[BJWilliams]

I think he is looking at this as a human resources issue not a marketing issue...

[TH Spangler]

You guys need to spend a year or two in the airline industry before complaining about employee relations .....

http://www.airlineforums.com/topic/5389 ... then-ever/

[R i]

or a "Big Bank"

[Sly Fox]

You guys need to spend a year or two in the airline industry before complaining about employee relations .....

http://www.airlineforums.com/topic/5389 ... then-ever/

I am preparing for the worst here in Houston with the impending United situation. As a hub city, there aren't many other options.

[TH Spangler]

You guys need to spend a year or two in the airline industry before complaining about employee relations .....

http://www.airlineforums.com/topic/5389 ... then-ever/

I am preparing for the worst here in Houston with the impending United situation. As a hub city, there aren't many other options.

I heard United was throwing a tamper tantrum because the Houston airport cleared the way for Southwest to fly internationally?

[El Scorcho]

You guys need to spend a year or two in the airline industry before complaining about employee relations .....

http://www.airlineforums.com/topic/5389 ... then-ever/

Please don't hijack this post.

And, if you haven't work for Liberty for a long period of time, please don't tell us what we need to do.

[TH Spangler]

please don't tell us what we need to do.

Well........ Pardon me MR El Scorcho

[El Scorcho]

please don't tell us what we need to do.

Well........ Pardon me MR El Scorcho

Not trying to be a jerk, but there are a number of people who feel pretty strongly about the topic at hand.

[Sly Fox]

Sorry for the re-direct.

I think we've seen some positive dialogue in this thread.

[ALUmnus]

Honestly when I worked there, the only lack of respect I felt was at the administration-level. I had a great boss and enjoyed the team I worked with, so the working environment was fine. My two biggest problems was lack of presence and support from HR, and the horrible pay. If you fixed those two things, I'd still be there. Maybe even just fix the horrible pay and that would have been enough.

[El Scorcho]

Honestly when I worked there, the only lack of respect I felt was at the administration-level. I had a great boss and enjoyed the team I worked with, so the working environment was fine. My two biggest problems was lack of presence and support from HR, and the horrible pay. If you fixed those two things, I'd still be there. Maybe even just fix the horrible pay and that would have been enough.

Aside from your very last sentence, I agree with you.

My direct supervisors at Liberty were all quality people. I even had good directors at times, but not always. All of the things I'm talking about exist above the director level and I agree that HR is a part of that. More on that shortly...

[El Scorcho]

Give Ron Kennedy a call sometime. He has been in charge of our efforts to make changes and improvements in this area for a couple of years. I think he would be glad to give you details about what is being done.

Did he get moved over to HR from Marketing?

Yes... he is SVP of Marketing

So, actually, by "Yes" you mean "No." I asked if he had been moved to HR from Marketing, which he has not.

I was trying to make a point by asking that. This is definitely an HR issue, so it seems odd to me that the marketing department would be handling any real changes. I know they're running the "You Matter" campaign, but that's just marketing so far as anyone can tell.

The last few posts seem to have mostly become stuck in the money trap. I tried to be clear from the outset that this definitely wasn't just about money, but perhaps it needs to be re-emphasized. It's nice to hear that so much work is going into re-assessing salaries and getting them up to snuff will certainly help, but money is not a panacea is this case. It's more of a start. Although, I must note that I've recently heard tale of directors and VPs eliminating higher end titles so that staff positions are being assessed as much lower than what they should be during these salary evaluations.

A fictitious example: Buzz Lightyear, VP of Interstellar Defense, knows he has two employees that have the experience and years of service to be classified as Senior Space Rangers. When the outside party came to in to benchmark salaries, a list of positions were delivered to them. VP Lightyear, before delivering his list eliminated some titles from the departments he was responsible for, including the title of Senior Space Ranger. The list delivered to the party only contained the titles of "Junior Ranger" and "Ranger Level 1" which were benchmarked accordingly. Since the Senior Space Rangers were listed as Level 1 Rangers, it appeared they were being fairly compensated.

This wasn't my experience and I'm not saying it's true, but I've been told it's happening now.

Further, if my own experience (and what's been related to me by others) is any indicator, the dearth of feedback reaching the Chancellor's level is likely directly attributable to fear. People legitimately fear losing their jobs if they were to voice their concerns. Even to HR. (Especially to HR?) Most people I worked with at Liberty were too scared to point out anything that wasn't working well, much the less formally complain about problems related to their own employment. I personally witnessed a number of people go along with plans that they had the knowledge and experience to know would have problems. They didn't speak up, though, because they knew they'd just be labeled as a troublemaker. When people are afraid to even do their jobs correctly, why would they ever think they could speak up about how they're being treated on a day to day basis?

A lot of people do not feel like they're trusted to do their jobs. They don't feel like their experience and knowledge matter, even though they've been hired into positions because of both. The only thing that matters are that orders are followed without question (and that it's provable by metrics).

Speaking of those beloved metrics...

