[CAUT] CAUT job description vis-a-vis salary level (was:

[Ron Poire]

Very good.
My supervisor knew I had good managerial skills, and still they decided to 
outsource my job.

Ron Poire

former technician
U of Mn School of Music


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Israel Stein " <custos3 at comcast.net>
To: <caut at ptg.org>
Sent: Tuesday, November 13, 2007 4:45 PM
Subject: [CAUT] CAUT job description vis-a-vis salary level (was:


> Tue, 13 Nov 2007 14:37:56 -0500 Eric Wolfley wrote:
>
>>State systems don't recognize merit, they go mainly on job descriptions 
>>and are supposed to align job
>>responsibilities with salary levels. If your job description says you are 
>>a mechanic that works on pianos,
>>they will equate your position and salary to the state car-pool mechanic. 
>>If your job description says you direct
>>and manage budgets and inventories, advise and consult with faculty, 
>>supervise student help, prepare
>>instruments for visiting artists, etc, etc, they'll be comparing you to 
>>supervisory or managerial positions.
>>In the past you've said that you are the only piano technician in the 
>>state system.you've got to convince
>>them to look at other state institutions for comparisons. That's what they 
>>did here for me. In the end, they
>>had to create a new position in which to put me because I didn't fit 
>>anywhere else.
>
> Eric,
>
> This is an interesting perspective, which perhaps has been neglected in 
> the current discussion, and may have broader implications. Perhaps we have 
> been barking up the wrong tree all along, thinking that by proving ever 
> higher-level piano skills - whether through testing or curriculum 
> certification - we may someday convince "management" that we are worthy of 
> a professional-level compensation. Perhaps the CAUT accreditation - 
> whatever form it takes - needs to stress management skills in order to 
> position the job description in a higher paying classification. As you 
> imply, the most skilled mechanic is still just a mechanic...
>
> There are many precedents where practitioners repositioned themselves into 
> higher job descriptions by augmenting the skill set associated with their 
> profession. The classic example would be nurses who in the early part of 
> the 20th century raised their job description from bedpan carriers and 
> bandage changers to direct deliverers of health care - by developing a 
> science-based curriculum.  Just about any other "profession" raised itself 
> to its present status by a similar expansion of its skill set beyond the 
> craft itself. Fact is, we piano people are still working and presenting 
> ourselves the same way as just about all other professions did in the 19th 
> century...
>
> So perhaps the CAUT credential needs to stress ancillary skills - such as 
> management related to pianos - that would push us above being mere 
> mechanics. Because as long as we try to be only the best possible piano 
> technicians that we can be - well, great piano technicians are still just 
> very specialized mechanics... From what Eric writes above, perhaps we need 
> to be thinking beyond that...
>
> Just food for thought...
>
> Israel Stein
>
>