Life sure does get a lot easier when you actually LISTEN TO PEOPLE.

Hey, I know we’re all busy, but come on, open your ears once in a while!

Check out this story from Reddit’s “Am I the *******?” page and see if you think this person has done anything wrong.

AITA for not grading papers/finals as a professor’s grader?

“I currently work part time as a Grader at a university.

This is different than a Teaching Assistant. A Grader does not interact with students, doesn’t teach sections, and strictly just grades student materials based on the professor’s rubric.

The professor I work for is very busy. She teaches 4 total classes and recently lost her house in a fire, which had caused her a lot of stress and has made her very disorganized (understandably so). This class has about 45 students.

They’ve got a lot going on.

This semester I am graduating from graduate school and have a lot on my plate, especially during the last week of school (finals week). I have ongoing mandatory obligations like several graduation ceremonies, panels to speak at, job interviews, family obligations, my own final exams, etc.

A couple days after this professor’s exam (on a Wednesday) I will be abroad on a university-funded academic program (starting on that Friday).

I communicated this timeline one month before this class’ final exam, and her response to my message was “Sounds good. You can proctor the exam and I can pick up the exams from you after,” which I agreed to do.

A problem popped up…

Here comes the part where I might be the *******: one week before the final exam, she asks me to grade two different projects, and whether it is doable before the exam date.

I tell her that I can certainly have one finished before the exam date, but the other I will likely not be able to finish.

She says this is fine, and that I can grade the second item after the exam. Now, I only have a two hour period of time where I can set aside time to grade – the morning right after the exam.

Otherwise, I’m out of the house at my graduation or on a plane. So, I tell her I only have that availability, and I’ve communicated my timeline to her a month ago. I then graded all of item 1 before the exam date.

This lady clearly hadn’t been paying attention.

Her response: “So what about your grading commitments? I was under the impression that you will finish grading all the essays/papers and then rush to grade all the final exams before you leave.”

This is where I am quite confused. She did not explicitly ask me to grade the final exams, she asked me to proctor the exam and that she would pick them up. It was also not communicated that I would be rushing to get all items done all in that last week.

Had she wanted them done, in my opinion, she would have provided the grading rubrics (as she always does), and she didn’t.

She expressed frustration that I would not be able to grade item 2 or the final exams with passive aggressive language, that grading cannot be split between people because they have to be graded under the same criteria and conditions.

I did not know this beforehand but I understand the reasoning there.

This was all clearly miscommunication and misunderstanding. Should I have read between the lines more? For context, I am autistic, so it is difficult for me to function based on assumptions and not clear instructions.

AITA?”

Reddit users shared their thoughts.

This person said they’re NTA.

Another individual agreed.

This Reddit user weighed in.

Another Reddit user shared their thoughts.

And this person spoke up.

They tried to tell her, but the professor didn’t listen…

If you liked that post, check out this story about a guy who was forced to sleep on the couch at his wife’s family’s house, so he went to a hotel instead.