I work at a small, cash-strapped liberal arts college probably fairly similar to Nazareth in several particulars, and I’ve recently served on a search committee in philosophy. I’d say there’s plenty of blame to go around, but I’d put it about 75% on the college and 25% on the candidate.
Her requests are not reasonable for this type of institution (other than the maternity leave, and maybe a higher starting salary, though she shouldn’t expect to go that high). However, 1) she seems to have made them in the spirit of “hey, it can’t hurt to ask, and maybe I’ll actually get a few of the things I ask for” rather than “I AM ENTITLED TO HAVE ALL OF MY DEMANDS MET”; and 2) if she went straight from grad school at an elite research university to a postdoc at an elite research university, there’s a very good chance she doesn’t know what’s reasonable to expect at a SLAC, and her advisor and mentors may have been of no help whatsoever. (Much of the advice I got from faculty when I was on the job market was well-meant but seriously clueless about the realities of working outside of the large-research-university bubble, and that was at UNC-Chapel Hill; I’d hate to imagine what kinds of things faculty at Harvard tell their grad students. It’s also quite possible that as a female candidate, she’d been given the “women end up with lower salaries throughout their careers because they don’t negotiate at the point when they’re hired” speech, and had taken it too much to heart.) Most of what she is asking for, including the pre-tenure junior leave, would be standard or at least not outrageously unusual at a research institution. What she failed to recognize is that her job at an institution like Nazareth would be teaching, and that there are probably only two or three philosophy professors at most – they don’t have any incentive to offer her research leave or a chance to finish her postdoc, they need her to cover a wide variety of classes without complaining, and almost certainly need those classes covered immediately.
Also, it’s just plain bad form for an institution to rescind an offer once it’s made, just as it is bad form for the candidate to back out after accepting. The college’s next move should have been “sorry, our original salary offer stands, and we can’t offer junior leave or reduced preps, take it or leave it,” rather than “You can’t dump us, WE’RE DUMPING YOU.”
I find some of her positions not entirely unreasonable, after all women are the ones who bear children, and reasonable accommodation for these activities can be expected.
But the tone, the whole impression I get is of someone with an absurdly exaggerated sense of entitlement and an ego the size of Mt. Rushmore.
I’m assuming this varies, but at my school (large public university) the “office associates” in the dept are the only ones making 40 grand. The assistant professor salaries I could find were 63-67. Associate Profs: 74-90. Professors: 90-160.
I suppose this is a good time for a bitter adjunct to chime in and point out that we are doing the same work for a mere fraction of the above, and this is a path that’s likely still open to our notorious negotiator.
I did too—I think you mistake my point. I meant that there are people carrying as heavy or a heavier teaching load who make a lot less than the initial offer, and many are doing research without any pay at all. In other words, the job could easily be filled with non-tenure-track folks for a fraction of the cost, and it’s a buyer’s market there, too.
There are a gazillion applicants for every tenure track philosophy slot. Unless you are some big deal in the field I’m not seeing that she has any power or leverage whatsoever. Strategically it was an idiotic response and got the reception it deserved. The applicant was a fool.
I thought the tone was fine. The maternity request was harmless. The problem was it showed a clear disconnect between the type of institution she thought she was going to and the type she actually was.
I speak from experience that all her training most likely did not prepare her for a job search at a SLAC (small liberal arts college) and her mentors ill prepared her for such a job search. I highly doubt anyone can tell she’s a spoiled brat, but that she simply got poor advice and is a bad fit to that type of institution.
I also think that negotiating after the offer was made is part of the problem. This stuff should have been covered before. You don’t do that. It shows low class.
That’s not true. There is nothing to negotiate before an offer is extended. You’re just one of 3-4 final candidates. Once the person is selected the call is made and the salary etc is laid out. If it’s theres a faculty union, most things are not flexible (teaching load, sabbatical timing etc). Only when you see the offer can you respond.
Responding is fine. What she asked for was fine, if she was at a different type of place.
As someone who’s been a professional bon-bon eater for a long time, I may not be the best judge of this. That being said, I think the applicant should have asked for ONE of the stipulations from #2-5. I probably would have phrased it differently, too. For instance, if the maternity leave was most crucial, be specific:
“blah blah thanks for the offer. I’m very enthusiastic about joining the staff. However, I see that the handbook specifies that we are entitled to the standard FMLA period of 12 weeks off, unpaid, for maternity leave. Since I would like to have a child in 3-5 years, and the semester at Nazareth is 14 weeks, would it be reasonable to simply allocate one semester of leave at that time? It seems that would put everyone at an advantage for planning ahead blah blah”
(Not worded wonderfully at this time of evening, but you get my drift.)
No, I don’t think the school was wrong to rescind the offer. She sounds awfully high maintenance as it stands.
Maybe, but it seems unlikely. For one thing, that sort of deal is apparently pretty darn rare. For another thing, when you’re trying to play potential bosses against one another, your negotiation tends to take the form of “Here’s what Option A is offering me that you’re not. Do you have any wiggle room to sweeten your deal?”
As for having the offer rescinded, that’s harsh. Understandable, but harsh. Then again, since she needed help making up her mind to take the job, she must have other options that are at least as good, so she’s no worse off than if they’d never made her an offer.
Maybe in some professions, not in this one. Conventional wisdom in academia is that you never, ever attempt to negotiate before you’re offered the job. You don’t even ask about the salary during the interview process. Right after you’ve got the offer is the one and only moment in the job search process when you, as a candidate, have some leverage, since they’ve actually demonstrated that they want you at that point.
This is a fairly typical example of the kind of advice that gets offered to academic job candidates, and you’ll notice that the applicant in this case seems to have followed it pretty closely. It’s a bit dated (pre-recession) and some of the specific examples are things that you would never get at a small, non-elite liberal arts college, but if this is the candidate’s first attempt at negotiating, it’s understandable that she’d get some of the expectations and protocols wrong.