faculty

custodian

adjunct faculty

security officer

academic services officer

Harrisburg Area Community College

Pros
1: Summer schedule: Monday-Thursday. 
2: Christmas break: a whole week off which does not take away from your PTO. 
3: Starting PTO is 20 days. 
4: I loved my job and the people I worked with

Cons
1: The abundance of meetings. Each week I was in meetings at least 8 hours per week. A lot of the meetings could be substituted with an email to the group. 
2: My manager continually brought trivial matters to the forefront of our one-on-one meetings. A quick example is I accidentally confused my manager's name with another manager's name during a meeting. I corrected my mistake during the meeting and thought nothing of it until my manager brought it to my attention during a one-on-one meeting. She was deeply offended by my mistake and became very upset when I did not sympathize with her. Once trivial items like that became the primary topic of discussion with my manager, I knew there was no hope in me retaining my position at HACC. 
3: Multiple items that were included in my performance review were never discussed in person and items discussed in person did not make it into my performance review. 
4: You can do your job well, be respected and liked by your co-workers and customers, and still have your manager dislike you which ultimately leads to your termination.

Advice to Management
Before blindly trusting a manager to terminate an employee, upper management should review the issues presented by the manager with the employee.

Independently operated and managed all aspects of the Lebanon Campus Bookstore.  Coordinated, and performed sales; ordering, receiving and stocking of textbooks and General Merchandise. Marketed and promoted sales of merchandise. Interacted and communicated successfully with college administrative and academic staff and students to insure premium customer service in a diverse multi-cultural area. Maintained a pleasant and attractive work environment. Responsible for providing, overseeing and delivering technical direction to staff. Performed and supervised opening and closing processes such as: cash receipts and reports. Assisted with preparing budgets and other associated processes. Ensuring that activities are performed in compliance with applicable policies and procedures. Proficient with a variety of software and office equipment. Familiar with Social Media and its use.

The college and the various campuses are pleasant spaces and I feel appreciated for the work I do. Lots of time off, 4 day week from May to August. Benefits are excellent, the salary range is low to mid for South-Central PA area. Job security is pretty much assured provided you show up and do your job. Some faculty want to unionize, but as staff I do not see an obvious reason for unionization. The management has vision that if you are actively against its agenda you may be asked or forced to leave, especially if you work higher up in the college. There is zero-tolerance of anything deemed politically incorrect, and a few staffers have left voluntarily and involuntarily because of this. However, if you are mindful of this, you can avoid scrutiny. Most of the students, staff, and faculty are easy to get along with.

I worked part time as a student worker in the Military and Veterans Affairs Office (Harrisburg campus) on behalf of the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs. This was one of the best gigs to have while attending school. However, it does not set you up very well for your future career (depending on what that may be). As a veteran, it was great being surrounded by other like-minded veterans. The pay was minimum wage, but was also tax-free and non-reportable income. The job consisted of informing incoming veteran students on the ins and outs of utilizing their GI Bill benefits, maintaining physical and digital records of students, excel data entry, and customer service (phone calls, emails and walk-ins). Since this is a student worker position, school work is encouraged during any down time. I would recommend this job to anyone looking for a relaxed part-time job while attending school. 

Team atmosphere, learning new functions, creating goals and striving to meet those goals. working out problems with a group of people and their respective contributions. Being able to pioneer new operations. creating change where change is necessary for overall success of the business. Hardest part is working through people challenges. Typical day at work was staying on schedule and the issues that may interfere with that schedule. Planning the day was always enjoyable, and with my military background, putting together a back up plan as well as learning to do an about face if major challenges came into play requiring a change in those plans. Enjoyed the analytical work associated with the daily challenges. Most rewarding is working in the trenches with the employees and coworkers.

Overall reason to avoid - The administration, certain members of the leadership team and HR. Everything you can imagine out of the playbook of psychological manipulation, gaslighting, condescension, power-tripping, systemic tricks and an overall toxic workplace culture, you will endure while there. Its not worth the pay (which is low), your mental health or your professional identity being compromised. Furthermore, the interview process is lengthy (months) and not worth your while.

Positives - The students. They are a shining light and if you can connect or work with/for them your work can be rewarding if you have a passion for academia.

Incompetent management in many areas, especially the top leadership team. Driven by money, not education or student success models. College recently fired all counselors only to restructure and hire another level of top management, with some making over $100k.  Lack of true understanding of educational goals ... 

No one seems to be guarding the hen house and top leadership make unilateral decisions.  If you disagree with the president, you will  suddenly be unemployed. Managed by fear. 
This is not the HACC that the Founders had in mind, where there was a partnership between administrators, faculty and students.  The instruction is still top notch and professors care about their students, but it may not be sustainable.  Very sad.

What is the best part of working at the company?
The students are a joy to work with, and work life balance is great. The benefits (sick & vacation time, retirement match, and health insurance) are all very generous. 

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
The administration is not transparent, does not communicate honestly with staff or faculty, and does not hold themselves accountable for issues facing the college. They are unwilling to listen to staff or faculty concerns and their messaging is often meant to sow division and fear in their employees. 

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
In my department, my team is great. My coworkers are kind and always willing to help out.

I was hired as an English tutor, but they could never remember that and sometimes sent me math students. In my last year there I was serving as an unofficial computer tutor since no one else was ever there to help students. Most of the time the job was boring and, towards the end of my last semester, we were not allowed to talk with the other tutors, even if there were no students around. It became a very restricted, unpleasant atmosphere. I stuck it out until I graduated, but wouldn't have gone back to work there if I was still a student.

I also wasn't paid for training the one year, which was maybe illegal since the training was mandatory.

I apparently lost my adjunct teaching jobs at HACC because the students didn't like me.  It was kind of a shame because I like a lot of them, especially the people who were given the opportunity to go to Community College after the 2008-9 deep recession.  

Unfortunately, many of the younger students did not want to study or learn and found my insistence that they do so annoying.  

Management weighted student evaluations over everything else that I achieved for the organization, such as writing an article in support of one of their outreach programs and teaching students with a range of challenges including acute autism.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Faculty 5 salaries reported	$48,577 per year
Custodian 2 salaries reported	$36,720 per year
Adjunct faculty 4 salaries reported	$1,384 per week
Security officer 3 salaries reported	$53,056 per year
Academic services officer 1 salary reported	$49,740 per year

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