And now I need some advice
Here's the sitch:
I have been hired for some work on campus with exams. As a "mandatory part of the hiring process", I attended a 3 hour training session. The pay for this? "Free pizza". Okay, I wasn't too pleased about that, but hey, I need some paid work and decided to suck it up and go. So I ate my weight in pizza and listened to people read off their powerpoint slides. It was a piss off to be in a mixed room: half students (payment: pizza), half staff (payment: salary, I would assume), but I managed to stay awake and keep the bitching to a quiet internal monologue.
But just now, I got an email, inviting me to a mandatory "breakfast meeting" scheduled for 8:30 in the morning next week, which will last two hours. There will be a "continental breakfast provided" (yes, I know I'm abusing the quotation mark at this point, but I'm mad). At the meeting, we will be oriented (seriously people, wtf? This isn't rocket science) and be able to sign up for shifts. The wording of the letter makes me believe that they think I'm going to show up for another 2 hours of unpaid work. At 8:30 am. On my birthday*. At this point, I'd like to send them an email back with instructions on how to print out, fold and insert my reply.
At the same time, I don't want to just send them a "take this job and shove it" letter, I want to a) point out that this is a barrier to my participation in the workplace as I don't have the economic means to do 5 hours of forced volunteer work in order to get a crummy job and b) register an official complaint with someone about these hiring practices if they ignore my concerns. Step 1 is to send in an email pointedly enquiring about the payment for attendance at the meeting. This first email should be relatively diplomatic and cheery (but pointed!), so that if it is all just a mistake and we actually do get paid for attendance, I don't cause my big mouth to talk its way out of the job. Anyone have any ideas of what I should say? Care to share my outrage? Or am I blowing this out of proportion?
*The icing on the (birthday) cake is that it takes me an hour to get to campus, and then an hour back.
Edited to add: Hi to those stopping by from Inside Higher Ed! I couldn't figure out where all the hits were coming from, and now I'm blushing a little for having my 15 minutes of fame be because of an anonymous rant. Ah, well, dahlings, I'll take it!
Further edited to add: Yes, dear reader, I have known the heartache of working on my birthday before. Please cancel the consolatory bouquet you just ordered. I'm fine, really.
I have been hired for some work on campus with exams. As a "mandatory part of the hiring process", I attended a 3 hour training session. The pay for this? "Free pizza". Okay, I wasn't too pleased about that, but hey, I need some paid work and decided to suck it up and go. So I ate my weight in pizza and listened to people read off their powerpoint slides. It was a piss off to be in a mixed room: half students (payment: pizza), half staff (payment: salary, I would assume), but I managed to stay awake and keep the bitching to a quiet internal monologue.
But just now, I got an email, inviting me to a mandatory "breakfast meeting" scheduled for 8:30 in the morning next week, which will last two hours. There will be a "continental breakfast provided" (yes, I know I'm abusing the quotation mark at this point, but I'm mad). At the meeting, we will be oriented (seriously people, wtf? This isn't rocket science) and be able to sign up for shifts. The wording of the letter makes me believe that they think I'm going to show up for another 2 hours of unpaid work. At 8:30 am. On my birthday*. At this point, I'd like to send them an email back with instructions on how to print out, fold and insert my reply.
At the same time, I don't want to just send them a "take this job and shove it" letter, I want to a) point out that this is a barrier to my participation in the workplace as I don't have the economic means to do 5 hours of forced volunteer work in order to get a crummy job and b) register an official complaint with someone about these hiring practices if they ignore my concerns. Step 1 is to send in an email pointedly enquiring about the payment for attendance at the meeting. This first email should be relatively diplomatic and cheery (but pointed!), so that if it is all just a mistake and we actually do get paid for attendance, I don't cause my big mouth to talk its way out of the job. Anyone have any ideas of what I should say? Care to share my outrage? Or am I blowing this out of proportion?
*The icing on the (birthday) cake is that it takes me an hour to get to campus, and then an hour back.
Edited to add: Hi to those stopping by from Inside Higher Ed! I couldn't figure out where all the hits were coming from, and now I'm blushing a little for having my 15 minutes of fame be because of an anonymous rant. Ah, well, dahlings, I'll take it!
Further edited to add: Yes, dear reader, I have known the heartache of working on my birthday before. Please cancel the consolatory bouquet you just ordered. I'm fine, really.
posted by grad student hack at 5:56 PM
5 Comments:
Kill them with kindness and don't burn your bridges. That doesn't mean you're not being "true to yourself"; it simply means you're being more professional than they are (by paying you with food, not cash).
The fact that the meeting was *gasp* on your birthday tells me you haven't had too many of them.
Didn't ANY of your advisors tell you that this is what it will be like for people in the humanities/ arts? It won't get any easier. When you get that degree, count on 500+ competitors for every TT opening.
Thanks for the advice anon. I did go, it was fine, I'm counting it as work hours...I usually rant here, act like a diplomat in the 'real world'.
Oh, and to set it straight a little: I've taught, had meetings, graded, dug ditches, and every other work-type thing on my birthday. It's almost always on a weekday, right at end of term, so there's never a chance to run off to Fiji for the weekend. It was just icing on the cake baby, icing on the cake.
Oh, and no one tells you anything about academic life when you are in school. Never. That's why there's a blogosphere populated with the likes of us. The closest my dear advisor has come to this is casually mentioning that our discipline "sucks", at our last meeting. ;)
Your birthday is "almost always on a weekday."
^__^
Mine too. Isn't that a coincidence?
Lol. I'd suggest we start a club, but I fear we might gain an almost limitless membership of the Birthday Disgruntled. :)
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