In 1991, Berj Manoukian retired from his 34-year stint as a postal carrier to become a part-time attendant at the Fogg Art Museum.

He thought the job would be a sound financial move and a welcome break from the demanding physical labor required by the United States Postal Service.

But Manoukian, 68, says he found working conditions at the Fogg worse than those at the post office. And the salary was so low that he soon had to switch to a more demanding full-time schedule.

"I should have stayed in the post office," Manoukian says.

It wasn't always this way at the Fogg. The 68-year-old attendant is just one of many employees who say working conditions at the museum have changed a lot in the last three years, mostly for the worse.

Part-time attendants say they are forced to work full time schedules without overtime pay. And full-time employees say they are afraid to take sick time when they are ill for fear of losing their jobs.

And when the attendants have tried to challenge the way they are being treated, the university is unable to provide them with the set of rules that supposedly govern life at the Fogg. Harvard has delayed printing up copies of the attendants' union contract for almost a year.

Several attendants spoke on condition ofanonymity because they said they fearedretaliation for publicly criticizing their bosses.

A Tight Ship

Michele M. Trifiro, the museum's chief ofsecurity, was hired in 1991 after an attemptedslashing of one of the paintings. She replacedBrad G. Wheeler, who, sources say, took the fallfor the attempted slashing.

After she was hired, Trifiro says she was givenfunding to upgrade the museum's security systemand to train her own staff of security guards.

"We have extra funding to upgrade the securitysince the [theft at the] Gardner," Trifiro says.

Trifiro says upgrades in the museum's securityforce were necessary because, despite theimportance of technology, a strong staff is vitalfor any good security system.

"You can protect your house with the mostelaborate system," Trifiro says, "but unlesssomeone is responding, it's not going to do a damnbit of good."

In some ways, Trifiro's tightened security haspaid off. Harvard police credit her with ending aseries of thefts of pictures from rare art bookslast September.

But several attendants claim that Trifiro,whose background is in the military, has goneoverboard in attempting to strengthen security.They say she is running the museum's security unitas if it were a military establishment.