Re: tutor absenteeism

[cabrown@utarlg.uta.edu]

Lady Brown,

Yes, all the tutors who work in our center are paid an hourly 
wage--nothing close to what they're worth--but compared to other Writing 
Centers in the area, the salary isn't too bad.   Part of the problem is 
that some of my best tutors are the worst offenders, and I simply could 
not bring myself to fire them--and they know they have little to fear 
from me.  We do have a system whereby they are supposed to find someone 
to work for them if they know in advance that they need time off.   I 
even have both parties sign a contract to that effect.  Sometimes the 
system works, many times they simply don't want to bother with the 
paperwork.  I really don't want 
to have to start threatening and/or firing tutors.  And if money isn't 
enough of a carrot, I don't know what is.

(anybody know of any really good guilt trips?)

Actually, this may just be one of those problems that never goes away.  
And in times of acute crisis, I have always managed to find someone who 
would help out.   

Cheryl Brown

On Mon, 12 May 1997, lady brown wrote:

> Cheryl,
> 
> My first question would be:  "Do you pay your tutors for the work
> they do?"
> And are the staff meetings part of their paid duties?  
> 
> At Tech, my consultants are paid for 10 hours a week: 9 hours of
> tutoring and 1 hour of staff/development (the colloquia).  I do
> make a point at the beginning of the semester that the staff
> meeting is not optional, and I think they understand that if they
> miss more than one or two times, I would fire them.  They also
> know that if they need to miss a session, they must find a
> replacement, preferably among the other consultants.  And then
> they must pay that consultant back.  I'm a middle child and I
> take this sort of thing very seriously.  I also model the
> behavior I expect (at least I hope I do :>).  When a person has
> to be absent (illness or conference), that person tells the
> student assistant the date and who will be his/her replacement. 
> And the student assistant also keeps a record of who owes whom
> what.  This spring was rather crazy due to a lot of conferences,
> but I think we ended up fairly even.
> 
> Lady Falls Brown
> ykflb@ttacs.ttu.edu
>