Thursday, March 24, 2005

Spring Holiday!

Tomorrow is our spring holiday, mainly because it isn't PC anymore to call it Good Friday when we work for the state. This creates a certain amount of friction with my daughter, who works at the same university as I do, but is paid out of another pocket. There are basically 3 different 'employers' at the health science center; people like me, actual university employees paid by the state and governed by state legislature as to hiring/firing, seniority, etc. Then there are employees hired by the hospital, which is a university hospital, and yet a private corporation thru some fancy footwork when it was set up some 18 years ago. ANd then there are UHA (united Hospital Assoc.)employees, who are hired and paid by the private entity that gets the doctor fees when people are treated at the hospital; the doctors get a cut, of course, but not the whole enchilada because they are 'state' employees too. Confusing? Yes. But the one factor that overrides the whole shebang is that everyone hates the 'state' employees (like me). We get more money, shorter work week, more days off, way more holidays, and better health coverage, cheaper. Our jobs are secure (after 5 years) and all the others can be fired in a heartbeat, for no reason except the money ran out. Or because they made a fuss about their job. This is not our fault; but the reason the other two 'employers' were created was to enable the administration to hire and fire at will, no seniority, no state laws to consider, just like a private business. It makes them resentful of the state-leys because we work side by side, but for different amounts of money, different no. of hours a week, different holidays. My daughter is a UHA-er. 4 holidays a year (we get 13), and Friday isn't one of them. I think it's unfair, too; but this is what our legislators got up to one year when no one was looking, and now we're stuck. I expect that eventually they'll let attrition take all the state jobs, and fill them with the other two (or yet another entity) so they won't need to honor all those pesky laws put in place to protect state workers from discrimination and unfair labor practices. Probably no one will notice, by then. Hopefully I'll be gone too.

2 comments :

A said...

Surfed in via BlogExplosion.. just wanted to say hello to a fellow Motowner. :)

Anonymous said...

My husband is also a state employee, but his job is a government funded one thru Governor's Office in Charleston. Every 4-years is an anxious time to see if a new gov will come in, if so, how he'll make changes & if they affect the program funding, etc. It's a catch-22. I'm not sure any job is "secure" these days. If you have one that is, better hold onto it.