education than these f'n idiots that are only interested in collecting a stipend to supplement their welfare.
I also work online and my PD is absolutely rude and obnoxious. He toots his own horn like he is the best thing smoking. It is hard to focus on work when receiving 7 emails a day from him alone, and then you get a repeat of the same ones form the PL. In one week I had 30+ emails in my inbox just from him. I wish I could just block all of his emails and focus on teaching for these last few months or until CCI runs out of cash.
Of course they treat us like shit. They argue with us because they cannot do what we do.
Corporate is trained to protect corporate. The bosses are given a bonus based on attrition and expenses.
They are trained to blame but they are the ones with moral issues and not sleeping at night.
Everyone. Let's not forget the future of CCI is nill.
978, apparently some Tina chick. First, not everyone will quit. Second, who cares? If you are unwilling to do anything about it and dislike it, put on your big girl pants and quit. You can't just come here and bitch and act as if there's no solution. I offered one. Quit. (Btw, I'm not named Tina. I'm an online instructor. I would quit.)
979, I hereby recommend you for the position of Chief Academic Officer. Seriously, I don't care what your background is. Do you think you can take down the cadre of slackers and profit whores who put us where we are?
The key to increasing student retention is to get real students. The key to increase instructor retention is to let them teach (and in some cases get real instructors). The problem is that the students are not students and the instructors are not instructors. They are paid baby sitters. There’s no time to instruct because the time is spent on skype calls and record keeping in this antiquated system called Talisma.
If the entire team quits then who will service the students? There have already been more than 20 that quit in the past 5 months (and counting).
Thanks for the advice, Tina
Quit
Contact Gary Namie at the Workplace Bullying Institute. He has some bandwidth and some resources. And definitely report the abuse to HR - even though they are a joke and won't act, your record will be in your sent mail file and you will have a copy.