Purple Haize wrote:They can't figure out how to give under paid staff and faculty raises. Plus a certain powerful person in upper administration thinks you are all interchangeable cogs in a wheel who don't 'really' work anyways. 
I wouldn't phrase it with quite the same gusto as Haize, but I can say with confidence that this is certainly the attitude among the staff. I don't work for Liberty anymore, so it doesn't really affect me either way, but it's been the elephant in the room for a long time. I think it needs to be discussed out in the open.
From the bottom looking up, it does seem to be that the general attitude among management is that anyone is replaceable. Strictly speaking, I wouldn't disagree with that. However, in practice, it doesn't work out very well. I can only speak to IT, but when someone with a lot of experience specific to that environment leaves, you can only replace their skill set. Their accumulated knowledge and ability to think specific to that environment leaves with them. It takes years for new people to come in and acclimate. While they're acclimating they're not doing their jobs nearly as effectively as the person who left, and it ultimately costs the university.
That doesn't even start to touch the actual worth of the existing employees. Again, I existed only in the realm of IT, but we had several people there doing big things not really being done anywhere else. I won't delve into specifics here, but these people have technical experience far beyond what normally exists in the Lynchburg job market. Yet we were repeatedly told that Liberty was competitive with other salaries in Lynchburg. Well, that's really kind of irrelevant. Almost all of us were in Lynchburg solely to work for Liberty. And when we left, we weren't being recruited by the kind of small companies that exist within city limits. These are people being recruited on a national level. Hopefully fans of our athletics programs see the parallels to hiring in athletics.
The department I was in consisted of five employees. In the last year, three of us left (the other two were relatively new). I left for another major university, while the other two are respectively working for a large regional bank and the largest Internet retailer in the world. I don't understand Liberty's insistence on competing with other Lynchburg businesses for those kinds of positions. At this point Liberty should be setting the standard for Lynchburg, not being competitive with it. It reminds me a lot of how we often continue to play down to our Big South competition so often when we really want to exist in a much bigger and more competitive world.
I understand that Liberty only needs to offer a competitive wage and that if people are working there, they must be offering a fair wage. I get basic capitalism. The way they compensate and treat employees is technically fair. On the other hand, I was taught and still fully believe that if it's Christian it ought to be better. I think Liberty can be a
lot better than it is. I think it could make the annual lists of the top place to work in America. I think it could become a highly competitive place to get employment. As it stands, things are pretty much on the opposite end of the spectrum.
I think that explains a lot about why there's an apparent distrust of all employees from the perspective of management. Employees are all too aware of it too. They know they're not trusted. The general feeling amongst the staff is that Liberty only cares about them insomuch as they need them to operate. Again, from a purely business perspective that's fine. It's the bare minimum of any business in a capitalist economy. I expect more from my alma mater, though. Especially now that it's doing well. Liberty has the opportunity not just to make difference in the lives of students, but in the lives of their staff and faculty too. As it is now, it's mostly just leaving a wake of disappointed and jaded employees. I have to fight hard not to be one of those most days.
I've ended up writing about something that is important to me completely off the cuff. That's not really how I wanted to address it, but it's what I have time for right now. I want to be clear that I write it not with bitterness or malice. I genuinely just want to see things improve. It's constructive criticism. I'm not after any one individual or hoping to spread gossip. I just want to see things change for the better. I really believe that they can, but I think it has to happen now. If the university carries the current culture forward through all of the growth, it will never change.
I'm getting off my soapbox now. Flames fanned.
- By flamehunter