Formula Concerns

[vem@email.byu.edu]

> I think you might be misinterpreting how the formula is put together. The 
> intent for the formula is for an administrator to fill in the number. Perhaps 
> a piano technician will be asked to help, or at most one of the piano 
> faculty. But it is the administrator who is making the decision how often a 
> piano should be tuned. And if he/she says piano faculty pianos should be 
> tuned once a week, then that is how often we, as employees, need to do that, 
> even if we don't agree with that. 

Woa there Wim.  We are hired not to merely be employees, we are experts in our 
field and should not be told how to do our jobs.  This should be totally 
unacceptable to those who are salaried, full-time techs at any universities.

> 
> Although having a total freedom in our job is something we all want, don't 
> forget, we do work for someone. And he/she/they do have the right to tell us 
> how often a piano should be tuned, and even how long we should take to tune 
> it. That is their way of maintaining control over the people who work for 
> them. If, in your opinion, a job should take longer, or if a piano should be 
> tuned more often, or less often, then as professionals, it is our 
> responsibility to educate the administrator. But I don't think we are in a 
> position to tell him/her what to do. 

I think we are precisely in a position to tell them what should and will be 
done on any piano.

> 
> It is by knowing how often a piano should be tuned, and how long it should 
> take, an administrator will more closely be able to determine how much time, 
> and money, is needed to maintain the pianos. That is what they want to know. 
> It is also their right to find someone who can do that work in the prescribed 
> amount of time. 

If you are a contracted tuner, maybe.

> 
> It is presumed that administrators are intelligent enough to know that not 
> every piano is the same, and that every situation is different. So while by 
> using the formula of how often a piano should tuned, how long it takes, 
> combined with what additional service is required, an administrator will have 
> a basic idea of how many hours are required to maintain the inventory, I 
> doubt seriously any one of them will around with a clip board looking over 
> our shoulder to make sure we do spend an hour tuning a piano once a week. 

Don't under estimate these types.