Comments on: Dear Nonprofiteer, Why do nonprofits ask for the moon?

By: AJ

AJ — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 17:43:53 +0000

Great post! Everyone who works for or with non-profits knows that money can be very tight, but it makes me sad that I’ve seen so many job descriptions like the one described in this post and that I personally know so many ED’s who are ‘part time’ and paid accordingly. It’s simply not reasonable or fair to post a job description calling for an experienced professional and expect them to be paid like an intern. Thanks for shedding some light on the ridiculousness of this phenomenon and reassuring Born At Night But Not Last Night that their outrage and frustration is well founded.

By: K. Sujata

K. Sujata — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 16:41:09 +0000

Love this!
A good reminder for me and also brings to mind what a board member at Apna Ghar told me – “you pay peanuts, you get monkeys”.

By: Anita Bernstein

Anita Bernstein — Sun, 25 Mar 2012 01:05:36 +0000

Maybe a few white-collar employers out there use the part-time job classification in good faith, but not many. It’s good old “Help Wanted — Women” relabeled for the equal pay era, and damn skippy these employers expect a full complement of work every week. I think it’s fair for a candidate to ask what exactly is part-time about the job.

Anecdote more or less on point: I just checked out of a hotel. Business trip. An item I’d left in the room yesterday morning wasn’t there when I returned late in the afternoon. In response to my complaint, the manager called the chambermaid on her cell phone, twice, asking her to him call back. Although I believe this person carelessly threw out my possession–or else carried it away on purpose, which is unlikely; it has little cash value–I felt crummy. Imagine toiling as a hotel maid at near minimum wage and having to take calls from the boss when your shift finally ends.

So yeah, the tradeoff of a low-wage job should be that you get to forget about it when you’re not on the clock.