Office open 9-12

So I've been working at the university for almost a month now.

And now I understand why so many public services are open so few hours. And why so many people are crabby (although it still doesn't excuse them).

I am a 'contractuel", meaning temporary employee, but some of my colleagues have been employed like that for years. The university basically has no other employment options if more civil servant positions aren't approved by Paris.

Being a temporary employee means a 10 month contract from September 1 to June 30th that can be renewed as many times as they like. The public sector doesn't have to offer you a CDI after a certain period or number of CDD contracts like the private sector does. Many of my colleagues are experts on the complicated unemployment process for the summer months as well (you apply to Pole Emploi, who rejects you because it's the university that pays your unemployment, and then you go back to the university to fill out their papers, and get your check 4 months later).

Besides this being kind of a pain for people who stay at the university long term, this means that many desks are empty for 2 months of the year. Two months of emails not being answered, mail not being opened, files not being sorted.... you can imagine the mess when you start again in September. Many of the civil servants cover the basics (urgent emails, etc) since they stay longer during the summer and come back to work before September 1st, but no one can do 2 jobs at once.

One of the things I've been surprised by is my quickly developing sense of dread when students (especially Erasmus) stop by with questions/problems. I'm still in training, so it's hard when I don't know all the answers, but I could almost describe my job as not conducive to receiving students. We tell students that our offices are only open to them in the morning, and initially I thought this would be a rule I wouldn't really enforce because it was always a pain in the butt for me when I was a student. But I've already told students stopping by in the afternoon to come back tomorrow morning! If I didn't, I wouldn't get any work done because it often requires stretches of uninterrupted attention.

Having, or needing, to turn students away really goes against my American sense of customer service, but one month in I really see why I can't offer an American level of service at a French university. One of the reasons American universities can be so welcoming for students is because they do a lot of work ahead of time, so things are ready when students arrive in September (not the case for me), and also because they have so many people behind the scenes making sure everything runs smoothly. And that simply doesn't exist in France.

As my husband says, I'm lucky I don't have upset people like at the Sécu or the Préfecture in front of me. Most of the students and professors I deal with are great. But I have had a few angry calls from students complaining about delays in last year's grades.

So the next time some office closes early or is only open a few days a week, know it's not because they're angry. They just have so much work and too few people that they try to make it manageable by limiting how many new cases they receive.