28th October 2005, 07:27 PM
We have talked alot about problems of and with contractors, employers and curators, but little about problems with clients. I guess employees don't get to hear much about that side of things.
We used to do alot of work for a certain National organisation, but last year decided that we would not work for them any more at any price.
One reason was the lateness of payments (up to 8 months) and the lack of interest in sorting it out.
Another was inadequate specifications with unpaid extras requested during works.
Another is the insidious 'I know we haven't asked/paid for you to do all this, but we do have another big project coming up next year' speech, stronly hinting that if you don't do this for us then we won't give you any more work.
The final straw was something else - credit theft. The 'client' started to make brief appearances on our surveys - usually meeting us there and helping to carry a tripod or something. Or he would simply arrive, say hello then leave. No more than 20 minutes at a time, and no more than once per survey. So we send in the surveys. The client then changes the details on the survey, and submits it internally with his name added, as 'assisted by XXX'. This national organisation then publishes it as a joint effort, and all his peers think he is a hard-working and diligent archaeologist. He only carried a tripod once, yet has reaped more kudos and credit than I could ever hope to. It's not I am credit-hungry - but why should someone else take it.
Then he dropped the 'assisted by', and started to claim 50% credit ie by ME and HIM, even if all he had done was to change the title page on the report. And there was very little I could do (it seems that embarressing a fairly senior archaeologist is worse than credit-theft). He told me about it in a very embarressed tone, but implied he had only done it once to beef up his annual work record. The bugger is MIFA as well.
So last year I decided to drop the clot and branch out (pride - get some now), and am now in year 2 of a 5 year plan to become a self-made millionaire in IT (I hope I haven't offended anyone by being a bread-head). I'm also writing an archaeology book, and planning future projects. My plan is to have an income of several hundred K for working 8 months/year, and if I am still interested in archaeology I will spend time undertaking some decent research projects.
Commercial, government, university and charity archaeology doesn't hold any interest for me, paid or unpaid.
Needless to say, my nemesis has tried to turn me into a non-person by labelling me 'awkward' (which I can be if provoked) - and will continue to put up a barrier as a way of protecting himself from his colleagues finding out what he has been up to.
SO that is my personal solution to the poor standards and pay that archaeology brings.
It would be interesting if all archaeology projects were setup and run by qualified self-made millionaires - so get working you lazy gits - real work like 12-20 hour days, 6/7 days a week for 2-3 years, and then see what you can do.
We used to do alot of work for a certain National organisation, but last year decided that we would not work for them any more at any price.
One reason was the lateness of payments (up to 8 months) and the lack of interest in sorting it out.
Another was inadequate specifications with unpaid extras requested during works.
Another is the insidious 'I know we haven't asked/paid for you to do all this, but we do have another big project coming up next year' speech, stronly hinting that if you don't do this for us then we won't give you any more work.
The final straw was something else - credit theft. The 'client' started to make brief appearances on our surveys - usually meeting us there and helping to carry a tripod or something. Or he would simply arrive, say hello then leave. No more than 20 minutes at a time, and no more than once per survey. So we send in the surveys. The client then changes the details on the survey, and submits it internally with his name added, as 'assisted by XXX'. This national organisation then publishes it as a joint effort, and all his peers think he is a hard-working and diligent archaeologist. He only carried a tripod once, yet has reaped more kudos and credit than I could ever hope to. It's not I am credit-hungry - but why should someone else take it.
Then he dropped the 'assisted by', and started to claim 50% credit ie by ME and HIM, even if all he had done was to change the title page on the report. And there was very little I could do (it seems that embarressing a fairly senior archaeologist is worse than credit-theft). He told me about it in a very embarressed tone, but implied he had only done it once to beef up his annual work record. The bugger is MIFA as well.
So last year I decided to drop the clot and branch out (pride - get some now), and am now in year 2 of a 5 year plan to become a self-made millionaire in IT (I hope I haven't offended anyone by being a bread-head). I'm also writing an archaeology book, and planning future projects. My plan is to have an income of several hundred K for working 8 months/year, and if I am still interested in archaeology I will spend time undertaking some decent research projects.
Commercial, government, university and charity archaeology doesn't hold any interest for me, paid or unpaid.
Needless to say, my nemesis has tried to turn me into a non-person by labelling me 'awkward' (which I can be if provoked) - and will continue to put up a barrier as a way of protecting himself from his colleagues finding out what he has been up to.
SO that is my personal solution to the poor standards and pay that archaeology brings.
It would be interesting if all archaeology projects were setup and run by qualified self-made millionaires - so get working you lazy gits - real work like 12-20 hour days, 6/7 days a week for 2-3 years, and then see what you can do.
