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I'd love to see the training scheme being monitored effiectively, but I will applaud the units that are beginning to phase it in. There are a number of occasions where I've worked with people who seem to have had a lot of "experience", meaning time employed by a unit, but are still lacking in the basic skills.
And yes, there are still companies that don't provide PPE. I worked for one last year briefly. They gave out hi vis but still expected folk to buy their own boots.
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Originally posted by Sith
The only problem with this is that I've yet to meet an archaeologist who thinks of their former employer(s) as anything other than a bunch of cowboys
I can happily say that my former employer was great. Small unit with experienced staff who really worked as a team from field staff to company director. The boss listened and recognised he had an intelligent and enthusiastic workforce. He asked our opinion and was prepared to hold clients at bay rather than produce a half-baked report with inaccuracies and we were all expected to take and receive criticism as a matter of course. Everything worked both ways and even senior members of staff pitched in to bind reports if necessary without 'so this is what I'm doing with my PhD' being muttered.
Pay was on the low side, sick pay was statutory and pension was but a dream. Nevertheless I really didn't mind because it was corporate archaeology as it's meant to be.
So why, I hear you all cry is it a former employer? Because with their help I'm now freelance, still doing work for them but really was nurtured and encouraged and pushed onwards and upwards. No lip service there just WYSIWYG.
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I agree - although i generally i tend to vent on this website, in the past I have worked for a number of really good units (and some really bad units). But those that were good were really good and I think its important to remember that it isnt all negative and that sweeping generalisations arent always representative of the profession as a whole.
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I just wished I'd started my career at one of the two really good units I've worked for rather than coming to them late and falling foul of the 'first in last out' policy... (though this policy has been bent in my favour on a few occasions)
The trick for a permanent position and promotion in this game is not ability, competence or reliability, just getting into a unit at a time before a glut of work.
