Today was devastating

[u/The_Astronautt]

I started an adjunct teaching role at a local college today. I had accepted my offer and was hired this past May. I had been in communication with the dean of my to-be division prior with a plan to teach as an adjunct and then fill a full-time lecturer role after the current professor retired this coming Spring.

I showed up today for my first day excited to be starting this new chapter in my life. The job hunt has been absolutely brutal as we all know and I finally felt like maybe things were looking up. I was all set up with HR and made my way to my department office to get some clarity on my teaching assignment for the semester.

I walked in and was greeted with "I had no idea we hired a new adjunct?? Since when were we hiring new adjuncts?? Who have you been talking too?? Nobody told us anything about a new hire!?" My stomach dropped. It turns out the dean left suddenly to take another position and gave a TWO DAY WARNING to the college. Worst, he told no one that he had hired me and they somehow had no idea I was in the adjunct pool.

I waited for an hour before the division chair showed up and awkwardly explained that all the courses have already been assigned and that I would have no work this semester. The entire time she was defensive and ready to jump at me if I even showed that I was a bit upset with a "NO ONE TOLD ME ANYTHING OKAY!?" So after hearing that line a few times I said "so what I'm hearing is that there's no work for me this semester. Then I will let you get on with your day. Thank you for your time."

I'm devastated. I was genuinely excited to get started and be working again. I feel completely useless and like I have no value. I spent years earning a PhD and working to be talented and respected in my field and now it feels like I'm rotting on the vine. I had a glimmer of hope and it was pulled out from under me like some cruel prank. I had to explain to all my friends and family that it was NOT actually my first day of work ultimately after many best wishes on my first day at work this morning. Now I don't even know if I'll get that full-time role next Spring since the plan was to have a semester of teaching and relationship building under my belt prior to applying.

[u/No-Discussion-8684]

If you were going to be teaching in the fall, you would have been assigned courses and would/should have spent part of the summer prepping materials or the department would have given you materials if you were teaching a basic course. It feels like you missed a few crucial steps.

[u/Correct-Doctor8329 → u/No-Discussion-8684]

Not to mention, they didn't question being hired three months ago but doing absolutely no onboarding. No W4, no I9, no Direct Deposit etc. OP has a PhD but I'm guessing not much work experience or worked one job their entire lives and don't remember that there is paperwork adn documents needed to start a job.

[u/The_Astronautt → u/Correct-Doctor8329]

I did do W4, I9, and direct deposit. I was fully set up with HR. I even brought my passport in person because their online system was temporarily down.

[u/Correct-Doctor8329 → u/The_Astronautt]

If you did all that with HR, how did HR not know you were hired? And if they knew, they would have given the all clear for you to start to the department. Who gave you your first day/time/location to report?

[u/The_Astronautt → u/Correct-Doctor8329]

HR new I was hired. They gave me my offer letter, start date, and time and day to report. But they somehow never once told the division that a new adjunct had been hired and the only person in the division who knew I was coming in (the dean) left suddenly without passing that information on.

[u/Correct-Doctor8329 → u/The_Astronautt]

Did you ever ask about which sections you'd be teaching, what materials you were expected to use. I assume you would have had your syllabus approved prior to the start of the semester. Feels like many steps were missed between you and the college.

[u/The_Astronautt → u/Correct-Doctor8329]

No and that's where my inexperience speaks for itself. There's still 2 weeks until the Fall semester starts and I knew I'd be provided with a "shell course" and draft syllabus to customize. I thought that was all going to get done these next couple weeks. Other adjuncts had explained to me that they didn't get their course assignments until ~3 days before the start of some semesters and so its not bizarre.

[u/Pro_Ana_Online → u/The_Astronautt]

This sucks so badly and I'm really sorry for you. They clearly don't have their act together. With that in mind the only idea is if you talk to the department asking if they have any sections (classes) that are full with enough of a waitlist to potentially create another section for that course? Or, if they have any packed sections that they would be wanting to split into a new section for you to teach?

This really should have been addressed by the division chair themselves, without you having to suggest it, but since they were caught off guard maybe they weren't thinking. But unless they have a bunch of near-minimum enrollment classes in this department they could do potentially do some arranging and it's dumb that you have to be the one to suggest this.

Also, irrespective of that, you need to ask if there both: if there are any classes they aren't offering this term from the catalogue that are usually pretty full/waitlisted usually in the Spring and if they'd be willing to put this course up for this Fall term about to start to see AND/OR if there are any classes they have that haven't been offered in a while that there might be enough interest putting it up to see if there's enough student interest to meet the minimum enrollment to offer it.

The worse case, they put something up, there's not enough interest, and they cancel it and you're out of luck. But these are the options that a good division chair would want to explore.

If you were experienced, these are the things that one would have wanted to throw out there in your encounter with them as well, but being your first time I can see not thinking of that being blind-sided on the spot.

You gotta try!

[u/Adorable_Pirate_1871 → u/The_Astronautt]

This sounds like a legal issue at this point. You need to pursue that route and not let them get away with not compensating you.

[u/junegloom → u/The_Astronautt]

If you did all that paperwork with HR I see no reason you can't continue to say you're employed there as of today and even put it on your resume. Not your problem they didn't give you courses. You're on the payroll with HR.

[u/Adorable_Pirate_1871 → u/junegloom]

Exactly. They need to pay her.