take this job and shove it (was let's cut..)

[Rick Florence]

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>From the "if your job is so bad, why don't you get a new one" department:

I have to admit, I tire easily following this type of discussion.  I'm sick
of hearing about what a lousy life we have as piano technicians.  It's like
we are the Rodney Dangerfields of the service industry.  The way I see it,
we have three choices:

1.  Change nothing and keep complaining about it.

2.  Be creative and find a way to make our individual situations work for
us.

3.  Take all the time wasted whining, writing about how important we are,
and proposing new and improved guidelines, and use it to upgrade our
education and find a new job! That way we will all be better off.  Some will
no doubt have a better job and, according to the laws of economics (supply
and demand), those of us who remain can expect to see higher wages:-)

It seems to me that real job security (and a decent salary) in our
profession comes from two sources:

1.  Making ourselves indispensable.  Administrators (bean counters, or
whatever else you want to call them) tend to listen to one voice - faculty.
Charts mean nothing - I find it rather ironic that though we despise the
bean counter mentality, we would want to become such ourselves ("If I could
draw your attention to chart 3b, you will see that an increase in funding of
25% will lead to an overall instrument longevity factor of 32.6% a net
increase of 7.2% without taking into account inflation.  To do so please
refer to chart 37c" - GAG!).  Faculty is concerned about the performance
hall, the studio, and sometimes the practice rooms.  They don't care how
long a piano will last, they want it performing now.  If they really cared
about longevity we would never have to harp about limited practice time on
teaching and performance instruments or putting covers back on pianos.  If
we can convince faculty, by demonstration of our skills, how much better
their teaching and performing lives are with us around, they will do most of
our bidding.  

2.  Comparing our program to peer institutions.  Someone else has briefly
mentioned this, but it needs to be included in our discussions with
administrators.  Nothing gets faculty or administration hotter than showing
them how much better off one of their peer institutions is.  Academia is
kind of silly that way, but it thrives on this constant comparison and
"keeping up with the Jones" mentality.  We need to use it to our advantage.

Funds in the arts will always be scarce.  We can either whine about it or be
creative and find new revenue streams - good ideas Rolf!


Gotta get back to work,

Rick


on 6/18/03 7:50 AM, Wimblees@aol.com at Wimblees@aol.com wrote:

In a message dated 6/17/03 9:03:23 PM Central Daylight Time,
pianos@traverse.net writes:

We need to think creatively not only about ways to
spend money but ways to raise it as well.  To that end Interlochen Center
for the
Arts recently created what I think may be the first endowed chair of piano
technology in the country.


While on the one hand this is a great idea, what bothers me about this is
that not only do we have to work for a living, if this trend continues, it
looks like we will also have to work to find the money to pay us.

Unfortunately, this is not just a minor problem with finding funds to pay
the piano technician. This falls under the larger umbrella of funding the
arts. In the United States, funding for the arts has always been a problem.
While people will pay hundreds of dollars to attend athletic events, and
think nothing of plunking down $20,000 to buy a fishing boat, which they use
twice a year, asking them to give $50, much less $5000, to help pay for the
arts, falls on deaf ears.

If we are going to have to raise our own salary, it become even more
imperative that we can show how the money is going to be used, and used
judiciously. That is why we need to have in place charts showing how
properly maintained instruments will not only play and sound better, but
last longer. 

Wim 




_____________
Rick Florence
Piano Technician
Arizona State University, School of Music


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