#Careerism

[luxe-pauvre]

My first memory of really snapping out of my low-functioning state of distaste with the New York careerism that I’d failed at but still grudgingly admired was when my husband mentioned offhand that his roommate had begun, uncharacteristically, to read a book of Bukowski’s poetry that had been left lying around the apartment. “A lot of my friends have suddenly started to read a lot more and become interested in new things,” he said thoughtfully. Many of his friends were musicians and artists and from what I gathered not particularly engaged with much reading outside their comfort zone. “I think we’ve all started to realize…we’re in our thirties, our arts careers are what they are, and this life is what it is. Now is as good a time as any to commit to something.” What he was describing was a slow and perhaps unconscious understanding that “success” meant only so much, and that its meaning would do well to become more flexible as we approached middle age. We all wanted to be high-functioning and successful, and we all wanted to create a society where that would not be as hard as it is now, but this life was what it was; our jobs might be somewhat unfulfilling, but this did not mean that all work had to be, or that we couldn’t enjoy ourselves anyway. Our hours had to be filled with something else besides idealism about a world where fulfillment would be possible only in the future.

Apoorva Tadepalli, Careerism

[biggest-gaudiest-patronuses]

it's healthy for academics to have professional feuds. enrichment activity

[great-and-small]

Apparently the local university’s undergraduate entomology course sends students to catch insect specimens at the same place I like to go birdwatching, which explains why I saw three enormous frat looking dudes with tiny bug nets and overheard one emphatically say “bro BRO I told you we already have enough lepidopterans”

[notbecauseofvictories]

A customer contacted our team with questions, and then finished their email with: "I am daunted by the complexities and unknowns." I haven't been able to stop thinking about it since.

[stealingpotatoes]

i love comparing the fake stories that each twin was told

(commission info // tip jar!)

[freddiecorleone]

I don't care how gay the wicked movie is or whatever this site can't gaslight me into taking ariana grande seriously all of a sudden

[immaculatasknight]

Zionist revolving door

[sublimeobservationarcade]

Careerism: Self-Interest’s Acceptable Public Face

Western democracies spruik their hopefully meritocratic qualities. The belief that through hard work and talent you can reach the upper echelons of your profession or work place. Careerism: Self-interest’s acceptable public face exists on this basis. Striving for success in any field is encouraged and culturally rewarded. Many bemoan the ever present dangers of nepotism and cronyism within our societies and nations. The elite private schools and old boy’s networks which operate in counter to any ideas of equal opportunity and fairness. Those of us with any pragmatic awareness of how the job market actually works know that it is largely driven by who you know and not what you know. This makes a mockery of any meritocratic ideals believed to be operating within Western democracies.

Privilege The Pathway To Careerism

In the United States of America, the world’s democratic superpower, the top 1% outnumber the rest of the population in their presence at Ivy League universities. Prestige and influence are bought by wealth and legacy policies governing who gets in and who doesn’t. Privilege does everything in its power to ensure that passes down to future generations. Similar behaviours and trends occur in other Western democracies like Australia. Witness the rise in the number of private schools and the increase in the number of Australians attending them. “Private school enrolments have soared for the third straight year as parents leave the public system in record numbers in favour of independent or Catholic schools. The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) has released new data for 2023 that shows the trend to private schools is growing even as interest rate rises and cost of living pressure eat into budgets. Across primary and high school, private school enrolments (Catholic and independent) grew by 2.5 per cent. Meanwhile, public schools grew by just 0.3 per cent, a small improvement from last year when public school enrolments actually fell.” - (https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-02-14/public-school-private-school-shift-continues-cost-of-living/103465026) Wealthy nations like Australia have good public schools but the narrative spruiked by elitism is that these are not good enough. Segregation around wealth, which puts all the kids from wealthier households together and strips them out of the state school system creates class divisions. It, also, damages the standards of the public schools by taking many of the best students with existing advantages from birth out of these schools. Leaving behind those kids with more challenges, like poverty and being from migrant backgrounds. Photo by Lubomir Satko on Pexels.com

