MUSIC
MEMBER STORIES
Playing the game of 2020 The thing that I’ve noticed about 2020 is how much energy I’ve spent on the things that really should have nothing to do with my job. I’m not even talking about the new era of recording lectures at home. I’m not talking about communicating with students exclusively via forums or as black boxes over Zoom. I’m not talking about endless, interminable, eye-watering, headache-inducing online meetings. For better or worse, when you look at a pandemic year, it at least makes some kind of vague sense that these things have become part of our work lives at universities. What I’m talking about is the energy spent in 2020 on trying to keep a job, and trying to keep that job as something you actually want to live with. I’m talking about the endless worrying and strategising about bottom lines and vice chancellors and redundancies and restructures. About what to do if a spreadsheet somewhere indicates that you and your colleagues are no longer a net positive for the university. What’s the plan? How do we make sure that the right people are hearing the right things? That the publications are being logged – in the right FOR code – and that your profile is up-to-date for the unknown moment when a decision maker casts their cost-saving eye across your name and your profile here on planet Earth.
Dan Golding Swinburne University
The thing is, 2020 was otherwise quite a successful year for me, taken in complete isolation. I’m a researcher and teacher in the Swinburne Media and Communication department, and my work covers film, games, and music. These industries were worth studying in 2020. The film industry continues to find creative workarounds for both making and watching movies despite difficult times.
To tell your COVID-19 story to the NTEU member community, please contact Helena Spyrou
6
Sentry
•
DECEMBER 2020
