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Hi Elizabeth,

I have had a fond place in my heart for the Pacific Science Center since 
I first visited it back in 1977. Over the years I have visited it 
several times, participated in workshops there and made many friends. 
That feeling is part of my general love affair with the area around 
Seattle. You are lucky indeed to work in such a beautiful place.

I think you are right. Allowing employees to choose the aspects of their 
  jobs that they are willing to do, is a slippery slope. The original 
posting indicated that that individual was on it, big time.

Most of us are very lucky to enjoy our jobs in and around science 
centers. In fact, that is part of our 'benefits' package. When I was 
offered a job at the Flandrau Science Center in Tucson, the director 
there asked me what my salary was as director of exhibits at the New 
York Hall of Science. He said there was no way he could offer me 
anything near that amount. I remember quite specifically telling him 
that the amount of salary was not all important, 'Joy is part of my 
pay.' So I worked there for 9 years, my salary never equaling what I 
made in NY. I did have a lot of joy - and also did a lot of things I 
didn't care much for. Until the very end my 'joy' (and my meager salary, 
and my health plan, and my social structure, and living in a beautiful 
place - all part of my 'benefits package') outweighed the parts of the 
job I didn't care for.

So, your 'two cents' are right on. Yet, it may be possible that you 
misinterpreted the intent of my first message. Generally, when you have 
an employee that's a screw-up, you give them the 'shape up or ship out' 
speech. If they don't shape up you have to carry through and let them go 
  - or not promote them, or give them fewer hours or find another 
position more suitable, etc.

The original poster had that talk, yet saw little affect. The threat of 
firing carried no weight, I propose, because a) the employees didn't 
receive enough 'benifits' (wage, joy and job satisfaction, etc.) to care 
if they were fired, and b) she couldn't carry through with firing 
because she needed them. It's clear to me she's in a bind. She needs 
those 150 'casual workers' more than they need the job.

You receive all the benefits of working at the Pacific Science Center. 
You have your salary, meager though it may be, you work in a beautiful 
city, you do work (mostly) that you feel is meaningful and important and 
with that you carry a little prestige around with you. You can say, 'I 
work at the Pacific Science Center,' and everyone says, "O, that's so 
cool.' These are all benefits of your job that allow you to tolerate the 
parts of it that are not so fun to do.

All I was suggesting in my original posting on this topic was that a way 
  be found to give these 'lowly' (though 'mission' critical) employees 
more 'benefits' in their job. Find a way of making the job more 
'valuable' to them and they will likely do it better. For these young 
people, wage is probably an important part of the mix, especially if 
they have not yet completely bought into the 'for the good of humanity' 
spiel that most of us older, more addle minded folks have. But a lot of 
other things go into the total picture of 'job satisfaction.' They need 
to be satisfied in their work, just like the rest of us.

Of course, you can't make someone 'love' their job, the way we all love 
our jobs, right - we do love our jobs, don't we?

Joe R.


Elizabeth Wiles wrote:
> ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology Centers
> Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related institutions.
> *****************************************************************************
> 
> OK, I have to put my two cents in.  Joe, I am very sorry, but I think the attitude of letting employees choose what aspects of their job they want to do is a slippery slope.  We all have aspects of our jobs that we do not enjoy/like.  But that doesn't mean we are any less responsible for those aspects.  Just because our work environments are more casual doesn't mean we should be any less professional.  And it doesn't do our employees any justice in setting expectations low, which you do when employees don't have to fulfill all their job requirements.  And what happens to those employees when they move to a different job/workplace where that attitude is not tolerated?  Expecting staff to fulfill all their job requirements, no matter how little they enjoy doing them, increases the professionalism of the science center and the individual employee.
> 
> I think we all are very lucky that we enjoy our jobs at science centers, much more than most people, and that the not-so-fun aspects play a very small part in our otherwise fun jobs.
> 
> -Elizabeth Wiles
> Science on the Go! Supervisor
> Pacific Science Center
> Seattle
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Informal Science Education Network [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Joe Ruggiero
> Sent: Tuesday, February 20, 2007 9:35 AM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: need advice-getting staff to start programs on time
> 
> ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology Centers
> Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related institutions.
> *****************************************************************************
> 
>

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