Buying Career Opportunities For Their Kids

The expectation upon kids from wealthier families who have purchased private education is much higher. Careerism is more clearly defined here at earlier ages. The old doctor, lawyer or accountant thing remains true to this day. Although, it may include engineer and other computer related professions on the modern day wish list. Parents want the best for their kids and are willing to devote big chunks of their income and wealth to achieve that. The Societal Perils Of Careerism’s Impact Careerism is a problem for us on a societal level, however. The narrow focus on self-interest does not serve the community well in most instances. So, mummy and daddy may well be happy that their offspring is doing well but the merit accorded to the individual is no guarantee of the public good. An example that springs to mind In Australia is the negative impact of careerism on the integrity of journalism here. Australia is the home of economic duopolies and the media landscape is particularly effected by a dearth of competition. Murdoch owns most of the newspapers in the cities and a dominant radio network. In addition, he has Sky News Australia and Fox News on TV screens. Nine Fairfax is another corporate media presence of size involved in multiple platforms. Journalists in Australia are careful not to burn their bridges with News Corp, despite the fact that their coverage is blatantly one sided and miles from any semblance of objectivity. Careerism has them keeping an eye on their next well paid job in a concentrated labour market. I have observed the journalists working in the corporate media sector now are younger (less well paid) and less willing to call out bias in their own industry. Most of the older journos have moved to smaller niche publications, online. The Fourth Estate is a very important democratic institution and the fact that it has been poisoned by deregulation and oligarchy does not serve us well. People are asking why we are heading toward authoritarianism and this is one of the contributing factors – our media has been silenced by greed and self-interest. Careerism: Self-interest’s acceptable public face is a part of this too. Politics & Public Service Careerism Careerism is a much bigger problem in our political and public service spaces. The corruption of the revolving door, where public officials take up lucrative jobs with the private companies they were once supposed to be regulating is endemic around Western democracies. The corporate sector is ready and waiting to endower these individuals with a golden parachute upon their exit from the public service. Careerism, seemingly, makes this practice an acceptable one for these individuals. This grey area makes a mockery of anti-bribery rules and regulations. Surely, the government must include non-compete clauses in the contracts of these public servants to prevent them taking their knowledge and influence over to the other side. Politicians need to have the same provisions included in their contracts as MPs and cabinet ministers/secretaries. That this has been going on for eons proves that you cannot have the foxes guarding the hen house. Politicians will not close lucrative loop holes for their future careerism without determined and sustained  push back from the voting public. Neoliberalism & Careerism Neoliberalism has been the cover for the deregulation which has allowed oligarchic control of our media to coalesce like a dark cloud over facts and truth. Careerism has fitted like a glove over the hand of neoliberalism. The individual out for private success and the wealth that brings is not primarily looking out for the greater good. Integrity has been sold to the highest bidder in many professions across the board. Corporations have been allowed to merge and take over competitors despite government bodies like the ACCC – which were supposed to be guarding against such things. Toothless tigers are what these monitoring agencies turned out to be  - regulatory capture occurred with such frequency that anyone paying attention would have to embrace cynicism as their response to such blatant ineffectuality. This has been going on for decades and is just getting more obvious each and every year. Standards and expectations have been lowered as corporate power has its way with government. Nearly 10 years of LNP Coalition government at the federal level in Australia accelerated this weakening of the state’s powers, as the public service was slashed and outsourced to private consultants in multi billion dollar deals. PwC, KPMG, Ey and Deloitte have grown fat on the outsourced work of government, without the natural transparency inherent within the public service. Australians have been shafted under the guise of neoliberalism and the mantra of greater efficiencies. Insider mates of the government have grown very wealthy on the back of this transfer of assets from the public to the private sector. We the people are poorer for it. Careers in consulting have been looking very attractive for some time of late. Careerism: Self-interest’s acceptable public face fills the ranks of these consultancy firms. The Decline Of Civic Duty The decline of civics has been going on for decades around western democracies. ‘Greed is good’ became the buzz words of the late 20C. Ordinary working people were encouraged to become ofay with the economics of personal finance. Property prices began to climb like they never had before. It is estimated that if inflation was measured on residential property price increases in Australia over the last 30 years it would be around 382%. “While housing values move through cycles of growth as well as declines, the long-term trend is undeniably upwards.  