No department is without internal stress. I would venture to guess that no one's job is really without some office issues, whether or not it's some people who don't get along, major differences of opinion about how things should be run, or whatever. I learned last week that this department is no exception, and in fact found myself in a very odd situation.
There are two non-tenure-track members of the department here, and clearly there are some people who would like to promote them to "tt" positions. Of course, this is generally not allowed without a full (inter)national search, and then the internal people could interview and thus get hired. When I interviewed I assumed one of them would be also on the short list, which made my getting the offer that much more surprising.
During the departmental meeting, their names were brought up as we are doing another search this coming year. What was interesting about this, was that I was later told that during the search that ultimately got them to hire me, they couldn't decide on which of the two locals to invite for an interview, so instead chose neither of them, and invited me. Why they didn't invite both (it wouldn't cost anything since they are as local as you can get), I do not know. In the end, there is no animosity towards me as far as I can tell, but at the same time there were moments during the meeting where I really was feeling a tad awkward.
Finally, the big problem now is that the search essentially excludes either of these two being hired (long story), and this is what caused a big ruckus at our meeting. Again...awkward.
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