Do I look like a senator to you?

[clevermanka]

I was just approached by someone who works in the college about serving on KU's University Support Staff Senate. She thinks I would be especially good in the legislative affairs subcommittee which lobbies state reps and senators for state-wide classified support staff interests.

The only reason I'm even considering accepting her nomination for the position is there've been rumors for a couple years about moving support staff from Classified (basically, hourly pay rate) to Unclassified (salaried). Those rumors are looking more and more likely to become reality in the next three to five years, and that makes me nervous. I know there are perks to being salaried, but I am quite fond of the simple in-and-out exchange of being an hourly employee. That and I don't trust the system not to fuck us over with any sort of classification change. If it's going to happen anyway (and it looks like it might) it would be kind of nice to scream pointlessly into the wind have my voice heard during the transition.

But do I want to add this to my already-significantly-increased workload now?

Magic 8 Ball says Answer Hazy. Try Again Later.

Comments

[msmitti.livejournal.com]

I think a lot of people would be seriously screwed being salaried, particularly in your line of work that seems to have massive influxes of work periodically.

You would do this during work time, correct? Has your department replaced (are they planning on replacing) the secretary that left? Will this be an even workload all year, or will it also have high and low points?

[clevermanka.livejournal.com]

Yes, I would do this during work hours.

The secretary that left for the shared service center will not be replaced. We've completely lost the funding for that position.

I don't think it's possible to have an even workload while working in academia. At least not working with departments. If you're in purely administration (like HR or finance, etc.), sure. But otherwise, no. There's no way to even out the workload across the year.

[kalimeg.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah -- salaried eliminates overtime pay except under some very special circumstances. I am happy to be back at hourly, myself.

[redheadfae.livejournal.com]

That's disturbing.

[clevermanka.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I agree. Going to salaried makes no sense if one isn't a manager of some sort. Putting non-managerial administrative staff in salaried positions just screams We Are Trying To Find A Way To Fuck You Over.

[redheadfae.livejournal.com]

Ugh, yes, it leaves the door open to cut benefits or change them and/or retirement matching. Bleh.

[shrijani.livejournal.com]

Does the university have to be compliant with FLSA (http://www.dol.gov/whd/regs/compliance/fairpay/fs17a_overview.pdf)? If they can't exempt existing positions based upon the language in the linked document, they may be able to just do some "job enrichment" to close any compliance gaps in non-managerial admin standard duties/responsibilities. Assholes.

[shrijani.livejournal.com]

It might just be as simple as not them not wanting to pay overtime.

Based on my experience in the corporate world, benefits and retirement matching may be changed regardless of FLSA classification, unless there is an actual contract, and contracts can be renegotiated at intervals.

[alryssa.livejournal.com]

Yeah; I have another friend who works at MSU's "Stupid Services" and they go through frenetic periods and then slightly-less-than-frenetic periods throughout the year; it's just the nature of the beast.

[clevermanka.livejournal.com]

Or provide comp time for over hours.

[clevermanka.livejournal.com]

I am convinced that if a business wants to get around a regulation, it can. And with the recent hiring of Huron Corp. to advise KU's administration on how to Better Itself, we are becoming more and more a business every day.

Me no likey.

[shrijani.livejournal.com]

I know of some areas where they do that already. They're under no obligation to provide comp hours to exempt employees, of course.

[shrijani.livejournal.com]

I am convinced that if a business wants to get around a regulation, it can.

Absolutely. All they have to do to be prepared for an audit that will never happen is change the documented job description.

[grnvixen.livejournal.com]

We already are "University Support Staff" here. It's 'sort of' unclassified. Everyone had to vote for it, but it only took a simple majority. So far, so good, still waiting for a few things to shake out.

[clevermanka.livejournal.com]

Ugh.

[redheadfae.livejournal.com]

True.
I'm thinking about how it works at LMH.. if you contribute a percentage to your retirement and get overtime, they still pay into retirement and match the overtime monies. It could be different elsewhere, where overtime doesn't go into the calculation for retirement contributions.

[shrijani.livejournal.com]

Another thing an organization can do is just reduce their match rate, or stop matching altogether for a period of time. When the job market is shit like it is now, they don't have to worry so much about people changing jobs to get better benefits. When the job market improves and they feel that have to start worrying about retention again, they can ramp benefits back up. What a fucking racket.

[redheadfae.livejournal.com]

I suppose I can remain grateful that LMH has held up their end for Jbird's wages and match rate, it's actually increased this year, due to his anniversary.

