How much is it worth to you? - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

kerry · #1 09-07-2011, 11:55 AM

There are lots of people who work in lots of different fields here who might have opinions relevant to a problem I'm thinking about at work, so I'm posting this poll to see what people's attitudes are.

Suppose you have a job and are given the option of taking on more responsibilities. How much money would have to be offered to you in order to take on the responsibilities? The additional responsibilities would be hire/fire/supervise 24 people and be responsible for organizing the work they would perform and dealing with any problems arising from their work. Perhaps a good example would be an attorney asked to hire 24 part time attorneys, schedule their workload, evaluate their performance and deal with any problems that arise.

aklim · #2 09-07-2011, 12:07 PM

Hard to say. Depending on what stage I am in life. If I am about to retire and my things are in order to be comfortable, I'd probably turn it down. OTOH, if I am younger, I want to make more money now since I have or will have kids, mortgage, etc, etc.

Another thing is how competent are the people I am looking after? If they are self motivated, it isn't too bad. If they are high school kids, well, that is a different story.

ramonajim · #3 09-07-2011, 12:09 PM

Much more meaningful poll if it were presented as a percentage of current salary....

kerry · #4 09-07-2011, 12:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ramonajim

Much more meaningful poll if it were presented as a percentage of current salary....

Assume current salary is $45k and workers are self-motivated.

aklim · #5 09-07-2011, 12:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kerry

Assume current salary is $45k and workers are self-motivated.

In current economical state and ASSUMING you are in your 40s to 50s, I'd say 15K + should cover it

SwampYankee · #6 09-07-2011, 12:19 PM

Are these responsibilities above and beyond the current ones or is there some crossover? Are these 24 employees new hires for new positions or are they (or at least many of them) currently employed and already performing the tasks?

If I'm starting completely from scratch and will need to interview and fill all of those positions and then train them, I'm expecting more compensation than i would if i were taking over an already existing department that might need some expansion.

kerry · #7 09-07-2011, 12:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SwampYankee

these responsibilities are above and beyond the current ones with no crossover? these 24 employees are currently employed and already performing the tasks?

This one.

Stretch · #8 09-07-2011, 12:29 PM

Sounds like a right ball ache - if you had a higher option than 15+ I'd have chosen that one.

It sounds to me like the employers are pulling a fast one offering such low amounts. They are trying to get someone on the cheap - they're looking for a hard working sucker.

BAVBMW · #9 09-07-2011, 12:30 PM

So basically managing 24 people? In many areas that would be considered a full time job, worth more than 15k, do you have any more details you'd care to share?

MV

elchivito · #10 09-07-2011, 12:46 PM

I was recently asked to come off the pasture and replace a principal who's having serious medical issues. Pretty much the same scenario. 22 teachers, 10 classified staff. They offered me half what I used to earn and the superintendent said "but you'll be getting your pension too".
Pass....

ramonajim · #11 09-07-2011, 12:59 PM

I'm firmly in the "it depends" camp.

Been without minions for a long while. Miss some of it, glad to be rid of it in other ways. At a bit of a plateau in my career, and sure as hell could use the boost to begin working on a retirement fund (thanks, ex-wife), but not looking to work a gazillion hours a week.

Assuming a $45k annual salary to start, I'd likely bite at a $5k kind of price tag.

kerry · #12 09-07-2011, 01:04 PM

It's kind of a long story. When I started teaching 20yrs ago, there were few part-time teachers at our school and we had pretty well paid almost full time department chairs (Science, Humanities, Math etc) who supervised probably around 8 or 10 part time instructors. Now about 85% of our classes are taught by part-time instructors and we have no full-time department chairs supervising part-timers because the numbers simply grew too large for a department chair. The 8 or 10 part time instructors have become 80 or 100. For instance, in my field there were 3 part timers 20 yrs ago and now there are 24.
So now, teachers in individual disciplines like Political Science, History, Anthropology are offered $$ to supervise all the part-time instructors in their field. This supervision involves hiring and firing, scheduling all their classes, ordering all their textbooks and dealing with the associated student problems. The going rate is between $3k-5k per year for approximately 20 part timers.
Nobody at the school is actually hired in to do this work. All the people who do it were hired as teachers and then at some point, they were asked if they would do this different kind of work. It is not required that anyone actually do the work as part of their job description.
The problem that the school is running into is that no one wants to do the work, for obvious reasons. It's stressful, time consuming, requires good organizational skills, and good people skills, but the pay borders on minimum wage.
Unless something is done to change the situation, it's easily imaginable that no one will be willing to do the work and what happens then? The problem is already evident in a number of departments.
It's got to this place as a result of a kind of situation where you put a frog in cold water and slowly boil the water until the frog dies. The school has grown substantially over the last 20 yrs. All the frogs that were put in the pot 10 yrs ago are dying and no one else wants to jump into the hot water now that they see the other frogs dying.

kerry · #13 09-07-2011, 01:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ramonajim

I'm firmly in the "it depends" camp.

Been without minions for a long while. Miss some of it, glad to be rid of it in other ways. At a bit of a plateau in my career, and sure as hell could use the boost to begin working on a retirement fund (thanks, ex-wife), but not looking to work a gazillion hours a week.

Assuming a $45k annual salary to start, I'd likely bite at a $5k kind of price tag.

I should have added that you could get the extra $5k per year by teaching two more classes as an alternative to the supervision.

Stretch · #14 09-07-2011, 01:09 PM

Your additional information confirms my first impressions.

If you are a new frog - don't jump in. Academia in my opinion is already full of enough BS with out having to worry about management BS as well.

Stretch · #15 09-07-2011, 01:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kerry

I should have added that you could get the extra $5k per year by teaching two more classes as an alternative to the supervision.

That's also a bum deal if you're doing it properly and not relying on someone else's notes written in 1983...

View Poll Results: How much is the work worth?
$0-1000	1	4.55%
$2000-5000	0	0%
$5000-7000	1	4.55%
$7000-10,000	0	0%
$10,000-$15,000	3	13.64%
$15k+	17	77.27%
Voters: 22. You may not vote on this poll