[SBE] HD plant construction engineer needed

[Jeff Carter]

Okay, I found the citation I mentioned earlier:

http://www.sbe.org/about_ethics.php

Section 21. The Broadcast Engineer will uphold the principle of
appropriate and adequate compensation for those engaged in broadcast
work, including those in subordinate capacities, as being in the
public interest and maintaining the standards of the profession.

So, as I read it, as SBE Members we're expected to protect the idea of
honest compensation not just for ourselves, but also our subordinates,
for example people putting ends on cables.   If I'm right, and we're
not doing this as individuals, we're in violation of the SBE Canon of
Ethics.  In my view, it's when the economy is down and things are
tight that we have to hang on the hardest.

The very first job I had in television, I worked directly for a CE who
took the position that whatever management decided to do to us in
terms of pay, benefits, work conditions, or whatever, we should accept
with a smile because in his view we were all lucky not to be working
in the textile mills.  Toward the end of my employment there, they'd
eliminated the building custodial people (in and out) and we were
expected to mow the grass, wax the floors, and take the garbage
off-site somewhere (no dumpster on site, no budget for it).  He had no
interest in defending us, swine that we were.

Something happened to the well for the building's water supply.
Rather than repair the problem, their solution was to ask us to wash
out old milk jugs at home, fill them with water, and bring them in as
we came to work.

I didn't last there very long.  Unique location, good people, even the
CE was a good person at heart.  My problem is that I know what I'm
worth and if I can't get paid and treated appropriately and adequately
in broadcasting, I'll lateral into IT or academia or a half a dozen
other things that would be happy to have me.  If everybody quit
working for peanuts and things started going dark, the owners/managers
would snap to pretty quickly.

I learned that the managers/owners aren't the problem here, not
really.  We're doing this to ourselves.

Jeff