Name Your Favorite Boondoggle(s)

[GRG a/k/a goldenrulegirl]

College Fall Break.

WTF?  

He will have been in school less than 2 months.  

He is in class a mere 15 hours/week.  He does not have a job at present.

What does he need a break from/for?

It seems the more expensive college gets the less time students are even in college.  (A month after Fall Break he comes home for Thanksgiving.  Two weeks after Thanksgiving he comes home for Christmas break.  Christmas Break is 7 weeks long!!!)

(GRG stomps off to book train tickets home for Fall Break.)

What a boondoggle.

Next?

[zibazinski]

Road repairs. In this state there's a very limited time to repair the roads. Due to payoffs, only the "A" crew gets jobs and they work very little and never on a Sunday. Plus the red cones are everywhere closing down one lane to find that it's one tiny area, if any, that is being worked on.

[The Captain]

WTF?  

Seriously.

Xmas break is 7 weeks?  Are you in the US or somewhere odd, like Europe?

Back in the day we got Wed-Friday for thanksgiving.  Christmas I do recall being about two weeks, and spring break was a week.

That's it (besides the floaters like presidents day or whatever).

I remember this pretty clearly because I was scrambling to find a place to stay for my internship when the dorms were closed.

[saveinla]

Christmas break is usually from Dec 20 - Feb 2nd - so 6 weeks normally if you are in the semester system.

In my son's college they have a one month class between Fall and Spring terms where they can take one course - 6 hours a day for 4 days a week, so the break is only for 2 weeks for Christmas

I think the 6 weeks is useful for study abroad programs.

[The Captain]

I work in tax for what is considered a super large case taxpayer so I am considered a practitioner.

We are supposed to have an IRS representative assigned to assist us with resolving minor kinks that come up.

My representative is on the east coast, and has a start time of ...wait for it - 6:30 am folks (that's 5:30 am my time).

So when I get in at 7:30 and call her she only has - oh - only 6 working hours or so to call me back.

She ALWAYS returns calls at 5:30am the next day.   That is, if she returns calls at all.  Obviously I'm not there and nothing gets resolved.

I have other resources in the IRS that I can get to help me out (sometimes but not always).  So I have an issue now that I need to go to the local taxpayer's advocate office and address with someone in person.  A minor issue that my company did everything correct on, that the IRS has messed up two different ways.

It will likely take up at least half my day.  And because you have to be an officer or have POA I can't send a staff to handle it.

Keep cutting service levels congress, keep cutting.

[chiver78]

Sept 23, 2015 15:07:39 GMT -5 saveinla said:

Christmas break is usually from Dec 20 - Feb 2nd - so 6 weeks normally if you are in the semester system.

In my son's college they have a one month class between Fall and Spring terms where they can take one course - 6 hours a day for 4 days a week, so the break is only for 2 weeks for Christmas

I think the 6 weeks is useful for study abroad programs.

Feb 2nd?! I clearly picked the wrong school.

we'd go back Jan 2nd if they thought it would work with the calendar. of course, we had 2 quarters to squish in before our late start to summer "break" - read: quarter - in mid-June.

[debthaven]

Xmas break is 7 weeks? Are you in the US or somewhere odd, like Europe?

Hey! Xmas break here is 2 weeks at public universities, and 3 weeks at some private universities (it's 3 weeks at my school). 

And my school doesn't even do fall break (although most schools do), or Thanksgiving (doh lol) ... we go from end of Aug to Xmas with no break. Frankly that's too long, for both the students and the teachers. 

[tskeeter]

Sept 23, 2015 15:15:28 GMT -5 The Captain said:

I work in tax for what is considered a super large case taxpayer so I am considered a practitioner.

We are supposed to have an IRS representative assigned to assist us with resolving minor kinks that come up.

My representative is on the east coast, and has a start time of ...wait for it - 6:30 am folks (that's 5:30 am my time).

So when I get in at 7:30 and call her she only has - oh - only 6 working hours or so to call me back.

She ALWAYS returns calls at 5:30am the next day.   That is, if she returns calls at all.  Obviously I'm not there and nothing gets resolved.

I have other resources in the IRS that I can get to help me out (sometimes but not always).  So I have an issue now that I need to go to the local taxpayer's advocate office and address with someone in person.  A minor issue that my company did everything correct on, that the IRS has messed up two different ways.

It will likely take up at least half my day.  And because you have to be an officer or have POA I can't send a staff to handle it.

Keep cutting service levels congress, keep cutting.

