insult at work

External Since: Dec 16, 2005 Posts: 56

Straydog wrote:

> Well, you need to keep the lists (I'm sure you have them) of names and
> telephone numbers. If someone resigns, then they take that name off the
> list and you can keep track of who and how many per year. If it is really
> zero, and at all levels, then maybe it is a default permanent job you
> already have (if you understand what i'm saying).

I had to use my old posting account for consistency.

Today I had a conversation with a colleague technician, a true-blue
middle-aged local. Without listening to my story, he said that people
were nowdays hired into the positions of one pay level below than what
they were supposed to get. He said this seemed to be a new trend in our
govt lab. (Someone even said that this was a trend in the whole
country/wolrd). The guys said that this was an insult from the
management to downgrade people's positions. I felt strken: I also
called this an insult as it follows from the subject line of the
initial posting.

I also noted another trend in hiring: our lab is 95% male, but about
60% of new hirees are women since the past 3 years. This might be a
sign of the ever-increasing marsch of the equal Employment Opportunity
and equal employment opportunities for women, or this could be a
consequence of the fact that our lab management decided that if they do
not produce anything useful anyway, then they just could imrove one
more thing -- be better from the Equal Employment Opprotunities and
Affirmative Action point of view. I would not say that the productivity
of the newly-hired women is better than that of an average male
employee. Some of them (women) are avoiding instruments and equipment.
Here is an example: we had a visit from a group of electrical engineers
from some other govt lab. Half of them were women. When our guy opened
up a gadget for everyone's perusal, there was a separation in room; all
men came forward too see the gadget better, all the women moved
backwards away from the gadget. Not interested, you see. What kind of
electrical engineers they are if they are not interested in the
objects of their trade ??

\/

External Since: Oct 23, 2005 Posts: 89

drocillo wrote:
>
> Today I had a conversation with a colleague technician, a true-blue
> middle-aged local. Without listening to my story, he said that people
> were nowadays hired into the positions of one pay level below than what
> they were supposed to get. He said this seemed to be a new trend in our
> govt lab. (Someone even said that this was a trend in the whole
> country/world). The guys said that this was an insult from the
> management to downgrade people's positions. I felt stricken: I also
> called this an insult as it follows from the subject line of the
> initial posting.
>

Someone is correct on that. What happens is inflation of actual work.
It goes down in the hierarchy both pay-wise and status-wise. For
instance, with some exceptions the practical treatment of patients is
done by physician assistants and nurses, legal work by paralegals,
science by postdocs and graduate students. If the professors from the
19th-the first part of 20 century were transferred here with the time
machine they would hardly called the modern professors scientists. It
is this upper managerial layer makes research so expensive here as it
consumes the lion share of resources. With this class burgeoning on the
limited government funds, naturally less and less money are available
for those who are below.

It is life. Take it easy.
Old Pif