Bureaucratic follies

(part 1,698 of a continuing series)

Well. Remember how I was recently "promoted" to Assistant Professor status? Well, it seems there's yet another test I have to pass in order to prove myself worthy of this stupendous honor, this one a (second) language exam. Fine by me, they're my specialty. [pause to pat self on back]

So today I went to visit my august employer to see about this test. Secretary A, who sent me the original e-mail about it, told me to ask Secretary B. Secretary B sent me to Human Resources. My friendly contact at HR said she wasn't sure I really had to take this test (since I'm not a Turkish citizen), and needed to ask her boss. An HOUR AND A HALF later, after several talks with her boss, a contact in Ankara, some other butthead in Ankara to whom the previous contact referred her, and some Web searching, we determined that ... we still weren't sure whether I had to take the test, and I was just about to miss my shuttle back home. Aiieeeee! But I do owe Beliz Hanim of Human Resources a big thank-you for being so thorough about the whole thing, including insisting on seeing the relevant regulation with her own eyes (and catching the fact that the aforementioned butthead had cited the wrong one!).

Our tale does have a happy ending of sorts: I managed to catch the shuttle, just as it was starting to snow big fat wet flakes; and Beliz Hanim called me to say yes, I do in fact have to take this exam. (The happy part is that it will be administered in Istanbul and not, as Meltem had feared with reason, in Ankara.)

Anyway, that's just life in these parts. Also, I like to gripe. But in all seriousness, it is quite a nice feeling to have a real title, one I feel reflects my accomplishments, even if I have to jump through umpteen occasionally-silly hoops to get it. In Cyprus I was "Visiting Assistant Professor," and in London I was just a project curator. Here, at long last, I'm a real perfesser.