Things that are messed up. Example 2: communication in my department

I'm starting to think that maybe the whiners have a point.

Considering that we get an average of ten emails a day letting us know about things like whether the upstairs photocopier is working or not, what seminars there are this week, and that the chair of the committee on stamp design for library books has broken a toenail, how hard would it have been to give advance warning about the following events?

(1) A team of workmen arrived on Tuesday to replace the ceiling in the office of a friend of mine. She had 30 minutes notice to remove all valuables, cover everything else, and find somewhere else to work for the next four days.

(2) On Friday* at 5pm I was sitting in my office and heard the sound of a large truck or crane backing up. In the corridor outside my office. I tried to open my door to see what was going on. But there was a large** crane in the way. In the corridor outside my office.

It appears they were repairing water damage to the roof of the building three stories higher, and due to Architectural Design this can only be reached from the corridor right outside my office. Did I mention this was right outside my office? A crane? Inside the building? And removal of roof (leading to lots of coldness) and big flashing lights and beeping? I guess they figured they didn't need to tell me this was going to happen, since it was 5pm on a Friday, and what is the chance a grad student would still be in their office at that ridiculous time of night?

Looking on the bright side, at least this means that the last of the damage from the storm back in February has finally been repaired.

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* I was waiting to post this until a friend who was with me had sent me the photos she took. (My camera batteries were dead.) But she hasn't, and by the time she does, the whole anecdote will be out of date. Sigh. So no pics. I don't think non-bloggers quite understand the urgency that drives a plea for photos to be emailed "right away".

** Obviously not "large" when compared to the set of all possible cranes. But large for a crane that is inside a narrow corridor. They managed to just squeeze it in through the double doors by folding it up like an accordion. And it toppled the photocopier over on its slow and beepy way through the department.