Why don't you get a proper job?

Bog Butter

You are stuck in a clayey, sterile ditch, knee deep in mud while being carefull not to dislodge your hip joints. You are soaked to the bone, cold, tired and all your joints ache. You you are p**sed off and you long for the sound of people cleaning shovels; the sound of going home time!

You know right well that the abuse you are giving your body will of course enevidiably give you arthritis. You know that nobody cares! You know that you are just a number; you are expendable.

A career in archaeology consists of hopping from one archaeological company to another, being treated like s**t, being given s**t money and being given zero loyality.


Why the hell would you stay doing such a job?

Riamfada

People on average leave field archaeology by the mid twenties (I read that somewhere, possibly DISCO) and get real jobs or stay in academics. Dosnt appeal to me though as 3 years to do a phd with no guarantee of employment afterwards and the financial cost of three more years in university (id like to own a house by the time Im 30 and possibly have a few mini mes which I cant do on an archaeologists salary. Im going a different way but staying in the field. (the profession not the literal field)

I had thought of deleting this post but im just off site 4 hours ago and your post is pretty much bang on. Now Im going to bed so I can get up at 6am to be on site and re clean what the rain is going to mess up.

Bog Butter

I'll be doing the same; at least tomorrow should be dry. Apologies if that caused offence to anybody. I was just letting off steam. That was all the bad points about archaeology. There are good points.

Marchandire

The essential fact is that the vast majority don't stay in the job. Of the small minority of archaeology graduates who actually excavate, very few stay in the job for more than a year or two. As you mentioned, wages, job security and conditions for field-staff have always been pretty terrible, and it's not a job where you can make a living wage below the managerial level. A good while ago I posted about pay in this thread here, if ur interested: http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055275701

The reason? Archaeological fieldworkers are a tiny component of the overall workforce in Ireland - at most 2,000 workers out of two million. As such, the archaeological fieldworker simply doesn't matter - we don't have the numbers to be anything other than a minority profession (unlike civil servants, factory workers, supermarket workers, etc.) The only route for a minority profession like ours is to form a strong union, but the industry has always been remarkably resistant to unionisation.

Add to this the half-a-dozen or so established archaeologists who were able to form companies at the start of the boom: these archaeologists took excavation out of the hands of the county and city councils. This meant that fieldworkers - who previously worked under public sector pay and conditions - were shunted into the private sector and lost all the advantages of being a public sector worker. A good example is Public Service Benchmarking. I've worked for the NRA via proxy companies for years, but because of this extra layer of private sector management, none of the benchmarking recommendations have ever applied to me or any other field archaeologist. All the work we do is for the benefit of the State, but we never qualify for the same rights other state workers get.

This page here shows how public sector wages have risen since 1998: http://www.ronanlyons.com/2009/02/04/public-sector-pay-in-ireland-the-e50000-question-its-not-that-difficult/. Contrast that to archaeological fieldwork wages since 1998, which have effectively dropped when inflation and cost-of-living is taken into account.

This tiny minority of archaeologists (we all know who they are ) accrued huge financial benefits from NRA and private development, while the bulk of field staff saw their wages and conditions worsen considerably. I know this sounds like a socialist rant, but I reckon it's fairly obvious to anyone who's been in excavation over the last ten years. It's the Celtic Tiger writ large, in my opinion

In answer to the OP? It's a wonder that anyone stays in the job, TBH. The work is endlessly fascinating and the social life is usually excellent, but these things aren't enough when the institutions in place have so little respect for you or the work that you do.

boneless

I did it for the love of the subject. That simple. A good site can be like a giant crossword puzzle which has to be solved by fitting everything together and filling in the blanks.

Mind you, it is easier for me these days... I already have the arthritis but will have a directors licence soon as well.

Doozie

Define a proper job? One where you are at a desk with a computer?
Site conditions can be horrific (I've been on a site where a supervisor took it on himself to stir a portoloo because it couldn't be emptied and things were piling up!) but the bigger picture is that you are contributing to an historical event. The feature/site you are working on is piecing together what happened long before any of us were thought of and I think that is amazing, particularly when you read of sites which change or divert previous opinion and change the course of history.

My sister works in the film industry and their conditions, imo, are far worse. They are on set from 7am till 7am with one ONE break. My sister has come home dehydrated because she hasn't had a chance to get a glass of water.

