Apparently, I work part-time.

In My Humble Opinion
21

Well, it feels like they lied to me - but honestly, I don’t think I have a contract. I kind of just showed up, signed up for health insurance, and started working. Looking through the papers I have, the only scrap of documentation I have is my “hiring letter,” which doesn’t look like a contract to me, unless contracts regularly have HTML links in them to health insurance forms.

In retrospect, I was lucky that my immediate supervisor took Friday off - it’s given me an enforced cooling off period. I anticipate having a meeting on Monday to discuss this situation, and I’m curious to see their response. I have a feeling it’s going to something like: “Salary X is deliberately high because we pay you part time, Salary Y is the appropriate salary for the work you do, we just neglected to tell you that. Our bad.”

I wish I could give more details about the field - I’m just afraid it would out me. I seriously doubt my immediate supervisor hangs out here, but you never know. It’s a small corner of science academia, with a lot of government influence. I thought about the lawyer thing, but I’m a little intimidated by the size of the organization backing my employer.

I actually did contact another possible position on Friday. Very quietly, just a little e-mail to ask if they still had the opening they were advertising previously. I got an almost immediate response asking for my CV, so we could start the interview process. I’m tempted - but I don’t think it’s very realistic. This is the next closest position to home - it’s about 250 miles farther from my family than my current position. Also complicating matters - I have a roommate here. I would kind of be screwing her over if I left. Of course, if I did leave, it would be a year from now, so I suppose it wouldn’t be a total disaster for her. Hiring at the last minute for this kind of job still equals a 12 month delay before you start work because the academic calender rules all. Ultimately, I feel like I’d be moving because I’m having a hissy-fit. The other job is also in a major east coast city and I doubt it much cheaper than here or that the salary would be all that much better.

I feel like switching jobs would basically just be me flipping off this current job. Which actually sounds like a wonderful idea right now, so I probably need to cool down a bit more.

I do appreciate all the advice though. It’s good to know that my fury isn’t totally out of proportion. I hadn’t thought about taking the Eric Cartman approach to problem solving, but thanks Snowboarder Bo.

22

Personally I’d have bailed at least half way into the 18 month silence period after the “you’re hired” conversation.

You are being taken advantage of, so if your conversation with TPTB doesn’t get you some concrete answers & a bigger paycheck (and I’d prefer a contract), then I’d say it’s time for a new job.

23

"… the number quoted to me in my hiring letter is what I would receive if I was being paid full time. Please note that I am not, in fact, working part time. I easily work 40+ hours a week. Oftentimes, it’s more. … Yesterday was the first I had heard anything about my “part-time” employment. It was not documented in my hiring letter. "

This seems like the important part. I would ask my supervisor to clarify. My company covers health insurance differently for full-time and part-time employees. This may clarify your status. Are you paying the full-timer rate or the part-timer rate for health insurance (if your company does it that way, too)?

If it’s really a part-time job, I would let them know that I’ll be leaving at noon every day (or whatever time) because I will need to have another part-time job to attend, and then go get one. That is not unreasonable, since you were expecting a full time job at the higher rate as quoted in your letter.

If it’s a full time job, I would make it clear that I expect to be paid at the rate they quoted.

24

Pursue the other job, regardless of how this plays out. Knowing you have another iron in the fire, will really help you to stay level headed and unpressured, I think. If you don’t, in fact, have a contract, you’d be a fool to do otherwise.

An employer, that would exploit you, in this fashion, (and they are not idiots, they took advantage, pretty clearly. No matter how they play it, they know what they’re doing, I promise!), will find ways to exploit you in others. They strung you along for a year before telling you your wage, and now they’ve tricked into working full time, while being paid part time. Ultimately people treat you the way you let them, and, so far, they’ve kind of learned they can walk all over you.

People in academia greatly over estimate their ‘reputation’ in the field, in my experience. There is no ‘permanent record’ entry that says “Incidental had a hissy fit”, (What a ridiculous interpretation, even/especially as internal dialogue. Knock that shit off!), and switched jobs, y’know? But there is a very qualified Incidental who left a job he waited a year to fill, was never signed to a contract, and mislead as to the salary, somewhat substantially.

They should be worried about *their *reputation, not the other way around. Who will want to come work with them if they find out how Incidental was treated? You should be most worried about what it will do to your future career trajectory if you suck this up. You are worth more, and you should know that.