Cap, I'm not sure that it's Congress.  I'm more inclined to think that it's the way the IRS chooses to use the budget they do have.  They have the money to send 10 page certified letters about petty issues that are fully explained in the IRS publications.  And separate mailings, a couple of months apart, for each tax year about the same issue.  And since it's a certified letter from the IRS, working people have to make a special 50 mile round trip to the post office between 8 and 5 to sign for the letter so they can find out what the IRS wants.  But the IRS doesn't have the money to staff so they can answer a phone call in less than 45 minutes. 

I think the game is to maximize the inconvenience for the taxpayer so that the taxpayer will pressure Congress to give them more money.  (We saw local government do the same thing during the past several years.  Reduce funding to activities that service the public, while maintaining budgets for activities providing services to other government activities.)    

[teen persuasion]

Just checked our state university system - no big mid semester breaks (Thanksgiving is Wed -Fri), but between semesters is 6 weeks: Dec 11 - Jan 25.

Today's boondoggle at work: I'm supposed to install uninterruptible power supplies for all the computers.  I thought I'd start on the public access ones.  They are on custom made oak desks, three bays per side (back to back), and I need to plug the UPS directly into a socket, which run along the back of each long desk below the raised back.  So I have to separate the back to back desks - I can't budge them.  I need several strong men to move them for me.  Ugh.

Plan B, I'll start with the UPS for the printers, it's accessible.  Turn everything off, crawl under the table, unplug the power strip.  It's got an adapter on it - the old outlet isn't grounded.  I can't put a UPS on it until it is rewired.  Ok, this is the second (or third? fourth) thing we might want rewired - time to inspect the breaker box.  Trying to figure out when and who added what where.  Looking around on the main floor, there are only 2 (ungrounded) outlets in the whole front half of the library!  That can't be to current code.

I don't even want to face the mess of cables under the main circ desk, it was bad enough swapping out receipt printers and scanners a few weeks ago.  I didn't have to touch any of the network stuff then.  I thought I'd start with the easy ones first.  Ha!

[TheOtherMe]

Sept 23, 2015 15:15:28 GMT -5 The Captain said:

I work in tax for what is considered a super large case taxpayer so I am considered a practitioner.

We are supposed to have an IRS representative assigned to assist us with resolving minor kinks that come up.

My representative is on the east coast, and has a start time of ...wait for it - 6:30 am folks (that's 5:30 am my time).

So when I get in at 7:30 and call her she only has - oh - only 6 working hours or so to call me back.

She ALWAYS returns calls at 5:30am the next day.   That is, if she returns calls at all.  Obviously I'm not there and nothing gets resolved.

I have other resources in the IRS that I can get to help me out (sometimes but not always).  So I have an issue now that I need to go to the local taxpayer's advocate office and address with someone in person.  A minor issue that my company did everything correct on, that the IRS has messed up two different ways.

It will likely take up at least half my day.  And because you have to be an officer or have POA I can't send a staff to handle it.

Keep cutting service levels congress, keep cutting.

Being a retiree from the IRS, I blame Congress also.  Most of my friends have retired now because of what all the cuts have done to their jobs--and the lack of total respect from the public. 

Had a friend in Denver whose boss was on east coast.  Boss' day started at 6:30 AM, so she was up and working from home at 4:30 AM.  She said there were even call in meetings scheduled for 6:30 AM.

The POA think was going on when I worked there.  No change there, but it's very frustrating.

Until  the pope leaves DC, this is not a good week to be calling any employee who works there.  If I worked there, I would be on annual leave.

I know those employees are so overworked, they just do the best they can.

[wvugurl26]

I'm in DC for training all week. So far so good with the pope business.

My day may start at 7am but there are very few people I'll call then. Mainly Boston and NYC people I know that start at the ass crack of dawn.

And I've spent many a time figuring out a meeting time that works for all three times zones. Even if the San Francisco guy does start at 10am my time.

We never had fall break. We got a week at Thanksgiving and a month between fall and spring semesters. We also had a week for spring break. Those were the only big closures. When I was in college many schools were going to fall break and a shorter Thanksgiving break. They claimed the fall semester was too long without a real break. That spring break divided up spring semester nicely but depending on Thanksgiving you only had 2-3 more weeks to end of the semester.

[Lizard Queen]

Christmas break at my college was almost 4 weeks, or thereabouts. I couldn't imagine 7 weeks. Wow. I think Thanksgiving was 2 and a half days. No fall break.

[justme]

I only had thanksgiving and spring break as mid semester breaks. Maybe it's a northern school thing? We got out around Dec 8 and would go back about a month later. Started at the end of Aug though.

[GRG a/k/a goldenrulegirl]

Sept 24, 2015 17:36:56 GMT -5 justme said:

I only had thanksgiving and spring break as mid semester breaks. Maybe it's a northern school thing? We got out around Dec 8 and would go back about a month later. Started at the end of Aug though.

