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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Dear CAUTers,</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Yes. After 9 1/2 years, I've left my position
at the University of South Carolina. The responsibilities and difficulties
of the situation were growing too fast for one person to have any
chance of keeping up and the salary was never going to support living in the
local community - not for raising a family at least. The
time requirements were getting unpredictable and increasing moonlighting
requirements were making it more and more difficult to be committed to the
unrealistic requirements of the staff position. I'm planning to
compose an email to the list for anyone interested in applying for the position
to know what to expect. In fact, I already have, but it was too long and
involved to send. In the meantime, if anyone has questions about the
situation, feel free to email me privately at this address.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Important things one needs to know about this
particular situation: The benefits are not free on top of the salary.
Employee contributions to benefits are a significant deduction from the
paycheck. At $52K, my daily take home pay was just shy of $134, or
just under $2900/month. The 2008-09 SC budget only provides for a 1% COL
increase for state employees. Just three years ago, we had come through a 2 year
period of salary freezes and I look for that to happen again next
year. There is no tuition assistance for families. Children of employees do
not go to college free or reduced, and USC has a relatively high tuition for
state flagship schools in the region. The employee can take up
to 3 hours per semester if class space is available. Building
outside private business in the local sector is very slow and
often requires traveling well outside the local area. While some university
techs regularly get calls because of their position, I averaged perhaps 2
calls a year, one of which was asking about the value of their piano for
sale. Do not assume you won't have to moonlight. Unless you are financially
independent, the advertised salary will not support a home, car payment,
utilities, food and clothing in the local area. Do not expect to come in for a
lower salary and get it adjusted upward later. The system doesn't allow
for that type of employee rewarding. You must negotiate the salary
you expect at hire. The system limits performance increases to 10%, but
don't expect to ever see a 10% performance increase. You can only qualify
for a pay for performance increase once annually. With the price of gas
and food going up daily, that is a very long wait between salary
increases.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>One technician who called me about the position
opening expected that taking a university job would be an easier
life. I've found it to be an extremely difficult and stressful means
of earning an income. I was working 70 plus hours a week and
still living paycheck to paycheck. If you're young and planning a
family, I definitely cannot recommend it.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Probably the biggest reason I left was that the
performance expectations don't allow for much of a family life. I wasn't
raised that way and I couldn't continue to subject my family to that kind of
home life. If your idea of family life is the only time you see your wife
and children is when you kiss them goodnight (and often not then) and
put them on the school bus the next morning, then you may be ok with this
work. And yes, you get vacation leave, but you don't make enough money to
be able to take your family on vacation. We ran up a substantial amount of
debt trying to wait for the salary to get to a level we could just pay monthly
bills. It was time to stop going backwards.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Jeff Tanner</FONT></DIV></DIV></BODY></HTML>