As Joanie points out, there are disturbing indications in the data
presented.  I have been concerned in the past, and again this year, that the
response rate is so low that it is not a valid indication of anyone's
opinion.  The response rate last year was 19% and this year is up to 23%, as
indicated in the downloadable section of the report.  For an in-house,
on-line survey, this is a very unacceptable response rate.  That alone
should be an indication of the low morale.

Rich

Richard L. Metzger, Ph.D.
Professor of Psychology
Department of Psychology (2803)
University of Tennessee at Chattanooga
615 McCallie Avenue
Chattanooga, TN 37403
Phone: 423-425-5479
Fax: 423-425-4284

-----Original Message-----
From: UTC Staff E-Mail List [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of
Joanie Sompayrac
Sent: Tuesday, October 02, 2007 10:55 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [UTCSTAFF] UT Employee Satisfaction Survey

Like many of you, I am very busy dealing with mid-terms in all of my
courses, revising articles that journals all seem to want last week, and
students and service projects that need my attention, but I am troubled.  I
trust we all received the communication from President Petersen's office
last week.  One item had to do with the Employee Satisfaction Survey.  It
said --

Employee Satisfaction Survey: Results from the survey conducted in the
spring have been compiled, and UT chancellors and vice presidents have
received results for their campuses and will share those with you shortly.
System-wide, overall satisfaction remained steady as 74 percent of
participating employees reported feeling satisfied with the university as a
place to work. The survey also noted critical areas for improvement, such as
training for supervisors, better internal communications and building trust.
We will work on these areas with a goal of improving scores in next year's
survey, and have posted complete system-wide results at
http://www.tennessee.edu/system/news/satisfaction.shtml

Am I the only one who is bothered that two-thirds of our faculty staff feel
that we cannot speak without fear of reprisals?  I know many are complaining
about the fact that 80% of our faculty and staff feel underpaid, but a HUGE
majority of our faculty and staff fear retribution for speaking out on this
or any topic.  I think this is appalling in an academic environment.  The
campus is supposed to be the marketplace of ideas, and yet the overwhelming
perception is that one will be punished for voicing a view that may be
contrary to the view of those in authority.  And the president's response?
We want to improve our scores next year.  

Shouldn't the goal be to improve the overall environment so that faculty and
staff do not feel that way.  Heck, they can improve the scores next year by
tweaking the question, but it just seems to me that the scores aren't the
problem.  The perception is the problem.

Sorry to clog your inboxes with my gripe this morning.  Perhaps I just need
to cutback on my caffeine.  

Joanie




Dr. Joanie Sompayrac
UC Foundation
Associate Professor of Accounting
Assistant Director, University Honors 
UT-Chattanooga

"Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of
enthusiasm." -- Winston Churchill

This correspondence should be considered a public record and subject to
public inspection pursuant to the Tennessee Public Records Act.

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