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.
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.