So, ok, this whole election results business. Bleah.
Michigan has an hiftoric first female governor, and that's good. More to the point, she's the first Democratic governor in forever. John keeps saying "there hasn't been a Democratic government here since I was ten!", which is true. And the evil proposals (i.e. "give tobacco taxes to big business, who promise to do something good with it really something good really really GIVE US YOUR DAMN MON-- oh, do excuse Frank, he's a little testy today") didn't pass, but the good ones (big bonds to improve water stuff) did. So that was ok here.
Other than that, though. I went over to CNN to see what was going on elsewhere, which was uniformly depressing. Republican northeast? What? Ew.
So I was reading some article on governorships and saw a link to a related story at the bottom of the page, like you do. It was titled something very much like "Bush plan continues to push for peace". WHAT I said. Not even with a question mark. Not even the Socratic "What?! Are you nuts?!" So I read it. It turned out to be some cursory AP wire about Israel and Palestine, which makes slightly more sense, and certainly explains such a headline, but still. Jesus Christ. That was almost totally misleading, and the only thing that provided the qualifier "almost" was the article itself.
In other news, we're having layoffs. This was in an email from the president's office so I should think it's pretty definite, although they did say "we're going to have a budget meeting and discuss", but still. It's going to be discussing how we can cut 3, 5, or 7%, not how we can save the damn jobs. I know how we can save the jobs: stop sending the higher-ups on pointless trips to Europe et al. It's a library; you do not need to go to Europe to buy books. Send away for the catalogs and we will buy them right here. But. Apparently they do.
The funny thing about this is that one working day after the layoffs email (which was, of course, sent Friday at 4:30), somebody or other felt the need to announce a happy little sharing our experiences session starring those librarians who did go to Europe, Asia, South America, and Africa. Way to show everyone in the library whose agenda actually matters.
Our supervisor came over this morning and said "you've probably heard the rumors..." Yes, since they aren't rumors, but emails from the president's office. Rumors, my ass. "We don't want to cut anyone." Sure. Well, I know my supervisor doesn't--we've just spent eight months trying to get all the positions in our division filled by actual, competent people--but the administration clearly feels otherwise. A couple weeks ago we had gotten a warning email, too. That one said that new policy, starting immediately and with no exceptions, would be to keep open positions open for six or nine months, depending on the job. This was because they had previously assumed they would have a set amount of open positions, and so they budgeted a set amount of salary money for other stuff. Then, when people actually were hired, they no longer had enough money. Great! Who budgets salaries for something else, while actively seeking to fill these empty positions? Obviously, the solution is to eliminate these needed positions, not to redo the budget into something reasonable.
Ok. I mean, my job is not in any immediate danger. I've been here longer than anyone in my division (which says something about turnover, i.e. people hate this job) so I don't really have to worry much. And I'm going to go off to PhD program at the earliest possible time anyway. Still. It makes me angry that a university library should be reduced to such ridiculous budgetary tactics under such obvious bad management. People are all "well, if you don't want to work in the business sector, work in education!" Well. I am working in education, and this still happens. Technically I am working for the government, yes, since it's a state school, but still.
I probably shouldn't post this, but fuck it.