Interlude: Knowing Your Intended Users 2

This event happened a little on the period before the summer period started.

A somewhat familiar but somehow I can’t place female person comes to my room. As I was being always called on at the time I assumed student and by the looks, a GS student (Graduate School student).

She introduces herself as a GS students, from the first spoken words, a hint of sarcasm. Or was it self-importance? I couldn’t tell the difference.

She tells me she has been to my office before and I was not there. It was a busy week everybody calls up to check on something, I am inclined to respond and I’m going to where they want me offices to fix and discuss and etc. I couldn’t tell her that of course. Did I mention she was sarcastic sort of mataray?

I ask how can I help her. She proceeded with straight barrage of sarcasm and perhaps annoyance that she’s from work and she has to come back to my office to enrol in something, why has she not been told about this…

[Cutscene: DevilMe and AngelMe says in unison: "Who the **ll are you?", Me: Switching to: No Reaction Mode]

… why were there no announcements …

[Cutscene: AngelMe: but there were! Do you want individualized pamphlets ? I'm sorry most of the money we have went to buying the most important parts...so we used billboards and the UP website to announce, cheaper and not waste much paper...]

… she has to come from name-of-place … why they did not tell her that today was half-day working day, she should have gone home instead, she talking about all of us being busy [ and I'm not?]

[Cutscene: DevilMe: You don't have friends to tell you? No friends at all? Do I not look busy to you? Oh gosh. ]

[Cutscene: Me: I was reopening the program I used to enroll the previous student who came to my office, I already am in the part where I can put here in the intended classlist ]

…she has toblah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah…

[Cutscene: DevilMe, AngelMe in unison: blah blah blah blah blah blah blah with matching hand puppet movement]

…blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah…..

[Cutscene: Me : ..I stopped clicking, typing, moved the mouse cursor to the 'X' button]

In one of her pauses I spoke, that there were announcements made in college boards and website and we were to use this a year ago if not for the storm and that rumors about it, which we have depended upon, has spread since then.

Me : “…I don’t know what the prerequisites are to your intended course, I don’t have your student record (which was true), maybe you need to get a COI from your Instructor first”.

Graduate students are given a special consideration you see, they can enroll in any graduate level course, it’s their responsibility to follow their own plan of coursework which they constantly change to follow their needs [but this has changed now, the GS now gives me their recommended courses based on their current plan].

And so I proceeded to click on the ‘X’ button of the program that I used to enroll another GS student in the same course she is to enroll in not 20 minutes ago. Buh bye. I was about to backup the database anyway when she appeared, I was to have my late lunch again also.

She stops talking and leave. Smirk on my face. Sorry, you made yourself not likeable. I am not paid enough, not that I am asking to be paid, to be your emotional dumping ground. Oh wait, with the programming, developing, fixing, maintaining, clerking, enlisting that I do? The a little increase to my low salary does not cover those in the “assissting” description. Maybe you want to get enlisted by somebody else? Oh no wait, the OUR is too busy with the graduation now, there is only me left to handle the summer registration. Isn’t that a bit unfortunate?

I throw my own frustrations away and get back to work. I just ordered takeout, which I discovered later, I did not eat.

She came back some days later, I enrolled her this time. She apologized for her behaviour the previous encounter. I just said Ok. A little mustered smile.

If you were this student, let’s imagine us trading places. That’s how you felt, this is how I felt.

Oh yes there were other encounter including me being blamed for not offering enough slots, for me NOT updating the site because someone is “WAITLISTED” and she expects to have slots after, me for the site being down [because there was a blackout inside UP], and the whole lot. I’d say this encounter was the most unique.