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Admin team member aghast at union’s use of the H word during salary bargaining

Shortly after accusing the union of “cherry-picking” its list of overpaid administrators to come up with the result that top admins are paid 99.4% of comparators while faculty are only paid 84%, one of the union team members used the H word to describe how the faculty felt after the last round of bargaining, where the admins gave us a choice between layoffs and pay-cuts.

One of the admin team, who’d been rolling their eyes throughout the union’s discussion, immediately accused the union of being unprofessional and demanded a halt to the proceedings, presumably so the admins could decontaminate.

For the record, the H word – “hosed” if I may be permitted spell it out – is a technical term used by economists to describe the feeling people have when they’re being screwed over by their bosses.  Sadly the OED definition and usage is behind a paywall, so let’s go with the free Urban Dictionary:

1. Messed up completely and without hope; to be in a hoplessly bad condition or position.
2. To spray with water from a hose.
3. Swindled or taken advantage of by deception.
4. To be waylaid and prevented from accomplishing something.

In any case cooler heads on the administrative team prevailed, the giggling in the room died down, and bargaining resumed.

The discussion did make me wonder how much our new provost is gonna get, so I asked him and the Public Records Office:

From: WTH <[email protected]>
Subject: Provost contract
Date: May 16, 2024 at 4:35:49 PM PDT
To: Lisa Thornton <[email protected]>

Dear Public Records Officer Thornton:

This is a public records request for a copy of the contract or similar agreement showing the terms of employment for incoming Provost Christopher P. Long. If a contract has not been signed then I ask for a copy of UO’s most recent proposal.

I’m ccing Dean Long in the hope he will provide this document without your office’s excessive fees and deliberate delays.

Thanks,

Bill Harbaugh

One Comment

  1. thedude 05/21/2024

    I believe the correct word is “screwed”

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