Blogging Away Debt Our Journeys to a Debt-Free Life

by Ashley

I thought it was about time for an update on my employment situation.

As a brief reminder, I work predominantly for 2 separate universities. I do online teaching for University A and research for University B. (For more detailed information, see these posts where I have written more in depth about my employment situation: first employment post, employment update post)

Anyway, I reported recently that University B was changing their payment structure. Instead of paying hourly, they decided to pay per project completion. This translated to a bit of a pay cut for me (given the number of hours worked per project, and averaging out the new flat rate). An update to this is that I’ve been able to recoup some of the loss of income….by working more. Isn’t this the way life works? Lol. So far my monthly income from University B is holding steady, but that’s simply because I’m completing more projects each month. I have figured out a way to try to streamline the process so it hasn’t taken me quite as many hours per project as it did before, but overall it still averages out to less per hour than what I was previously making. At least the net take-home pay is the same.

So what about University A? I’ve been pretty open and honest about how much I love working with University A. They have been an absolute dream to work with and I really feel so, truly fortunate to have the relationship that we have. Much of this is due to the fact that my boss is actually an old graduate school colleague of mine. This person is an incredible boss and I am so proud of how well she has climbed the academic ladder at such a young age and has really blossomed in her position. All this being said, sometimes things don’t go as expected with online courses. One of these dilemmas is low course enrollment. I was expecting that this Fall semester I’d be getting to teach a third class, effectively raising my pay by 33% (I’ve previously been teaching 2 classes per semester/summer session)!!! But I just received the unfortunate email that enrollment was too low to justify continuing with the third course and it would have to be cancelled. So back to only two classes. Also, the pay structure is hugely different between Summer and Fall semesters. In the summer I received my pay in two separate lump sums, so they were relatively large payments. I mentioned that this meant I would not be receiving a paycheck in August because the dispersements were in June and July (even though the classes extended until mid-August). The Fall payments are dispersed in four equal payments (September through December), so even though the pay per class is the same, the classes are more spaced out and the pay is, similarly, spaced out. So its going to look like my pay has really declined over the next few months simply due to the schedule of payments (and having one less class than I’d expected).

So our summer heyday of awesome pay may be coming to a close. I don’t think this is going to drastically change our overall income (since I only give you guys the combined figure of my income + husband’s income), but instead of consistently breaking the $10,000 mark, we may be coming in closer to the $8,000ish range. Only time will tell. Husband has been busy working out-of-control hours so his pay may make-up for some of my lower paychecks.

Anywho, just wanted to give an update on the employment situation.

Also, for any curious – I still haven’t heard anything about the job I recently interviewed for. This past Monday I sent an email to follow-up (basically, “I just wanted to see if/when hiring decisions would be made”). I heard back immediately (less than 5 minutes) that decisions would be made that week. Well…the week is over and still no word. I’m really pretty bummed, particularly since the job sounded like such a great fit and the interview had been so great! I’m assuming this means I’m on the “B-list.” Like, they made an offer to the first round draft pick and are keeping me on the sidelines in case that person turns it down, so they will then offer it to me. Does this make sense? Anyway, I’ll keep you posted on that but I don’t think its a great sign that I still haven’t heard anything yet. Booo!!!!

Hope you have a great Monday!

Ashley

Hi, I’m Ashley! Arizonan on paper, Texan at heart. Lover of running, blogging, and all things cheeeeese. Freshly 40, married mother of two, working in academia. Trying to finally (finally!) pay off that ridiculous 6-digit student loan debt!