Adjunct Riot

Sometimes, an adjunct can't help but resort to a little guerilla warfare. Unjustness never sleeps; one minute, a happily contented adjunct is doing his or her job, and the next his or her name is being brutally misspelled on his or her mailbox. It's the sort of outrage that calls for action. (And a slide into the second person. Yes, I'm speaking to you.)

Step 1: Raise your dissident voice and confront the higher authority, who may be, depending on your situation, the main secretary. You know who you're dealing with; this particular secretary has recently "casually" crept up on you as you were using the faculty copier, presumably to ensure that you were not dicking around. You're just so young looking. Point out to her that, yes, you work here and, yes, she has spelled your name incorrectly on your shiny new mail label. Which can only mean that she, the secretary, was the one dicking around and not focusing on the strenuous task of correctly copying a name from a list. If you find that your protest has been ignored because, "We're probably just not going to fix that," it is time for...

Step 2: Going underground. Gather tape and scissors. You are going to use the institution's own supplies against it. Ascertain the font face used on the shiny new mail labels (it's bound to be Calibri, which is essentially lazy, modern man's Arial). Print off your new label with correct spelling. Strut down the hallway and swing open the door to the mailroom. Ensure that Main Secretary is at her post, Cosmo in hand. Replace the weapon of oppression with your own shiny new mail label. Note that this exercise took all of three minutes. Congratulate yourself on being worth that huge amount of time.