Over the past few years, a number of women in my lab group have welcomed children to the world, the most recent being just a month ago. And, it got me to thinking just how much things have changed through the years regarding how pregnancy is viewed and especially how admin wants to spread theContinue reading “A tale of two kiddies”
Tag Archives: corona
Big blue boneheads
Another little administrative tidbit from today. I’m sure they meant well. I just wish that they also thought well while doing it sometimes … Apparently the university here in Not-Bielefeld has recently mandated that all new teaching staff have to take a one-hour, online “welcome workshop” within their first two months. Among other topics designedContinue reading “Big blue boneheads”
Discover the unfriendly skies
These are boom times for the airline industry and thank God too! After the recent corona pandemic scuttled any number of airline companies and forever left its mark on our meeting structures and travel habits, it was an open question whether or not the industry would ever recover or even be as relevant any longer.Continue reading “Discover the unfriendly skies”
AdminGPT
You know that it had to be done, right? With all the excitement, coverage, and concern about AI these days, I was simply curious if ChatGPT could do a better job at admin than real admin types could. (And by “better”, I mean better for us as the end users. After all, the real pointContinue reading “AdminGPT”
BCD 31.01.2023
When I first came up with the acronym BCD (bonehead comment of the day), I never realized that it would be so versatile. Or at least the C in it. Today, it again revolves not so much around a comment as it does a command. Yesterday evening, the University of Not-Bielefeld followed the provincial decreeContinue reading “BCD 31.01.2023”
Oh Canada …
Although I spend a good amount of time in this blog taking potshots at German admin, admin remains a universal constant like death or taxes. (Just more painful and permanent than either. That being said, German admin has found a way to bureaucratize death too …) And a recent trip to Canada proved just thatContinue reading “Oh Canada …”
BCD 01.09.2022
The latest bonehead comment of the day comes to you from Ryanair, with whom I flew with a couple times in the past few weeks. For those fortunate few not familiar with Ryanair, it’s basically an infomercial at 30.000 feet. The tickets tend to be dirt cheap, but then you have to pay for everythingContinue reading “BCD 01.09.2022”
Masking disappointment
Has anyone else noticed this? Although the corona pandemic actually remains in full swing (and, thanks to omicron, swinging higher in terms of numbers than ever before), most countries including Germany are quickly shedding most of their corona-related restrictions. For instance, the train station here in Not-Bielfeld recently removed the signs indicating which side ofContinue reading “Masking disappointment”
BCD 09.05.2022
Part of the University of Not-Bielefeld’s justification in opening up fully for teaching this semester was that the incidence of corona among students earlier this year was far lower than in Not Bielefeld generally, meaning that the University was neither a corona hotspot nor a spreader event. And, as part of its meticulously thought outContinue reading “BCD 09.05.2022”
BCD 07.04.2022
The perfect, unintentional one-liner that comes from putting style above substance: the English acronym of the University of Not Bielefeld’s swishy moniker to justify opening up for teaching, and which becomes especially relevant for the coming semester where we will be fully open despite continuing record numbers of infections in Germany, works out to RIP.
The Blog About Fog 