Nationally, dwelling values have increased 382% over the past 30 years, or in annual compounding terms, rising by 5.4% on average since July 1992.” - (https://www.corelogic.com.au/news-research/news/2022/the-long-game-30-years-of-housing-values) Young Australians can no longer afford to buy their own home, as they cannot afford to save the deposit to get a bank loan large enough. The bank of mum and dad is an essential in 2024 for those fortunate enough to get a leg up. Civic duty and community work was left to elderly volunteers in the main. Many of the rest of us were too busy or too focused on earning enough money to get ahead. Former PM John Howard told Australians to become investors, as the wheel of fortune turned and workers and consumers become second class citizens behind CEOs and shareholders. Wage growth stagnated for decades, as the impetus was on corporations and their investors at the expense of wages. Record profits for the banks, the mining multinationals, and the duopolies which killed competition and consumer power.  Inequality grew downunder like never before, as income and consumption was taxed but not capital wealth. The capital gains tax discount and negative gearing made property the number one thing in Australia for wealth creation. All those folk who weren’t paying enough attention to the changing face of the nation soon found themselves on the outer. Obviously, there were winners and losers and many Australians are chuffed at their new found wealth over the years. Others say it is not real wealth because if you sell the million dollar family home you just have to buy another million dollar home somewhere else. Renters are the real losers in this game of inflated asset accumulation. The current housing shortage crisis in Oz has pushed rents through the roof. In combination with the high inflationary CPI last couple of years, poorer Aussies have been doing it tough. Community becomes more important when your wages cannot cover your expenses. The neoliberal vision is OK if you are winning and can afford to pay for everything yourself – then the small government BS may fly for some. (200907200070HQ)Google Moon Press Conference by NASA HQ PHOTO is licensed under CC-BY-NC-ND 2.0 Corporations Not Paying Taxes Corporations are not paying enough taxes in Western democracies around the globe. These multinationals employ legions of accountants and tax specialists to minimise their tax requirements. We saw with the PwC travesty the government being betrayed by those it had outsourced to work up greater taxing solutions for companies like Uber and Google. This was corporate skull doggery at its finest and once again the white collar crime free zone was on display in the halls of power in Canberra. These folk do not ever pay for their crimes unlike blue collar criminals. 60 Minutes can get on their high horse about bikies and the CFMEU but never seem to worry about the corporate fraud and malfeasance going on all the time at the pointy end of power downunder. These acts are too complex for the media and the police much of the time. Billion dollar frauds and corrupt proceedings carried on with impunity. Greater civic awareness would cast a brighter sunlight on the dodgy practices of accountants, lawyers and pollies. Careerism is at work here too, as young professionals are initiated into the activities of their corporate masters. Whistleblowers are regularly prosecuted in Australia, which does not encourage insiders to speak out. The NACC & Robodebt The NACC has been a great disappointment so far. It seems that its remit is woefully inadequate. Robodebt, the most heinous illegal betrayal of Australian citizens by its then Coalition government, has resulted in no prosecutions despite vulnerable victims killing themselves. A Royal Commission and now the NACC have both failed to deliver justice for the half a million Australians wrongly targeted by Robodebt. Robodebt was an ideologically motivated attack on welfare recipients by the Coalition federal governments of Tony Abbott, Malcolm Turnbull and Scott Morrison. It was predicated on the inaccurate belief that there were hundreds of thousands of Australians ripping off Centrelink. The Coalition demonised these often poor and vulnerable Australians attacking them in the media for being welfare cheats and dole bludgers. In what may be a foretaste of an AI future, an automated algorithm conflated data from the ATO and Centrelink to accuse 500, 000 Aussies of owing substantial amounts of money to the government. The calculations were incorrect and these people were wrongly chased by debt collectors with the onus being on them to prove they did not owe this money. In many instances, we are talking about thousands of dollars. In despair some individuals committed suicide over their financial situation. Robodebt was found to be illegal and yet senior public servants and politicians kept the scheme running for some 6 years. A settled class action by some victims cost the government $1.8 billion in reparations. No one has paid the price for Robodebt except those wrongly victimised in the first place. Australia repeatedly fails to deliver justice to its citizens with the political class weaselling their way out of it again and again. The political parties of government look after their own backs over all other considerations.   Political expediency gazumps any meaningful social justice time and time again. Careerism in politics is Teflon coated, it seems by the available evidence. Careerism: Self-interest’s acceptable public face sees ongoing omissions and failures by governments of both the main parties. The never ending two party squabbles put paid to most efforts toward progress on issues like climate change, money laundering via international property investment, FOI and whistleblowing law amendments. The consensus they do share is done in backroom deals to protect each other’s arse. The political class are very much into self-preservation downunder. Robert Sudha Hamilton is the author of America Matters: Pre-apocalyptic Posts & Essays in the Shadow of Trump. ©MidasWord Read the full article

[markscherz]

You might know this tiny frog.

