Changes are happening at work. My lab will soon be moving into a new facility with more space. The biggest changes are in personnel. Two long-termers just retired, another one will in a few months, and the place won't be the same without them.

Several other people have left for better paying jobs. One kickass person found the same position at a local community college paying DOUBLE what she made at our big university. And she can earn her Master's for free. I don't want to trash talk my employer, and I'm not looking to be let go, but it speaks volumes when switching over to a community college is such a huge step up. I'm just sayin'.

My good friend took an excellent position with a small startup company. (I miss her already, but there was no way she could pass up the offer which includes bonuses and stock holdings.) She had some 18 years in with the university, but was one of the lowest paid in her job title. I'm approaching a decade at my job and was earning substantially more than her. Heck even new people were making as much as her. She started pushing for a raise a couple YEARS ago and was told she'd have to come up with an offer before they could do anything. Well, she came up with an offer alright, and the counter wasn't worth her staying.

Rumor has it a handful of other folks are getting ready to jump ship as well. I wish it would be a wake up call for the administration, but I doubt it. Word is that the bigwigs on main campus don't care much for us staff and would love to see the research programs run by students and post-docs and cut staff scientists out of the picture. It would be a great way for them to keep costs down, but they seem to be forgetting about the experience and knowledge we rest of us bring to our programs.