Since December 31, I have not been officially employed by my university. This is not quite as bad as it sounds, but in a way it is. I am in what is called a one-year “term position.” What this means is that while the administrators realize the need for people fill the role that I am filling at the university, the bean counters do not want to commit to the creation of an actual contracted position.
Unfortunately, for one co-worker and myself, our term ends right around the holidays, when our human resources department is otherwise occupied and can’t be bothered to renew our term position in a timely fashion. This stings a bit more this year because they recently installed electronic door locks, and we have to endure the insult of not being able to unlock our own office doors because of expired ID cards. I also have to worry about being ticketed because I do not have a valid parking sticker (I would be reimbursed for the fine, but still…).
Each year my manager fights to have our term positions made permanent, and each year his request is denied. This begs the question—how little do the “higher-ups” value the services that we perform for the university community?
Granted, the chance of our positions not being renewed is very slim, and given the infinitesimal chance of such a thing occurring, my manager’s boss would work hard to rectify the situation. Still though…one of the perks of working in academic administration is the stability of employment. If I don’t even have that, I have to really question what is keeping me in my current place of employ.
I guess the only important question now is, “Am I happy?” And, if not, would finding employment elsewhere provide that happiness?
I have been searching for my “niche” for some time now, and I left employment at Princeton once before because I was not quite sure that it was where I would find my niche, but now I’m back, and I have been back for over two and a half years, and I still wonder…
I was in your same position for almost six years. Well technically I still am in the same position, but recently got a new job that will make me permanent. For the last year I had to (almost literally) fight my boss EVERY MONTH to be able to stay just 30 more days, it was a complete nightmare. It was budget related, not her personal feelings towards me, but it still was miserable. I hope you become permanent soon :)
Year-to-year is a pain, but I couldn’t imagine month-to-month. Ack! It’s good to hear that your situation will soon stabilize.
Sometimes, though, the budget excuse seems to be a weak one, especially (at least in my case) when one sees tremendous amounts of money wasted elsewhere in the organization.
I think it’s a good idea to have this kind of dialogue with yourself every few years, just to avoid falling into complacency and waking up a few years later to realize you hate what you do and are only doing it for the money.
Ugh, tell me about it. I work for the government, can you think of a place that wastes things better than us?? ;)
Yes, complacency can be a very bad thing.
Doing it just for the money is not a concern I have in my current position; in fact, lack of this is making we wonder whether I could do better outside academia.
The prime advantage of my job is a great boss and great co-workers. Also, I feel “safe” in my current position, despite the absurdity of the term position mess (which my boss was able to resolve today).
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My first encounter with government waste on a grand scale was when my psyops unit had one million copies of a leaflet printed, then the mission changed, and they were all incinerated because the mission was classified.