This is Mini mum (photo by Andolalao Rakotoarison), a species I had the pleasure to name—together with a team of amazing colleagues—back in 2019.

That was the start of a fascination with the process and consequences of miniaturisation for vertebrates. How the hell does this tiny frog manage to fit all of its vital organs—more or less all the same senses and organs that we have—into a package the size of a tic-tac‽ Why and how has it evolved to be so small? And why don't we get frogs that are much smaller?

Well, I just secured 1.5 MILLION Euros (!!!) in the form of a European Research Commission Starting Grant, to answer these and other related questions in the genomes of Mini frogs and other miniaturised vertebrates.

Because it turns out, there are *lots* of miniaturised vertebrates, and they push the boundaries of how small we think it is possible for a vertebrate to be! Here is a little graphic of some of them, scaled to a BIC ballpoint pen.

The project is called GEMINI: The Genomics of Miniaturisation in Vertebrates! You can read more about it on my website here, and in the press release, here!

[niceferatu]

man FUCK work-life balance. work should not be this central to our lives. the idea that we're meant to perfectly balance equal parts Work and Everything Else is so so dismal

[becausegoodheroesdeservekidneys]

I think the reader's response to this post is probably going to either be "That's incredibly minor" or "Holy shit YES I'M ALSO PROUD", depending on people's personal experiences with academia, but:

Today I am incredibly proud of one of my students.

In the interests of disguising identities, let's call them Ceri. Ceri is one of my third year undergrads (meaning their final year, for anyone unfamiliar with UK uni systems.) They transferred to us last year, and within two weeks I was giving them the contact info to get to Student Services and get themself screened for ADHD; they have some mental health struggles, but I clocked pretty quickly that they STRUGGLE with procrastination, and punctuality, and attending 9am lectures in particular. Naturally, as is the way of my people, it took them a further four months to remember to go to the screening. Lol. Lmao. Rofl, in fact.

But, they did it eventually! Their screening lit up like a Christmas tree at the ADHD section, and they got a free laptop and optional one week extensions and a study support worker named Claire. This has helped tremendously, and although mental health + until-then-unsupported ADHD meant their academic profile had slid sideways somewhat, with the new tools available and a couple of resits they passed the year and hit this year running.

Until, that is, the last fortnight.

Now, I take them for a Habitat Management module that has two assessments: an academic poster presentation before Christmas, and a site-specific management plan in May. Naturally this means we are at that happy point in the year for the poster presentations. I give out the briefs at the start of the year, so they've had them since October; I've also been periodically checking in with them all for weeks, to make sure they don't have any major burning questions. The poster presentation was to pick a species reintroduction project, pull the habitat feasibility study out of it, and then critique that study; Ceri chose to look at the hen harrier reintroductions proposed for the southern UK. All good.

Which brings us nicely to today! Ceri's presentation is scheduled for 2.30. At 11am-1pm, I am lecturing the first years on Biodiversity, while Ceri is learning about environmental impact assessment with a colleague I shall call Aeron. This means we are separately occupied during those same hours.

Nevertheless, Aeron messages me at about 12.

"I think Ceri needs to see you after your lecture," he writes. "They're panicking, I genuinely think they might cry. I'm worried. Are you free at 1?"

I say I am. At 1, I get lunch and sit in the common area; Ceri comes to see me. To my personal shame, imagine all of the following takes place while I stuff my face with potato.

Now: this part is going to be uncomfortably familiar to anyone who has ever tried higher education with ADHD, especially unmedicated. It certainly was for me. All I can say is, I never had the courage to take the step here that Ceri did.

"I have to confess," they said quietly, and Aeron was right, they were fighting back tears. "My mental health has been so, so bad for the last fortnight. I've left it way, way too late. I don't have anything to present."

"Nothing at all?" I asked.

