Staff Exodus in the CoB???? - USM Forum -- Message Board

Date: Aug 23, 2005

Staff Exodus in the CoB????

Date: Aug 23, 2005

The place is a quagmire. Abandon all hope ye who enter here. We are pleased when any lost soul escapes. I hear they are hiring at Carey.

Date: Aug 23, 2005

I heard a new assistant prof in Math decided not to come after all. It appears Math lost another position.

Date: Aug 23, 2005

As I understand it, many CoB staff are unhappy because of a new evaluation system being forced down staff throats. It is apparently a 1-5 scale and staff who perform their job descriptions perfectly can expect to get a 3. To get a 4, one would have to work early and/or late and/or on weekends, not take vacation, etc. To get a 5 would be nearly impossible. When Doty announced this, some CoB staffers began looking for other employment immediately -- how can they ever get raises or advancement (should they become available) if a 3/5 is a "perfect" score?

I know that at least one more CoB staffer will leave within the week.

Date: Aug 23, 2005

It would be interesting to know what's going on, but in Ann's case, the reason is a happy one (she's getting married).

Date: Aug 23, 2005

Reporter wrote:

I heard a new assistant prof in Math decided not to come after all. It appears Math lost another position.

Reporter:

This is a thread about a CoB staff exodus and not a thread about a math faculty member not coming to USM. Please start a separate thread so as to not hijack the original intent.

Date: Aug 23, 2005

Whose Own Furst wrote:

Reporter: This is a thread about a CoB staff exodus and not a thread about a math faculty member not coming to USM. Please start a separate thread so as to not hijack the original intent.

The topics within threads sometimes change a dozen times during the course of the thread. If you expect a thread to stay on topic you're going to be perpetually frustrated as you view the board.

Date: Aug 24, 2005

Zig Jag wrote:

Whose Own Furst wrote:
Reporter: This is a thread about a CoB staff exodus and not a thread about a math faculty member not coming to USM. Please start a separate thread so as to not hijack the original intent.
The topics within threads sometimes change a dozen times during the course of the thread. If you expect a thread to stay on topic you're going to be perpetually frustrated as you view the board.

I understand this. However, Reporter's post is the third post in the thread and is the equivalent of changing the topic of conversation after only one statement. While this is a usual and customary practice on this board, it would have been very easy for Reporter to simply start a new thread. Starting new threads will increase the number of active threads but will preserve the integrity of each individual thread with respect to topicality.

Date: Aug 24, 2005

LVN wrote:

It would be interesting to know what's going on, but in Ann's case, the reason is a happy one (she's getting married).

Charlotte Jackson's case is also a happy one. A teacher by training who was working in a student support function landed a teaching job at Oak Grove High School.

Date: Aug 24, 2005

Whose Own Furst wrote:

it would have been very easy for Reporter to simply start a new thread. Starting new threads will increase the number of active threads but will preserve the integrity of each individual thread with respect to topicality.

I once suggested that but to it didn't catch own. It is possible to formally change the topic within a thread (see 'Topic' above).

Date: Aug 24, 2005

Then again, if the topic heading turns out to be fallacious (two people leaving for "happy" reasons does not an "exodus" make) then perhaps the topic should be changed!

Date: Aug 24, 2005

Is it true they have already replaced one staffer with the relative of an administrator in the college?

Date: Aug 24, 2005

Yes, Ann was replaced by a first cousin of the Director of Accounting. Cheryl will be leaving this week also to move on to happier places. Seems you must be either related to a now deceased Accounting chair/director or suck up to the now director to get hired or promoted within the CoB. Latest hire is a once or current girlfriend of a marketing professor and will work as the alternative learning coordinator. From what I've been told this is the reason another dedicated CoB staffer is looking to leave ASAP. It's called use and abuse them then overlook them when a better paying job comes available that they are qualified to do to hire an outsider or should we say someone with the right family connections and most of them are fed up. Can you really blame them? Someone once said: "It's not how qualified or what you know or how well you do the work; it's all about who you know or sleep with that will get you hired or promoted and those nice raises."

Date: Aug 24, 2005

Does anyone at Southern Miss. ever follow the rules on hiring practices that the rest of the country follows? Creating an empire made up of family and friend results in an organization being destroyed from within at some date in time. Oops! I am talking about Southern Miss. Sorry, heck for a moment I was talking about a legitimate organization.

Date: Aug 24, 2005

I also understand there is another department on campus that has had little turnover in years past, but is now losing employees left and right.

Fed up with their boss as well.

Date: Aug 24, 2005

Whose Own Furst wrote:

Reporter: This is a thread about a CoB staff exodus and not a thread about a math faculty member not coming to USM. Please start a separate thread so as to not hijack the original intent.

I was responding to the question posed at the end of the first post:

"Is this happening in the other colleges? Is this just normal turnover, or is it a sign of something else? "

Although you are correct in that post referred to faculty rather than staff.

Date: Aug 24, 2005

Family Tree wrote:

Latest hire is a once or current girlfriend of a marketing professor and will work as the alternative learning coordinator.

Uh...what's an "alternative learning coordinator?"

Date: Aug 24, 2005

What is alternative learning? So we have a marketing professor's girlfriend doing a job that no one knows about? Another waste of taxpayers money by USM. I'm like others, how many family and friends does this college hire with taxpayer money before someone says no?

