It IS a full time job

[Newton Hunt]

Hi Wim,

Do keep track of your hours, carefully.  You will need to have the comp
time as the years go by.

Post a list of the pianos, their locations and when they were tuned or
serviced last and when they will be serviced next.  Put this in a
conspicuous place with your phone number and emergency service request
forms (with a graphic of a full sized keyboard) attached to the list. 
That way you know and everyone else knows when their piano is due and
will rarely request to have a tuning before they are scheduled for it.

Right now you are the hero, solving problems that laid dormant for
years.  Later you will become a common fixture and as you increase the
value and performance of the instruments you will become a requirement
and then later you will become a slave with impossible demands made upon
your time, skills and abilities, especially the time.  You will become a
common item and taken for granted then reviled because you were unable
to fulfill some minor issue.

Get and keep a copy of your job description, that is a contract between
you and the school, and don't get into the habit of going beyond that
description.  Define your and the departments expectations and get that
into a statement of intent so that they cannot say you have not
fulfilled the requirements of your job.

Chair persons change, deans change and with those changes comes changes
in the political environments.  Keep track of the changes, understand
the politics that are playing out and keep out of the politics but
carefully evaluate how those issues may impact you and your job.

75 pianos is a lot but manageable.  Try 145 sometime.  Do NOT work
yourself beyond what you would do for yourself in the field.  Set a pace
and a work load that is productive, realistic, value increasing but not
one that you will not be able to fulfill if you become ill or as you
become a dirty old man.

Watch your tongue.  Keep a dairy of what happens to you, who says what,
who did what, what you said, did or did not do.  This may well become a
valuable document beyond measure if something comes up on a future
date.  You will be keeping records of the work you did, it's real market
value and setting up records of everything about the pianos.  Just add a
place where you can enter notes of the events of that day.

Think of me as being paranoid if you wish but I have been there and have
been the victim of political ass holes (sorry, anal voids).  No one ever
said professors are smart, they are people and the politics in some
places can be very intense.

Keep an ear on the tone of the department.

I loved my work, the department, what I could do, what I brought to the
students and the faculty and the way I was able to bring the pianos up
from the basement to the upper floors of value and performance.  I loved
my shop and the things I could do with my tools.  99% of what was there
was mine and when I left it all went with me.  I gutted the place
leaving only those things the department paid for.  Some of which I
still wish I had with me.

I loved the intellectual stimulation, the music, the campus, the
students and what I was able to bring to the place.  My job.

I wish I was there still.

Remember, cover your ass with paper work and documentation.

Best of luck to each of you and happy Thanksgiving.

		Newton