"  In fact, the most troubling thing I found in your post was the
"Position includes many aspects not related to educator job."  It
sounds like you've hired an intelligent employee and then, in
addition to paying her horrible wages, you are adding insult to
injury by asking her to do (reading between the lines here)
secretarial work.  This woman has a Masters degree... be realistic...
would you want to go to school for 6 years and then have an employer
who didn't appreciate you, as well as no money?  I've been in that
position and it is belittling, especially for someone strong of
character.  In my case I quit (something that normally goes against
my grain) and my employer lost a valuable employee.  My advice is
start to appreciate her, personally and monetarily, or let her go and
try to find (the operative word is "try") someone else who will work
for that.  Ever heard the saying that you get what you pay for? "

Another Wow!  "I've heard men complain of doing women's work, and I've heard
women complain of doing men's work.  But I've never heard the work complain
who did it, as long as it got done." [Lloyd Alexander, "Taran Wanderer"]
This also holds true for "belittling" work.

There is nothing demeaning about doing any sort of honest work, if it
genuinely needs doing.  I've never had a curator complain that it was
"beneath" him and not part of his job when I asked for assistance moving
heavy boxes around, or the secretary was busy & the curator had to do his
own photocopying, or any number of like things.  The curators & conservator
have cleaned bathrooms & swept floors along with me when we were between
cleaning firm contracts, because it needed doing.  (I must admit to
complaining about cleaning urinals, since I don't use them.  Luckily this
was only for a short time.)

There may have been other aspects of the job you quit that were belittling,
or the employer's attitude involved, but a good secretary is worth far more
in the day-to-day running of the department than anything I do in
collections management [if I'm smart I'll forward this to our departmental
secretary].  Yes, it's annoying to take a position and find there are tasks
you hadn't planned on.  You may even feel your education was being wasted.
But being beneath you?  That goes against my whole philosophical grain.

Sorry folks, I could rant for hours against elitism.  I'd better quit lest I
become proface.

Deborah Harding
Collection Manager
Section of Anthropology
Carnegie Museum of Natural History
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