Do you know how bad the trust was when I decided to leave Liberty? Information Services employees were being made to track every task they did BY THE MINUTE. That is not an exaggeration and I'm not making it up. I left at just short of 13 years at Liberty and people who had been there longer than me were being made to keep track of every minutia of their day to the minute (including start and end times) and to record a justification for why they did that thing.

Example:

Task: I sent an email to VP Lightyear.
Start Time: 10:06am
End Time: 10:08am
What was accomplished by this task: I informed VP Lightyear that the bagels for his morning meeting were late in arriving from Panera.

For every single thing that was done. No matter how small. Do you have any idea what this does to employee morale? It CRUSHES it. Completely. It was one of the most degrading things I'd ever been asked to do as an adult. When you have people working in highly technical positions requiring a decade or more of experience and you make them track their time like a teenager cleaning fast food restrooms, it is not a good thing. I won't even bother touching on what it does to productivity and workflow. (Because it should be obvious.)

I bring it up not to air a personal grievance in public, but to note that this is the sort of thing that reinforces a lack of trust in the university's employees. It's just not a respectful environment to be employed in. I don't know why that is. I know there were people in administrative positions over the years who were clearly more disrespectful than others, but that attitude seems to have stuck around. It's peculiar.

Maybe my own experiences were abnormal. Maybe that time has passed. If the private messages I'm getting are any indicator, however, I just don't believe that's the case.

[Purple Haize]

They are more the norm. Not saying they aren't trying to be changed but they are similar to experiences I'm aware of occurring.

[ALUmnus]

It's an attitude of looking at everyone below director-level positions as bottom-feeders. That's by no means unique to LU, but it's there. They do that to some extent where I work now, and it is degrading and frustrating. I've had to log time & tasks a couple times while here, and you just get the feeling that they're looking to consolidate and cut jobs, trying to justify having you around.

[adam42381]

Excellent post, El Scorcho. The time tracking thing is a ridiculous waste of time. Did you have to log the time you spent creating those stupid reports?

[jmdickens]

I worked at LU for a year as a student. I enjoyed it and never had issues, yet mine was never meant to become anything more than an average college job.

Scorcho, your comment about employees afraid to say anything negative about the school out of fear of losing their job was/is common from all my accounts. I saw it most in the law school because the unique layout. I was with my academic advisor and when the topic of an incident that happened in another class was brought up, he took me out of the office and we went to lunch because, in his words, "that professor tells the dean everything."

He was ultimately wrongly and vengefully terminated after 7 years of service(oh the hell that broke loose after that will stay with me forever), and that other professor he was referring to became the academic dean in 2011. Good times

[rogers3]

It seems most are in a Catch-22. They feel that if they give clear examples with names, it puts them at a very disadvantageous position, but if they don't, they are brushed over as being disgruntled or misinformed. I really appreciate El Scorcho's viewpoint; the picture can't really be painted any better and I don't think that it can easily explained away by saying that El Scorcho is just one of a small group of disgruntled employees who have left.

[Schfourteenteen]

Task: I sent an email to VP Lightyear.
Start Time: 10:06am
End Time: 10:08am
What was accomplished by this task: I informed VP Lightyear that the bagels for his morning meeting were late in arriving from Panera.

Please tell me someone from Information services began running circular references with this.

[El Scorcho]

Excellent post, El Scorcho. The time tracking thing is a ridiculous waste of time. Did you have to log the time you spent creating those stupid reports?

Thanks. Yes. Ultimately the time tracking consumed an average of 35% of my time every week. So, I really hope the metrics were worth it.

[El Scorcho]

Task: I sent an email to VP Lightyear.
Start Time: 10:06am
End Time: 10:08am
What was accomplished by this task: I informed VP Lightyear that the bagels for his morning meeting were late in arriving from Panera.

Please tell me someone from Information services began running circular references with this.

There were days when I wanted to.

[adam42381]

Excellent post, El Scorcho. The time tracking thing is a ridiculous waste of time. Did you have to log the time you spent creating those stupid reports?

Thanks. Yes. Ultimately the time tracking consumed an average of 35% of my time every week. So, I really hope the metrics were worth it.

So, they forced you to waste more time than the average worker wastes surfing the Internet over the course of a work week. Efficiency at its best.

[Purple Haize]

Well it is what other 'real' businesses do!

[LUconn]

Scorcho, was it because you were working remotely? I think telecommuting terrifies some managers.

[Purple Haize]

Scorcho, was it because you were working remotely? I think telecommuting terrifies some managers.

Because they can't control you ! lol

[El Scorcho]

Scorcho, was it because you were working remotely? I think telecommuting terrifies some managers.

Initially I thought that was the case. I thought it was just me and I thought it was because I was remote. I later found out that it wasn't just me at all. As for the justification... who knows?

I don't want to get bogged down into the minutia of a single example, though. I just wanted to give a clear example to illustrate how devastated employee morale can be by the lack of trust in certain areas. There are plenty of other examples where employees feel less than trusted or respected. That one was one of the most blatant.