[CAUT] FW: Univ. of Tenn. Job Opening for Piano Technician

[David Ilvedson]

I would be interested in what some benefit packages really are...?   For instance, what generally does retirement give?   1/2 your salary + health insurance?   If you have to work on the cheap, what do you get when your done?   

David Ilvedson, RPT
Pacifica, CA  94044


----- Original message ----------------------------------------
From: "Horace Greeley" <hgreeley at stanford.edu>
To: "College and University Technicians" <caut at ptg.org>
Received: 8/16/2006 7:34:59 AM
Subject: Re: [CAUT] FW: Univ. of Tenn. Job Opening for Piano Technician



>Hi, Wim,

>At 06:36 AM 8/16/2006, you wrote:


>>Unfortunately, once UT hires someone at $16 ph, giving that person
>>raises comensurate with his or her growth will be not happen. After 5
>>years, I finally got a "real" raise this year, but not until I made a
>>very strong plea.

>Yup.

>Most of the "strong plea"s I have made over the years have happened 
>along the lines of:  "Well...gee, too bad this doesn't seem to be 
>working...guess it's time for me to move on."  That is a real roll of 
>the dice.  Sometimes you win, sometimes not.  You have to be prepared 
>to move on.

>Also, I think it is important to know for whom you are working.  It 
>really is unreasonable to expect that institutions (however 
>well-meaning they might be) will pay anywhere close to "market" rate 
>in any given market.  That's a pretty broad statement; and much will 
>depend on in which part of the country you are working.  In the SF 
>Bay Area, the official poverty level for a family of four is ~ $52K 
>per year.  Most of the schools in the area use contract tuners at 
>varying rates.  The one exception of which I know is SF State, which 
>historically has split the bulk of the work between two positions.

>The trade-off is, of course, primarily whatever benefit packages are 
>available.  None of these are as good as they once were; but they are 
>often better than nothing.  I have only late in life learned to pay 
>myself first, so, for me, whatever benefits there might be are more 
>important than they might be to someone who has the business side of 
>the act better together.  I know technicians who have come into the 
>profession having either retired from something else and/or having 
>made reasonably good investments, can afford to make the change.

>Underlying all of this, though, is a point which I think Ed Foote has 
>noted to the effect that, if you really have your technical chops 
>together and functioning, your work and reputation will speak for 
>themselves, and you will, over time, have plenty to do...with or 
>without an institution behind you.

>Best.

>Horace