2nd July 2014, 02:57 PM
Jack Wrote:Ah, I see the confusion I have created.
I do not at all want to preserve the status quo! I wish we all got paid a wage that was in line with other industries, but we don't.
I was referring to the here and now, the immediacy of running an excavation and saving as much archaeology as possible today. I, like everyone would be better off (financially) working in an IT office, working for a bank, as an engineer, or even driving a bin lorry. But I chose not to.
I just can't understand (in the immediacy) anyone doing archaeology who isn't interested in it. You'd get paid a considerable amount more doing something else that you are just as disinterested in. So why settle for less money?
Nothing I say or do effects what people get paid, other than on an individual basis and within someone else's pay-grade scheme.
I have no such credo to keep others down - what, are we in Stalinist Russia or something?
I would much rather all archaeologists - no matter what level they are at were raised on a public platform and heralded as heros and paid the equivalence of footballer's wages for attempting to save everyone's cultural heritage.
You could equally say its all BAJR's fault as the published minima are so low (though that is NOT my opinion). BAJR's pay grades should start at 30k and go up to 150k for managers.
But yeah keep the abuse coming, I thrive on it :face-stir:
Oh and PP, of course they shouldn't! It's just, at the moment, they seem to be!
Lobby the government, change legislation = a re-evaluation of the cost/worth of archaeology = a change in pay and conditions for archaeologists...........use ecology/climatology as a model
Cultural diversity is just as important as biodiversity for the survival of the human race.
Thanks for clarifying, sorry if that felt like abuse, although you do kind of ask for it.
However, there is a difference between working in archaeology because you are interested in it (I too would find it hard to believe there can be anyone who works in archaeology who isn't at least fairly interested) and being obsessed to the point where you willingly forego any kind of life outside of it and consider that to be a normal and reasonable state of affairs for everyone. It is then a slippery slope - a small number put themselves in that position, so everyone is expected to follow suit, and pay and conditions suffer. I'm not saying it is the sole cause of the problems in commercial archaeology that we have today, but it certainly doesn't help, and I'm sure that attitude of 'we have to save as much archaeology as we can now because imagine the terrible consequences if we don't so everyone has to give 110% all the time' is exploited by those higher up the employment chain.