Ralph,

No, they do not all work for the same firm.

At present what I hear is fragmented comments from quite different 
situations and directions from Boston to NY to Philly. If I only heard 
it from one person or one firm I would not think much of it. At first I 
was not sure if it goes any deeper than the shock of obtaining a Masters 
then finding oneself confronted with having to hands-on remove pigeon 
carcasses and at the same time realizing that the subject was never 
covered in any class. Not sure if they run off and read up on 
respiratory diseases at night.

I would think that if having spent the money to go through a grad 
program, likely working off the debt, and finding the resulting worklife 
long hours and, as one mentioned, "a glorified cleaning lady", that 
there is a potential for the word to spread to students such that the 
preservation grad programs would be less attractive.

I say all this with it in mind that I really like these younger folks 
and hope that they will stick around so that we can play together.

The on-topic aspect of vulgarity is where you take these innocents and 
throw them into a project where there is the hardcore, brutal, sexist 
and traditional power play that has typified the NY construction culture 
for decades if not centuries. Regardless, when a whole slew of otherwise 
'professional' folks descend on the young conservator and begin to yell, 
scream, denigrate, use overly foul words, call them a liar and otherwise 
act like complete A-holes... and as it turns out for no good reason but 
their own freakin paranoia... it makes me wonder if the grad programs 
should include workshops in stress management.

Though I would say it is rare in a few instances I have seen where 
within an organization/community a cluster team develops to surround and 
protect the innocent. It seems to me there is also a responsibility for 
senior professionals to be aware to look out for the protection of the 
sensibilities of their younger staff... guidance in part, a willingness 
to ease the passage from student to productive team member. As well as 
an awareness of the hardening process. In the trenches the construction 
industry is brutalizing and within this context histo presto occurs.

][<

[log in to unmask] wrote:

> This is not a good sign, unless they all work for the same firm.
>  
> On another front... lately every fairly new conservator we have met in 
> the field has been telling us that they intend to go into another 
> career as quickly as they can figure it out. They do not all know each 
> other and they do not all come from the same school.

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