I have to agree with you Opie. I think the good advisors are called to the job, the bad ones count the days until they can move on. You make a lot of very accurate points about the realities of these positions. During the school year, especially Panhellenic Recruitment, Greek Week, other big event, 70-80 hours a week is not unusual. Never, ever figure out what you earn hourly! It is too depressing.
For me the biggest downside is having bosses who just don't get it, and fail to see the improvements in the chapters over the last four years (higher gpa's, fewer risk management problems, more campus involvement, better events, etc) and don't provide me with a budget, a grad assistant, and won't even seriously consider the subject of Greek housing. My immediate supervisor
is most interested in my reports and paperwork and tells me I spend too much time with students!
Honestly, I love what I do, and I love the impact I have on my students. On a campus like ours, many students view me as the only person in "authority" that they can come and talk to. In this position, (if you make the connection with your students - that makes all the difference) not only are you an advisor on Greek matters, but a personal counselor, career counselor, academic advisor, financial advisor, and I am sometimes called on for Roadside Assistance (Greek advisor who can change a tire and owns jumper cables). It's worth it though for the times when I get invited to events like our Alpha Phi chapter's Parent's Luncheon and they introduce me saying things like "John's more than just an advisor to us, he's kind of like a surrogate dad away from home." (I teared up on that one) Or you get the invitations to weddings and graduation parties, or they bring their parents by to meet you when they come to visit.
A lot of times the Greek Advisor takes on the role of the "Them" in "Us vs. Them". On many big campuses, most Greeks have never even met the Greek Advisor, so their perceptions of that person are all based on policies and punishment. If you were actually to sit down and talk with your Greek Advisor, your opinion of that person might change
(of course it might not either, there are one or two of them out there that I feel the same way about
) After all, most of them are Greek too!
I know, I know, too d@$n wordy again. I'm shutting up now!