Back to work at school. Breaking a half of two rules.

As of this past Thursday, I am once again a full-time employee of the College. In addition to the two courses I was already teaching, I'm now a programmer in the Computing Services department. My programming duties largely revolve around the College's installation of SCT Banner, an everything-including-the-kitchen-sink-and-all-other-sinks-too software package. Banner runs everything at the College, from student registrations, to payroll, to the bookstore's inventory.

In any case, by accepting this new job, I'm half-breaking my two prime employment rules:

1. Work for an organization's profit centre.
2. Nine-to-five is for suckers.

My half-time programming job half-breaks the first rule because the College is primarily an education institution. Its "profit" centre is instruction. Computing Services is an expense and, as such, a consistent target for cost-cutting. Nice folks, though.

My half-time programming job half-breaks the second rule by forcing me to be at my programmer's desk a designated seven-and-a-half hours, two-and-a-half times per week (I am clearly a halve and not a halve-not). No more 10am grocery store runs; no more mid-day dog walks. Now everything has to be done when everybody else is doing. Teaching does mean showing up for class at certain precise times through the week, but the rest of the job can be done anywhere, anytime.

On the plus side, my own desk does mean that I get to decorate with comic strips. The first one up is sudo sandwich.

Now that I am both faculty and staff -- and enrolled in a course, so a student too -- the folks in HR admit that the aforementioned Banner is incapable of calculating my holiday time. Good thing a couple of them sat in on the spreadsheet section of my Practical Computer Fluency course.