I aapologize in advance for taking your valuable time for the following question but I feel it may be of interest or benefit to some or all of us in the future. My question is:
How many of you have as your official title "NMR Lab Manager" or some reasonable permutation of words with both Manager and NMR in the list?
This question is aimed primarily at people working in academic labs however I would be interested as well in what the equivalent Industrial or Government titles are. The reason behind all this, you may guess, is a dispute I am having with that most dreaded of bureaucracies ... Human Resource Services here at Washington State University.
I have been trying for the last 3 years to have my "official" title changed from the incredibly descriptive and personally satisfying "Scientific Assistant" to the more germane "NMR Center Manager". I have to stress that this is not just a feel good measure as the whole thing has come to a head over trying to advertise a position for an "Assistant NMR Manager" to help me with the lab which has been growing by leaps and bounds. We have been blocked in our efforts by the immutable logic which states that we cannot advertise for an "Assistant NMR Manager" if there is no "NMR Manager" to start with. Incidently there can be no "NMR Manager" title at this University since the duties and tasks which we all execute daily do not somehow fall into the realm of "Management" at this institution. We have been given the green light however to advertise for another "Scientific Assistant" (or would that be Assitant Scientific Assistant?).
Anyhow I'm sure the point is clear and I would very much appreciate any and all responses to help us out of this Catch 44/2.
Please email me directly at greg_helms@wsu.edu.
A separate question for the Steering Committee is:
How many members are there currently in the AMMRL?
Thank you very much for your help and I will post a brief summary of the responces sans identifiers.
Greg
Gregory L. Helms, Ph.D.
Manager, Center for NMR Spectroscopy
Washington State University
PO Box 644630
Pullman, WA 99164-4630
(509) 335-3005 Voice
(509) 335-9688 FAX
greg_helms@wsu.edu