After teaching in person for more than a year during the pandemic,

[Ms. Toad]

It looks like my first day of teaching regular classes this year may be remote.

I taught the introductory class to 120 students August 7-15 (mandatory course for new students - 24 hours of contact per student). Two confirmed cases - one faculty member who thought she had a cold (she stayed home and taught by zoom). One student thought he was too special to wear a mask, so he only did when we were standing over him demanding it. I spent a good part of Friday last week and the weekend helping with contact tracing (and making sure the two contacts we could identify knew they had to respond to the contact tracer before their class this morning). Got them cleared. Minor victory. But there will be more - he spent over an hour over the lunch hour unmasked, in close contact indoors with his soon-to-be classmates. Since I was outside (I won't eat inside). I don't know who those others are. In his report he insisted the room was socially distanced (it wasn't) and that he wasn't in close contact with anyone for more than 15 minutes (try 6 hours). He's not responding to calls from the contact tracers.

Fortunately, I dodged the bullet on that one. My employee taught in his room, and was negative at 5 days - by today or tomorrow she should be cleared entirely. Her contact was entirely masked (at least she was always masked), and generally from a distance of 20' or more. So the risk was purely 6 hours of his exhaling through his mask into the room they were both in.

But I spent the weekend playing mask police for a group of people who have decided they are too special to have to wear masks. (About 30 in the building, fewer than half wearing masks.) Masks are required, and this group had been told repeatedly in the prior week to get their masks on - but they were receiving contrary messages from community volunteers and the faculty sponsor who told them that even though they were required, they didn't really have to wear them.

I was exhausted and angry on Saturday after playing mask police - when I arrived at an outdoor event that somehow morphed into an indoor event and discovered my niece (whose husband is two days into COVID) hanging out indoors without a mask - where my spouse was also hanging out, unmasked.

So - I was rewarded this morning, two hours after I arrived, with notice that one of the students in that "too special" group, the one with whom I'd had the most contact, was very very ill with COVID. I have since learned that she was about to lose her job for refusing to get a COVID vaccine.

So now I'm home. Technically I am not required to isolate because I'm vaccinated. But given how infectious the delta variant is, and given that I will be every bit as infectious as this "too special" person gave it to me, I may teach from home this week. Since I don't want to act as though I'm "too special," and pass the joy of waiting for negative tests (or worse) on to others. On the other hand, home isn't really a safe place for me - given my spouse's inability to keep her mask on.

I've got both a rapid test (Wednesday - the day I teach 3 classes) and a PCR (Thursday) scheduled. I'll decide on Wednesday whether to go in or not.

So I'm super pissed. An early medical retirement is sounding pretty good right now.

[spooky3]

1. Yikes! I hope you get good negative test results and take retirement if

You can.

[Ms. Toad]

2. I turn 65 in 34 days.

I'm a cheapskate, so I've got enough money to retire. I had hoped to stick it out until 72 when I have the maximum years in the state teacher's retirement system.

I've got an aggressive cancer (acquired during COVID - 50% survival at 5 years). It is behaving itself now, but if it returns or metastasizes, I'll be retiring early.

The lack of support for enforcing masking rules, on the other hand, is making me perpetually angry - which is definitely not healthy.

If there are rules, I'm entitled to rely on them. Until it was overruled by higher up folks, faculty was told that enforcing universal masking was a matter of "academic freedom." (The guidelines that came out after the faculty meeting made it clear that after following a half-dozen steps, we are to call campus police to have them escorted off the premises.) The dean and I are going to have a heart to heart tomorrow about whether we are going to get more consistency in enforcing the rules.

[spooky3]

3. I hope the dean listens and acts. I've found as I've aged I have less

And less patience for workplace BS—especially if it puts people at risk!

[Ms. Toad]

4. That's where I'm at now.

Not just in the workplace, but anywhere as to COVID.

I lit into one of my summer students who was wearing a shield rather than a mask. His initial response was to make a reference to us being from opposite ends of the policial spectrum. Wrong thing to say to me about COVID safety. I am done tolerating anyone (right or left) justifying unsafe behavior for any reason other than cold, hard, science.