"I've been researching," they said helplessly. "I found loads on the decline of the hen harrier. But it wasn't until last night that I finally found a habitat feasibility study to critique. Generally... I've been burying my head about it, and it just got later and later. I thought I should come in for Aeron's lecture, and I should at least tell you."

This part is a minor thing, right? But honestly, I remember being in the grip of that particular shame spiral. I never did manage to tell my lecturers to their faces. I just avoided. I honestly can't imagine having the courage it took them to come in and tell me this, rather than just staying home and avoiding me.

"I think..." they said hesitantly, "I know I can submit up to a week late, for a capped mark. I think I need to do that, and apply for extenuating circumstances. But then I'll have both Aeron's assignment and yours due at the same time."

Which meant they would crumble under the pressure and likely struggle to pass both; so me, being as noble and heroic as I unarguably am, stopped eating potato and said, "Let's make that plan B."

(It was good potato. I am a hero.)

So, we made plan A: I moved their timeslot to 4.30, giving them three and a half hours. The shining piece of luck in this whole thing was that this was the crunch time assignment - if it had been Aeron's, they'd have had to try and write a 3000 report in that time. But for me, all they had to write was an academic poster, and those things are light on words by design. We found them a Canva template, and then we quickly sketched out a recommended structure based on the brief: if it's habitat feasibility, look at food availability, nesting site availability, and mortality risks in the target release site. Bullet point each. Bullet point how well the study assessed each. Write a quick intro and conclusion. Take notes as you go, and present the poster itself at 4.30.

"You think I should try?" they asked doubtfully, looking like I'd just asked them to go mano-a-mano with a feral badger.

"If you run out of time, so be it," I said. "But your brain is trying to protect you from a non-existent tiger. That's why you've procrastinated - it's been horrible, and you've been shame spiralling, and your brain is trying to shield you from the negative experience; but it's the wrong type of help for this situation! So while you're sitting there working on it, hating life, every time your brain goes 'This is hopeless, I can't do it', you think right back 'Yes I can, it just sucks.' And you carry on. Good?"

"Good," they said. "I'm going to mainline coffee and hole up in the library. Enjoy your potato."

And then, of course, I had to go and watch the other students' presentations, so that was the end of me being any help at all. I spent all afternoon wondering if they were going to manage it, or if I would be getting a message at 4.25 telling me they'd failed, and would have to submit late and hope for an EC.

And Tumblrs

Tumblrs

Let me FUCKING tell you

They turned up at 4.15, fifteen minutes early, wearing a mask of grim, harrowed determination and fuelled by spite and coffee, and they pulled up that poster and started presenting and yes, okay, I'll admit their actual delivery was dramatically unpolished and yes, they forgot to include the taxanomic name for the hen harrier on the poster and yes, fine, I admit that there were more than a few awkward moments where they lost their place in their hastily scribbled notebook but LET ME FUCKING TELL YOU -

They smashed it. It was well-critiqued, it had a map, it had full citations, it had a section on the hen harrier's specific ecology and role in the ecosystem, it had notes on their specific conservation measures. They described case studies they'd read about elsewhere. They answered the questions we threw at them with competence and depth. There was analysis. All that background research they'd done came right to the fore. They were even within the time limit by 15 seconds.

You would never have known they'd produced it in three hours, from a quivering and terrified mess fighting the bodily urge to dehydrate via tear ducts. After they left, the second marker and I looked at each other and went "So that was a 2:1, right?"

I caught up with Aeron downstairs and he was beaming. Apparently Ceri had seen him on their way out, and had gone over to talk to him. Aeron said the difference between the Ceri of this morning and the Ceri of then was like two different people; in four hours, they'd gone from their voice literally breaking as they admitted the problem, ashamed and broken, to being relaxed and happy and smiling.

"I reckon I've passed," they apparently told Aeron, pleased. "Maybe even a 2:2. There's things I wish I'd had the time to do better, but I'll be happy if I passed."

They won't know until late January what they got, because we're not allowed to release marks until 20 term days after hand-in, and the Christmas holidays are about to hit. But I'm really hoping I can be there when they're released.

