It wasn’t what she expected. One of our administrative assistants simply explained what it was like to work full-time, making barely ten bucks an ho

We Can’t Keep Going Like This

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2021-06-22 02:00:05

It wasn’t what she expected. One of our administrative assistants simply explained what it was like to work full-time, making barely ten bucks an hour. She walked right into the provost’s office, catching him off guard. He listened patiently for a few minutes and then launched into this whole bit about how he “knew what it was like” to “feel like you don’t have enough money,” but “there’s nothing I can do.”

That’s when she interrupted him. She said he couldn’t possibly understand what it was like, because he’d been working in administration for decades now, making well above $100,000 a year.

His little tricks weren’t going to work this time. No, this time she was going to explain the facts. She couldn’t afford groceries. She’d fallen and fractured her wrist last year. The ER doctor had recommended surgery, but she couldn’t afford it, so it just healed “however it was going to.” She’d lost partial function in that hand now. She couldn’t afford to go to the dentist. She couldn’t afford to fix her car, or her appliances. Her life was one hula-hoop of bills and debt, and more bills.

How did the provost respond? He decided to file a disciplinary action report on her, for being disruptive. That’s how much he truly understood what she was going through. That’s how much he cared.