Gettin’ FLAC’d*
By Guest Blogger: Reva Lution
So how many
times have you been Flac’d by the newly installed FLAC payroll system? If you
haven’t been Flac’d yet, consider yourself lucky. I have yet to meet a PT
instructor who has escaped this humiliating and dehumanizing experience. If you are one of the lucky ones who has yet
to be subjected to it, “getting Flac’d” refers to the mysterious process
whereby your contract with the Community College system goes in, but the payout
from this work never seems to enter your bank account. Somewhere along the way,
it gets “Flac’d” (lost) and you get Flac’d when you try to pay for something. Woes betide the poor saps who were counting on
actual money to pay their bills!
I am
personally experiencing my 4th Flac’ing and I’m pretty fed up it
with it. This last one in particular has been excessively egregious. I was promised two payouts in December
(supplemental to my regular instructional pay) for work I completed over the
course of the semester. The first payout finally reached my account in
mid-February. I am still waiting on the second. Yes, you read that right. I
entered into a contract with the institution and I did my part – so where’s my money?
The worst
thing is no one seems to be able to figure it out. Inquiries usually result in
indecipherable mumbling about “FLAC, new, glitches”. You would think I would
have heard an apology or two considering the number of times I have been
subjected to this process. And you would
be wrong. I have never heard one word from finance or HR about why these
“glitches” keep happening or what anyone is doing to prevent me from gettin’
Flac’d the next time a new contract is generated.
If you have
your own FLAC story to tell, please send it to us! It is important that we
compile and document exploitative practices by our institutions. We do great
work and create incredible value for our campuses. We deserve so much more yet
we create this value for so little compensation. And now we’re being told to do
this work for some possible compensation at some point in the far distant
future (By the way you’re going to have to beg them multiple times before they
respond to you.)
Let’s stop
the Flac’ing!
*Faculty Load and Compensation (FLAC)
