overworked: really, officially, overworked

This week I got the preliminary information about my teaching load for the coming semester. As it turns out, I'm scheduled for 5.5 more contact hours than I'm contractually allowed to work. I could do all this work. I could even do it well; but the university would have to pay me overtime, and they're never, ever going to do that.

The solution is to find me a TA to take some of the work--it would put me right at the maximum number of contact hours, the university can pay this person a lot less than they'd have to pay me, and the TA will get all of the much-talked-about benefits of being a TA.

I remember these. "Experience." "Real-world teaching." "Career preparation." "Mentoring."

All of which translate to "Working for almost no pay."

Not sure how I feel about that. It will really be good for this student--I will do my best to help him out, observe him, give him materials, do a lot of prep work for him, that sort of thing--but it's still going to be a lot of work and a lot of pressure for not a lot of reward. And he could definitely be using his time for practicing.

I hope it works out.