Maybe.  Except he is at a school below the Mason-Dixon Line.  Just below.  But below.  

So, I thought it was a Southern-school thing.  

[justme]

Sept 24, 2015 20:05:40 GMT -5 GRG a/k/a goldenrulegirl said:

Sept 24, 2015 17:36:56 GMT -5 justme said:

I only had thanksgiving and spring break as mid semester breaks. Maybe it's a northern school thing? We got out around Dec 8 and would go back about a month later. Started at the end of Aug though.

Maybe.  Except he is at a school below the Mason-Dixon Line.  Just below.  But below.  

So, I thought it was a Southern-school thing.  

Damn, maybe it's a everyone but Florida thing. I got robbed!

[GRG a/k/a goldenrulegirl]

Sept 24, 2015 20:20:46 GMT -5 @tbird said:

wait! Is he on the quarter system?

Nope.  Semester.  

[Lizard Queen]

I checked the schedule for my university. This year, Labor Day, Nov. 25-29 off for Thanksgiving, which includes Saturday and Sunday, and Dec. 19th is the last day of the semester. Jan. 11th is the first day of the next. So, about 3 weeks. MLK day is off, plus the usual Spring break. That's it, but it's more of a bargain school.

[Malarky]

GRG,
It can't be that different from school here.  I can remember a year when the kids didn't have a full week of school until maybe January.  It was one holiday, early release, professional day, Thanksgiving, Christmas after another.  
Not sure if your town had as many early releases, but mine were in middle school, as I think yours were.   Too many days off, not enough time to really get into the flow of learning and doing. 

Not to toot my own horn, but I have both of mine at the local CC-think about where I work-and gainfully employed.  Big sigh of relief, it may all change in January.  Right now I can afford college expenses out to pocket.

[wvugurl26]

Sept 24, 2015 20:05:40 GMT -5 GRG a/k/a goldenrulegirl said:

Sept 24, 2015 17:36:56 GMT -5 justme said:

I only had thanksgiving and spring break as mid semester breaks. Maybe it's a northern school thing? We got out around Dec 8 and would go back about a month later. Started at the end of Aug though.

Maybe.  Except he is at a school below the Mason-Dixon Line.  Just below.  But below.  

So, I thought it was a Southern-school thing.  

I was south of the Mason Dixon line. No fall break. Week for Thanksgiving and spring break and about a month for Christmas.

[GRG a/k/a goldenrulegirl]

Sept 24, 2015 20:57:13 GMT -5 Malarky said:

GRG,
It can't be that different from school here.  I can remember a year when the kids didn't have a full week of school until maybe January.  It was one holiday, early release, professional day, Thanksgiving, Christmas after another.  
Not sure if your town had as many early releases, but mine were in middle school, as I think yours were.   Too many days off, not enough time to really get into the flow of learning and doing. 

Not to toot my own horn, but I have both of mine at the local CC-think about where I work-and gainfully employed.  Big sigh of relief, it may all change in January.  Right now I can afford college expenses out to pocket.

Wow!!!! You rock!!! I know which CC they are at. ;-). What a good YMer you are. :-)~

And, yes, even public school had more than its fair share of time off. At my kids' high school, they don't even bother getting subs anymore for teachers who are out (unless they go out on leave).

I guess the kicker for me about the "generous" time off in college is that college is $50k/year. I never came close to paying $50k/year in real estate taxes while the kids were in public school.

[GRG a/k/a goldenrulegirl]

Sept 25, 2015 15:50:02 GMT -5 @southernsusana said:

Sept 25, 2015 10:08:22 GMT -5 GRG a/k/a goldenrulegirl said:

That has nothing to do with "more than its fair share of time off."  Your kids' high school still needs warm bodies to supervise kids when school is in session.  They are taking the teachers' prep. time to supervise and, in turn, save money by not hiring subs.  This isn't uncommon at all.

Just to be clear, SS, we are on the same side here.

Although, it plays out a little differently at our high school.  We have an open campus high school.  So, when class is cancelled because of a teacher absence, kids just hang out in the usual " commons" places, not in a classroom under another teacher's supervision.

[TheOtherMe]

When I was in high school, I would guess that we got maybe the Wednesday before Thanksgiving and Friday after Thanksgiving off and two weeks for Christmas.  I think we got a week for Spring Break.

When I was in college, we got the Wednesday before and Friday after Thanksgiving off.  I'm thinking probably two weeks, because we had January Term that was 4 weeks long and graduated fairly early in May. 

Yes, I'm old.    Worked for a small college here and couldn't believe they had a week for Fall Break and then got the Wednesday and Friday at Thanksgiving.