I think I've only worked for one place that actually had a retirement and matched contributions. I have zero retirement.

[aprilstarchild.livejournal.com]

I've never wanted a salaried job. God dammit, when I'm done with eight hours of work, I am out of the building unless we've negotiated for me to get paid time and a half.

I hear "salaried" and I hear "we can make you work extra and you won't even get paid for it." No fucking way. 40 hours a week is pretty much my limit while retaining my sanity.

[clevermanka.livejournal.com]

EXACTLY.

[msmitti.livejournal.com]

I think a lot of people would be seriously screwed being salaried, particularly in your line of work that seems to have massive influxes of work periodically.

You would do this during work time, correct? Has your department replaced (are they planning on replacing) the secretary that left? Will this be an even workload all year, or will it also have high and low points?

[clevermanka.livejournal.com]

Yes, I would do this during work hours.

The secretary that left for the shared service center will not be replaced. We've completely lost the funding for that position.

I don't think it's possible to have an even workload while working in academia. At least not working with departments. If you're in purely administration (like HR or finance, etc.), sure. But otherwise, no. There's no way to even out the workload across the year.

[kalimeg.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah -- salaried eliminates overtime pay except under some very special circumstances. I am happy to be back at hourly, myself.

[redheadfae.livejournal.com]

That's disturbing.

[clevermanka.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I agree. Going to salaried makes no sense if one isn't a manager of some sort. Putting non-managerial administrative staff in salaried positions just screams We Are Trying To Find A Way To Fuck You Over.

[redheadfae.livejournal.com]

Ugh, yes, it leaves the door open to cut benefits or change them and/or retirement matching. Bleh.

[zitronenhai.livejournal.com]

Does the university have to be compliant with FLSA (http://www.dol.gov/whd/regs/compliance/fairpay/fs17a_overview.pdf)? If they can't exempt existing positions based upon the language in the linked document, they may be able to just do some "job enrichment" to close any compliance gaps in non-managerial admin standard duties/responsibilities. Assholes.

[zitronenhai.livejournal.com]

It might just be as simple as not them not wanting to pay overtime.

Based on my experience in the corporate world, benefits and retirement matching may be changed regardless of FLSA classification, unless there is an actual contract, and contracts can be renegotiated at intervals.

[alryssa.livejournal.com]

Yeah; I have another friend who works at MSU's "Stupid Services" and they go through frenetic periods and then slightly-less-than-frenetic periods throughout the year; it's just the nature of the beast.

[clevermanka.livejournal.com]

Or provide comp time for over hours.

[clevermanka.livejournal.com]

I am convinced that if a business wants to get around a regulation, it can. And with the recent hiring of Huron Corp. to advise KU's administration on how to Better Itself, we are becoming more and more a business every day.

Me no likey.

[zitronenhai.livejournal.com]

I know of some areas where they do that already. They're under no obligation to provide comp hours to exempt employees, of course.

[zitronenhai.livejournal.com]

I am convinced that if a business wants to get around a regulation, it can.

Absolutely. All they have to do to be prepared for an audit that will never happen is change the documented job description.

[grnvixen.livejournal.com]

We already are "University Support Staff" here. It's 'sort of' unclassified. Everyone had to vote for it, but it only took a simple majority. So far, so good, still waiting for a few things to shake out.

[clevermanka.livejournal.com]

Ugh.

[redheadfae.livejournal.com]

True.
I'm thinking about how it works at LMH.. if you contribute a percentage to your retirement and get overtime, they still pay into retirement and match the overtime monies. It could be different elsewhere, where overtime doesn't go into the calculation for retirement contributions.

[zitronenhai.livejournal.com]

Another thing an organization can do is just reduce their match rate, or stop matching altogether for a period of time. When the job market is shit like it is now, they don't have to worry so much about people changing jobs to get better benefits. When the job market improves and they feel that have to start worrying about retention again, they can ramp benefits back up. What a fucking racket.

[redheadfae.livejournal.com]

I suppose I can remain grateful that LMH has held up their end for Jbird's wages and match rate, it's actually increased this year, due to his anniversary.

I think I've only worked for one place that actually had a retirement and matched contributions. I have zero retirement.

[aprilstarchild.livejournal.com]

I've never wanted a salaried job. God dammit, when I'm done with eight hours of work, I am out of the building unless we've negotiated for me to get paid time and a half.

I hear "salaried" and I hear "we can make you work extra and you won't even get paid for it." No fucking way. 40 hours a week is pretty much my limit while retaining my sanity.

[clevermanka.livejournal.com]

EXACTLY.