Not feelin' good.

I had two people working for me this summer, right? And it turns out they don't get along. And I get to hear the crumbtastic details of their interpersonal conflicts, in stereo, each person's story, at separate times.

I dealt with one person earlier, telling them "deal with it" but in more and gentler words. When the other one came, I was in the middle of trying to do two things at once, and I just looked at them and said, "You will have to work this out yourselves."

And I feel crummy about that because I shouldn't snap at students. I should be gentler and more tolerant. But I'm just at the end of my rope, the paper was technically due today, and yet, I have no papers, in part because of the interpersonal stuff.

I'm tempted to just give them both incompletes now, and tell them "I will look at your papers when I get back mid-August." But I don't want to generate more bad feelings.

You know what? I'm going to make more than one person doing research with me at the same time contingent upon those people actually being able to demonstrate that they can get along, and not be snippy to each other (as one side alleges) or be passive-aggressive to each other (as the other side alleges).

What really makes me want to scream? I'm doing this as an overload and I'm not getting paid for it. This darn well better factor in to a positive promotion decision this fall (I am applying for Full Professor. If I don't get it, I will still keep my job and all, but it will be a major blow to my sense of self and my belief that I'm good at anything)

I can deal with a lot of difficult and challenging things but the banal crummy interpersonal stuff, where two people snipe at each other and then come to me to talk smack about the other person just wears me out and overwhelms me.

I guess if I'm going to continue supervising students, I will either have to stop caring or master the art of the Leroy Gibbs dope-slap.