So he followed up his remark by telling me he couldn't wear a mask due to skin cancer on his nose . . . which also didn't go over well since he was out walking in the sun on a zoom call with me a couple of weeks ago with no hat on.

[tblue37]

5. I have had a cancerous lesion removed from my nose, yet I wear a mask.

[Ms. Toad]

6. It's total BS.

But he said his doctor agreed. I told him to take it to the office of accommodations - they are the only ones able to grant an accommodation to wear a shield instead of a mask. His doctor would not only have to agree, but have to justify it to the office of accommodations. They are not inclined to put others' health at risk in order to accommodate a largely political position. Within a week of issuing the mask mandate they were already coming down hard on fakers.

He's been wearing a mask since then . . . so maybe he knows it's bogus.

[Hekate]

7. 34 days, eh? Tick tick tick. Speaking as a long-ago Personnel worker, how many days of ...

… of vacation and sick leave do you have accrued? And can you cut a deal with whatever passes for human resources or labor relations to have those rolled out as paid time and time toward retirement after your physical last day at work? You might increase the length of time you can receive health benefits from them by doing that.

Oh, and is that 34 days on the job or 34 calendar days from now?

Say you have a whole 2 weeks of vacation or PTO (personal time off) — can you just go ahead and work another 20 days and then use vacation time for the rest?

I’m absolutely serious. My husband and I talked a friend into retiring earlier than she had planned after her employer saddled her with 2 extra units of employees to supervise, while they reduced their payroll by attrition. Her boss, a beloved friend, retired from all the stress and dropped dead within a couple of weeks. They added his job to hers, and she was buckling.

Ah, if you are eligible for Social Security (California’s teacher’s union opted out of SS) take it on the first available day. Yeah, I know you’ll receive less — but the fact is, that is your money and you can do whatever you want with it, even put in the bank if you have no immediate use for it, being otherwise prepared.

Sorry if I overstepped — you were probably just letting off steam. But I will tell you, my friend got a lot easier in her mind, and more than a decade on, she’s still alive.

All the best.

[Ms. Toad]

11. I could almost walk out today.

I forfeit vacation days every year since I never have time to use them. I've got more than whatever I'm allowed to carry over since they just granted us a 1-year extension to use them. (Just checked - I have 56 days.) I'd have to come back a bit, since you have to work the last day or two before you leave (my former boss left in a huff, so I know the routine).

It is nice having the economic freedom to just walk. (My younger brother retired last year on his 60th birthday - he just decided his job wasn't fun anymore.) When I took this job I made a 5 year commitment (that's what it took to make it economically feasible - I have a defined benefit plan and the 5 years replaced public school 1980s teaching pay with current salary at the university as the base for the annual income). I've been here 8 years. So my base salary is replaced and I only give up 1.5%/year for every year I leave before I hit 30 years in the system. I've got 7 more to go.

It's a balancing act as to whether I stay. Right now I'm teetering closer to leaving. Thursday (the academic freedom to allow students to remain in the classroom unmasked day) and Saturday (the folks who are "too special" to have to wear masks, one of whom turned out to be actively avoiding vaccination and exposed me) were the closest I've come to just resigning. It will depend on the response I get tomorrow, and on how the adminstrative team decides to handle the students, faculty, and community volunteers who are making life riskier than I'm comfortable with.

But - when I can shut out the politics - it's the best job I've ever had. Just today three students thanked me for the assistance I've given them, and that number is not uncommon. What I do makes a difference. Not all of them appreciate it - but at least half of every class does. So they make it hard to walk away.

[Hekate]

13. You are the finest kind of teacher

One year my husband got so frustrated with the community college he taught at — well, never mind — and by chance I was sorting thru some papers and found a stack of forgotten Christmas cards from his students. This was typical: “I was so frightened of (the subject) when I came to your class, and you were so kind. Over the semester it all came clear to me — I will never forget you.” I took that batch and made him read them.

