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[J.]

I've been offered a t-t job at a university I'd love to work at.  I'm working on getting them to come up with a t-t or at very least a visiting asst. position for my wife, in another department.   The dean is investigating the possibilities, but there are no guarantees yet.

My question is this:  Obviously negotiating the position for my wife is the most important thing.  If I try to negotiate things like salary as well, will I blow my wife's chances?  (The salary promised in the contract is a bit lower than what I was told it would be at campus visit.)

Thanks for your time.

J.

[anon]

Many people negotiate for more than one aspect of their employment package.  You don't need to feel greedy or impolitic by negotiating several items.

I handled this situation in this way: I considered the salary a full-blown negotiation.  We did that back and forth of "I was really hoping for more like $X" and "Well, we are prepared to offer you $X" (obviously not in these exact words).  For the spousal position, I considered that more of an inquiry and played it as if I were asking for their help.  In other words, once the salary was clearly set (i.e., they moved as much as they were going to), I presented the spousal situation by saying, "I'm very excited about this position, and I appreciate your working with me.  However, I have to consider what is best for my family, and it would be easier to make a decision if we could firm up a position for my wife."  Again, not in those words, but I hope you get the spirit.  (They had already been looking into my wife's position, but we didn't really focus on it until after salary was fairly firm.)  I always framed it as asking for the Dean's help, rather than a negotiating back and forth.  My sense is that salary is usually negotiable, and many institutions knowingly offer less than they're willing to pay.  However, spousal hires are more difficult for administrators to secure, and I wanted them to feel like they are helping me fix a problem, not that they were addressing a demand.

[Me, too]

I've also been dealing with negotiating a spousal hire situation. For me, that was the make-or-break part of the deal, but I didn't reveal that early in the negotiations. The department chair (who was handling negotiations) and I also agreed early on that we would deal with all other parts of the offer package first and then address the spousal situation (although they, of course, were already working on looking into options for my spouse). I think it's helpful to deal with one issue at a time. From a candidate's perspective, it seems silly to leave the spousal issue until the end as this is often really the sole deciding factor, but at least in the department I'm dealing with, this is how they wanted to proceed. I think they generally understand that the spousal issue is the core contingency, but like to have everything else in order as the spousal hire also often takes much longer to arrange than salary or research start-up. So while I would refrain from being excessively demanding in a case with a spousal situation (you want to keep things as friendly as possible), it's perfectly within your right to inquire about a higher salary, research start-up package, etc.

[Tenured Feminist]

I'd just caution job-seekers to be up front with the institutions that have offered positions.  You can and should let them know what the negotiable issues are and which are non-negotiable.  I have a dear friend who was offered a terrific job that would have been a good fit.  The institution's preference was to negotiate salary and then deal with partner issues, so that's what she did.  The institution never understood that, while salary was negotiable, her partner's situation was not, so by the time they had the salary worked out, the department had spent all of its political capital with the deanery and could not extract a package for her partner.  Bottom line is that she ended up not accepting the job.  At a conference later that year, I had lunch with her and the search committee chair from the dept. that sought to hire her where they figured out that this was what had happened.

The bitter irony is that what she wanted for her partner was a really cheap and easy accommodation, and had the university dealt with it first, the rest would have fallen into place with no problems.

[wondering]

Why would schools go through the incredible step of creating a second position (when the first was so hard to come by in the first place), if these are so competitive that they have so many to choose from anyway?

I never understood how anyone but starts could get spousal hires.

[John Dee]

A few years ago I was a top candidate for a job opening in the East. However, I found out that I was 'competing' with a 'spousal hire'-someone whose husband was already teaching at the university. She got the job. While I understand the need for families to be together, sometimes the process needs to be open and honest, so that other possible candidates are not 'used' for something that has already been decided. I wonder whether other colleagues have had similar experiences.