Playing the game

Remember when I said this? Well, at the end of the fiscal year our actual raise data came out. The average faculty raise was slightly, but not much, higher than that prediction. But, mine . . . was a lot higher.

It was because of this. I had thought it the courteous thing to do to alert my department chair that I was going on this interview, and it sort of snowballed into a retention extravaganza that I had not intended.

I am not, by nature, a game-player. It really was not my evil master plan to squeeze more money out of the university for myself so I feel kind of guilty, because they really needn't have worked to hard to retain me - I like my job a lot, but I was intrigued that there were opportunities out there that I had not considered. But, eh . . . sometimes you play the game, because that's just how it goes.

And then, sometimes the game plays you. For example, I was recently offered an underling editor position for the main journal in my field. The person that invited me to take on this position explicity stated it was because of the relative rarity of my gender within this discipline. Blah. So, I accepted because it's good for my professional development, even though I really didn't like the reason for the opportunity. (FYI I like to think I have more to offer my profession than just my second X chromosome.) But that's just the how it goes.