Paul, Here is another, but less desirable option with your manager person; Document your requests very well in many places, with many people, then wait until something does go south. When it does, cry bloody murder – off with his head! Anything you can, to make a BIG stink about it. My experience with people like this is that you have to play the game better than they do and make sure they WILL lose! Like I said, it’s not the best option… but it may be the only one you may be left with. Good luck. Jim Busby From: caut-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:caut-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of Paul T Williams Sent: Monday, December 01, 2008 5:23 PM To: caut at ptg.org Subject: Re: [CAUT] What to do??? I did ask Richard, He was able to just call and ask the steam to get turned on or off.. It is our "beyond micro-manager" of a director who takes it upon himself to run the show himself rather than have the ones who know how to do it ...to do it. I have many other stories to tell off line if you want to know. So, going through the hoops today, nothing was done, my shop is now 80 degrees, no humidity and the heat is rising, (now including me!!) I am supposed to be in charge of the 110 instruments here, AND maintaining the humidity..whether too much or too little. The harpsichords and forte pianos were unplayable today!! I'll ask Richard again if he had an "in" with the facilities manager. the rest of the building is at 70, but something is wrong with my room temp control. Nobody gives a @#$%^!!! If it's still this hot tomorrow morning when I come in, I think I'll take a sick day...never done it in 3 years, so I'm worth that much, I guess. No piano will get tuned until this is figured out...I'll just do concert tunings and fix stuff. i already sent the faculty the news on this and told them to "hang on" until the steam is turned on unless there's an emergency. The practice rooms are an embarassment to my tuning capabilities!!!!! And, since I'm responsible for the well-being of these pianos...who's going to look bad???? Certainly not the Director! He's doing a great deed in saving money! What a load of crap! Paul "Crane, Alan" <alan.crane at wichita.edu> Sent by: caut-bounces at ptg.org 12/01/2008 05:47 PM Please respond to caut at ptg.org To "caut at ptg.org" <caut at ptg.org> cc Subject Re: [CAUT] What to do??? Hi Paul, Welcome to the club! Its that season here in Wichita too… My shop in the music building is at 22% RH and 73 degrees F… 35 degrees & falling outside… no heat on at all (steam lines run right under my floor!). Its not too surprising to hear the response to your scatter-gun approach to the problem (ask me how I know… ☹ The best thing I can do for my administrator is to make him/her look good and make their job easy (and, in a very real sense, that’s part of my job since it pays such huge dividends in every area of my work here). I would take issue, however, with the assertion that one has to “go through the channels of authority to get anything done in "such a large university.” That’s an approach to take if you want people to do something because of who *you* are… and its notoriously inefficient and unreliable. A better strategy might well be to make friends with the people (plural) who actually control the humidity levels in the building(s)… take an interest in what they do and let them know how important they are to you and the work you do. This takes time and sincerity but can be well worth it in the long run. You may find out that they’re doing the best they can for you already (they may even be bending over backwards to try to help… you never know). You may find that they know a thing or two about how best to address the situation given the less-than-ideal state of equipment and buildings. They may be as frustrated in their area of expertise as you are in yours. Its often much (!) easier to get people to do things because of who *they* are (to you) than because of who you (or the people you know) are. The other side of this coin is that its probably not in your job description to control and maintain the relative humidity in the building(s). You can indeed just do the best you can with what the university gives you, especially given the apparently substantial body of evidence that you’ve tried to address the situation and have presented its pros & cons to your administrator(s). Your question, “How come Richard was able to just get the steam turned on?” is a good one. If I were you, I’d ask him. Best of luck with this, Paul. Let us know what ends up working for you (I’d like to try it here at WSU!). ☺ Regards, Alan B. Crane, RPT School of Music Wichita State University alan.crane at wichita.edu From: caut-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:caut-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of Paul T Williams Sent: Monday, December 01, 2008 4:52 PM To: caut at ptg.org Subject: [CAUT] What to do??? Hi all! I always appreciate your input. Here's a new twist... Our building is currently dangerously dry… -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/caut_ptg.org/attachments/20081201/35394148/attachment-0001.html>
This PTG archive page provided courtesy of Moy Piano Service, LLC