A Run-In with Mr.God-of-the-IT-Department-Who-Has-Nothing-to-Do-With-My-Job

Well, today has been…interesting, so far. I had a rush of students this morning, but after they left, I haven’t had any papers to check. Every day I go to the dean of the library and ask her for the key to my former boss’ office so that I can use her computer to check for emailed essays that I will need to review. I was told by my boss before she left that I could only use her computer, and the front desk computer for the emailed papers, because they were the only ones set up for that purpose. I haven’t had any problems with this, until today. When I went to ask for the key, one of the librarians informed me that the dean was out with bronchitis. She told me that I could talk to the man who is the head of the IT department, because he carries the master keys to everything in the library. Since I have never met him before, she took me over to introduce me. This was where it got…strange. Ginny introduced me as a tutor, who needed to get into the office. This man, Mr. God-of-the-IT-Department, a tall, slender, balding man, who appeared to be nearing his sixties, looked down his nose at me. He didn’t believe a word that the librarian was saying. He just thought that I was some punk student, who wanted to get into the office for some reason. The librarian and I repeated over and over who I was, what I was doing there, and that I had been doing this job for three years now.


When he finally seemed somewhat convinced that I had some sort of business in the Support Center, he came downstairs with the librarian and me. As we were walking, he turned to the librarian and said, “Isn’t that office all cleaned out now?” When she assured him that it was, he said, “Okay, good, so she can’t walk out with anything.” I was appalled. Did this man, this God-of-the-IT-Department-Who-Has-Nothing-to-Do-With-My-Job-or-the-Support-Center just accuse me of an intention to steal? I couldn’t believe it. Even so, I tried to brush it off and laugh at the whole situation, but I was incredibly disturbed. I tried to personally and officially introduce myself to him and tell him again what I was doing there, but he only just looked at me and turned away.

When he finally opened up the office for me, he instructed me on how to turn on the computer. I calmly put my things down on the desk and told him that I have used this office everyday now this summer and I knew how everything worked and how to use the computer. I saw a light bulb come on in his eyes as he seemed to finally realize that I actually do know what I’m doing. Before he left, one of my coworkers over heard some of the problem and came to back me up. She told him, “Eileen is in charge here.” But that still didn’t seem to matter to him. He told her to, “keep an eye on her.” I have never been so insulted.