Date: Aug 24, 2005

Ok, since no one will answer, here's my guess...the alternative learning coordiator finds projects for students, who cannot do real college leve work, to do so they can continue in the program...you know, instead of learning motivation and leadership theories, they can paste pictures of employees at work in a collage on poster board and earn an A

Date: Aug 24, 2005

First, you try and create a scandal out of the loss of a staff member who moves on to a better position when she instead should be congratulated. Then you demean the new qualified professional for having a relationship with a person not in her chain of command. Finally, you follow that up with ridicule for the position itself - the same position that the original staffer left. What a bunch of nasty, unwelcoming new colleagues (and outside agitators) you are.

Date: Aug 24, 2005

Pond Scum wrote:

First, you try and create a scandal out of the loss of a staff member who moves on to a better position when she instead should be congratulated. Then you demean the new qualified professional for having a relationship with a person not in her chain of command. Finally, you follow that up with ridicule for the position itself - the same position that the original staffer left. What a bunch of nasty, unwelcoming new colleagues (and outside agitators) you are.

My comment has nothing to do with the former staff member or the new staff member...don't know either of them...my comment was directed toward an administration who would create - what I'm guessing and still waiting to be corrected - this position entails.

Date: Aug 24, 2005

Pond Scum wrote:

First, you try and create a scandal out of the loss of a staff member who moves on to a better position when she instead should be congratulated. Then you demean the new qualified professional for having a relationship with a person not in her chain of command. Finally, you follow that up with ridicule for the position itself - the same position that the original staffer left. What a bunch of nasty, unwelcoming new colleagues (and outside agitators) you are.

Now I don't see how I'll possibly be able to sleep tonight since Pond Scum.....zzzzzz....sorry, nodded off...called me a name.

Date: Aug 24, 2005

After further investigation and several phone calls, it seems that there is a strong possibility that there are 4 additional CoB staffers who may be seeking employment elsewhere.

I have also verified "Whose Own Furst"'s claim that there is a screwy eval system in the works for CoB staffers. Apparently, Doty thinks staff evaluations were too high this year and has demanded reform. My question: Why do this when there is no raise money and all it does is create ill will in your own house?

Another point my sources made was that there are three new department chairs (out of four total), which adds to the instability in the CoB. Few know how these new chairs will "act" when it comes evaluation time for faculty and staff.

I have no verification that any of the other stuff that is claimed on this thread is legitimate. However, if you doubt what is being said, just check with your friendly local CoB faculty or staff member.

Date: Aug 26, 2005

I just overheard that one staff person in the CoB interviewed yesterday afternoon and is expecting a decision later today or Monday. It's also being reported that many of the faculty are angry at the administration for the mistreatment of this staff member and are backing her. I must wonder; have the administrators in the CoB gone bonkers? Finding and keeping good employees is a tough job. Maybe one of them can tell us why they feel the need to run off good, valuable employees? Oh, but that's right - they don't care: easy come, easy go

Good luck on the job hunting CoB staffers! Others at this screwed up university would welcome "good, dependable" staff.

Date: Aug 26, 2005

I hope that outing a staff member interviewing across the campus does not hurt them if they dont get the job or decide to stay where they are.

wouldnt it be more honorable to wait until after they have left the COB to discuss their job hunting?

Just a thought.

Date: Aug 26, 2005

amazed wrote:

I hope that outing a staff member interviewing across the campus does not hurt them if they dont get the job or decide to stay where they are.
wouldnt it be more honorable to wait until after they have left the COB to discuss their job hunting?
Just a thought.

It's been noted on this board several times that CoB seems to be the worst about "outing" people who are trying to move. Yes, it does indicate a lack of honor.

Date: Aug 26, 2005

Even more troubling is that people on this board are lying about why staff members are leaving. If you talk to the staff you will find that the departing staff members are not unhappy in the CoB and are talking with administrators long before they depart. The staff members who are leaving are moving for 25-35% raises. Consider the 22k for a 12 month advisor versus 32k for an Oak Grove 9 month teaching job. They are using their CoB supervisors are references.

This is just more evidence that a few petty people (probably faculty members) in the CoB need to move on!

Date: Aug 27, 2005

CoB Staffer wrote:

Even more troubling is that people on this board are lying about why staff members are leaving. If you talk to the staff you will find that the departing staff members are not unhappy in the CoB and are talking with administrators long before they depart. The staff members who are leaving are moving for 25-35% raises. Consider the 22k for a 12 month advisor versus 32k for an Oak Grove 9 month teaching job. They are using their CoB supervisors are references. This is just more evidence that a few petty people (probably faculty members) in the CoB need to move on!

This is the classic Doty party line. Yes, CoB staffers have left for better jobs. The question is Why haven't a bunch of staffers from CoAL, CoST, CoEP, etc., left for better jobs? I would assume that the fraction of those colleges' staffers who are mobile would be comparable to that of the CoB's staffers.

Further, Dotyites are continually marginalizing the effects of his erratic behavior on at-will employees. They marginalize the effect of not being a Doty "favorite."

I agree that staff should not be outed on the board, but one has to ask: Who is doing the outing? Could it possibly be staffers without mobility trying to minimize other, more mobile staffers' chances of moving?