An afternoon at the zoo

They are only cute when their
mouths are shut

Our main office area sounded like a den of outraged howler monkeys yesterday afternoon when the new biennial parking lot assignments hit our desks. Six of our staff were assigned to the parking structure five blocks away, rather than to the surface lot directly behind our building.

While a number of spaces are reserved for patrons of the university-owned recreation center, there is quite a bit of room for employee parking directly outside the back door.

Or there was, until the law school was built.

The law faculty who didn't get into the underground parking of their own building realized that our lot, just a block away, was much closer than any of the other campus parking. Why not put in for spots there? (no one ever accused lawyers of being stupid)

"It's not faaaiiir!!" hung in the air all afternoon.

Is it fair? No.

Is it just? Yes.

Parking is assigned based on seniority; someone hired fifteen months ago has less chance of getting in this lot than someone hired fifteen years ago. If our little howlers are reassigned, someone else - someone with more seniority - must be bumped out.

My fear is that if my boss tries to make an issue of this with Parking Services, they will simply assign all of us to the structure, to eliminate the problem completely. I wouldn't blame them.

If that happens, our little howlers will face the wrath of the other thirty-five people who work in our office.

The new assignments took effect today. Did I mention that a severe thunderstorm camped over our city about six a.m., and is still going strong two hours later?

The smell of wet monkey is almost overwhelming...