Yesterday was a pretty exciting day (from a graduate student’s perspective).
I bought a few SPY shares at $144.53 each - when the market was almost at it’s lowest point in the day; was called to our payroll office for the first time since the last couple years - met some new people; got a letter stating that my pay would be cut; and so on…
Then, here is what happened when I called my wife to inform her about the pay cut:
Me: Hey, are you busy? I just called to inform you of a new development.
Wife: Huh.. weird, I was about to call you to give you some news too!
Me: Is it good or bad?
Wife: It’s really good.
Me: Then hold on, let me go first because it isn’t good news on my side. I just came back from my payroll office and they told me that they are reducing my pay by 12% … starting 10 days ago. And that’s just because they suddenly decided that teaching assistants can’t be paid so much! &#$%@ … idiots [some swearing was in order].
Wife: What!? I don’t believe this…
[.. some related conversation took place..]
Me: .. anyways, let’s discuss this when we meet at home. Now, what’s the good news?
Wife: You are not going to believe this! My teaching supervisor called me a few minutes ago and asked me to permanently take up the extra section that I was substituting for another teaching assistant - that means I am going to get a pay raise! And, since I substituted from the start of the month, they are going to make sure that the last 10 days counted.
Me: Wow.. congratulations. That’s awesome. You made my day!
Wife [sounding pleased]: So looks like we won’t have to worry much about your pay-cut after all!
Me: Not sure about that. What’s going to be the dollar amount increase for you?
Wife: $YYY.00 per month.
Me: Huh.. you are kidding me! [taking time to confirm my own numbers] … that’s exactly the amount by which they are cutting my salary!
Wife: Really? .. looks like we are even. That’s interesting.
Me: Indeed very interesting. That’s an incredible coincidence… come on.. how can both these things happen within the last few minutes and nullify each other…. blah.. blah… [I suddenly become a bit philosophical and digress into some deep thoughts]
Wife: OK, I got to go [read it as "I can't make head or tail of what you are saying"]; you can calculate the probability later and let me know in the evening.
Net effect: after two totally unexpected changes to both our salaries, our gross household income didn’t change by even a single dollar at the end of the day!
I think I now have a better understanding what a “great coincidence” is.
Apart from the coincidence part, this is the first time I ever had a pay cut in my life (for whatever time I have been earning) and it sure doesn’t feel very good. For me, it felt very powerless for two main reasons. First, they announced the pay cut 10 days after my job started (apparently, there was some kind of a glitch in my file) - I think that’s totally unfair. Second, if I rejected the cut, the only option they gave me was to quit the job - which would have resulted in losing university’s tuition and fees contribution and my health insurance coverage (read thousands of dollars over the next few months). So, basically, I was forced to be spineless sucker in this situation.
I intend to protest (will complain and whine - just to let them know that I can complain and whine), but I have decided to wait for a couple of days to let my initial impulsive anger subside - I don’t want to mess up the situation even more with some rash disproportionate response. A calm and composed response will probably take the message across in a better way without much sweating. Call it emotional frugality or whatever.
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“As it acts in the world, the Tao
is like the bending of a bow.
The top is bent downward;
the bottom is bent up.
It adjusts excess and deficiency
so that there is perfect balance.
It takes from what is too much
and give to what isn’t enough.”
Wow, that is quite the coincidence. I’m trying to think of anything even remotely similar happening in my life, but I’m drawing a blank!
That sucks about your pay cut, but it’s very wise of you to let a day or two pass before speaking to the powers at be. If nothing else, it gives you a day or two to think of a way to blackmail them!
Totally weird. I’ve never heard of a university cutting TAs salary for the same hours. I’d be mad as hell, but it’s not like there is much of a choice, not with tuition and fee waiver. In my time as a TA, we had a raise every year, but then there was a shortage of CS TAs. Times change, I guess.
What field are you in? (if not a secret) Did all TAs got a pay cut? What about RAs?
Steve: The Tao is always appreciated on this blog.
Thanks for the wise words.
kev: Yeah.. blackmailing. Totally forgot about that.
Kitty: More than weird, it’s outrageous. I think my department did it just because it could.
Did you say “raise” - for a TA !? Man, you must have been in some place nice. In last 5 years, there was probably a raise once.
