Talking myself down

1. This will pass
2. You don't want to throw away being a full professor
3. You don't have any marketable skills other than teaching and research.

Several things have happened in quick succession that are beginning to make me feel like I don't want to do this any more. Someone went over my head rather than going through the "chain of command" and I now feel disrespected and out-of-the-loop and will have to do something I really dont' want to do. And I've been told I "need" to do something I really can't do without putting other people out. And I had someone e-mail me last night telling me their "lab instructor" (no name given) had told them I'd let them make up some stuff they missed in lab - which is against class policy, which means they were trying to play me. And I'm bracing for more "Is there any extra credit I can do?" requests

I'm SO SICK of dealing with demand-y, grabby, needy people. People who don't do what they are supposed to and then expect me to jump to fix things for them. Even the wonderful people I sometimes deal with don't make up for the worst of the stinkers.

Dealing with people is the hardest and worst part of my job. Even grading is easy compared to this.

I suppose "dealing with people" is the worst part of ANY job. Sometimes I wish I had gone for a career where I was locked away in a lab all day with minimal human contact, or that I did something like back-in-an-office library cataloging or something. Or that I was a lighthouse keeper. Or something.

(ETA: a colleague of mine with more experience than I have at the first situation I described said I handled it fine, when I told her what I said in the voice mail to the person in question. So hopefully it won't blow up too badly in my face).

I'd consider opening another "blindbag pony" after today, but I don't think there are enough blindbag toys in the world to make me feel better about the situation.