A flexible & dynamic work culture

Alex Vickery-Howe, Flinders University

My name is Alex Vickery-Howe and I’m a lecturer in Creative Writing and Drama at Flinders University, South Australia. My main focus is on foundation teaching, including equipping students with literacy and research skills.

The great disruption

The advent of COVID-19 has obviously disrupted university life and created a great deal of uncertainty for both staff and students. For staff, employment is no longer secure – far from it – and workloads are increasing to unsustainable levels.

For students, camaraderie is lacking, teachers are harder to access, and online tutorials are still in their testing phase.

Despite these disruptions, I believe there is an opportunity now to reflect on the structure of university life and adapt both our teaching methodologies and our office culture. One thing that has startled me is the way many introverted students, who were previously struggling in my classes, are now thriving in the virtual environment.

Another unexpected discovery is how effective lectures can be in the online space and how much more relaxed I am when I give them, with coffee in hand. For every challenge, there are perks and positive lessons.

From an office point of view, it is fair to say that the virus has changed our work habits and the way we interact with each other, and many of these changes will continue after the creation and distribution of a COVID-19 vaccine.

Changing the workplace

My focus – or my hope – lies with the possibility of a more flexible and dynamic work culture, combining online and face-to-face teaching with working hours that suit individual employees.

Many of us prefer to work at night, for example. As a writer and researcher, and possible vampire, I’m drawn to the idea that productivity and ERA outcomes will be significantly increased if we allow people to work away from campus and schedule their lives according to their own strengths and preferences.

In this environment, traditional metrics for evaluating the value of staff, including workload models that are applied across disparate colleges or incompatible subject areas, will become less and less meaningful.

At Flinders, the Work Allocation Unit system is like a lost level from Super Mario Brothers as teachers eagerly claw at WAUs (pronounced ‘wows’) like phantom gold coins. Every so often, a staff member catches that elusive shining star in the form of a research theme leadership or director of studies position. That’s when the music kicks in and Mario goes wild.

Much more often, however, the number of WAUs bears little or no resemblance to how diligently, how consistently or how frequently a staff member is working. WAUs cannot accurately quantify industry profile, level or quality of student interaction, curriculum innovation and development, approachability, collegiality or commitment to university values. The landscape is changing and so too must the modelling.

Union support

So how does the NTEU support its members in a post-COVID world? How do we collectivise when we are more distant than ever? Part of the answer lies in responding proactively to this new landscape and demonstrating to management that flexibility leads to productivity.

Our worth to our employers cannot be sliced and measured in pretty, sparkly WAUs but manifest in the depth of our research, the achievements of our students, our dedication to our disciplines and our connections with community.

It is difficult to say with any confidence what the Union will look like in the near future, to say nothing of the next five years, the next ten years, the next fifty... but there is a chance now to redirect the conversation and create a new normal.

At Flinders, the Work Allocation Unit system is like a lost level from Super Mario Brothers as teachers eagerly claw at WAUs (pronounced ‘wows’) like phantom gold coins.