I would hate to be on site now but I dont regret the time I was. It was character building, you meet similiar crazies to yourself (because, lets face it, you need a little 'crazy' to keep doing it) and as the post said above, the social life is great.
Yes, you are knee deep in slush/mud but on a sunny day you just cant beat it!
Chin up fella.

Riamfada

Well the majority of the people on site at the moment have been out of work for months. Seems like a time to get the hell out of the game. Wages have dropped considerably and you have to be willing to take work anywhere in the country at short notice, there is a wealth of people with long lists of excavations and qualifications looking to stay in the field. Archaeological excavation is good fun but not something I ever want to make a career of, especially when most commercial sites consist of mind numbing cleaning all day.

Too much competition for a bad job and bad pay with no security or worth while prospects but it depends on what your priorities are. And my hands hurt.

boneless

Doozie wrote: »

Define a proper job? One where you are at a desk with a computer?
Site conditions can be horrific (I've been on a site where a supervisor took it on himself to stir a portoloo because it couldn't be emptied and things were piling up!) but the bigger picture is that you are contributing to an historical event. The feature/site you are working on is piecing together what happened long before any of us were thought of and I think that is amazing, particularly when you read of sites which change or divert previous opinion and change the course of history.

My sister works in the film industry and their conditions, imo, are far worse. They are on set from 7am till 7am with one ONE break. My sister has come home dehydrated because she hasn't had a chance to get a glass of water.

I would hate to be on site now but I dont regret the time I was. It was character building, you meet similiar crazies to yourself (because, lets face it, you need a little 'crazy' to keep doing it) and as the post said above, the social life is great.
Yes, you are knee deep in slush/mud but on a sunny day you just cant beat it!
Chin up fella.

This post sums up the best and the worse of digging... especially the crazies .... Lord bless them!! They came in all shapes, sorts and sizes and added to the rich tapestry of excavation life.

trowelled

Well it's been a year since I last worked on site. I worked in field archaeology for two years and now have a so-called proper job. The constant moving around was taking its toll on me. Sometimes I do miss being out on the field. There certainly were good times to be had.

The horrible rainy days on site I don't miss one bit. I always remember one day in particular where it was raining out the high heavens. We stayerd in for the morning and it showed no sign of stopping. The director decided tosend us out just before lunch even though it was still lashing. Silly thing was he wanted us to go out and do some "cleaning". Needless to say we made a complete mess as the ground was pure slush. He decided to break for lunch when he realised we were doing more harm than good. Later in the afternoon, when it finallly stopped raining, he sent back out so we could "clean up the mess we made earlier". Sometimes on days like those it is hard to remember the good times and you do wonder why you're in the job.

The uncertainty and the instability is what is putting me off going back into it. It does get me down though when I think about the fact that I spent four years studying archaeology and I do love archaeology but I can't see myself being able to make a career out of it

Doozie

Dear God, this is getting depressing.

On a less serious note my office is too hot and the tea I just made has gone cold from bawling my eyes out at these site stories.

My best archaeology moment (yes, I'm trying to perk up this thread) is finding a medieval shoe in a spoil heap. A kids shoe, probably dating to about 1500s. I was never lucky to find anything metal or that one piece that will 'make it into a museum case some day' (ya right)...but that one find stuck in my mind. It was like looking back at some kid from the 1500's with one shoe. :rolleyes:

gravensteen

This is the point when I think someone should point out that archaeology is not always excavation.
For those of us taking the academic route, the reward is loving the subject despite knowing you'd make more on the dole. And digging in the summer.

Riamfada

gravensteen wrote: »

This is the point when I think someone should point out that archaeology is not always excavation.
For those of us taking the academic route, the reward is loving the subject despite knowing you'd make more on the dole. And digging in the summer.

I think when it comes to things like a family, mortgage repayments and job security, love for ones subject isnt enough to see you through to your death bed. I certainly love archaeology but it takes second place to my life, friends, love and hopefully someday my house and family.

gravensteen

in your early twenties, pretty much none of that need apply.

Riamfada

gravensteen wrote: »

in your early twenties, pretty much none of that need apply.

Either should be a bad back and sore joints but they do

gravensteen

I think it's worth it.
But that's just me and my unconditional love of archaeology.

robp

I think it's worth it.
But that's just me and my unconditional love of archaeology.

That may be true but such poor conditions should not be accepted.

gravensteen

yes conditions can be bad, and some companies look after their workers better than others, but realistically, there's only so much comfort availble when your hoe-ing back a burnt mound in the driving, freezing rain so that the site is better defined.