WTC. Things There Were No Time For
This is a list of some activities that your colleagues have been unable to complete within their allocated workload time. This demonstrates the university’s reliance on our unpaid and unacknowledged labour. The way that the university has treated its staff has shown a complete lack of goodwill to us. It is not tenable for us to continue to show goodwill to the university by giving our time and effort to them for free.
| Activity that could not be completed | School |
|---|---|
| emails | CEM |
| Engagement with module evaluation software | Art |
| attending school leadership group meeting | Media |
| contributing to a systematic review – this publication will be delayed til I can find the (paid) time | School of Health Sciences |
| dealing with the volume of emails, writing papers, preparing research bid, providing student support outside the norm due to covid and different time zones(meetings on weekends evenings is now a norm) | BBS |
| applying for a research grant | SHS |
| providing continuous support putted of the norm due to covid, evening calls, weekend calls, calls over holiday period; increase of late submission of work and extra support with assessments means meeting marking deadlines becoming increasingly difficult and only manageable if working evenings and weekends; huge increase in email volume- all of which means it is impossible to do research and work now impinges on every evening and weekend. This is unsustainable | |
| reading applications for a HPL role for semester 2 | Media |
| Managing inbox (impossible), supporting distressed students emailing 24/7, meeting marking deadlines, preparing every single lecture pretty much from scratch, preparing/co-ordinating semester 2 modules for online delivery in time, managing Doctoral College admin re: TECHNE process, reading postgraduate draft chapters without a huge delay. There is no possibility of doing any research or developing any research idea at all. | HUMS |
| marking of 4 essays, reading and commenting on draft dissertation chapter, emails. | Humanities |
| Staff were asking me to collaboratively create an instruction video for their students. I cannot fit this in due to the 37hr week, the huge demand for help, and due to the loss of resource in my team due to redundancy. I feel awful about this and got an an angry email from the staff involved. | Information Services |
| Progressing an article for submission to peer reviewed journal | School of Education |
| Marking essays, writing feedback for formative assessments | HUMS |
| Plan a new alternative programme fir a L5 project that is supposed to start on Monday next week or indeed start to prepare (from scratch)new content for online teaching. Offer urgent follow up Personal Academic Tutorials. Complete summative assessments and student feedback. | Art |
| Marking (a lot, it is mounting up), preparatory reading of journal article (for in class discussion with PGs). Missed a deadline for an abstract for a conference | BBS |
| Postgrad supervision – I am doing it as fast as I can within contracted time, but much slower than usual. I’m not keeping up with background reading for current research project. Journal editing assignments virtually fell off the list a while back. | Health Sciences |
| Enhancing slides for online delivery of two lectures | Humanities |
| supporting statements for doctoral student extensions | Education |
| another week when I have not managed to progress an article for publication | Education |
| Prepare for Media and Environmental Communication reading group, start preparing Sem 2 teaching, attend several meetings at School level, review an ethics application, get in touch with MEC graduates to prepare an event for graduates-to-be, attend an online round-table discussion, and I think there are still about 15mails I need to answer… | Media |
| I have not been able to prepare adequately for a doctoral supervision meeting on Monday | Education |
| Writing a committee paper. Revising a journal article. Managed to meet with all students who had requested face to face feedback, but at a cost to my research | BBS |
| Completing assessment marking and reading/returning undergraduate dissertation draft chapters | Humanities |
| Marking essays. Populating MyStudies. Redrafting article. | HUMS |
| Providing a weekly update on developments in the professional sector that the students work / will work in. | Architecture and Design |
| Updating Aspire reading list for sem 2 module | Media |
| PhD supervision ethics review sign off | media |
| Writing up assessment feedback, Admissions: reviewing applications. Course marketing. Completing REF task. Organising PGR supervision meetings. Keeping up with developments and engaging in research project. Considering an application to rising stars or sabbatical scheme. These tasks were not complete or delayed due to a workload that is already over hours, the additional caring responsibilities due to pandemic, the additional time needed to give advice to students about their studies choices and academic and support needs due to the pandemic, time spent adapting and adding workshops and seminars to support online assessment and remote learning. | Art |
| Redesign module material for online delivery for first three weeks, marking by the deadline, responding to emails 24/7, dissertation supervision. | Humanities |
| Marking essays, attend several meetings at School level, review an ethics application, read two articles re research, review funding guide, start working on corrections of an accepted paper | Media |
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