I have also heard rumors that this is the first of four phases of the reclassification process. It frightens me to think that my benefits and vacation time may be on the line.

There are actually two titles associated with every staff position now…the working title (the “official” U title) and the market title (what you might see listed for any given position in a newspaper). I will note that, for my staff, none of the “market titles” we had proposed were incorporated into their official documentation. I know they were submitted to HR, but don’t know where along the way they might have been dropped from the process, if they even made it out of HR at all.

Staff planning on appealing their new titles should note that no changes will be made for at least 6 months. I’m just happy that, as a member of the “Primary” job family, I didn’t have to go through this entire process myself.

In the defense of the reclass project though, it needed to be done and I do think that many of the jobs, like mine, are more correctly reflected in the new titles.

In the defense of the reclass project though, it needed to be done and I do think that many of the jobs, like mine, are more correctly reflected in the new titles.

Part of the issue, in my opinion, is that the U doesn’t get how to be a business. “Departmental compensation philosophy” is just buzz language for performance-based compensation management, a philosophy that academia hasn’t been quick to adopt or embrace, as your experience clearly illustrates. I can only assume that you should have been reclassed higher and rightfully earned an increase, something the U stopped before it could get going with that “budget neutral” BS.

Anyway, I didn’t mean to come off as an apologist, I just wanted to relate from the other side. Good luck with your appeal; hopefully working for a partner will help your cause, not hurt it.

Please note that the first sentence of this post, including the title, is that the Classification Project was a miserable failure in my case. Also please note that I acknowledge this post is a personal “whine.”

I’m glad you got reclassified in a sensible way, and I’m sure many people have. However, I don’t think that my case is unique, and I wanted to point out that the “budget neutral” mandate combined with the “establish a departmental compensation philosophy” mandate creates a tension in cases like mine where they might have to acknowledge that I am probably underpaid for my set of job duties.

In my case, I accept this fact because I in reality work for a non-profit that has partnered with a U unit (my supervisors aren’t employed by the U at all), and I like my workplace and my coworkers enough to put up with it. What irks me about this is that they had more than enough information to make a better choice on this label, they chose not to, and the simplest and most likely explanation (assuming they actually considered my supervisor-approved job description; not having paid attention to that would’ve been more insulting) is they were trying to peg me in to a lower salary bracket. I’d rather they have respected me enough to at least try to find an accurate label, and if that put me in a bracket that doesn’t jive with their “compensation philosophy,” live with it or give me a raise. Don’t insult me by calling me a help desk jockey.

I have already taken this up with my immediate supervisor. I don’t expect much to come of it in my particular case. The division between who pays me and who’s my boss creates a nice circle where everyone can point their finger at everyone else, and nobody really deals with it…

My title actually changed to a very recognizable (industry-wise) term, and is, in fact, a change for the best (I went from a Performance Support Analyst to an Instructional Designer). The discussions of tagging content aside, the U didn’t have a system where many titles were recognizable outside of the U. Many of the changes being made in the program were to bring obvious jobs into line with their industry counterparts. From there, positions can be described properly and compared accurately to the salaries and responsibilities of a standard [insert title]. It’s hard to retain or hire good candidates when you have a position that doesn’t relate to 90% of the potential workforce.

If it bothers you that much, take it up with your local HR rep. You obviously got shorted in the process or at the very least were insulted; since the process is ongoing, now would be the time to try and change the title.