Bad News & Baby Animals: Animal Care Condolences

I think at least half of my job is making sure that facilities we are required to pay and use actually do their jobs. I received a less devastating version of the little gem below a few weeks ago, which of course, left me screaming obscenities in the cold room to calm down before calling to find out what the hell was going on.

When I was younger I really believed everyone tried their very best at their jobs [cue rainbows, butterflies and dancing ponies]. Now that naivety has been stripped away, I've realized the majority of people are giant flaming fucktards who would rather half-ass their job and leave the mess for someone else, than do it right the first time.

Case in point, every single university ran organization set in place to "help" the professors and research staff. After the freezer screaming fit mentioned above, I was finally ready to proceed with the "what the hell is going on" questioning. I was told that every single year at least one facility on campus becomes infested with a weevil that likes the animal diet. The interlopers were noticed by a tech, not the people we pay to check the damn cages every day... meaning they hadn't been doing it. I made the mistake of asking what they were going to do to prevent this from occurring again? Their response was one word--nothing.

[bangs head repeatedly against wall in frustration]

Bringing sexy back...

Okay, not really, but it got your attention. I have decided to bring back the ever popular breaking bad news with baby animals--science edition as a regular blog feature. Though I have no affiliation with the actual company, who doesn't want a cuddly little creature to tell them their dreams of science grandeur are shattered into a billion tiny little pieces? Besides, they don't seem to be geeky enough to pull this one off on their own, and lets face it, I have nerd-power to spare.

This cuddly little bunny is experiencing a little taste of what a friend of mine is currently going through while job hunting. She has good credentials/references and an adequate number of publications but it seems as though everywhere she is applying is wasting her time and their resources by requesting that she fly in and interview for positions they have already, unofficially of course, filled.

In my opinion this is but another example of scientific masturbation--lots of foreplay with no payoff. Jump through all the paperwork hoops by showing that you interviewed qualified (or sometimes unqualified) applicants with a variety of backgrounds before giving the job to the person the listing was created for in the first place. I've seen this first hand at previous work places, but I didn't realize how common this practice actually was until recently. I guess it gives meaning to the phrase "it's not what you know, but who you know that matters."

Has anyone else been in this position? Gargantuan waste of time and resources, right?