[CAUT] private clientele; was pin drop -- thanks

[Jeff Tanner]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Susan Kline" <skline at peak.org>
To: <caut at ptg.org>
Sent: Tuesday, November 03, 2009 11:17 AM
Subject: [CAUT] pin drop -- thanks


> A private clientele built up over years I feel is a real safety
> factor, especially if one might someday be faced with getting
> fired (as a surprising number of us are now and then.)

Hey Susan,
I realize you are in support of the arrangement of having two part time 
techs as opposed to one full time. But just to play devil's advocate, 
consider you're often bringing in a tech for a part time job from outside 
the area who doesn't have an established local clientele. (not every college 
town is flooded with well-skilled piano tuners)  That would be a tough sell. 
It can take a lot of time to build up 10 - 15 private clients a week for 
that supplement (that's as many as 750 jobs a year). So, you're only 
attracting techs who can live on peanuts for a while. That might mean 
beginners or not-so-well-skilled individuals.

The private clientele is a bit of a two-edged sword. First, if it is 
expected that we are going to pursue the private clientele, naturally, the 
dean or director is going to use that as an excuse to not set the salary 
where it should be - it essentially becomes a part of your university salary 
structure.  Then, when you're faced with the necessity of maintaining the 
private clientele to pay the light bill and buy groceries, at some point you 
will be faced with a choice between a late-requested Saturday tuning at the 
U or the much needed $400 day you had scheduled. When that comes up, you're 
faced with the choice of compromising your responsibilities at the U or 
risking the loss of private customers when you have to cancel, say, a tuning 
for a private recital or other scheduled event at the last minute. 
Depending on the town where you live, word can get around that if you have 
to cancel something because of your obligation to the university, you may 
not be considered reliable.

Dealerships generally don't allow employed techs to moonlight because it 
erodes the loyalty of the employee to the employer, not to mention it cuts 
into the profitability of the employer when the employee is doing jobs the 
employer would be making money on.  Dealers realize techs have the choice of 
going it on their own and that's what the compensation will be based on. 
Universities just look to see what other universities are paying and assume 
moonlighting will be a part of the deal.  They don't consider that the tech 
can make in two days what they make in a week at the U.

I agree the private clientele is somewhat of a safety factor.  But if that 
employer relationship is terminated, what you have accumulated won't be 
enough. The private clientele can also be the reason the employer 
relationship is terminated if it becomes more necessary than the university 
income.  I have said before, that once a piano tuner leaves the private 
sector to take a position with an employer, it is very difficult to reenter 
the private sector.  There can really be a sense of being trapped.  If the 
person who took my place hadn't been a local tech with an established 
clientele he was willing to sell me, we would have had a much rougher time 
than we've had.

I would rather that we insist on salaries that do not require moonlighting 
to supplement the income. We are then, at least, somewhat protected by 
unemployment in the event of being terminated. But more importantly it also 
more accurately compensates our skills. The irony of it all, then, is that 
higher salaries create competition for higher skills.

Plus
> the variety of private clients, and the sociability, and
> especially the absence of campus politics and governance would be
> a nice break from unrelieved full time institutional work.

Oh, what a nice break it has been this last year and a half!  What a breath 
of fresh air to be around people who have regular lives and live in the real 
world!  While I've done some contract U work, I have no desire to ever 
return to the cage that is full time institutional work.

Jeff