You're fired!

On Oct 2, 2007, at 10:54 AM, Joanie Sompayrac wrote:

> 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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