But mostly, I'm just... insanely proud of them. I cannot tell you how happy I am. And I know, I know, obviously this is not a practice I would want to see them do regularly, or indeed ever again, and it only worked because they were fucking lucky with the assignment format, but like... when life is just punching you in the face, and you hit a breaking point... isn't it nice? That just this once, you pull off a miracle, and it's fixed? The disaster you thought was about to ruin you is gone? To get that relief?

Anyway. Super super proud today.

[notrobinsomethingworse]

Kid!Tim, called to the principles office. Waiting for an adult to come get him.

Dick, storming in: WHAT HAPPENED.

Principal: as you can see Timothy has engaged in-

Dick: SHUT THE FUCK UP. Now Timtam what’s wrong? Are you alright? Do you need a hug? It’s alright.

Tim, pulled the fire alarm because he wanted the last chocolate muffin in the cafeteria but they aren’t allowed seconds: I- I just though I saw a fire. I was trying *hiccup* I was trying to do the right thing. I’m so sorry.

Principal: Mr. Grayson. We have security footage that Timothy pulled the alarm completely purposefully-

Dick: Can’t you see he’s never done anything wrong in his life?

[s8ans]

girl what kind of deranged advice was this guy going around giving people when he wasn’t trying to kill them…. 😭😭

[phantomrose96]

Thinking about Edward Elric as the Amestrian Military's specialest little unfireable boy

State alchemists can be fired for underperforming. We know this up front from the likes of Shou Tucker. And this makes a ton of sense from the homunculi's standpoint since the state alchemists are sacrifice candidates, and the homunculi would want to cull the weakest candidates and focus only on cultivating the strongest ones who stand the best chance of opening the portal.

........Then there's Edward. Who's already opened the portal.

There's no need to cultivate him. No gamble taken on whether he's good enough to open the portal. He passed the final test already. Graduated 4 semesters early.

And as such, has a free pass to do Absolute Fuck All.

And I'm imagining how funny this is from like an outside perspective.

Some newish state alchemist who'd only ever read up on the stories of Edward Elric, ready and excited to start their career of being paid handsomely with endless freedom to research and travel and do anything they want in the pursuit of science... surprised and confused to find themselves put on probation their first month for things like "ignoring orders." Which is, as best they had thought, a famous Edward Elric pastime.

Roy showing a slight bit of stress about his yearly state alchemist report, and Ed just snorting and rolling his eyes at Roy because every year HE just hastily does his on the train ride over (canon in the manga, a travesty it was left out of the anime) and it gets rubber stamped. Ed not realizing that other alchemists' reports get genuinely scrutinized and torn apart while Ed is free to turn in whatever absolute bullshit he thinks of 36 hours ahead of time. One year his report was about whether alchemy could be done via dance (conclusion: no it can't) and no one cared. Roy WANTS to tell Ed there's some kind of unknown favoritism around Ed making him literally bullet-proof but Roy has no way to phrase this that doesn't sound like he's just in denial and mad at how good Ed's train-reports are.

Guy from the Internal Amestrian Affairs sector who's responsible for auditing other internal military personel for any suspicious activity hitting about 1 million red flags for Edward Elric, issuing a STRONG and URGENT recommendation to suspend the alchemist pending further investigation into things like "literal bunk-buddies with two members of the Xingese royalty (enemy nation)" and "spent $10,000,000 of his stipend on a librarian to make her re-copy (what he seemed to interpret as?) military records in some extremely transparent effort to unearth state secrets (it was a recipe book but he was literally asking her about state secrets)" and "literally has never once obeyed an order, ever, not even once in his career, and is on public record having said 'I do not care about the goals and protections of the Amestrian Military. I am in fact only pursuing my own interests several of which are diametrically opposed to the safety and well-being of the governing body of Amestris'"

The issued recommendation is intercepted before it even reaches its intended desk. President Bradley himself has taken issue with it and denies it before a single set of eyes has seen it. The President's veto stamp is a terrifying hammer, used rarely, and it is now sitting on the auditor's desk.

The auditor sleeps with one eye open from then on out.

[visit-ba-sing-se]

April fool's? ⁉️ Only for April 1st? ⁉️ That's a weak mindset. That's low perfomance 📉 👎👎 I am a fool every day 🗓 The grind 💪💪💪📈 never stops ❌ ⛔️ I am in it for the long run 🔛🏃‍♀️ No quitter mindset here 🚫🔝 🏆