[Ms. Toad]

14. It is such a delight to be able to help students like that.

I can tell they appreciate it even if they don't say it (I typically have a dozen hanging out with me every Saturday morning, when none of us has to be there). That so many take the time to let me know is something I've never experienced in any other job. I hate the thought of no longer providing that kind of help.

[Hekate]

16. That is one of the saddest features of a national health emergency being politicized.

[MLAA]

8. Ms Toad, I hope you tell the school to jump in a lake and take your retirement

and start to fill your days with all the things you enjoy and leave the company of idiots, assholes and ‘too specials’!

[Ms. Toad]

9. Unfortunatley it isn't quite that simple.

Here is the real reason I hang around:



Its a fraction of my wall-o-thanks (and a thank-you flower). Those who make my life miserable (faculty, staff, and students) really can go jump in the lake. But the students who send me these make it the best job I've ever had. It's an odd tug-of-war to see which side will win in the end.

[MLAA]

10. Got it, I'll just cheer that you do whatever is best for you 💗

That is a wonderful wall!

[leftstreet]

12. Sorry this is happening

I suspect your dilemma is worse because you seem to genuinely enjoy teaching, sharing knowledge, etc. You've been a must-read member at DU for all things Covid related and I've learned a lot.

Hang in there

[Ms. Toad]

15. You've hit the nail on the head.

I do love working with these students.

(And thanks!)

[orleans]

17. dealing with all that sounds overwhelming

at least it would be for me

you're in a fortunate position regarding retirement possibilities. if i was in your circumstance i'd fucking retire as soon as possible.

between the rules not being enforced, the students fucking around, your niece unmasked around your spouse unmasked... omg! what next?

so my advice? (not that you asked) give yourself a break. take time for yourself. enjoy yourself, do something else you like and you've wanted to do without having to put yourself in harms way and constantly fighting this covid bullshit battle with assholes. take care of yourself. be kind to yourself.

wishing you all the best--whichever path you decide to take.

[Ms. Toad]

18. Thanks!

It is exhausting. Right now I'm not too exhausted to shift from anger to depression, but I'm not far away.

[orleans]

19. gee--anger or depression... anger or depression... neither one sounds like a good option

weigh your other options -- (you said you have about two months of sick days--those might help to destress you and allow you to figure things out and what to do to make you happy)

[ProfessorGAC]

20. Well, That's A Drag!

Hoping your test turns out negative.
Things are a little different here.
Masks are mandatory, to the point that funding is at risk for districts that do NOT comply. (The opposite of Florida)
One private school made noise about going mask optional. The state countered that they'd pull accreditation, so those graduating seniors would not have a valid diploma. The next day, the school pivoted and announced they would fully comply with the mask mandate for schools.
The exceptions for those "special" people don't seem to exist in the districts around here.
Hang in there!

[Ms. Toad]

21. Masks are mandatory here, too.

The issue is compliance and enforcement.

That's what makes me so angry. I tend to adjust my expectations to what the rules are. The university decided to make masks mandatory. There are a few individuals who aren't complying (both among faculty and students), but one identifiable group that seems to believe they are exempt.

I have told them (both faculty sponsors and members of the group, as have other administration and staff) repeatedly to put their masks on. By and large, they comply. But the next time i see them, their masks are off.

I think I'm gong to start carrying around my camera and taking photos, so I have documentation and a means to identify individuals. (Especially since we were hybrid last year, that those who met in person wore masks, identification is an issue. The university provides for progressive discipline up to and including expulsion.

[ProfessorGAC]

22. Taking Photos Seems A Good Plan!

I haven't encountered such laxity, but if I do, I think I'll steal that idea!

[Ms. Toad]

23. In theory there is progressive discipline

for both employees and students.

In practice, they've had 3 weeks and not a single case reported to the student discipline office. I've had up to a half-dozen conversation with a handful of students. So my camera is ready for this weekend.

[ProfessorGAC]

24. Good For You!

Enforcement has to start on the ground floor!
If I find myself in this situation, I'll follow your lead & do the same.