Don't EVER work for a University. Especially Rutgers University.
To fill in a gap, I'm a teaching assistant in general biology. I have been for two years. It's how I pay for graduate school. The school pays me to teach two sections of lab per semester. (Rutgers runs 66 lab sections in the fall, and there were 54 in the spring.)
Well, this past semester, one of the TAs resigned her position three weeks into the semester. Rather than train a new one, a couple of us volunteered to take over her sections. I was one of those people. The promise was $1500 per section for doing all the usual work -- grading, teaching, etc. We already go to prep, so that didn't count, I don't think. Anyway. The money was supposed to be added on to my paychecks, as soon as the paperwork went through.
Fucking bureaucratic red tape.
The semester's been over for two weeks. I taught 11 weeks worth of lab. Therefore, even with ordinary red tape, I should have been getting extra money for the past, oh, 5 or 6 paychecks.
I just sent a scathing email to the woman in our department who is basically the liasion between us and whoever it is that pays us. At this point, they owe me $750 per paycheck until my contract runs out.
I've never had to deal with anything this patently FUCKING ridiculous.
Don't ever work for a University. They hate paying you for what you do.
(Anyone with advice on what to do if they don't can feel free to
email me.)