Employed by one institution but work for another

Question

I've worked my current job for a few years, and I can't believe I've never thought of this question. I have a unique employment situation. I am employed by a university, but the work I do is for the state government; that is, nothing about the work I do/produce has any relation to the university. It's simply that our office is on the university campus.

So what's the best way to describe my situation? I always learned that 〜に勤めている means "to be employed at/by 〜", but some dictionaries say "work (in, at, for)" which confuses me because I work at the university but for the government.

Would something like 大学に勤めている[州政]{しゅうせい}職員 suffice? Or is there a better way to phrase it?

(Note: I made up 州政 since America has states, but presumably it would work along the lines of 府政, 県政, 国政, 市政, etc., but maybe 州立政府 or something would be more correct.)

Answer 1

• Working at an institution different from where one belongs to is called 出{しゅっ}向{こう}する. There are words like 出向社員, 出向職員. 出張社員, 出張職員 will mean almost the same thing as them.

• Workers at local governments are called without the use of 政. 州職員, 府職員, 県職員, 市職員, etc. But for workers for the country, there is a word 国家公務員.

In your case, you can probably say 大学に勤めている州の出向職員 or 州から大学に出向している職員.