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29th March 2011, 02:32 PM
Well...
...as a consultant I would expect a short contract (on damned sight better wages; you pay for short term work in my experience) and no company loyalty.
...and I was thinking more of an industry with alleged "vocational" people working in it...
Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, Merlot in one hand, Cigar in the other; body thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and screaming "WOO HOO, what a ride!
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29th March 2011, 02:57 PM
IT, my old field? Maybe not a vocation for most, but staff are certainly just seen as numbers on a spreadsheet. I've been made redundant along with 200 others at no notice - announcement made, accompanied to desk by security, pick up personal belongings, hand over security badge, escorted from the building. And if one IT firm is doing this, it's a pretty sure bet that others are doing the same and there are precious few spare jobs going elsewhere.
On another occasion, HR managed to make an entire support department redundant because they did just see them as numbers on a spreadsheet. Cue absolute pandemonium for several days when the unsupported system went down. They had to hire three-quarters of the team back on (vast) contractor rates. My how we laughed.
Archaeology is no different to any other specialist profession in this respect. The one good way to make a balance sheet look better fast in a crisis is to purge the headcount and floor your staff costs. Basic accounting.
One of archaeology's problems is that it sees itself as being "different" and "special". There's an almost perverse sense of entitlement that I've not encountered in other fields.
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29th March 2011, 03:54 PM
comparison with other industries may always be futile, not the least because there appears to be no concensus that the botton rung should be restricted to graduate level entry. as a vocational profession we have yet to prove our worth to a voting public: after all, dont we all love what we do - what need is there for allowing us the P &C of other ptofessions/industries: dont they all hate what they have to do!
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29th March 2011, 04:23 PM
10 years is/was not a short term contract!
Harumphh!
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29th March 2011, 05:12 PM
Think it was argued out pretty thoroughly on here last year that a degree is irrelevant to being a digger, whether you can actually do a day's grafting rather than whingeing on instead about not using your hard-learned PhD on the typology of Roman ear-picks and bringing everyone else down (or at least giving everyone a good laugh behind your back) is far more important. Don't drag the graduate/non-graduate b***locks back in. We employ people cos they're good site workers, the 'academic qualifications' bit on CVs is rarely even glanced at, in fact too many qualis suggests people who'd prefer to hide from the real world of work but couldn't get on another course for a couple of years? :face-stir:
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29th March 2011, 05:30 PM
An interesting view point Dino, perhaps a tad cynical, but honest!
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29th March 2011, 05:38 PM
whilst not at all being bothered about the qualifications of diggers, as an archaeologist who has short-listed applicants based on their qualifications because their interminable lists of units and sites is of no particular help in selection and certainly no guarantee of an ability to graft, and often finding that their qualifications reflect their ability to write coherently, and having been in a position to offer extended employment to people with a proven ability to write, i disagree
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30th March 2011, 08:45 AM
Letting most diggers (even graduates) 'write' (if you can call it that) is usually the kiss of death to PX.....
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30th March 2011, 08:48 AM
Dinosaur Wrote:Letting most diggers (even graduates) 'write' (if you can call it that) is usually the kiss of death to PX.....
Then perhaps you should take the time to help them write better? Are you aware how patronising your post sounds?
!
Sorry...we're getting off the point of this thread again.
Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, Merlot in one hand, Cigar in the other; body thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and screaming "WOO HOO, what a ride!
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30th March 2011, 11:38 AM
well actually deadly, it is salient to the thread. some of the old lag advice offered on this forum, is often little more than flintstone narcissism designed to disuade anybody else from entering the profession. by not encouraging opportunity, training and experience, by not allowing diggers to undertake analysis and report writing, the indusrty stands to loose future generations of people who have something more to offer than bad back anecdotes. and if left to go unchallanged what would the archaeology industry be left with?
