This is just ridiculous.

[seventhe]

I have finally finished Part L of a lab report - basically a macrolab, which was made up of microlabs A-L. Each microlab had its own microreport, consisting of 2-5 questions, sometimes with multiple parts. I have probably already answered 60 questions and that's not including the ones I skipped because I couldn't easily find the information online or in a textbook.

14 pages, 3162 words.

This is ONE of the TWO reports that are due on Friday. We did two labs: one was this big macrolab and one was another "small" lab which didn't take too long but still requires its own report.

I spent almost all weekend working on this lab, minus one planned disruption for the Super Bowl and one unplanned thing that happened Saturday night. I actually took vacation today to work on the report.

I have absolutely no idea how I'm going to finish before Friday. I see now what they meant by "full time class load." The other students have 6 days a week to write these. I have 2, if I don't fuck up and spend time on things that aren't lab.

My options are basically miss more work or miss more sleep. :/

Oh, and I'm sick. I have a sore throat and no voice, and the sniffles.


I really don't know how I'm going to do this.

Comments

[novel_machinist]

Yeah... yeah... YEAH... :<

[renay]

Please don't miss sleep. Can you not talk to your boss about this at all? :/

[seventhe]

I did, and he said it was ok to take vacation, but... that's what I did today. I took the entire day, 10 hours. If I have to take more than that every week, I'm going to burn through all my vacation just trying to stay alive this semester. And I'll do that, I guess, but it means I then have nothing to look forward to after this class is over.

I thought about trying to ask for unpaid time off, but they just last year started a program where you can "buy" vacation (aka take unpaid time), and I already did that this year. I'm at my max. I'm not sure they'll be able to make an exception and let me buy more.

If next week's lab is like this, though, I'm going to have to sit down with my boss and try to figure something out. Maybe they can call it a sabbatical or something.

[renay]

I guess I just feel like they should be compensating you or helping you more without you having to take hits (like the buying time thing) for getting the degree somehow, since it will directly benefit them when you have it. It's so frustrating. :(

[seventhe]

Yeah, I kind of agree. I haven't asked for this kind of help in any of my other semesters, either, all 3+ years I've been doing this, so maybe they can pull something out of their asses just for me. I don't even know. FFFFFFF

[renay]

They should pull something out of somewhere, that's for sure. I just! I don't want you to get so very sick again because of overwork. Why in the world is that class set up like that? That's impossible for nontraditional students. BUT I FEEL LIKE WE'VE COME FULL CIRCLE. :|

[seventhe]

I KNOW RIGHT. The prof at least knows that I work full time, but that doesn't exactly translate into more time or better deadlines or whatever. She did let me skip running an IR machine because I already knew how to operate one from work, and she slid me a printout of her spectra instead, which saved me like... 20 min lol. Which is something, but just not enough.

IF THIS IS IMPOSSIBLE FOR A PART-TIMER TO DO WHY DID YOU LET ME IN THE CLASS.

[lassarina]

Uuuuuugh :( :( :( :(

[owlmoose]

I very much agree with Nay. Your work benefits when you finish this degree, and it's really not in their best interest for you to make yourself sick, or fail the course, or both. I think you need to have that sit down with your boss and see what he can do. A part-time sabbatical, especially, seems like something that ought to be realistic.

Good luck and much sympathy. :\

[seventhe]

Yeah, I think next week when I am caught up (hopefully!), not sick and not stressed, I'm going to see if there's anything else they can do for me. I don't really know how sabbaticals would work, if I could take it in small increments or if it's only "X weeks off at a time" type thing. But it's worth asking about. If nothing else it makes them aware of what's going on. If they'd rather I take 2 dozen sick days, so be it. :/

[jennyclarinet.livejournal.com]

Eek. If it was me who got you sick, I'm so sorry! When I went home on Saturday night, I had a fever of 100.9, and I had been in your house. I was in such denial about being sick.

Feel better!

[yi-sen.livejournal.com]

You're going to do this because YOU'RE THE GODDAMN SEV. Time to put on your superhero outfit, fight and win.

Got your back, and a case of Lambic, come May.

[sargent-snarky.livejournal.com]

:(

This class seems ridiculous. And if you're sick, then you probably shouldn't miss more sleep. Have you talked to your boss to see if maybe you could work out a somewhat lighter work load for the duration of this semester?

But I think you'll be able to manage somehow. After all - you have kitties helping you! :|
But in all seriousness, I really, really hope that either most of the labs wind up being not quite as absurd as this week's or that you can work something out with your boss so that you can manage everything and still get sleep, so you don't wreck your health.