University Times

In exchange for receiving a payment of 12-26 weeks' salary, employees who sign severance agreements with Pitt typically waive their right to sue the University for wrongful discharge. They also pledge not to discuss details of their termination with anyone besides their spouses and attorneys.

If they break that promise, the former employees could risk losing their severance pay. So it's understandable that terminated Pitt personnel are reluctant to criticize the University.

However, one former staff employee whose job was cut during an office reorganization in June claims that her supervisor used the reorganization as a pretext for eliminating certain targeted staff, regardless of their job performances or value to the unit.

She said some individuals in her unit were told they were being laid off because their unit's services were no longer in demand, even though various University departments had scheduled those services through spring 1997.

"Where I worked could be an isolated case," the former employee said, "but people who were let go there were treated very shabbily. There's no excuse for calling people in at 4:15 on a Friday afternoon and telling them their positions are going to be eliminated, with absolutely no warning from their supervisor or anyone else." (The woman did note that terminated employees in her office were paid through the remaining two weeks of the month, whether or not they actually came into the office during those weeks.) Given the former employee's concerns about confidentiality, the University Times could not verify her claims or ask her former supervisor for comment. But the woman's comments echoed those of some other former Pitt staff who say their supervisors failed to adequately warn them of termination plans and explain the decisions.

Staff Association Council President Brian Hart said, "Some staff were very upset with the way a number of layoffs were handled just before the end of the last fiscal year. But based on what I've been hearing about the more recent layoffs, employees are being notified in a more timely manner and have been offered reasonable severance packages. In some cases that I'm aware of, they have also been given the chance to apply for jobs before those jobs are advertised to the wider University community." Ron Frisch, interim associate vice chancellor for Human Resources, said: "We try to counsel supervisors on how to break the news to any of their employees who face termination. Other than losing your job, there's nothing worse than having to tell someone that he or she is being terminated." Breaking the bad news usually begins when the about-to-be-terminated employee is called in to meet with his or her supervisor and Human Resources representatives.

In a few cases, supervisors don't attend the meeting with the employee. "Our goal is to make sure that any employee who has to be let go gets treated with dignity and respect," Frisch said. "If the supervisor isn't able to do that, I'd rather do it for them." Sometimes, too, supervisors are too distraught to handle the termination meetings, Frisch said.

Following the meeting, a Human Resources representative is assigned to each person facing termination, according to Frisch. "That representative is charged with doing everything in their power to get you placed within the University before your last scheduled day of work. If you're not placed by then, we're going to do everything in our power during the next year to give you all of the leads we have, to notify you when we hear of an opportunity. Now, obviously, we're going to ask you to keep working with us, too. If you go away and don't call us for three months, we're not going to keep calling you." If terminated employees can find new jobs at Pitt within a year, Human Resources will allow them to maintain their original University starting dates. And that can pay dividends for employees, literally.

Since March 1995, Pitt has required new employees to work here for three years before becoming vested in the University's TIAA-CREF and Vanguard retirement plans. But former employees who return within 365 days can pick up where they left off with their Pitt retirement accounts, and the University will continue to match those contributions.

Tuition remission and some other Pitt benefits also are calculated based on the dates when employees began working here.

— Bruce Steele