BITCH NIGGAZ

All the TAs for my class are upset because they believe that they are going to be overworked in two weeks. Not only does the professor we are TAing for require us to attend a 45 minute meeting with him before class once a week, which is pretty unorthodox, he wants us to schedule a 90 minute midterm review section for the students. On top of that, we will have 40 papers to grade in the span of three days, after which we will receive 40 midterms that he wants us to grade in one and a half days. It seems like this could lead to a breach of our contract, which says that we can only work 8 hours a day, 40 a week. This professor is notoriously an 'asshole' to his TAs. From what I have heard, he simply gets frustrated when TAs do not follow directions correctly. He is meticulous, deliberate. All the other TAs are afraid of him, which is absolutely idiotic. One of them simply said that he was going to try to grade the midterms in time and, if he didn't, he would just not give them back to the students. What people don't understand is that when you're fighting someone who is in a position to have more power over you, there is no way for you to have this struggle outside of the power's framework. There can be no action that arises out of this context of power that sets certain guidelines. In other words, if you don't turn the papers in on time, you will end up looking like the asshole. What you can do, instead of complaining and bitching and fucking around, is to talk to the union administrator and help him/her get a better contract for TAs OR set specific limits with the professor as the course is starting out as to how long you should take to grade each paper, etc. People underestimate the power of accuracy and diligence, and I'm sick of unproductive discussions with fellow workers that just end up in a huge bitch fest.