About Me

Llantwit Major, Wales, United Kingdom
I am mother, librarian, avid reader, sf fan, writer (unpubished), singer(amateur), animal lover, needlewoman.

Friday, March 25, 2011

Good news then less good

My salary has stayed the same, and I am at the bottom of an increment scale so I have somewhere to go and will get more money every year for the next few years.  I was quite relieved when I opened the envelope and found out.

However as news trickled in over the course of the day I felt less happy.  I am the only professional librarian who has stayed on the same salary.  All the others have gone up one, two or even three scales - ie jumps of £2, 4, 6 thousand a year.  While I am still relieved at not having gone down, I am feeling upset about the results.

I feel belittled.    I feel that what I do has not been seen as having value, and that my role is much less significant than that of the other professional staff.  I am trying not to take this personally because the job evaluation people have not talked to me, just looked at the job, but it is easier said than done.  It is especially galling that someone who was on the same salary as me before has gone up two scales (ie £4k) and he is really not very good at his job.  I feel that I work beyond my job description while he works below his, and I do find it hard not to take it personally.

It could be much worse.  The scale 1 staff - who we all expected to do well out of this, everyone thought they would go up - have gone down, so they have gone from being badly paid for what they do to being really badly paid.  That is disgraceful.  I am sure we will appeal that, and I hope we will succeed.  It is going to make life in the branches difficult for a while.

3 comments:

Boo and Trev said...

Total bummer. x

oreneta said...

Whew. That sucks. Glad your money hasn't gone down, but that seems the only good thing. Wish there were some way to help.

x

Adrian Jones said...

It's like you say, you can't take it personally because the people evaluating it all don't know you, they wouldn't know you if they fell over you! Just shows up the flaws in the system - how can they evaluate people they don't know?!

I'd be fed up too but try and look at the silver lining that you're alright for now and have somewhere to progress to over the next few years.

We all know you're the best :)

xxxxx