What will, a couple of years, working with people who don’t respect you, and openly exploit you, do to your sense of your own value? Think hard about this part, is my advice.

25

Very true. I posted a lot about my PhD sis and her troubles finding work. She began to feel she was ‘blackballed’ in her academic field because she had so much trouble landing a job, even though there was no reason for her to feel that way. Don’t let your head play tricks on you. You sound like you are valuable in your field. You should be treated in a fair and reasonable way.

26

Can you clarify what you mean by part-time? Is this a situation where you’re paid a base nine-month salary for teaching and expected to fund your own summer salary through an outside research program? Or are you expected work 50 hours/week in the lab while being paid for just 30?

27

This is out of line for this forum. If you have a problem with another poster, Dag Otto, you should know by now to take it to the Pit. Knock off the personal attacks unless you’re there.

28

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

No idea what field the OP is in, but the fact that somebody always says this in job problem threads consistently cracks me up. Must be nice to just assume people have a union rep.

29

I would calculate how many hours I am being paid for each week, and not work an hour longer than that.

30

Short answer: don’t make assumptions, talk to a lawyer.

Longer answer: Lets just say that if all there was to it was your layman’s understanding of a contract, then there wouldn’t be any such creature as an attorney who specializes in employment law. First of all, contracts need not take any particular form, or any written for of all (in most cases). A writing can be anything that embodies the agreement, including notes scrawled on a cocktail napkin. Second, even if there is no contract, you may be entitled to compensation for costs you incurred in reasonable reliance on their promise (promisorry estoppel). Third, the conditions of your employment may be violating laws in your state even if there’s no contract and no estoppel claim, entitling you to compensation, or authorizing fines against the employer even if not.

To know what you’ve got going on, you have to speak to an attorney. Your guesses and suppositions are not a firm basis for action.

31

I don’t think that’s what people who say that are doing, exactly . . .

32

Are you saying 40 hours was considered part-time, and 60-80+ was considered full-time? If that’s what you’re saying, that’s ridiculous. I do know employers often exploit salaried workers this way.

33

Do universities have some kind of exception to the 40-hour work week law?

You’re working full time. You’re not being paid what you were promised. This is illegal, and you are not the criminal here.

It’s so cute when institutions (some of whom are state governments) decide to underpay their employees, as if this will somehow reverse inflation. (Meanwhile the actual money supply keeps growing in someone else’s hands.)

34

They do it, secure in the knowledge, they hold this person’s academic ‘reputation’ in their hands.

At least in theory. These kinds of abuses actually occur quite regularly in academia. Advisers know they have their students at their mercy, in many ways.

I saw this go on, up close, with a couple of people pursuing master’s degrees. As soon as they stood up to it, everything changed. Turns out the advisers don’t really want you going to the Dean and inquiring about pay you were never given, etc.

That said, they continued to exploit those students too meek to stand up and say, “Er, um, no, actually!” Please don’t be one of them.

35

Considering that more than 85% of workers don’t belong to unions, this amuses me too.

I work for a university, and like every other place I’ve worked there are exempt and non-exempt employees. People who are hourly need to be paid overtime after 40 hours, and people who are salaried/exempt don’t, but you can only be exempt if you’re in a supervisory role more than half of your work hours. I thought that last bit was federal law, not state, so* is* **incidental **even supervising people more than 50% of the time?

36

I don’t think that’s at all universal - I’m definitely exempt and I supervise four hours a week. Most salaried people I know who have little to no supervisor duties are exempt.

37

Actually I assumed he did not have a union rep. It cracks me up that someone with a P.H.D. in some esoteric field that is so sparsely populated that everyone in it would know whe he was merely by identifying the field, would not know the standard method of determining the rate of pay. In fact I find the solutions recommended to the OP and the Op hilarious.

38

And then I looked through the thread for your sage advice for the solution to the problem and couldn’t find it anywhere.

39

Well I will say this much: “You will receive X dollars per year as your salary” is an offer that usually remains open for a reasonable time or until accepted or rescinded. If the OP accepted he should sue or attempt a compromise. However, “you will receive x dollars per year as your salary (paraphrased)” does not mean anything to me, but I am not a PHD.

40

OP, please post the exact language regarding the salary offer in the letter you received. I presume you still have the letter?