I've been absent again. Not really sure what I've been doing: not much I suppose, certainly not anything to blog about. It was my birthday last week so I went for cake and coffee with a couple of the other new people. I then met my mentor on Thursday to discuss my research plans for my 3 year probationary period. I get an amount of money in addition to my salary to spend on research purposes (books, travel, attendance at conferences, joining legal societies etc.) and in order to access it I have to fill in a form, get it approved by my mentor and the head of school and then it should be all systems go. Needless to say my mentor has only recently taken over so she didn't know about the form so I had to ask one of the other newbies who had already met with their mentor. I'm now having another meeting this week about the form. Already there's going to be a problem with speaking at conferences as my area of law is such where there aren't many calls for paper and instead you have to be invited to speak at them! Anyway, a proper discussion will be had this week.
On the book review topic, I finally got it finished and it was fairly crap; checked my email tonight and they want me to be a bit more critical in it so it's back to the drawing board with it, ARGH.
However, I do have a slight dilemma. I discovered, through one of the other newbie's instigation, that I am on the same salary as he is when he doesn't have a PhD and I do. Incidentally, he appears to have misled the law school as everyone is referring to him as Dr. I also have far more teaching experience than he has and have taught and led modules at undergrad and postgrad level. I mentioned it to the chair of my probationary committee who was on the interview panel and she couldn't believe it and suggested I bring it up with the head of school. She also thought, from the interview, that he had already got his PhD. Tomorrow I have a follow up meeting with the head of school to make sure that I have settled in OK and that everything is fine. I have settled, far better than I thought I would, and everyone has been helpful and very kind. However, I am disappointed over this salary business and a bit confused as to how it could have happened. I want to say to the head that everyone has been great but I was disappointed to discover that I had been started on the same salary as someone who had not yet submitted their PhD and who did not have the teaching experience that I had. Some people are saying I should leave it and not create hassle but my intention is not to create hassle just to understand the pay schemes!
Any suggestions or advice out there?
1 comment:
I think you are right to raise it, but you just have to be careful how you do it. Maybe an approach along the lines of 'how are salary scales decided' and querying whether having a PhD and the amount of teaching experience that a person has makes a difference to their starting salary. That way you are not only finding out for yourself, but anyone else who may be in your position. Otherwise, they may be laying themselves open for a case of discrimination (probably sexual) if a less qualified male is earning more than you. It's worth a try anyway.
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