Gaining a module, losing open days

During my PDR had suggested I take back a module I used to be the module organiser of: Earth, Climate and Evolution. When I had flagged to my previous line manager that I felt overwhelmed, he had taken this module and given it to someone else. That had not been what I had suggested; to me it made more sense to lose Peer Guiding and Welcome Week, as that directly clashed with the adjacent fieldwork. But one does not look a gift horse in the mouth; I was fine with losing that module. I was fine with losing anything.

Fast forward a bit, and I lost a big climate module. That was my cue to suggest I take the module I had lost back again. That didn't happen as the head of school didn't want to make any decisions. But then I had another PDR, and he seemed to have learned that not making decisions is not a good thing. So this time he listened, and gave me my module back! It is not as if I have nothing to do, but that module is one that I am the main teaching staff on anyway. I might as well get the credit. And if I have that module, which is one I really enjoy, then that takes up space that can't be taken up by things I don't enjoy it all. So even though this means extra work, I was glad I got it back.

The waiting was still for the message that indeed, Welcome Week and Peer Guiding would have been taken off me. But something else happened; totally out of the blue, I got a message that I was no longer required to organise Open Days. That was bonus! The rationale was that central organisation had decided it was good to get a bit more continuity. In the years I organised open days, it was always a colleague who organised them in autumn, and me organising them in spring. And now my colleague would organise all of them. He wasn't complaining! I hope he sees open days a bit like I see the Earth, Climate and Evolution module, in the sense that he had rather spend his time on that than on other work-related things. And I suppose that when they had to choose between him and me organising the Open Days, he was the obvious choice. Apart from the fact he is a totally competent man, he had also not felt the threat of redundancy in the previous round. Open days are important for the future of the School, and that is possibly best in the hands of someone who is confident they themselves have a future in the School!