Apparently, my boss tells me that all TAs got a pay cut - but I haven’t confirmed it yet (pretty much most people I know are RAs).
And no, RAs didn’t get any cuts - and that’s fair because they are paid by individual research grants, unlike TAs (who are paid - I mean dominated - by the department). It sucks big time because I am *supposed* to be doing a TA for both the long semesters this academic year [apparently, I have been on a RA for too long for my professor to afford
].
Whoa this is weird. It’s good that both of you are working!
At Snork Maiden’s Uni there is a cap on what grad students can be paid. So even though she was being paid from grants etc. they couldn’t pay her more than the cap ($24k p.a.). It’s a state university. Is yours? At my former university we only have a minimum that grad students who are funded must be paid ($14.5k p.a.). It’s a private university.
“Did you say “raise†- for a TA !? Man, you must have been in some place nice. In last 5 years, there was probably a raise once”
I attended the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in the early 80s, Computer Science. I got an MS, so it was only one raise (if I am not mistaken it was from $480 a month to $520 a month - seems too little now, but at that time it was more than enough to live on — I met one woman, single mom, who managed to feed two kids on that while getting a PhD). They raised it more the following year, but I got a job. At the time the inflation was in double digits (wish I had been smart enough to buy government bonds), so maybe this was why we got raises.
Cool, coincidence or what? I’m not sure if I could even think of something similar that may have happened to me but I must say, I can’t
While your pay cut is obviously a big negative I would say you’re being smart by not speaking to those “on high” about the situation for a couple of days.
Keep us informed, I’d be interested to know the outcome of this.
Wow, you must be putting some positive, well-balanced things out into the Universe for that to happen to you. Congrats.
Sorry you are feeling powerless at the moment, though; that’s a terrible feeling. But you are a grad student after all, and it’s cool that they’re paying for you in general. You won’t have to put up with it forever!
Sorry about your pay cut. But I agree, that’s probably the best example of coincidence. You even got the news on the same day.
That is so weird but glad it worked out. Like Meg said, you must be putting out some positive vibes in the Universe.
PLEASE do yourself a favor, and ask the personnel office if it is legal for them to have someone working and then retroactively cut their pay? In most cases, a person’s agreed-upon wage is not variable in the contract. If you were earning wage X, they cannot, without prior written notice suddenly begin paying X-1.
Don’t ask payroll, they are accountants. Ask Personnel, who are the ones who negotiate contracts. Also ask your professor to go to bat for you if you get along well enough… if you are not the only TA who had this happen, then anonymously send a tip to the local news station.
At the very least, the pay cut should not take effect until your next pay period.
Wow! I am a little late in reading here, but I’m not as amazed at this “coincidence” as some of our fellow bloggers. I see 1st of all, perfection in the divine plan here. When the Lord closes a door He opens up a window. I know it may sound trite, but I do believe that there are no coincidences. 2nd, I hate to tell you this, but if you or your wife plan on teaching as a career, which I cannot tell if this is the case, but I hope you understand just how little this nation values teaching at any level. I have not had the experience of teaching at the university level, but I have taught in 2 different public high schools over the last 18 years. And as a graduate, I was in no way prepared to comprehend the lack of support my profession would receive from national, state, or local government. That said, I must also tell you that there has been no greater reward for me than sharing in the lives of young people as they look toward their own futures. I have worked in public service and in the business world, and neither of these theaters provided the joy, drama, or fulfillment that teaching has for me. I am thankful for having chosen education as my profession, even if it meant that my bonuses came in the form of a young person returning after graduation to tell me how much I have impacted his or her life. Teaching has blessed me beyond any financial measure. I wonder whose life you have touched and not even known it?
This may not be as magical or karmic as you think if you are in the same department or a department with the same base pay as your wife. When I was in grad school, grad students were limited to the “percent time” they could be employed without involving the collective bargaining interests of academic professionals (i.e., non-faculty instructors, lab techs, etc.). The glitch in your personnel file may be the result of you being over your agreed percentage.
The limit at my university was 2/3 time. During the semesters I had a 1/4 time TA in addition to my 1/2 time RA, I was technically over the limit. The difference was placed in a professional development fund that I was allowed to use for professional society dues, reference materials, and the like. Since it was not direct compensation, the unions were not involved. You may want to inquire about this as a possibility.
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